As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, while doing research on the rooftop where Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) got married in the Season 5 episode of The Big Bang Theory titled “The Countdown Reflection”, I came across a TBBT forum that was an absolute treasure trove of location information. I became so entranced by the many debates about where the photograph was taken of the view shown from Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper’s (Jim Parsons) apartment, in fact, that I completely lost track of time and failed to make dinner, so the Grim Cheaper and I ended up having to go out! (That’s a good trick, actually – I’ll have to remember that one! 
) I cannot tell you how often the GC and I would pause episodes of The Big Bang Theory over the years trying to figure out from where that photograph was taken. We had both come to the conclusion long ago that the view was fake – a fictional composition of a skyline created by TBBT art department. So imagine my surprise when I read on the forum that the view was actually real! Not only that, but the photograph of it had been taken from a place that I am extremely familiar with.
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On the forum, a Pasadena resident named “JamesPMiller” posted a comment which detailed his extensive, and successful, hunt across the City of Roses trying to pinpoint the exact spot where the photograph of Leonard and Sheldon’s view was taken. The lengths that he went to during this venture are nothing short of awe-inspiring. He is a man after this stalker’s own heart, that’s for sure! As it turns out, Leonard and Sheldon’s view can be seen from the roof (or Level 6) of the parking structure of the Community Bank building on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Ironically enough, the GC has meetings at the Community Bank building on a regular basis and I frequently have to drop stuff off to him there. So when I read of the location, I really had to mentally smack myself in the forehead as it is a place that I visit almost daily. Doh! Maybe all of that blonde hair dye is truly going to my head, as the GC has long suspected. Anyway, once I learned of the location, I ran right over there to take some pics.
As you can see below, the view from the parking structure matches up perfectly to the backdrop that appears on the show. It seems that the TBBT producers digitally removed the steeple of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, which is visible in my photographs, but, other than that, the two views are identical.
The photograph of Sheldon and Leonard’s view was taken from the parking place denoted by the pink “X” in the photograph below.
The space is the seventh spot over from the southern-most end of the parking structure.
As JamesPMiller also noted in TBBT forum, the view from the apartment where Penny (Kaley Cuoco) lives was also taken from the Community Bank building parking garage roof, just a few spaces south from where Leonard and Sheldon’s backdrop picture was taken. So incredibly cool!
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Big THANK YOU to JamesPMiller for finding this location! I cannot urge you enough to read the story of his search, which begins on Page 5 of The Big Bang Theory forum.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The photograph of the view from Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment on The Big Bang Theory was taken from the roof (Level 6) of the Community Bank building parking garage, which is located at 790 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Although the address is 790 East Colorado Boulevard, the entrance to the parking structure is located on South Hudson Avenue, in between East Green Street and East Colorado Boulevard. The photograph of Sheldon and Leonard’s view was taken from the seventh parking spot over from the southern-most end of the roof, and the photograph of Penny’s view was taken from the fifth parking spot over from the southern-most end of the roof.
Ok, but WHAT is the building with the dome?
I just got interested in the view out Sheldon’s and Leonard’s apartment window and whether the address was real or not. Actually, the steeple is intact in the long shot with Sheldon near the window, but cut off in the one with Sheldon close up. Plus the steeple is a lot closer in that second shot, sort of defies geographical depth perception so they must have had different backgrounds. I would have to look at episodes again, but the view out that window seemed to change at times. A comment to the conclusion of the series, early in the series where Penny and Sheldon are at the psychic where the psychic tells Sheldon that Amy would bring completeness to him, you would have thought on that last episode Penny would have leaned over to Sheldon and gave him a “I told you so…”, in reference to Sheldon’s ‘hokum’ response to the prediction.
Thanks for the story. Ever since I discovered Google Earth 3D and Street View, I’ve gotten into the annoying habit of pausing movies and shows to see if I can match movie locations to real life. I think it started with exploring Albuquerque New Mexico while watching Breaking Bad. Just tonight I was watching BBT and began wondering about the view from Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment window. After about 45 minutes of trolling around Pasadena on Google Earth, I decided to try Google and a few lucky keywords brought me to your page. I probably never would have found it without your help. By the way, I am not a stalker.
So impressed with your research into this topic. Big Bang is my favourite show and I just watched a rerun of the wedding episode which, of course, got me onto Google to search “Big Bang Google Earth wedding” and brought me to your site. I read the blog about the building and then the link to the view from the window. I’m glad I’m not the only one obsessed with the realities behind the fiction. My obsession actually started with All In The Family – the start of the show showed the houses all in a row somewhere in NY and then zoomed into the one house that was supposed to be Archie Bunker’s. However, I noticed (even as a young child) that the scenes that were filmed on the front stoop did not match up with the house shown at the beginning of each episode. I even noticed that the front door didn’t open in the right location during interior scenes. This drove me nuts because I thought it was just lazy of the producers to not care how it looked.
Anyway, thanks for filling in the gaps for me!
So funny I was just talking about this with a friend. Since I live in Pasadena, she asked me where Sheldon & Leonard’s apartment is and I told her I thought it was really close to Vromans. I wasn’t too far off! I love how all their references on the show are real places!
Wow, how did you figure that out? I live in Pasadena, too, and consider my stalking skills top-notch, but for the life of me I could not figure out where they lived. 🙂
I knew exactly where it was being a ex pasadenian.
wow. you just took stalking to a whole nother level.
LOL Thanks. 🙂