Anthony’s House from Twilight Zone: The Movie”

Perhaps no film in the history of filmdom has been as mired in controversy as Twilight Zone: The Movie.  Bring up the 1983 thriller to anyone and talk will likely turn to the death of three of its actors in a harrowing and, what has been argued, completely avoidable accident.  On July 23rd, 1982 at Indian Dunes movie ranch in Valencia, while lensing the segment titled “Time Out,” star Vic Morrow carried two young children, Renee Chen and Myca Dinh Le, through a pond in a simulated Vietnam War battle.  A helicopter flying overhead during the shoot happened to get hit by one of the explosive special effects, causing it to crash to the ground, crushing Chen to death and decapitating Morrow and Le in the process.  Director John Landis and four other crew members were brought up on manslaughter charges following the disaster, but all were found not guilty at the end of the nearly ten-month trial.  The film has been shrouded in darkness ever since, though.  Considering my penchant for the macabre, surprisingly, up until just recently I had never watched Twilight Zone: The Movie or done any stalking of it.  That all changed when I came across a photo of the sprawling Victorian where Anthony (Jeremy Licht) lived in the “It’s a Good Life” portion of the film on the Then & Now Movie Locations website earlier this summer.  Fascinated with the massive structure, I added it to my To-Stalk List and headed right on out to see it in person shortly thereafter.

The immense Queen Anne-style pad was originally built in 1887 by prominent San Francisco architect Joseph Cather Newsom, who also gave us the Walker House in San Dimas, the Sessions House in Echo Park, and the Carson Mansion in Eureka.

Amazingly, per the Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources, the dwelling was initially located in Pacoima, but was moved – literally picked up and relocated – to its current home at 17410 Mayerling Street in Granada Hills in the 1970s.

The picturesque estate currently boasts 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,842 square feet of living space, 11-foot ceilings, stained glass windows, hardwood flooring, 2 fireplaces, wainscoting, original moldings, beveled glass mirrors, a clawfoot tub (be still my heart!), an updated kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances, a formal dining room, a den, pull-chain toilets (which seriously creep me out for unknown reasons), a glass-ceilinged conservatory, a 2-car garage, a wraparound porch, a vineyard, and a detached 1-bedroom, 1-bath guesthouse with a kitchen and a private yard.

The property last sold in 2015 for $849,000, which seems abnormally low to me considering the sheer size of the house, not to mention the land.

I mean, look at that backyard!  It’s huge.

You can check out some MLS photos of the pad from the time it was on the market here.

Though undeniably beautiful, it is not hard to see how the place wound up being cast in a horror/sci-fi film like Twilight Zone: The Movie.

There is just something about old Victorians that renders them downright spooky (read: the Smith Estate).

The “It’s a Good Life” chapter of Twilight Zone: The Movie centers around a misunderstood and rather disturbed young boy named Anthony who can create things with his mind.  As such, he conjures up a Victorian house based upon one featured in the cartoon Mouse Wreckers.  While segments of the actual 1948 cartoon classic were utilized in the film, the opening scene was altered to show a dwelling matching the Granada Hills pad.

The true imagery featured at the beginning of Mouse Wreckers is pictured below.

Anthony’s residential creation is a true house of horrors in which any family member who disagrees with him or tries to admonish him meets an unpleasant fate, like Ethel (Nancy Cartwright, aka the voice of Bart Simpson on The Simpsons) who gets banished to an evil cartoon world where she is terrorized by animated monsters after an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the home.

Remarkably, the dwelling still looks almost exactly the same today as it did onscreen 35 years ago, excluding a change in paint color and the addition of the detached guest house on the property’s east side.

A close-up view of the guest house is pictured below.

The area around the residence has changed considerably in the ensuing years, as you can see in the Google Street View image as compared to the screen capture below.  Though still rather rural in nature, the 17400 block of Mayerling Street has been built up a bit since Twilight Zone: The Movie was shot.

Only the exterior of the property was used in “It’s a Good Life.”

The inside of Anthony’s house, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to the home’s real life interior, was nothing more than a soundstage-built set at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank.  Though the front doors were modeled after those of the actual dwelling . . .

. . . the stairs of the Mayerling pad are situated completely differently than those of its onscreen counterpart, as you can see in the screen captures below as compared to the MLS photo above.

The onscreen living room, which was designed to have a cartoonish feel, also looks nothing like the home’s actual living room.

P.S. Big Bang Theory fans, be sure to check out this great LAist article about the show'”‘”‘s locales that I was recently interviewed for.

Big THANK YOU to the Then & Now Movie Locations website for finding this location!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Anthony’s house from Twilight Zone: The Movie is located at 17410 Mayerling Street in Granada Hills.

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