The “Splitting Up Together” House

Being that four of my favorite shows were recently cancelled, I have been on the lookout for alternative series to watch.  So when a fellow stalker named Catherine contacted me last week to ask if I had any intel on the location of the house from ABC’s new comedy Splitting Up Together, I welcomed the opportunity to sit through a few episodes.  Not only did I end up really enjoying it – the sitcom is funny, warm, witty, and engaging – but I also managed to quickly track down the pad where the main characters – Lena (Jenna Fischer) and Martin (Oliver Hudson) and their children, Mae (Olivia Keville), Mason (Van Crosby) and Milo (Sander Thomas) – live.  As both Catherine and I had surmised, the residence is in the San Gabriel Valley.  I happened to be in the area just a few days after pinpointing it, so I, of course, ran right out to stalk the place.

Based upon the Danish show Bedre skilt end aldrig (which translates to “better divorced than never”), Splitting Up Together centers around a divorcing couple – Lena and Martin – who, because they are upside-down on the mortgage of their large Craftsman-style dwelling, choose to remain living together, switching off parenting and household responsibilities week-to-week with the on-duty parent living in the main residence and the off-duty one shacking up in the detached garage.  And yes, without giving too much away, the storyline does heavily lean toward an eventual reconciliation between the two.

While watching the series’ pilot, I noticed that an address number of “1947” was visible on a beam above the front porch of Lena and Martin’s picturesque home.  Working on both my and Catherine’s hunch that the residence was located either in Altadena, Pasadena or South Pasadena, I began running Google searches for “1947” and “street” along with each of the three cities’ names.  I hit pay dirt during the South Pasadena leg of the hunt thanks to a realtor.com listing for a house at 1947 Oak Street, which was the first result kicked back.  A quick look at that address via Street View showed me it was the right spot.

Per Zillow, the 1916 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,455 square feet of living space, hardwood flooring throughout, a 0.47-acre lot, a pool, a hot tub, a wet bar, a detached 2-car garage, and a 600-square-foot pool house with a full kitchen and a 3/4 bath.

The 2-story dwelling, which was remodeled in 2014, is utilized regularly in establishing shots on Splitting Up Together.

The pad also pops up in the series’ opening credits.

Not much on location filming takes place on the premises, though.  While the property’s actual interior was utilized in the pilot, once the show got picked up, a replica of that interior was built on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank for all subsequent episodes.

You can see screen captures of the home’s real life interior from the pilot episode versus the set re-creation in the collages above and below.

The South Pasadena pad’s actual backyard also made an appearance in the Splitting Up Together pilot.

As was the case with the residence’s interior, once the show was picked up, a set based upon the backyard was built on a soundstage.

Same goes for the garage – though I believe that the South Pasadena home’s pool house was actually utilized for exterior shots of Lena and Martin’s garage in the pilot (pictured below).

Whatever the case may be, once Splitting Up Together got picked up, a set re-creation of either the pool house or garage was constructed on a soundstage for all subsequent filming.  That re-creation is pictured below.

A scene from the show’s Season One finale, titled “Heat Wave,” in which Lena and Martin send their kids off to summer camp, was also shot on location in front of the house.

I believe that the home’s real life backyard was likely utilized in the “Pina Colada Party” scene from that same episode, as well.

Because the property is so picturesque, I figured it had to have been featured in other productions at some point – and I was right.

Thanks to the Movie Locations and More website, I learned that Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow) lived in the very same house at the beginning of the 2008 horror flick Prom Night.  The exterior of the residence was only shown briefly, though, and at the time was painted a different color.

A Street View image from September 2011, showing the house with that darker hue, is pictured below.  It is amazing how much the lighter color changes the appearance of the place.

The residence’s interior made a brief appearance in Prom Night, as well.

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Catherine for asking me to find this location. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lena and Martin’s house from Splitting Up Together is located at 1947 Oak Street in South Pasadena.

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