All Star Lanes from “Glee”

Another Eagle Rock-area location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked a few weeks back after our venture to the nearby Eagle Rock Plaza Mall was All Star Lanes – the bowling alley where Finn Hudson (aka Cory Monteith) took Rachel Berry (aka Lea Michele) on a date in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “The Rhodes Not Taken”.  I found this location thanks to an eagle-eyed (pun intended) anonymous fellow stalker who lives in the area.  My source recognized the bowling alley when it showed up in the episode back in September of last year and emailed me immediately afterwards to let me know.  So, thank you, anonymous source!  I don’t know who you are, but I will be forever grateful for the stalking tip!

The 22-lane bowling alley, which features state-of-the-art equipment and automatic scoring, was completely empty when Mike and I showed up to stalk it, which made for a prime picture-taking opportunity.  The owner finally made an appearance about ten minutes after we showed up and was nice enough to chat with us for a bit about the various filming that has taken place there in recent years.  Sadly, he didn’t have much to tell me about “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee, though, because he had never actually watched the show before it filmed on the premises and, therefore, did not pay much attention during the shoot.

He did tell us that part of the episode was lensed in the alley’s retro-style cocktail lounge and, even though it was closed at the time, allowed us to take a quick peek inside.  Besides bowling, All Star Lanes also features pools tables, a video arcade, a Chinese food restaurant, and, as was shown on Glee, nightly karaoke!  Love it!  In 2009, All Star Lanes was voted First Place in the “Best Bowling” category of MyFOX Los Angeles’ “Best of the LA HOTLIST” contest.  LA Weekly newspaper also recently dubbed the alley the “Best Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling 2010” thanks to its late-night glow-in-the-dark bowling sessions, which feature glowing pins and balls!  How incredibly cool is that?

In “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee, Finn takes Rachel on a pretend date to All Star Lanes in the hopes that he can somehow talk her into re-joining the McKinley High Glee Club.

Will Schuester (aka Matthew Morrison) and April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenoweth) also visit the bowling alley that same night and it is there that Will tells April that one of his biggest regrets in life is never having sung with her.

April then leads Will over to the alley’s cocktail lounge where the two hop up on stage and sing a rousing karaoke rendition of the 1987 Heart song “Alone”.

You can watch their “Alone” duet by clicking above.

The owner of All Star Lanes also informed us that the outside of the alley and its parking lot area were recently dressed to look like the Mid-Atlantic Trailways Bus Station for the Season 8 episode of NCIS titled “Broken Arrow” for the scene in which Ziva David (aka Cote de Pablo) and Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo (aka Michael Weatherly) track down Anthony DiNozzo Sr. (aka Robert Wagner).

Apparently, the All Star Lanes parking lot is quite the popular filming location because fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, also let me know that it was featured during the opening credits of the 1992 Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs.  In the scene, in which the bowling alley is not actually visible, Quentin and the gang walk through the parking lot toward Eagle Rock Boulevard after their famous conversation about tipping which took place at the nearby Pat & Lorraine’s Coffee Shop.  The Eagle Rock Plaza strip mall, which is located directly across the street from the alley, is the building that pictured in the above screen captures.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: All Star Lanes from “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee is located at 4459 Eagle Rock Boulevard in Eagle Rock.  Rachel and Finn bowled in Lane Nine and Will and April bowled in Lane Fifteen in the episode.  In Reservoir Dogs, Quentin and the gang walk east through the alley’s parking lot towards Eagle Rock Boulevard.  You can visit All Star Lanes’ official website here.