Sorry to leave y’all hanging, but I will also be taking Monday and Tuesday of this week off. I will be back on Wednesday, though, with a whole new stalking location! 
I hope all of my fellow stalkers had a fabulous Thanksgiving!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
I will be taking the next five days off in order to spend Thanksgiving week with my family. But I will be back with a whole new location on Monday, November 26th. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this favorite Thanksgiving moment from Friends, in which Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) accidentally adds beef to a not-so-traditional English trifle. No one in the group likes the dessert except for Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), who says one of my favorite lines of the entire series – “What’s not to like? Custard? Good! Jam? Good! Meat? Goooooooood!” You can watch the scene by clicking here.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Last Friday, a fellow stalker named Breanne contacted me to see if I could track down the supposed Philadelphia-area residence where the Matthews family – brothers Cory (Ben Savage), Eric (Will Friedle) and Joshua (Daniel Jacobs), sister Morgan (who was played by both Lily Nicksay and Lindsay Ridgeway), and parents Amy (Betsy Randle) and Alan (William Russ) – lived in the 1993 television sitcom Boy Meets World. Breanne is a huge fan of the series and informed me that on one of the DVD commentaries it was mentioned that the Matthews’ house was located near The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where the series was lensed. So I immediately enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and the two of us spent a few hours scouring the streets near Disney. As we worked our way outward, though, both coming up empty-handed, I had an inkling that we were on the wrong track. So I asked Breanne to listen to the commentary once again and to let me know exactly what was said.
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Breanne wrote back immediately with this, “So I found the part that I had told you about on the commentary. Rider Strong says, ‘Now that house is right next to where we ended up filming, not at this point, but later.’ Then the executive producer says ‘It’s in Sherman Oaks.’ Then Danielle Fishel corrects him and says, ‘Studio City, actually.’ Then it sounds like in the background that Rider Strong then says, “Right across from CBS.’” I was shocked that the cast-members knew in such detail where a house that was only ever used in establishing shots was located, but I took their word for it and Mike and I resumed our hunt, this time in the Studio City area. And, sure enough, I found the place right where Rider said it would be – directly across the street from CBS. Yay! (Come to find out, Boy Meets World was originally filmed at The Walt Disney Studios and then later moved production to CBS Studio Center, which is what Rider was talking about when he said the house was near where they ended up filming. Ironically enough, when Breanne had originally sent me a screen capture of the home, my first thought was that it was located in Studio City. Like they say, one should ALWAYS go with their gut! 
) So I ran right out to stalk the place yesterday morning – in the midst of having my car break down . . . TWICE. Not kidding! Thank God for AAA!
In real life, the Matthews’ house, which was originally built in 1940, boasts two bedrooms, two baths, 2,108 square feet of living space, and a 0.27-acre plot of land. And, as you can see below, it is absolutely adorable in person and does have a very East Coast feel to it. It is no surprise at all that producers chose to use it in Boy Meets World. In fact, I am quite surprised that the dwelling has not appeared onscreen more often, except for the fact that it is located on a very busy street, which filmmakers tend to shy away from.
According to the Celebrity Black Book 2008, the dwelling belongs (or at one time belonged) to soap opera star Joseph Campanella.
When I first arrived at the house, I was absolutely amazed – and thrilled! – to discover that it looks pretty much EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1993 when Boy Meets World started filming (minus the set of shutters that used to flank the front door). LOVE IT! The homeowners should be commended!
Only the exterior of the residence was used in the filming of Boy Meets World. The interior of the Matthews’ house was, of course, just a set that only ever existed on a soundstage.
The Matthews’ backyard and Mr. Feeny’s (William Daniels’) backyard were also just sets.
On a stalking side-note – Earlier this week, Mike re-launched the new and improved MovieShotsLA and I have to say that it is pretty darn amazing. No one takes photographs like him! You can check it out here. As you can see below, MovieShotsLA’s new motto is “A brand you can trust.” I absolutely LOVE that being that Mike is as meticulous about being correct in his reporting as I am. I just started reading fellow stalker E.J.’s (from the Movieland Directory) 2000 book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites (it’s fabulous, by the way!) in which he writes the following, “That’s how this book came about. There are countless tour guides, maps, and tapes showing where stars lived, worked, or played. Some show where they’re buried. Most are redundant and almost none are very well-researched. A good number are downright fiction. Until now no guide has presented the tour highlights – or lowlights – showing where all this mayhem actually happened.” A man after my own heart, I swear! That paragraph goes for so many of the filming location blogs and websites currently out there, as well – most are redundant, almost none are very well-researched and a good number are downright fiction. But I am very happy to say that MovieShotsLA, The Movieland Directory, and IAMNOTASTALKER are all brands that you can trust!
You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Breanne for asking me to track down this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me do so!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Boy Meets World house is located at 4196 Colfax Avenue in Studio City.
Earlier this year, fellow stalker Lavonna informed me that she had just tracked down the temple where Grace Adler (Debra Messing) married Leo Markus (Harry Connick Jr.) in the Season 5 episode of Will & Grace titled “Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More”. As it turns out, while the wedding supposedly took place on the island of Manhattan, in reality Leo and Grace tied the knot right here in Los Angeles – at Temple Israel of Hollywood. Because Lavonna has long been obsessed with the series (it is pretty much her Beverly Hills, 90210), she put in a special request for me to stalk the place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there one (very cold) day in March. Sadly though, the temple was closed when we showed up, so we only got to catch a glimpse of its exterior . . .
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Flash forward to this past October when Lavonna and her good friend Kim came out to L.A. for a visit from Ohio. Lavonna was absolutely dying to see the interior of Temple Israel of Hollywood (natch!) and called up the main office to ask for a tour. Amazingly enough, they told us to come right on over! So we headed out there immediately after our Dearly Departed tour (which I will be blogging about soon) had ended. And I am very happy to report that the place did not disappoint!
Temple Israel of Hollywood was originally founded in 1926 by a small group of individuals, most of whom were involved in the entertainment industry. In fact, the place had such major Hollywood connections that it was quickly given the nickname “Filmland’s House of Worship”. Um, LOVE it! For its early meetings, members rented a now-defunct castle-like mansion that, at the time, belonged to Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa and stood on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Ivar Street. In 1930, the growing congregation purchased the former First Methodist Church on Hollywood Boulevard and proceeded to hold services there until 1948, when it was decided that a new and even bigger temple – the one that stands today – would be constructed about a mile west. The new synagogue was designed by architects S. Charles Lee (who also designed the Max Factor Building, the Los Angeles Theatre, and the Hollywood & Western Building) and Samuel Lunden.
Today, the Temple Israel of Hollywood congregation consists of over 950 families – and is still a major draw for the entertainment industry. Just a few of the celebrities who have attended services there at some point in time include Eddie Fisher, Tony Curtis, Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, Al Jolson, Sammy Davis Jr., Eddie Cantor, Leonard Nimoy, Mike Todd, David O. Selznick, Lea Thompson, Amanda Peet, and Ben Stein. In 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech on the premises and, on March 27th, 1959, Elizabeth Taylor converted to Judaism there, taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel. The place definitely deserves its “Filmland’s House of Worship” nickname! In fact, I think I may need to convert and start attending services there! 
In the two-part “Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More” episode of Will & Grace, Grace and Leo decide to get married in a temple, after learning that their first wedding, in which they tied the knot on a whim while on The Today Show, was not valid. Only the interior of Temple Israel of Hollywood was featured in the episode, though. For the exterior of their wedding venue, Temple Emanu-El, located at One East 65th Street in New York, was used.
Grace and Leo’s wedding took place in Temple Israel of Hollywood’s Sanctuary area.
Visible in the episode is the temple’s real life Ark, which was constructed out of silver and white Italian marble and is flanked by two large lions representing strength, courage and majesty. The Ark was a bit covered over by a chuppah in the scene, though, as you can see below.
In a perplexing twist, while the real life altar area matches up to what appeared in the episode, the back half of the temple does not. Although it is not readily apparent in my photograph below, the temple’s actual ceiling is much shorter than what was depicted onscreen, due to the existence of a large mezzanine.
And while both the green rug underneath the aisle runner and the velvet and wooden seats match up perfectly to what was shown in the episode, the real life doors of the temple are completely different. I had Mike, from MovieShotsLA, call the temple’s main office for me (for some reason I am petrified of making phone calls to strangers – in person, I LOVE talking to random people, but on the phone I’m a total wuss) to ask if the Sanctuary had been remodeled in recent years and, as it turns out, there was a renovation done in 2009. But, while doing further research, I came across a black and white photograph (from an undetermined year) on the Paradise Leased blog which shows the Sanctuary in the exact same state that it is today. So a few different scenarios are possible here – the Paradise Leased photo may very well be a recent one that just happened to have been taken in black and white, making it possible that the back portion of the Sanctuary was drastically changed during the 2009 remodel OR Grace and Leo’s wedding ceremony was filmed partially on a set and partially in the actual temple. Hey, stranger things have been known to happen in Hollywood.
While I am unsure of the Sanctuary situation, I am almost positive that both the anteroom . . .
. . . and bride’s dressing room that appeared in the episode were sets built at CBS Studio Center, where Will & Grace was lensed.
And I, of course, just had to pose for a pic next to the chair where Will Truman (Eric McCormack) sat after he gave Grace away.
On a Will & Grace side-note – I absolutely LOVE the shearling coat that Grace wore in the “Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More” episode. I want, I want, I want! Oh, GC – are you listening?
You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for finding this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Temple Israel of Hollywood, where Grace and Leo got married in the “Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More” episode of Will & Grace, is located at 7300 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Their wedding took place in the Sanctuary. You can visit the temple’s official website here.
Sorry to do this again, but I ran around all day yesterday and did not have time to write a new post. I will be back tomorrow, though, with a whole new stalking location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Hold on to your hats, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one. A few weeks ago, my mom called me up to ask about one of the answers provided in the “Ask Chris” column from the September 2012 issue of Los Angeles Magazine. In the column, an inquiring mind asked associate editor Chris Nichols for the location of the “crazy” abode featured in the 1960 movie Cinderfella. Chris informed him that the property used was none other than the Kirkeby Mansion in Bel-Air, which also stood in for the Clampett residence in The Beverly Hillbillies television series, but that most of the place had been demolished in 1986. Because the magazine had been mistaken in its reporting of locations in the past (you can read my post about the incorrectly identified Leave It To Beaver house here), my mom wanted to know if the Kirkeby Mansion had, in fact, been torn down. And while I had, at the time, never stalked or done any research on the property, come to find out, Chris’ information was indeed erroneous. I am very happy to report that the Kirkeby Mansion is still currently standing at 750 Bel Air Road in Bel-Air in almost the exact same condition (the exterior anyway) it was in the 1960s when The Beverly Hillbillies was filmed. It is, sadly, just no longer visible from the street.
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Construction on the Kirkeby Mansion, which began in 1933 and took five years to carry out, cost a whopping $2 million – and we’re talking 1930s money! The home was commissioned by a wealthy engineer named Lynn Atkinson. When it was completed, the French neoclassical Beaux Arts-style property featured ten bedrooms, twelve baths, 21,523 square feet of living space, a copper roof, walnut paneling, several Baccarat chandeliers, a 150-foot waterfall, gold-plated doorknobs and bathroom fixtures, a pipe organ, an orchestra stage, an elevator that ran seventy feet below ground, underground tunnels that led from the home to the pool area, and a landing pad for autogyros (yeah, I had to look that one up, too). Supposedly Atkinson had the place built for his wife, Berenice, as a surprise and when he first brought her there, under the ruse of attending a party, she took one look at the opulent manse and said, “Who would ever live in a house like this? It’s so grandiose.” Fail! The Atkinsons never wound up living on the premises and the pad was eventually acquired by hotelier Arnold Kirkeby in 1945 for about $250,000.
There are quite a few differing reports as to how and why Kirkeby came to own the mansion, including the rumor that Atkinson owed Kirkeby capital for a gambling debt, that Kirkeby had actually bankrolled the house for Atkinson and, when funds ran out, was given the keys, and that Atkinson had lost a bundle of money that he had borrowed from Kirkeby in order to invest in floating islands during World War II. Whatever the case may be, Arnold and his wife, Carlotta, acquired the manse in 1945 and, from that time on, the pad was known as the Kirkeby Mansion. In a fateful decision, Arnold decided to allow The Beverly Hillbillies to film at his estate at a rate of $500 a day because he apparently thought the show would be a dud. It ended up becoming a colossal hit, turning his house into a major tourist trap, but Arnold never lived to see that day. He passed away in a plane crash on March 1, 1962, several months before the first episode ever aired. Carlotta continued to live in the mansion until her death in 1986, but apparently the countless fans of the series who stalked the abode drove her crazy. After Carlotta passed away, the residence was purchased by TV executive Jerry Perenchio for $13.7 million. And while Jerry did spend the next five years remodeling the interior of the property (which did not appear in The Beverly Hillbillies or Cinderfella), he did NOT demolish it and the exterior was left completely intact (except for the roof area). To deter the hoards of tourists who would stop by to stalk the mansion on a regular basis, Jerry also had the entrance gate moved to a different part of the property, rendering the place invisible from the street. Boo!
While the Grim Cheaper and I were stalking the place, someone opened the gate and started speaking to us in a foreign language. I have no idea what the guy was saying, but the GC proceeded to snap away with his camera anyway. Nice work, honey!
Sadly though, even with the gate open, the only part of the property that was visible was a long driveway and the back of some sort of guard shack.
The exterior of the Kirkeby Mansion was featured each week on The Beverly Hillbillies in establishing shots of the Clampett residence, which was said to be located at 518 Crestview Drive in Beverly Hills. In the second episode of the series, which was titled “Getting Settled”, the Clampetts were told that the manse was originally built for actor John Barrymore, Drew’s grandfather.
The interior of the Clampett house was just a set, though, that was built at General Services Studios (now Hollywood Center Studios) where the series was lensed.
The Clampett’s pool, ahem, ceee-ment pond also only existed at General Services Studios. According to the TV Acres website, the swimming pool set was 27 inches deep, cost $20,000 to construct, and took half a day to heat for filming.
As you can see in the aerial views below, which were featured in the Season 3 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies titled “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood”, as compared to the current aerial views from Bing, the mansion looks almost exactly the same today as it did in 1964 when the episode was filmed. The grounds have changed a bit, although not as much as I had expected, and the gate, of course, moved, but otherwise the residence is completely recognizable as the The Beverly Hillbillies mansion.
A poster named LifeinLA wrote a comment on a SitcomsOnline message board thread stating, “I have some good news for everyone who is wondering about the house. I was friends with the Kirkeby family and spent much time in the house before it was sold in 1985 to Jerry Perenchio, the owner of Univision, upon the death of Mrs. Kirkeby. Believe me, it was an amazing place. First of all, it is still there, in it’s entirety, but no longer visible from the street. The only thing that the new owner did was remove the beautiful, solid copper roof, which appeared blue from the oxidation (and very beautiful), and make some much needed improvements to a home that was over sixty years old when he bought it. The kitchen was old, the bathrooms needed upgrading, the plumbing and electrical needed to be modernized. And, of course, he did redo all of the grounds, moved the tennis court and rebuilt the pool. He incorporated a new entrance, one that afforded more privacy, as this was always a problem for the Kirkeby family, what with such a high-profile home. He also bought back several neighboring homes that were once part of the estate, but sold off over the years and returned the property to it’s almost ten-acre original glory.” You can see the different roofs in the aerial views pictured below.
The Kirkeby Mansion was also featured in the very beginning of the 1956 flick High Society as the residence where C.K. Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby) lived. The roofline was changed for the filming, though, via, what I am guessing, was a matte painting.
The interior of C.K.’s house was, I believe, just a set and, as you can see below, looks nothing at all like the interior of the Clampett residence.
In the 1960 flick Cinderfella, the Kirkeby Mansion was where Cinderfella (Jerry Lewis) lived with his Wicked Stepmother (Judith Anderson) and her two sons, Maximilian (Henry Silva) and Rupert (Robert Hutton).
The interior of the Cinderfella mansion was also, I believe, just a set and, again, looks nothing like either the Clampett residence or C.K.’s residence from High Society.
In the 1987 comedy Disorderlies, the Kirkeby mansion was where Winslow Lowry (Anthony Geary) lived with his ailing uncle, Albert Dennison (Pretty Woman’s Ralph Bellamy).
Unlike the previous productions filmed at the estate, the real life interior of the Kirkeby Mansion was actually used in Disorderlies.
The manse was also featured in 1987’s Over the Top as the home of Jason Cutler (Robert Loggia), although the front door area and balcony were changed a bit for the filming . . .
. . . due to the fact that in one scene Lincoln Hawk (Sylvester Stallone) drives his truck into the place, destroying it.
The interior of the manse also appeared in Over the Top and, as you can see below, the entrance hallway, tile flooring, staircase, and roped-staircase railing match perfectly to what appeared in Disorderlies.
Some fabulous current aerial views of the Kirkeby Mansion were shown in a REP Interactive clip about the most expensive homes in the world.
You can watch that clip by clicking below.
You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Kirkeby Mansion from The Beverly Hillbillies television series is located at 750 Bel Air Road in Bel-Air. The front entrance to the home is now located around the corner at 875 Nimes Road, but, sadly, no part of the property is visible from the street.
I will be taking today off in honor of Veterans Day, but will be back tomorrow with a whole new post! A sincere thank you to all of the men and women who have fought for our country over the years, including my dad, grandpa, father-in-law, and brother-in-law.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Last weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I finally decided to check out People Like Us. And while I can’t say that I loved it (I am not big on depressing movies), it was an enjoyable watch and Chris Pine was, as always, oh-so-yummy. And the flick was filmed in its entirety in Los Angeles, so there’s that. 
Anyway, while watching, I became a wee-bit intrigued with Henry’s Tacos – a walk-up taqueria where several scenes were filmed. In one of the scenes that took place there, I noticed a sign in the background that, on first glance, I thought read “Silver Lake” and immediately assumed that Henry’s was located in that area. And while I made a mental note to do some further research on the place, for whatever reason (probably too much champagne ), I promptly forgot about it.
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So imagine my surprise when I spotted the place on the corner of Moorpark Street and Tujunga Avenue in Studio City last Monday morning while heading to one of my favorite stores, Swag Antiques, for a little retail therapy. As it turns out, the sign behind Henry’s is actually for a bar named the Starlite Room. Yes, I am that blonde! Anyway, I could not believe my good fortune in stumbling upon the restaurant and immediately pulled over to snap some pics.
Henry’s Tacos was originally founded on December 13th, 1961 by an Assembly of God minister from Nebraska named Henry Comstock. The Googie-style walk-up eatery was designed by architect John B. Ferguson and, at the time of its opening, tacos were priced at 35 cents. When Henry retired in 1968, his daughter, LeVonne Eloff, took over the business and ran it for more than four decades until she passed away in 2009, at which point her daughter, Janis Hood, stepped in. Amazingly, Janis still employs the exact same recipes that her grandfather did over fifty years ago. The corner building that houses Henry’s has also been left unaltered during all of that time and still looks exactly the same today as it did when it first opened. As Janis said in a NoHo Arts District article, “When you have something that works . . . don’t change it. If it works it doesn’t need to be fixed. People like good homemade food at affordable prices . . . no matter what decade it is.” Couldn’t agree with you more, Janis! I wish the owner of Vitello’s (which is located down the street from Henry’s and used to be one of my very favorite restaurants) had heeded the same advice. Sadly, the place was recently gutted and remodeled, its menu completely revamped, and currently is a sad shadow of its former self. Sigh. But I am happy to report that Henry’s is still going strong!
Unfortunately it was 10:30 in the morning when I stalked Henry’s – a bit too early for tacos (I was only on my second Starbucks of the day at the time ) – so I did not get to sample any of the fare. But I do plan on dragging the GC back there as soon as possible for some lunch.
In People Like Us, long-lost siblings Sam (Chris Pine) and Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) head to Henry’s Tacos for a bite to eat after attending an AA meeting.
Sam and Frankie are later shown eating at the taqueria once again during a montage sequence in which the two are getting to know each other. The idea to use Henry’s Tacos in the flick was actually Chris Pine’s. According to a June 2012 Los Angeles Daily News article, the actor, who grew up in the Studio City area, used to grab a bite to eat at Henry’s regularly during his childhood years. Other celebrity fans of the eatery include Larry King, Brad Pitt, Sarah Hyland, Michelle Branch, James Marsden, Adam Levine, Marla Sokoloff, Jason Reitman, Tony Danza, Adam Carolla, Tom Hanks, Andy Griffith, George Lopez, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Mary-Kate even told Oprah Winfrey in a special “favorite foods” segment that Henry’s has “the most incredible hard shell tacos I’ve ever had”.
People Like Us is not the first production to film at Henry’s. The taqueria also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Adam –12 titled “Log 91: You’re Not the First Guy’s Had the Problem”, in the scene in which Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Officer Jim Reed (Kent McCord) discuss the difficulties of being a married police officer.
It is amazing to me that the restaurant still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1968 when the episode was shot. So incredibly cool!
Henry’s also appeared very briefly in the background of the 1978 Cheech and Chong flick Up in Smoke, in the scene in which “Stoned Motorcycle Cop” (Otto Felix) pulled over Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) and Anthony ‘Man’ Stoner (Tommy Chong).
And, according to fave website OnLocationVacations, the yet-to-air Alyssa Milano series Mistresses also filmed at Henry’s this past August.
You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Henry’s Tacos from People Like Us is located at 11401 Moorpark Street in Studio City.
I spent all day yesterday running errands, so I will be taking a little breather from my blog today. I will be back tomorrow, though, with a whole new post.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
During last year’s Haunted Hollywood postings, I blogged about the Mills View House in Monrovia, which was featured in both the Season 1 Halloween-themed episode of Picket Fences titled “Remembering Rosemary” and the 1986 horror flick House. Well, as luck would have it, since that time I have been lucky enough to meet Sabin Gray and Bryan Gerber, the owners of the property who also run a really fun store in Pasadena called Friends of Dorothy. While I was in their shop recently, Sabin happened to ask if I had ever stalked Rod’s Grill in Arcadia as a Season 5 episode of Mad Men had been shot on the premises. Well, believe you me, I absolutely freaked out upon learning this information because I had never before even heard of the place. So I immediately added the restaurant to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there just a few days later.
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Rod’s Grill, which was originally established in 1946, is fittingly situated right along the historic Route 66. The current owner, Manny Romero, purchased the already-established eatery in 1996. Amazingly, the decades-old diner was almost torn down to make way for the expansion of a Mercedes Benz dealership in 2006. In a mind-boggling move, the government of Arcadia, claiming eminent domain, came thisclose to purchasing the site and turning it over it to the Rusnak dealership, which at the time, according to the Castle Coalition website, brought in ten percent of the city’s tax revenue. Um, I’m pretty sure that’s not what our forefathers had in mind when they created the Fifth Amendment. Thankfully though, concerned citizens stepped in and saved Rod’s from the wrecking ball and the place is still going strong to this day.
The GC and I ended up absolutely loving Rod’s Grill! We went to the eatery for breakfast and I was floored to see that both sausage links and sausage patties were offered on the menu. Most places typically only serve links and, being a patties girl, myself, I usually get the shaft. Not at Rod’s, though. I am very happy to report that the sausage was PHENOMENAL and the GC and I wound up taking his father there the next weekend for breakfast, and then his father ended up returning for a bite the following morning, as well. The place is that good! 
More than the food, though, the retro, untouched-since-the-‘50s (in a good way) ambiance is what makes Rod’s Grill so special and what keeps film crews coming back to shoot on the premises year after year.
In the Season 5 episode of Mad Men titled “Far Away Places”, the interior of Rod’s Diner stood in for the restaurant section of a supposed Plattsburg, New York-area Howard Johnson’s motor lodge. According to the Aradia’s Best website, a location manager for the series was scouting the city’s Chamber of Commerce for an upcoming episode and wandered inside to ask if any other nearby locales had a 1960s look. A city worker mentioned Rod’s Diner and the rest, as they say, is history. You can see some great pictures of the filming on Arcadia’s Best here.
The booth where Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Megan Draper (Jessica Pare) sat in the episode is the one located closest to the front door, next to the counter area.
For the exterior of the hotel, a real life former Howard Johnson’s motor lodge (now a Regency Inn & Suites) located at 14624 Dalewood Street in Baldwin Park was used. You can read an article about the filming that took place there on the Zap2It website here.
Like Jimmie’s house from Pulp Fiction, which I blogged about yesterday, there seems to be quite a bit of online confusion about where the Howard Johnson’s from the episode is located. While doing research for this post, I was absolutely gobsmacked (LOVE that word!) to come across a fascinating comment thread about the location of the “Far Away Places” diner on the Hit Fix website. You can read through it below. I couldn’t agree more with commenter Michael R, who said, “Amazing how some people can be so sure about something that’s totally untrue . . . maybe think before you speak?” A man after my own heart, I swear! And Mr. Belvedere, who said, “Wow! How can so many people be so sure about so many locations? What transpired above is amazing . . . “ It truly IS amazing, Mr. Belvedere. For the record, the diner that appeared in the “Tomorrowland” episode of Mad Men was NOT Mel’s Diner on Sunset (as stated by Potzer37) nor the Pulp Fiction diner, aka the Hawthorne Grill, as stated by PF. The “Tomorrowland” diner was actually Bob’s Big Boy Broiler in Downey, which I blogged about here. And, as I just showed, the diner that appeared in the “Far Away Places” episode was NOT the Hawthorne Grill (as stated by James, Geoff, and LJA), which, according to the Roadside Peek website, was torn down in 1999, but Rod’s Grill in Arcadia.
Our incredibly nice server informed us of several other productions that had also been filmed on site, including the ill-fated series Luck, on which Rod’s was a regular hangout for Marcus (Kevin Dunn), Lonnie (Ian Hart), Jerry (Jason Gedrick), and Renzo (Ritchie Coster).
And the 1997 movie Sprung, which I, unfortunately, could not find a copy of anywhere with which to make decent screen captures for this post. I did however spot the restaurant pop up briefly in the flick’s preview on YouTube, which is where I got the caps pictured below.
You can watch that preview by clicking below.
And while she also said that 2000’s Lucky Numbers was filmed on the premises, I scanned through the flick yesterday and did not spot the diner anywhere. According to this Arcadia Patch article, the restaurant was also used regularly on the series Judging Amy, although I am unsure of which episodes it appeared in.
On a side-note – I would like to wish my mom a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today! I love you, mom, and wish we could celebrate together!
You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.
Big THANK YOU to Sabin and Bryan, owners of the Friends of Dorothy store, for telling me about this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Rod’s Grill from the “Far Away Places” episode of Mad Men is located at 41 West Huntington Drive in Arcadia.