Michael’s Guest Posts – IAMNOTASTALKER

September 30, 2019September 29, 2019

The House from “The Bradys”

Today we are gifted with another stellar guest post penned by my friend Michael, whom you may remember from the myriad other columns he has written for IAMNOTASTALKER over the years. Like many of those, this one is Brady Bunch-related and, let me tell you, I am here for it! So, without further ado, take it away Michael!

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My guest posts have traditionally focused on previously unknown or unpublicized locations. Well, consider that paradigm thrown out the window of a 1950s split level, as this post is about one location that is certainly not without publicity—the Brady house. Its address has been long known, many an article has been written about it, and heck, there’s even a current television program centered around its iconic status.

When the house went up for sale in 2018, HGTV purchased it with the goal of altering the structure, so that not only would the exterior match 50-year old The Brady Bunch establishing shots, but the interior would also align with the show’s sets that were only ever a reality on the soundstages of Paramount. A Very Brady Renovation, currently airing on HGTV, documents the overhaul, complete with help from a slate of HGTV personalities, the original surviving Brady Bunch cast, and impressively exacting and talented project managers.

In order to properly Brady-ize the house, some architectural elements of the façade needed to be altered. With so much focus on making the old new(ly old) again, I thought it was time for a look back at the house pre-renovation and how it relates to Brady canon—specifically, the 1990 television drama The Bradys.

An hour-long weekly drama, The Bradys premiered in early 1990 following the success of the late-1988 television movie A Very Brady Christmas. Nearly the entire cast reprised their roles, with only Leah Ayres portraying Marcia for this incarnation. Like the preceding series, Mike and Carol’s home was prominently featured, and while the set remained architecturally the same, the interior décor was updated to a more contemporary pastel color story. Going without an update, however, were the exterior establishing shots of the Brady residence. The same shots filmed in the late-60s and 70s for the original series and recycled throughout most of the show’s iterations were dusted off again for the earliest episodes of The Bradys. The Brady kids may have grown, but the palm tree by the front door apparently never gained a frond.

Even though The Bradys was canceled after only six episodes, a wide variety of establishing shots were used—eventually including updated views of the house. In the third episode of the series, “A Moving Experience,” Mike and Carol nearly lose their house to freeway construction. Thanks to last-minute inspiration from Marcia’s son and his Legos, Mike and Carol decide to have the house moved to a new lot.

A live-action scene was optically produced on Paramount’s backlot to depict the move. Greg’s son, played by a young Jonathan Taylor Thomas, was swept from harm’s way as something vaguely resembling the Brady house—balancing like a teeter-totter on a flatbed truck—paraded through the city streets. Now, of course, this seems a little much, but as an 8-year-old when it first aired, I was fascinated by this scene.

The move also allowed for a charmingly vintage CGI shot of the house on its ‘new lot.’

After ‘the move,’ new establishing shots of the house were filmed. Since the real home never budged an inch, more 90s CGI was used to replace the familiar Studio City background with new skyscapes. Mike and Carol must have paid a fortune for all of the mature foliage—I suppose after living with an AstroTurf lawn, and a palm tree that hadn’t grown for 30 years, they didn’t want to take any chances.

Though never addressed on the show, the changes in paint color, windows, roof, and landscaping could have been explained away as post-move touchups.

As was done for the original establishing shots, a window (albeit sized and placed differently than the 60s/70s version) was added to the front gable of the house. Until HGTV’s recent project, the home never had a window on its front peak. It did, however, have a large window near the front door. This window was covered in the original establishing shots, but left alone for the 90s updates. HGTV’s crew recently closed off this ground-floor window to honor the original establishing shots.

The ornate wooden doors, not original to the vintage establishing shots, were also left on the house, even though they also didn’t match those on The Bradys soundstage set. These doors were also recently replaced with new blue doors at the actual home to match the style from the original establishing shots and the color from the first season of The Brady Bunch.

Viewers got an even better look at the now displaced window in the fifth episode of the series, “Bottom’s Up,” when a pixilated Marcia and her kids walked to a car in front of the house. This scene also has the historic privilege of elevating the Brady house from an establishing shot into a full-fledged filming location.

After six episodes, The Bradys halted production and was subsequently canceled. Airing opposite ABC’s TGIF lineup up of Full House and Family Matters, my 8-year old allegiances were tested from the first episode. Although far from the target audience, I faithfully set my VCR each week, while spending my Friday nights with Urkel and the Tanner family.

For me, the fun of filming locations, other than solving the mystery of where they’re located, is comparing what they look like in person to the perception gleaned from their time on the screen. Some places look exactly as you’d expect, and others surprisingly different. Until recently, pulling up to the Brady house meant seeing something familiar yet different—a fence, a warmer paint color, larger trees, missing windows, extra windows—not quite the Brady Bunch house tucked away in your memory, but close enough.

Having grown accustomed to the residence more closely resembling its stint on The Bradys rather than The Brady Bunch, I went by the house in May and was excited to see the exterior work progressing through its very Brady transformation. Imagination is no longer needed to match the house up with your mind’s eye thanks to the tremendous amount of effort HGTV has put into both the interior and exterior of this project, as evidenced each week on A Very Brady Renovation. Now, the question is, what will become of this 70s throwback after the program concludes?

[Editor’s Note – Thank you, Michael, for another fabulous – and fabulously retro – post! I have yet to see an episode of The Bradys or A Very Brady Renovation (I know, I know), but now you have me chomping at the bit to watch both!]

Stalk It: The house from The Bradys is located at 11222 Dilling Street in Studio City . Note: The residence now more closely resembles the 1970s exterior seen on The Brady Bunch and there is currently a temporary privacy fence surrounding the property.

March 31, 2017March 30, 2017

The “Empty Nest” House

Today’s post is a looooooong-time coming, friends! Easily the location I get asked to track down most often is the supposed Miami, Florida-area house where Dr. Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan) lived on the television series Empty Nest. I have searched for the contemporary two-story residence off-and-on over the years, but never had any luck. I even got fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Michael, our resident Brady Bunch aficionado/guest poster extraordinaire, in on the hunt, but we were all at a loss. Until recently that is, when Michael did the impossible and found the house! He was even nice enough to offer to write up the story behind the search for IAMNOTASTALKER – along with a few notes from me (they’re denoted in red). So take it away Michael!

I distinctly remember my inaugural viewing of The Golden Girls and Empty Nest. I was in the first grade and my bedtime had just been extended by an extra hour on the weekends. Looking back, they seem like both an unusual viewing choice for a six-year-old and maybe a little inappropriate, but hey, I needed something to balance out all those Brady Bunch reruns. Although the fourth season of The Golden Girls took up the first half of this uncharted hour of television for me, the second half was filled by a new sitcom, Empty Nest. Both fast favorites of mine, they’ll always be intertwined in my memory and evoke a time when there wasn’t anything quite as exciting as an extra hour added to your bedtime.

With that said, it seems only appropriate that I begin this post not with the topic at hand, but a cursory look at the Golden Girls house(s). The Golden Girls, which premiered in 1985, originally used footage of a ranch-style house in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles to stand in for the girls’ Miami-situated home. Capitalizing on the show’s success, Disney replicated the Brentwood house on a new backlot in Orlando, Florida. Their theme park and production studio, part of Walt Disney World and originally known as Disney-MGM Studios, opened to the public in spring of 1989, but its backlot and Residential Street were already being used to film Splash, Too and Ernest Saves Christmas as early as 1988.

Also in 1988, the creators of The Golden Girls premiered their new show, Empty Nest. The sitcom, set in the same universe as The Golden Girls, would intermingle characters (simple, as they were all neighbors) and occasional storylines. Because Empty Nest premiered the same year that Disney-MGM Studios was constructed, along with its Golden Girls facade, I always assumed that the home shown in EN’s opening titles and establishing shots was only ever a studio-backlot creation. That turned out not to be the case. And It wasn’t until last year when Lindsay offhandedly asked if I’d ever researched the original Empty Nest house location, that I knew what I’d been missing—the exterior of a real house had been shown in the early seasons of the show and was eventually replicated on the Disney-MGM Studios backlot.

Making up for lost time, I dove into research mode to fill in the specifics. Although the Golden Girls house facade was on the backlot on opening day in Orlando, the Empty Nest facade was added years later. An ad in the Orlando Sentinel confirmed that it wasn’t until January 24, 1992, during the show’s fourth season, that Richard Mulligan and Bear (the dog who played Dreyfuss) were on hand at Disney-MGM Studios for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly completed facade, followed by a parade, and a hand/paw-print ceremony in Disney’s version of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre forecourt. Then in 2003, Disney-MGM Studios, now known as Disney’s Hollywood Studios, demolished, among other parts of the backlot, the entirety of Residential Street, including the Empty Nest and Golden Girls facades.

Since Empty Nest isn’t available on DVD or streaming, I was limited to reviewing episodes on YouTube. But, as far as I could tell, the backlot facade was first seen in the late-season episode of the fourth season, “Charley for President.” Then, starting with the fifth season, the opening titles were updated with a shot of the Orlando replica.

Disney did a commendable job recreating the exterior, but upon closer inspection I noticed a few differences. For example, the original house maintained some mundane elements that a backlot shell would have no use for, including a rain diverter and vent pipes on the roof. The backlot version also appeared to exclude a right-side balcony that that was just barely visible in some early-season establishing shots. Moreover, I’ve found the easiest way to tell the houses apart is by looking at the roofline on the garage; only the backlot replica had squared off the eave with a soffit.

Establishing shots of the original house provided subtle clues to its location: a neighboring house to its left and a garage that opens to the right, suggesting the house was on a corner lot. Yet, most interesting to me was a shot framed to include a saucer-style street light in front of the house. It’s not a particularly common style and I hoped that would help me zero in on the neighborhood.

Although Lindsay had seen a tip suggesting the home was in Bel Air or Beverly Hills, those neighborhoods’ scarcity of wide sidewalks didn’t leave me with many areas to investigate. Not only did the Empty Nest house have a sidewalk running in front of it, it had a strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road. I moved on and investigated as many neighborhoods with sidewalks as I could find, but always came up empty. Undeterred, I continued to search on-and-off for months. Then, last week Lindsay emailed me to say she’d met David Leisure, who played the Weston’s zany neighbor Charley Dietz on the series, at an event. And with that, I’ll pass the baton to Lindsay to fill in the, ahem, “dietz.”

Lindsay here. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a charity event in the desert and was beyond elated to run into David Leisure. Literally. While walking around a corner, I almost bumped into the actor and his wife and just about had a heart attack. While I asked for a photo and he happily obliged, I was so flustered over our rather abrupt meeting that I failed to inquire if he knew the whereabouts of the Empty Nest house. The Grim Cheaper was in the bathroom at the time and when he came out, I told him about my chance encounter and how upset I was that I failed to ask about the home. He immediately grabbed my hand, marched over to where David was standing and said, “My wife wants to ask you a question.” Leisure couldn’t have been more kind, once again, and when I brought up the Weston house, he immediately started laughing and said, “So you do know who I am! As soon as we walked away from you earlier, I said to my wife, ‘I wonder who she thinks I am.’” LOL Regarding the Weston pad, he said that he had never been asked about its location before, but found the query fascinating and thought it might be in the Hancock Park/Larchmont area. I immediately passed the intel onto Michael. I’ll let him tell you the rest.

Celeb Pics-8980

Emboldened by the fresh tip, I surveyed Larchmont. Having no real luck again, I decided to do a little more research. This time, I came across a 1993 article in the Orlando Sentinel. In the article, a reader wrote in to ask about the exteriors shown on Empty Nest and Golden Palace (The Golden Girls’ short-lived replacement). The paper’s reply noted that the Empty Nest house used that season was located at Disney in Orlando, but the original was in Brentwood.

Cautiously optimistic—I feared the author mixed up the original location of the Empty Nest house with the original Golden Girls house—I once again pulled up an aerial map of Brentwood. I’d already investigated the immediate area around the Golden Girls house, so I thought I’d try a different area and look near the border of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood. As I scrolled across the map, Paul Revere Middle School jumped out at me. I’d remembered the name of the school from the O.J. Simpson trial and never really knew where it was located. Looking at it, I noticed a clump of houses nearby that seemed a little less grandiose than many of the mansions winding through Brentwood, and most importantly, I could see sidewalks.

To get a feel for the neighborhood, I plopped myself down in Google Street View and immediately noticed a saucer-style street lamp. Back on the birds-eye view, I started to look at homes on corner lots. Unbelievably, the first corner I zoomed in on, I found exactly the layout I’d imagined staring back at me.

Dumbfounded that I’d finally rooted it out, I immediately sent Lindsay the details, and as luck would have it, she said she’d be in LA the following week and would be able to check it out in person. And without further ado, a final pass of the baton to Lindsay to wrap things up.

Me, again. I could not have been more excited as the GC and I pulled up to the home. I knew from looking at Street View imagery that virtually none of it had been altered in the years since filming took place, but being there was like a shock to my system. I felt like I had stepped right into my 1988-era television set. The residence is completely frozen in time and brought to mind another classic TV home – that of The Golden Girls. Ironically enough, that residence, too, remains absolutely pristine in its onscreen state. Two Brentwood properties, featured in classic shows created by same production team, preserved like museum pieces all these years later.

Big THANK YOU to Michael for not only finding this location, but for writing up the story of the hunt! Smile You can check out his other guest posts here.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Stalk It: The house from Empty Nest is located at 1457 Jonesboro Drive in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

February 22, 2017February 23, 2017

Market from “Mother”

I absolutely love surprises! So I was thrilled to receive an email a couple of days ago from my friend Michael with the news that he had written yet another guest post! For those who don’t read IAMNOTASTALKER regularly, Michael is a frequent contributor. His body of work is now so large, in fact, that I have added a category titled “Michael’s Guest Posts” that can be found on the right side of my site, as well as a “Michael’s Guest Posts” tag in each column in order to easier find his articles. His latest locale is a rather poignant one. So without further ado . . .

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The sad circumstances of late found me reminiscing about one of my favorite Debbie Reynolds movies, Mother. Although it was released in 1996, I end up laughing at it just as heartily now as I did twenty years ago. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Debbie Reynolds stars as the film’s titular character, sharing top billing with Albert Brooks who plays her son, John. After his second divorce, John moves back home in an effort to try and dissect his relationship with his mother—an experiment he hopes will help him get to the root of his chronic misfortune with women.

Although most of the movie takes place in the Bay Area, the majority of it was filmed in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, the cast and crew did travel to Sausalito to obtain some establishing shots of the town, along with footage of Reynolds and Brooks driving.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie has Beatrice and John critiquing each other’s selections at the grocery store before (literally) bumping into a neighbor. The sequence begins the in the store’s parking lot where, to John’s frustration, Beatrice is inadvertently blind to the only available spot.

As the camera pulls out, the store’s name is revealed: Mollie Stone’s Market. The grocery chain, founded in 1986, has a scattering of Bay-Area locations, and as the film would have you believe, the actors were indeed parking outside the Sausalito store.

This summer when I took the ferry over from San Francisco to check out the Too Close for Comfort house, I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to finally have a look at Mollie Stone’s. As I walked up, I was excited to see that the exterior of the store and parking lot, while updated, were still recognizable from the film.

But, when I ventured into the store, I was surprised to find out that the interior scenes had been filmed elsewhere. I hadn’t done my usual amount of due diligence and had just assumed that they’d filmed the interior when in town for the parking lot scene. Had I originally looked just a little closer, I would have noticed that the roof, windows, and doors differed between the interior and exterior scenes.

Pretty certain that the Sausalito Mollie Stone’s wasn’t used for the interior, I started to focus my search on Los Angeles-area stores, where the remainder of the movie had been filmed. I re-watched the scene frame-by-frame hoping for some hidden detail that would betray its location, but there wasn’t much to go on. Battling with a hotel’s questionable Wi-Fi, Lindsay came to my digital rescue and helped scour the clip for clues to the store’s real location.

Lindsay noticed what looked like palm trees outside the doors, which could suggest a Southern California locale. And that the green Mollie Stone’s carts used by the principal actors didn’t match the rest of the store’s blue carts, helping confirm that they hadn’t filmed in a real Mollie Stone’s location.

I, in turn, was able to make out what looked to be a Googie-style sign across the street, which I thought might be a Norms Restaurant, since they have similarly designed signs.

The other thing that jumped out at me was a coin-operated toy machine —with a hen that spins around and clucks before “laying” a prize-filled egg. Admittedly not a clue, it was a welcome bit of nostalgia that I haven’t seen since I was little.

Thinking the store looked a little dated to have been one of the major chains, I tried researching as many independent markets as I could find, but unfortunately hit a dead end.

Stymied but not defeated, I decided to “cheat” and get in touch with someone involved in the production of the movie. Fortunately, he was kind enough to respond and remembered exactly where the store was located.

The Mar Vista Market, appropriately located in Mar Vista, a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, on Venice Boulevard at Grand View, was used to film the interior scene.

Sadly, the market was demolished in 2000, and in 2004 a post office was built on its footprint.

According to “Distant Vistas,” a wonderful history of Mar Vista written by S. Ravi Tam and posted on the Mar Vista Historical Society’s site, the market, originally owned by Nate and Allen Arnold, opened in 1939 as Arnold’s Super Ranch Market, and by 1947 it had changed owners and names to the Mar Vista Food Center, before finally remodeling and reopening as the Mar Vista Market in 1949.

A 1984 piece in the Los Angeles Times further explains that Dave Simmons originally bought the store’s produce department in 1945, and by the 1950s had taken ownership for remainder of the entire 23,000-square-foot market.

Remarkably, the building across the street from the market, whose distinct sign I had noticed through my fuzzy Wi-Fi connection, is still there. The sign, originally created for the Mar Vista Bowl, has been removed, but remains immortalized in a mural painted on the exterior of the building, which still houses a bowling alley.

Apparently, I wasn’t too far off in thinking it might have been a Norms Restaurant. Mar Vista Bowl was designed by Armet and Davis, who also designed a spate of Googie buildings, including Norms on La Cienega Boulevard.

Now with the name and address of the market, Google linked me to a MacGyver filming location page that noted a scene from the episode “Split Decision” was filmed in the market’s parking lot.

As expected, the door and window placement match what’s seen in Mother. And, you can even make out part of the enter/exit signs above the doors in the film.

Another touchpoint revealed in the MacGyver footage is a group of utility poles near the door which can be seen through the window in Mother, and one of which is still standing today.

And there you have it, the market from Mother, only 400 miles from the parking lot to the fancy jam aisle.

Big THANK YOU to Michael for yet another fabulous – and timely – post. Don’t forget, you can check out the rest of Michael’s articles here.

Stalk It: Mollie Stone’s Exterior from Mother is located at 100 Harbor Drive in Sausalito. USPS, aka Mar Vista Market (razed), aka “Mollie Stone’s Market” Interior from Mother is located at 3826 Grand View Boulevard in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles.

September 30, 2016February 17, 2017

The House from “The Brady Brides”

I’m sad to say that we’ve arrived at the final day of my friend Michael’s guest post week. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of his fabulous articles (you check them out here, here, here and here – as well as his prior The Brady Bunch-related guest articles here, here, here and here.). Today we are coming full circle with a return to The Brady Bunch franchise. So without further ado, here’s the story of a lovely location . . .

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Now that I’ve done a few non-Brady Bunch guest-posts, it doesn’t mean that I’ve abandoned the grooviest of sitcom families. In 1981, a Brady Bunch spin-off, The Brady Brides, was launched with a multi-part television movie, The Brady Girls Get Married. The telefilm, in which Marcia and Jan are married to Wally Logan and Phillip Covington, is also notable in that it’s the last Brady enterprise to feature the entire original cast.

In the first episode of the The Brady Brides, Carol, now a realtor, shows Marcia and Wally a home that she’s trying to sell. Jan loves it, too…and well, the opening theme song (sung to the tune of the The Brady Bunch theme) explains it best.

A house was too expensive for each couple,
The only way to buy would they decide,
Is to share the cost by moving in together,
That’s the way that they became the Brady brides,
The Brady brides,
The Brady brides,
That’s the way they became the Brady brides.

By the end of the first episode, the four had purchased the house and moved in together. Add one nosey neighbor, an occasional cameo by Carol or Alice, and the comedic hijinks write themselves. Or maybe not; the sitcom was canceled after only ten episodes.

Establishing shots of a home were sprinkled through the series and the program’s opening titles show Marcia, Wally, Jan, and Phillip standing, on location, in its yard.

I stayed at The Garland last winter and took a number of walks around Studio City, North Hollywood, and Valley Village. From those walks I had a hunch that the Brady Brides house might be located in Valley Village where I’d seen many similarly styled homes. As luck would have it, I happened upon the house pretty quickly while looking through aerial maps of the area. And when I was last in Los Angeles, I Ubered out to Valley Village to have a look for myself.

I was excited to see that the house looks nearly identical to when it was filmed 35 years ago. Even the decorative iron columns are still standing in the same spot. And although the tree near the driveway has grown, you can still recognize it.

My apologies for the poor quality screen grabs. The Brady Brides hasn’t cornered the syndication market like its progenitor and is one of the few Brady-related properties not currently available on DVD.

Editor’s Note – Poor-quality screen grabs or not, this post was exceptional, per usual! I honestly cannot thank you enough, Michael, for sharing these locations – and your locations expertise – over the past week with us. I’m already eagerly awaiting your return!

Stalk It: The Brady Brides house is located at 11813 Hartsook Street in Valley Village.

September 29, 2016February 17, 2017

“Too Close for Comfort” Final Season Filming Locations

It’s Day 4 of my friend Michael’s fabulous guest post week here at IAMNOTASTALKER! (You check out his other columns from this week here, here and here, and his previous guest articles here, here, here and here.). Today’s locale is a longtime unknown site from a show I loved as a kid! Enjoy!

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Although I’m a Ted Knight fan, I never watched much of his final television show, Too Close for Comfort. I remember reruns of the show airing in the 90s, but I could never get into it for one very superficial reason—I hated the set design. Specifically, I didn’t like the daughters’ apartment with its rusty maroon walls and and zigzag rainbow zipping around the room. It felt like every color clashed with the next and the color timing that resulted from the show being shot on tape rather than film didn’t help make the decor any more palatable for me.

The first five seasons of the show were set in San Francisco, where a house at 171-173 Buena Vista Avenue East was shown in establishing shots. But in 1986, for the sixth and final season, the program was renamed The Ted Knight Show, and the plot moved the characters across the bay to Mill Valley where Henry (Ted Knight) had purchased a minority share in a local newspaper, the Marin Bugler. In real life, Ted Knight passed away at the end of the season, concluding the series. Subsequently, the sixth season was renamed “Too Close for Comfort,” and is included along with the rest of the series in syndication packages.

With the fictional move to Mill Valley came new establishing shots and an updated opening title. The real-life location of the primary characters’ main residence—a grand Victorian, complete with a turret and perched on a hill—seemed to go unidentified for years. While planning a trip to California this summer, I made a point to see if I could finally track it down.

A Mill Valley newspaper wrote a piece three years ago contemplating the home’s true location. According to the article, Mill Valley Library’s history exports didn’t recognize the house and suspected it was located elsewhere in the county. With this in mind, I started looking at nearby towns where the production crew could have filmed the establishing shots. I first ruled out Sausalito, thinking that since it’s such a popular destination, if the house were there, it surely would have been discovered and linked to the show by now. Instead, I concentrated on the towns of Almonte, Tiburon, Larkspur and Greenbrae. After a lot of dead ends, I decided to circle back and see if it had been hiding in plain site all this time. I started searching for houses with turrets in Sausalito aerial maps and remarkably, it was the second house I zeroed-in on.

Last month while I was in San Francisco, I hoped on the Sausalito ferry and went to see the house for myself.

Thanks to poor cell phone data reception, it took me awhile to find the house on foot without my trusty Google Maps. But, once you know where it is, it’s actually very easy to get to (How’s that for a truism?). If you’re in downtown Sausalito, you’ll notice a staircase at the corner of Bridgeway and El Monte Lane (next to Casa Madrona Hotel & Spa). Take that staircase up 100-or-so steps, and while possibly out of breath (I was), you’ll be right in front of the Victorian on Bulkley Avenue.

Although plant growth conceals more of the structure than in the 1980s, I’m happy to report that the house looks like it’s been taken very good care of.

I had slightly bad timing with my visit. The sun had started to set behind the house (never a good situation for photography) and a neighbor’s gardener had just cut down a tree and was blowing the detritus off the street. He didn’t seem too concerned with my presence as he, with great velocity, blanketed me with sawdust.

In addition to the house, producers filmed an assortment of establishing shots in downtown Sausalito.

Footage filmed on Bridgeway near Bay and Anchor Streets and next to Vina Del Mar Park were often used to establish scenes set at the newspaper.

An elevated view of Sausalito closed out the opening titles. You can see a similar vista today on Ebbtide Avenue and Stanford Way.

Although the Victorian was located in Sausalito, Mill Valley wasn’t completely left out of Too Close for Comfort. The town, six miles north of Sausalito, with a population hovering around 14,0000, was seen via establishing shot in nearly each episode of the sixth season. A shot of The Depot (currently a bookstore and cafe, and previously a train station) was frequently shown before scenes set at home.

And in the opening titles, the camera pans across the intersection of Throckmorton Avenue and Bernard Street (panning north starting at The Depot). The town looks just as quaint today.

I’m also happy to report that Mill Valley is a charming town. I’d never been before and had a wonderful time visiting for the afternoon. Delicious lunch, nice shops, friendly people, plus I’ve never seen so many well-groomed dogs in one place.

Editor’s Note – Thank you, once again, Michael for another entertaining and illuminating post! Being that I grew up just outside of San Francisco and watched Too Close for Comfort regularly, this one was particularly close to my heart.

Stalk Them: The Too Close for Comfort “Mill Valley” house is located at 141 Bulkley Avenue in Sausalito. The Too Close for Comfort Sausalito aerial view was shot near Ebbtide Avenue & Stanford Way in Sausalito. The Too Close for Comfort Sausalito Establishing Shot Number 1 was taken at Bridgeway between Bay and Anchor Streets in Sausalito. The Too Close for Comfort Sausalito Establishing Shot Number 2 was taken at Bridgeway near Vina Del Mar Park in Sausalito. The Too Close for Comfort Mill Valley Establishing Shots were taken at 87 Throckmorton Avenue in Mill Valley.

September 28, 2016February 17, 2017

Royal Dale Townhouses from “The Ropers”

Michael, our resident The Brady Bunch filming locations expert, is back once again with a non-Brady locale. (You can check out his TBB columns here, here, here and here, and his non-TBB columns here and here). Today’s location is one from way back when, so enjoy!

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One summer when I was in middle school, I vividly recall watching a daily programing block of Three’s Company reruns. Those familiar with the show know that in the final episode of the third season, Jack, Janet, and Chrissy’s landlords, the Ropers, sell their rental building. But, in real life, ABC executives were hoping to capitalize on the popularity of Stanley and Helen Roper and create a new sitcom centered around those characters.

During the fourth season of Three’s Company, The Ropers premiered and lasted a 6-episode first season and a 22-episode second season before cancelation. The series’ first episode, “Moving On,” begins with the Ropers in their old apartment while Helen dreams of a move to Cheviot Hills. After Stanley capitulates, we’re treated to a location shot of the Ropers pulling up to their prospective townhouse in the fictional condominium complex, Royal Dale Townhouses, “for the discriminating homeowner.”

Stanley quickly makes a bad impression by driving up in his jalopy while potential new neighbor and real estate agent Jeffrey P. Brookes III (Jeffrey Tambor) watches on. Brookes tries to keep the Ropers from buying the unit, but by the end of the episode, they’ve purchased the townhouse.

Location-filming with the actors was limited to the pilot, but additional footage of the townhouse can be seen throughout the series in establishing shots and the closing credits.

Many of the Three’s Company opening title filming locations have been known for years. Even the rare exterior apartment footage location was more recently uncovered by Lindsay’s friend Owen, however the townhouse from The Ropers has remained a mystery.

In researching the location, I came across a comment online from someone purporting to have frequently driven by the complex in Cheviot Hills, but no specifics were given. And others centered their searches around Cheviot Hills, but had come up dry. Adding to the confusion, even the Cheviot Hills Homeowners Association lists The Ropers as one of the many television productions filmed in the area. I wasn’t so trusting—just because the fictional townhouse was located in Cheviot Hills, I wasn’t ready to believe that the footage was also filmed in that neighborhood.

I decided to try a different method and looked up where The Ropers was produced. Once I found out that the sitcom was taped at CBS Television City, in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, I started looking at townhouse complexes relatively near the studio. My thinking was that since it was rather uncommon for a 1970s sitcom to do any location filming, perhaps the scene was filmed close to the studio. Using this search criteria, I quickly zeroed in on the right spot, Wilshire Country Manor, located only 2.5 miles from the studio. And when I was in Los Angeles last month, I ventured out to see it for myself.

Remarkably, not much has changed since the series was taped nearly 40 years ago, even the distinctively gnarled tree near the curb is still recognizable. The planter near the entrance however, now contains a large tree that obscures a pair of windows and some of the mansard roof, while larger shrubs have absorbed most of the iron fence. The fire hydrant and red curb seen in the screen grab below were only props used in a first-episode gag.

Wilshire Country Manor was constructed in 1973 and as its name hints, it’s located in Hancock Park—a neighborhood which surrounds the Wilshire Country Club. Early ads mention you could buy an “elegant townhouse condominium” starting at $62,500. “A home, in the place, amidst a cultural happening.” I think Mrs. Roper would approve.

Editor’s Note – Big THANK YOU, once again, to Michael for this fabulous – and fabulously retro! – post!

Stalk it: Wilshire Country Manor, aka Royal Dale Townhouses from The Ropers, is located at 646 Wilcox Avenue in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood.

September 27, 2016February 17, 2017

Houses from “Life in Pieces”

Today’s post is once again brought to you by my friend, fellow stalker Michael (you can read his other fabulous guest columns here, here, here and here). As was the case yesterday, this article is, surprisingly, not about a The Brady Bunch location. Take it away, Michael!

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Each fall I’m always excited as the newest television season starts to air, but I’m often dissuaded from watching the networks’ latest offerings because it seems as soon as I get into a new show, it’s canceled. However, last year I thought I’d give CBS’s new sitcom, Life in Pieces, a shot. I’m a long-time Dianne Wiest fan, and I thought the concept of the show sounded interesting. Every episode of the 30-minute program consists of four individual stories—each separated by a commercial break. Fittingly, episodes are named with four words—one to describe each story.

Not uncommon for pilots, the first episode of Life in Pieces used a different residence to represent Joan (Dianne Wiest) and John’s (James Brolin) house (the Wilson home from 90210, as Lindsay pointed out to me), while the second episode provides us with the main residences used for the rest of the season.

Joan and John live in a large white traditional-style home, along with their son Matt (Thomas Sadoski) who has moved into the garage. Joan and John’s daughter Heather (Betsy Brandt), son-in-law Tim (Dan Bakkedahl), and grandchildren Tyler (Niall Cunningham), Samantha (Holly J. Barrett) and Sophia (Giselle Eisenberg) move into a Cape Cod just down the street in the second episode (“Interruptus Date Breast Movin’”). And Joan and John’s youngest son Greg (Colin Hanks) lives with his wife Jen (Zoe Lister-Jones) and their daughter in a mid-century modern home.

When I couldn’t find any mention of the show’s filming locations online I started looking into them myself. Thankfully the producers and owners of the homes didn’t try to disguise the locations, leaving the house numbers affixed and painted curb addresses unobscured.

Then it was just a matter of finding the right neighborhoods. I had an inkling that the two traditional-style homes might be located in Cheviot Hills. I’d spent some time in the area last year looking at filming locations from The Goldbergs and Modern Family, and it was easy to picture the residences from Life in Pieces in that neighborhood. Using the addresses that I could glean from the show, I started checking like-numbered blocks until I hit pay dirt.

Like the show would have you believe, Joan and John’s house is located just a couple homes away from Heather and Tim’s. When in Los Angeles last month, I headed right out to Cheviot Hills to have a look.

Since I’m used to tracking down locations that were filmed 30-40 years ago, it’s always a delight and a little jarring to find a contemporary location and have it look exactly the same as it does on television.

Even the neighbors’ homes along Patricia Avenue can be seen in many episodes.

Having found two of the homes for the price of one, I just needed to track down Greg and Jen’s mid-century modern. Since that style would be out of place in Cheviot Hills, I started looking into other neighborhoods. After investigating a few suspected possibilities with no luck, I tuned into the then-latest episode (“Tattoo Valentine Guitar Pregnant”) and the dialog referred to Greg and Jen’s Mar Vista home. Since it’s not unusual for the fictional location of a television show to not mesh with the actual location used for filming, I didn’t get my hopes up, but still figured it was worth checking out.

And once again the show itself helped me zero-in on the proper location. Greg and Jen’s house is indeed located in Mar Vista, a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, nestled between Venice, Santa Monica, and Culver City.

The house used on Life in Pieces isn’t the only mid-century modern home in the area. In fact it’s one of 52 residences built on the Mar Vista tract on Meier and Moore Streets, originally marketed as “Modernique Homes” and designed by architect Gregory Ain, a student of renown California Modern architect Richard Neutra. Thankfully these homes are now part of a Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone which limits alternations to architecturally important structures.

Until recently, I’d never visited Mar Vista, but in addition to checking out the Life in Pieces house, I’d certainly recommend a stroll around the block to check out the unique architecture. [Editor’s Note – the fabulous mid-century modern home where Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) lived in Matchstick Men is located on the same block!)

Editor’s Note – A big THANK YOU to Michael once again for yet another fabulous post! I have yet to watch Life in Pieces, but I think it’s time I start. And I need to get myself out to Mar Vista pronto to peruse the Modernique Homes – they sound right up my alley!

Stalk Them: Joan and John’s house (and Matt’s garage) from Life in Pieces is located at 3321 Patricia Avenue in Cheviot Hills. Heather and Tim’s house is located at 3308 Patricia Avenue in Cheviot Hills. Jen and Greg’s house can be found at 3531 Meier Street in Mar Vista. (Editor’s Note – Roy’s house from Matchstick Men is located just down the block at 3508 Meier Street.)

September 26, 2016February 17, 2017

Harmon Pet Care from “Fuller House”

Well, my fellow stalkers, I am finally home from my trip back east. Over the course of twelve days, the Grim Cheaper and I hit up Washington D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia and stalked a myriad of locations in the process (I took close to 3,000 pictures! I’m shocked my computer didn’t crash when I uploaded them all!). Those posts will be coming soon. In the meantime, though, we had to scoot off on another quick trip (I swear I think I have traveled more this year than any year prior), so my friend, fellow stalker Michael, of countless The Brady Bunch posts fame (you can read them here, here, here and here) has graciously stepped in yet again with a slew of fabulous guest columns that I will be publishing over the course of this week. Thank you, Michael! So without further ado . . .

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I’m back for my fifth guest post. And brace yourself, it’s not about The Brady Bunch—what ever happened to predictability? I’ve flipped the calendar from the 70s to 2016 to cover a contemporary comedy, Fuller House, created and produced by the same folks that brought us Full House and starring most of the cast from the 90s classic.

I had anxiously awaited the release of the new series since it was first announced, even visiting Warner Bros. last winter (and again this summer, but that’s a story for another day) to get a better look at a backlot facade they’d built to stand in for the San Francisco-located home used on the original sitcom. I was looking forward to seeing how they’d incorporate the new facade into the program and how they’d redo the iconic opening titles.

Although I was pleased enough with the new show, I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that Fuller House didn’t go all out and create a multi-location opening title a la Full House, and instead went with a more modern opening without any on-site filming. The tenth episode, “A Giant Leap,” was filmed partly on location at AT&T Park in San Francisco, but even those scenes were limited to the ball park. The new series didn’t offer many new establishing shots to track down, and even the facade that had been built on the Warner Bros. backlot went mysteriously unused, while vintage footage of the San Francisco home was dusted off to establish scenes set in the iconic house.

Something new did catch my eye, though—an establishing shot used throughout the first season. D.J. Tanner—not to be confused with her sister Stephanie who’s now a D.J. spinning under the name D.J. Tanner—is a veterinarian working at Harmon Pet Care. And while all of the interior scenes were shot at Warner Bros. in Burbank, the establishing shot of the clinic was filmed in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Admittedly, it wasn’t much work to pin down this location. Paper lanterns, ornamental street lights, and a sign that reads “Welcome to Chinatown” left little doubt.

On my last visit to San Francisco, I headed to the Dragon’s Gate—the formal entrance to Chinatown, and the beginning of a major shopping artery. The Dragon’s Gate actually appeared in the unaired original pilot episode of Full House. Rather than send the cast to Northern California, production had body doubles for the actors filmed at quintessential San Francisco landmarks. These clips were then used extensively in the closing titles of the pilot, and some also reappeared in the first season opening and closing titles.

Continuing my walk, I quickly came upon the intersection shown in Fuller House—Grant Avenue and Sacramento Street, looking south.

As I started to line up the shot, I noticed something that I hadn’t at home. The Harmon Pet Care sign is mounted to an entirely different building than the building with the Harmon Pet Care awning. Because of the angle of the shot used on Fuller House, you can’t see much of the facade behind the sign. I imagined that the pet clinic signs were digitally added to to a piece of stock footage in post-production. My suspicions about the digital manipulation were confirmed when I noticed that among other changes, an awning at the end of the street in the clip is brown in the Fuller House clip, but is currently red, and has been for at least a couple of years before the production of the new show.

The Harmon Pet Care sign is superimposed over Old Shanghai, a home decor and fashion retailer.

And the awning is that of the Far East Café.

I didn’t dine at the Far East Café, so I can’t attest to their menu offerings, however I’ve read that it’s a particularly vintage restaurant and has some unique architecture. The building dates back to the early 1900s, while the restaurant opened in the 20s and some of the original decoration is even older having been imported from China.

The rest of the block and signage looks very similar to the Fuller House establishing shot.

The eighth episode, “Secrets, Lies and Firetrucks,” contains the only evening establishing shot of the pet clinic. For this footage, the camera was moved to the opposite end of the block.

It wasn’t until I was writing this post that I noticed an entirely different building was shown in an establishing shot for the season’s last episode, “Love Is in the Air.” Nearly all of the business names were digitally removed, but thankfully they left a visible address that allowed me to home in on the alternate location. For this clip, B & C Laundromat on Waverly Place stands in for Harmon Pet Care. The awning from the Far East Café footage was digitally reversed and placed above its entrance.

Editor’s Note – A big THANK YOU to Michael for sharing this fabulous post with us (especially the uh-ma-zing graphic below, which I’m enthralled with)! I’m already looking forward to the rest of this week’s offerings!

Stalk Them: Far East Café and Old Shanghai, aka Harmon Pet Care from Fuller House, are located at 631 and 645 Grant Avenue in San Francisco, respectively. B&C Laundromat, aka Harmon Pet Care from the “Love Is in the Air” episode, is located at 115 Waverly Place in San Francisco.

June 6, 2016February 17, 2017

“The Brady Bunch” MegaPost

My friend, fellow stalker Michael, is proving to be a true Brady Bunch virtuoso! Here he is yet again gifting us with yet another fabulous post about the 1969 sitcom – this one a round-up of nine different locales featured on the series! Take it away, Michael!

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I know, I know. Yet another Brady guest post foisted upon you. I swear, I do know how to find non-Brady locations. However, I had compiled a bunch of Brady Bunch establishing shot sites that I hadn’t seen posted anywhere online, and asked Lindsay if she’d be up for a catch-all post to at least get these addresses out there, and save anyone interested from duplicating research efforts. Note, as is frequently the case, while these establishing shots were filmed on location, the scenes with the actors were filmed on a Paramount soundstage.

Davey Jones’ Royal Towers Hotel

Wilshire Regent

I thought I’d start with a location I happened upon by accident. This winter, I was in Los Angeles riding down Wilshire Boulevard when I looked ahead and saw a building that I thought had been used in a Brady Bunch episode. I snapped a couple quick pics and found their match when I got home.

In the third-season episode, “Getting Davy Jones,” Marcia (in drag) and Greg sneak into Davy Jones’ hotel room in an effort to coax him into performing at the Fillmore Junior High prom.

The establishing shot of of the fictional Royal Towers Hotel was in reality the Wilshire Regent, a luxury co-op built in 1963. The section of Wilshire Blvd where it stands, known as the Wilshire Corridor, is now filled with high-rises, but the Wilshire Regent was one of the first apartment towers built in the area. And lucky for us, the exterior of the building looks remarkably unchanged.

Stalk It: Wilshire Regent, aka Davy Jones’ Hotel, aka Royal Towers Hotel is located at 10501 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Mr. Dimsdale’s Recording Studio / Mercola Building

Fred Hayman Building

In keeping with the musical theme, the next location comes from an establishing shot in the third-season episode, “Dough Re Mi.” The Brady Kids, ready to share their musical stylings with the world, get in hock against their collective allowances to rent studio time from Johnny Dimsdale’s father so they can record a demo of Greg’s latest, “We Can Make the World a Whole Lot Brighter.” However, Peter’s cracking voice jeopardizes the venture and their “$150 non-refundable dollars.”

One would think with a name slapped on the facade, it’d be a cinch to track down this location. Nevertheless, to this day, I haven’t found any other references to the Mercola Building (if anyone out there has, let me know!). As it turns out, I ended up running across this location by accident.

Last year, I walked through Beverly Hills on my way to meet up with a friend for coffee, and as I meandered down Canon Drive I couldn’t help but notice the bright yellow Fred Hayman Building. But, no sooner did I start to reflect on the difference between Giorgio yellow and Bijan yellow (iconic Beverly Hills boutiques known for their use of the color), then my attention was caught by another structure in the area and I forgot all about the Fred Hayman Building.

Researching that neighborhood when I got home, I found myself on Google Street View. Randomly turning my virtual self around, I saw the Fred Hayman Building again and realized it was a Brady location I’d looked for in the past.

Other than a paint job, the structure still looks remarkably similar to its appearance on The Brady Bunch. What looks to be a parking lot on the right of Brady clip is now home to Spago Beverly Hills, and the exterior of the shorter annex building has been remodeled numerous times, most recently housing a restaurant.

Stalk It: Fred Hayman Building, aka Mr. Dimsale’s Recording Studio, aka Mercola Building is located at 190 (& 184) North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.

Daily Chronicle Newspaper Building

Marfay Building

In the first-season episode, “Father of The Year,” Marcia sneaks out of the house to mail an essay submitting Mike for the local newspaper’s father of the year competition. Later in the episode, an office building is used to establish a scene set in the publisher’s office.

I stumbled across this building while looking through the massive archive of architectural photographer Julius Schulman that The Getty Research Institute has posted online.

As soon as I saw the photo, I knew that it had been seen on The Brady Bunch. It took me a while longer to home in on the specific episode. A quick web search found that the structure—known as the Marfay Building—was built in 1949 by Welton Becket and Walter Wurdeman. You may know Becket’s and Wurdeman’s work from many classic mid-century buildings throughout Los Angeles—Pan-Pacific Auditorium, Capitol Records Building, Cinerama Dome, and the Century City master plan just to name a few.

The building’s facade was drastically overhauled in 1987, still you’ll notice the structure next door has maintained its integrity from the days of Brady.

Stalk It: Marfay Building, aka Daily Chronicle Newspaper Building is located at 5657 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Encino Medical Tower Dentist Office

Sometimes I luck out and an establishing shot does the work for me. Such is the case in the fourth-season episode titled “Love and the Older Man.” The Brady’s regular dentist has a new associate, Dr. Stanley Vogel, and Marcia is gaga, so much so that she fantasizes of a future replete with a dental chair in her living room. “Imagine me, Mrs. Marcia Dentist,” she dreamily exclaims.

The Encino Medical Tower looks much the same as it did in the 1970s, however some of the charmingly retro arches have unfortunately been remodeled.

Stalk It: Encino Medical Tower is located at 16260 Ventura Boulevard in Encino.

Gilbert’s Books

Another Brady location that didn’t camouflage its real-world name can be seen in the first-season episode, “The Hero.” It also happens to be another episode where we find Marcia envisioning her future. This time she writes in her diary, “My dream of dreams is to be Mrs. Desi Arnaz Jr.” Unfortunately, Cindy accidently donates said diary to charity resulting in a mortified Marcia. The family forms a search party to scour LA’s used bookstores in an attempt to track down the journal; Mike and Cindy stop at Gilbert’s Book Shop.

The Hollywood Boulevard-located bookstore is sadly no more, the building has been razed, and the W Hollywood occupies its former footprint (and then some). Fortunately, the Taft Building—the first high rise office building in LA, built in 1923—a sliver of which is visible in the Brady clip to the right of Gilbert’s, is still holding its own.

Stalk It: Gilbert’s Book Shop was located at 6278 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Valley Drug

In the second-season episode, “The Not-So-Ugly Duckling,” when Jan’s crush, Clark Tyson, is more interested in Marcia, she decides that her freckles are “making her a social outcast,” and heads to the drug store to look for a quick fix. The establishing shot again makes no attempt to hide its name; Valley Drug in bold script is emblazoned above the doorway.

A quick web search provided a present-day Valley Drug & Compounding in Encino. Although the Encino business’ logo matched the Brady clip, the structure did not.

After digging through newspaper archives, phone books, and verifying addresses against old Los Angeles building permits I was able to confirm that the drug store shown in the establishing shot was located on the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Magnolia Blvd.

Pharmacist, Sidney Simmons purchased Valley Drug at 5161 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in 1955 and in the early 1990s relocated the business down the road to 4800 Laurel Canyon Boulevard. In 1998, he sold the store to the Rite Aid chain and opened up the specialty pharmacy in Encino. An archived building permit shows the original drug store and its distinct chamfered corner entrance.

Sadly, the structure is long gone and the land now provides additional parking for a Jon’s Marketplace. At least a present-day Jan wouldn’t have to go far to find a lemon for her at-home freckle treatment.

Stalk It: Valley Drug was located at 5161 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood.

Television Studio (and Ballet Studio)
Metromedia Square

Shown in a number of episodes, now-razed television and film studio, Metromedia Square was a popular Brady-establishing-shot location. The Hollywood-constructed lot was originally known as Nassour Studios and built in the 1940s. The Times-Mirror Company purchased the facility in the 1950s and Metromedia took over the studio in the late 1960s. In the 1980s Metromedia started leasing the lot to News Corporation and the name was again changed to Fox Television Center. Finally, Metromedia sold the land in 2000 and the studio was torn down and Helen Bernstein High School was built on the property.

Establishing shots of Metromedia Square were used in a number of fifth-season Brady episodes, but the site is first seen in the forth-season episode “Amateur Nite.” Mike and Carol’s anniversary is coming up and the kids decide to buy them a silver platter. Unbelievably, Jan isn’t as familiar as most teens in the byzantine methods by which engraving is priced and can’t cover the cost of the customized platter. The kids naturally turn to song in an effort to pay their debts. Dubbing themselves “The Silver Platters,” they perform (in matching jumpsuits) on a local television show competition.

The exterior is next see in the episode “You Can’t Win ‘Em All.” Cindy becomes a prima donna when her test scores qualify her to help represent Clinton Grammar School on a local television station’s quiz show. Cindy’s inflated ego has no bounds, even turning down Alice’s cooking with a terse, “A star can’t go on television all fat and broken out.” When at the television studio, Cindy freezes with stage fright the moment the red light on the camera glows.

The exterior is shown again in “Adios, Johnny Bravo.” The Brady Kids—no longer strangers to the television studio—are taping a performance and Greg is pulled aside by a couple of quick-talking record producers hoping to mold him into the newest pop sensation because he literally “fit the suit.”

The last we see of Metromedia Square is in the episode “Try, Try Again,” where it’s inconsistently used to establish a scene set in the girls’ ballet class.

Although, I knew the establishing shots were of Metromedia Square, I wanted to figure out where exactly the shots were filmed. Strangely, I couldn’t find many photos of the lot, so I started with a contemporary aerial photo [below in color] and one photographed when the studio was still in existence [below in black & white]. I was also lucky to come across a few maps of the lot in my go-to resource, the LA building permit archives.

From those, I was able to home in on the area that was shown in the Brady clips. The direction in which the roads intersected proved to be a helpful guide, and the corner of an “Audience Parking” sign in the Brady clip confirmed that I’d zeroed in on the correct part of the lot. The orange arrows on the aerial photos and map above mark the location of the camera and the approximate angle used for the establishing shots. I was also surprised to find that the corner of a building at Fernwood Avenue and North Van Ness Avenue, formerly across the street from Metromedia Square, is still there. It’s the KTLA building at Sunset Bronson Studios and still looks the same as it did in the Brady clip. Interestingly, the current Sunset Bronson Studios was the original Warner Bros. lot, purchased by the young studio in 1920, and the current KTLA building originally housed Leon Schlesinger Productions (of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies fame). Warner Bros. purchased Schlesinger’s interest in the animation company in 1944, and in 1953 they sold the entire lot to Paramount; KTLA moved into the old Schlesinger building thereafter. You can see a vintage photo of Schlesinger’s building with its distinctive quoining here. At least a little sliver of history from the Brady clip still remains.

As you can see, Metromedia Square is no more and its buildings seen in the Brady clips have been replaced with the school’s basketball courts.

Stalk It: Metromedia Square Audience Parking was located on North Van Ness Avenue at Fernwood Avenue in Hollywood.

Drive-In Theatre

Gilmore Drive-In

The Gilmore Drive-In is another establishing shot location that was used in more than one Brady episode. In the forth-season episode “Greg Gets Grounded,” as a punishment for driving on the freeway while reading the back of a new record album, Greg’s family-car privileges are taken away for a week. After irking Carol and Mike with another misdeed, he narrowly avoids further punishment on a technicality by claiming that he followed their “exact words.” Predictably, Mike and Carol later hold Greg to his “exact words” and force him to cancel a date and bring Bobby and Peter to a frog jumping competition (naturally). After the competition, the young masters Brady absentmindedly leave their frogs in Greg’s car. Unfortunately for Greg, in a rush to pick up his date for a drive-in movie, Croaker and Spunker’s presence goes unnoticed until it’s too late.

And in the fifth-season episode “Peter and the Wolf,” Greg has a date with Sandra, but unless he can find a date for her cousin Linda, she’ll have to cancel. Enter Linda’s new date, a faux mustachioed Peter, alias Phil Packer, “Some swinging guy from another high school.” Need I write more? Obviously, nothing but comedy gold can come from a setup like that.

The establishing shot as it’s seen in the episode is rather dark (as evening is wont to do), but with a quick digital adjustment, a few clues to the drive-in’s location were unveiled. The detailing on the screen tower along with the larger panel to its right seemed unique to the Gilmore Drive-In in Los Angeles. My suspicions were confirmed when the lightened image also revealed the Park La Brea Apartments in the distance.

In the 1880s, Arthur Fremont Gilmore bought hundreds of acres of farmland around what is now Fairfax Avenue. In the early 1900s he struck oil on the property and transitioned from farming to the oil business. In 1918, his son Earl Bell Gilmore took over the family business and by the 1940s had sold the majority of their original acreage. He however kept a few dozen acres which housed Gilmore Stadium, Gilmore Field, the Farmers Market, and of course the Gilmore Drive-In.

Built in 1948, the theatre reportedly had a 650-vehicle capacity and was designed by architects William Glenn Balch and Louis L. Bryan. The asymmetric panel that helped me identify the theatre, upon further research, turned out to be an enlarged light shield built in 1955. By the 1970s the theatre had fallen into disrepair and demolition permits were issued in 1979. Today, The Grove shopping center, specifically Nordstrom, sits in the screen’s former location, leaving the Farmers Market as the only remaining original Gilmore-related enterprise in the area. The former site of the Gilmore Drive-In is outlined in orange below, with an arrow pointing in the direction of the former location of the screen.

CBS purchased Gilmore Stadium in 1950 and built CBS Television City on the land. Later in the decade, CBS expanded their studio onto the former site of Gilmore Field. Their website has some great aerial photos of the area, and many include the drive-in. Cinematreasures.org also has a nice selection of photos of the road-facing side of theatre’s screen tower.

Stalk It: The Gilmore Drive-In was located at 6201 West 3rd Street in Los Angeles.

Rose Bowl Stadium

In the fifth-season episode “Mail Order Hero,” Bobby’s in a pickle when after claiming to know Joe Namath, the football player is in town and Bobby’s friends call his bluff. In an effort to help her brother, Cindy puts pen to paper and speciously writes a letter to Namath on Bobby’s behalf, beginning with, “I’m writing to you because I’m very very sick.”

Inspired by the letter, the football player stops by the Brady residence, Bobby plays sick, Cindy plays nursemaid, and Mike and Carol, out of the loop from Cindy’s letter, shock Namath with their lack of concern over their dying son—“Well when you have six kids, something like this is bound to happen to one of them.”

A scene set at the stadium office with Namath is established with a shot of the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. The entrance area to the 1922-built stadium has recently undergone some renovations, but the structure itself still matches the Brady shot.

The angle from which the establishing shot was filmed obscured the Rose Bowl logo with some tress, but if you look carefully, you can still make out the corners of the signage.

Stalk It: The Rose Bowl Stadium is located at 1001 Rose Bowl Drive in Pasadena.

And there you have it, nine locations for the price of one. If you’ve made it to the end, congratulations and thanks for sticking with me! As always, many thanks to Lindsay for generously offering up her forum for another very-Brady post. (Editor’s note – a big THANK YOU to you, Michael, for yet another scintillating and fastidiously-researched article! Smile )

April 22, 2016February 17, 2017

Smart Set Beauty Salon and Shopping Center from “The Brady Bunch”

While I originally intended to be filling this week with locales from my recent New York trip, I had a family emergency that landed me out of state since Monday. At this point, I’m not sure when I will be returning home, so posts might be on the light side in the coming days and weeks. Thankfully, though, my friend Michael, the fellow stalker who gifted us with the two fabulous Brady Bunch write-ups about The Golden Spoon Café and the Downtown Christmas Shopping District, has swooped in and saved the day by penning yet another guest post about yet another BB location. Thank you, Michael! So without further ado . . .

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In the final episode of The Brady Bunch, “The Hair-Brained Scheme,” Bobby, in the midst of a get-rich-quick venture, convinces Greg to tame his mane (in preparation for graduation) with some reasonably priced Neat & Natural Hair Tonic. Not unsurprisingly, the hair product turned plot-device quickly transforms Greg’s hair into something resembling a wig you might find in Harpo Marx’s hatbox. Eveready for a comedic crisis, Carol whisks Greg off to her beauty parlor (that specializes in groovy lady-mullets, no doubt) for a quick dye job. Lucky are we—the filming-location-loving audience—that their visit to the beauty shop is prefaced by two sequential establishing shots, providing us with a couple distinct looks at the location. First we are shown a wide shot of an outdoor shopping center, complete with a packed parking lot and a beauty shop nestled among a strip of storefronts.

After the commercial break we are treated to a close-up of the building as the camera pans up from the parking lot across much of the signage displayed along the facade.

The interior scenes with the actors were, as usual, filmed in a Paramount soundstage, but the clips of the exterior were filmed away from the studio. And with all the visible store names, I figured that it wouldn’t be difficult to pinpoint where the establishing shots were filmed. Famous last words.

First I concentrated on the wide shot. The larger storefront on the left had a row of shopping carts outside suggesting that perhaps a grocery store was nearby. Christmas trees with the words “Holiday Greetings” were tacked onto the light posts. And, although blurry, I could make out the name of the beauty parlor: Smart Set Beauty Salon. Unfortunately, my perfunctory web search for Smart Set was to no effect, and without a grocery store name it was time to look a little closer.

The next thing I noticed was the unique roofline on the building. It reminded me of the double-sloped mansard roof on the marina boathouse in my hometown, so I started thinking of water-side cities. And that maybe those decorations on the light posts weren’t Christmas trees at all; suddenly those trees were looking a lot more like sail boats. I then tried to make out the names of the other businesses. First was The Mariner Barber Shop (which worked with the marina-style roof), a barely legible ice cream shop, and the ridiculously named Posh Pourri. It was clear as (a sunshine) day that such a unique name was my best bet to zero in on the shopping center.

Researching Posh Pourri, I first came across an expired trademark that had been registered in Marina del Rey and an article about the actor Herb Rudley. Rudley, along with his wife and a business partner, opened Posh Pourri in Marina del Rey in late 1967. He mentions in the article that they also considered the name “Port Pourri,” but ended up going with his wife’s suggestion since they hoped to provide a “potpourri of elegance.” I may never forgive him for not choosing “Port Pourri”—I love a pun.

Unfortunately, neither the article nor trademark application listed an address for the gift shop. But, by looking at the history of Marina del Rey—a charming seaside community in the west side of Los Angeles—and the layouts of the malls in the area, I was pretty sure it was located in a shopping center that was originally known as Marina Waterside. Unfortunately, the center—now known simply as Waterside—has been remodeled twice since it opened in 1967, first in 1990 and again in 2005. To make matters worse, I couldn’t initially find any photos from its original look, and only a couple from the first renovation.

Present-day aerial photography then came to the rescue. Looking at a bird’s-eye view of Waterside showed that new facades on the front of the building had replaced the original roof style, however on the backside of the building the roof was left partially intact and it matched the style seen in the Brady clip.

Nearly positive I’d found the right spot, I still wanted more evidence linking Posh Pourri to Waterside, so off to my trusty library I went. A quick look in the US Shopping Center Directory from 1974 confirmed my suspicions. Not only was Posh Pourri listed, but so was Carol and Greg’s Smart Set Beauty Salon, Mariner Barber Shop, Brookdale Ice Cream, Suds ’N Duds Laundromat, Bon Marche Shirt Laundry, and Boy’s Market. Finally, proof that Carol was heading out of the Valley in order to maintain her far out ‘do.

In December, I found myself in Marina del Rey and had to see the shopping center in person. Although it’s been significantly remodeled, and is filled with new businesses, it’s still easy to picture how the current-day layout translates to the Brady clips.

I took a walk around the back of the complex and was happily surprised that a little bit of the old mansard roof was poking just far enough up for me to still see.

The mall was last remodeled in 2005 by developer Caruso Affiliated who is better known for creating The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles.

Although I’m always disappointed when renovations have significantly changed the look of a filming location, I’m afraid it was a necessity in this situation. The shopping complex’s 1990 remodel looked terribly dated and I can’t imagine that the facility would be thriving as successfully today (or even still exist) without some redevelopment over the past 49 years.

So there you have it. Smart Set Beauty Salon may be long gone, however a Dry Bar now sits near the old Posh Pourri location. So, should you ever end up suffering the effects of Neat and Natural Hair Tonic, they might not be able to do anything about your sherbet-colored hair, but a least they’ll be able to smooth it out for you.

Thanks once again to Lindsay for providing me a platform to prattle on about a 40-something year old Brady location. (Editor’s Note – Big THANK YOU to you, Michael, for another fabulously and meticulously researched post! Smile )

Stalk It: Waterside Shopping Center, aka Marina Waterside Shopping Center aka Carol Brady’s Smart Set Salon is located at 4700 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey.