Category: Movie Locations

Kelly Gulch from “Parks and Recreation”

Right next door to Pat’s Topanga Grill, which I blogged about on Tuesday, is an oft-filmed-at residence known as Kelly Gulch. Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had mentioned the property to me back in early December while the two of us were in the midst of our hunt for the Topanga Canyon house where Paula (Sissy Spacek) lived in Four Christmases (which I blogged about here). Because Kelly Gulch has been featured in countless productions over the years (far more than I could ever chronicle in a single blog post), including fave show Parks and Recreation, he thought it might be a good location for me to stalk. So I did just that, late last December, right after the Grim Cheaper and I grabbed breakfast at Pat’s.

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Kelly Gulch was constructed by Michelene (who goes by Mike) and Frank Kelly in 1978. The couple had moved from Los Angeles to Topanga Canyon with their two young children in 1970. Quickly realizing that their 750-square-foot bungalow was not large enough for a family of four, they wound up purchasing an 8.5-acre plot of oak-shaded, creek-side land, that Frank had found in the classified ads, for $20,000 in 1976. Two years later, Frank started building a picturesque three-bedroom log cabin, from a “Real Log Homes” kit, on the site. The residence, which they dubbed “Kelly Gulch”, took a year to complete. A detached one-room writer’s studio and a large, two-story, 1,152-square-foot, standalone barn that doubled as a workshop/studio apartment soon followed.

Fate took a hand in 1984 when a location scout stopped by a Topanga Canyon real estate office looking for a log cabin in which to shoot Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The real estate agent pointed him in the direction of Kelly Gulch and the rest is history. According to a Topanga Messenger article, a whopping two hundred productions have since been lensed at the remote residence! Its most famous appearance, though, remains in Friday the 13th. In fact, due to that appearance, in which it stood in for the Jarvis family home, the property has become a landmark of sorts to horror film buffs.

Both the interior and the exterior of the cabin were used extensively in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and, according to the same Topanga Messenger article, filming on the premises took a full three months to complete!

The large Victorian house located next to the Jarvis home in the movie was just a prop building that was constructed for the shoot.

In mid-2012, the Kellys decided that they needed to move to a place with less upkeep and put their beloved Topanga cabin on the market for $1.675 million. They subsequently moved to the seaside city of Camarillo. According to Redfin (on which you can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the home), Kelly Gulch was sold on December 31st, 2012 for $1,515,000. When asked by the Messenger if she would miss being a part of regular filmings, Mike said, “Not really. There were 14- to 16-hour days and Frank and I could never leave the property during a shoot. As we’ve gotten older, we couldn’t do it anymore.” And even though hundreds of celebrities have set foot inside her home over the years, she stated, “The only thing that ever impressed me was the check.” LOL

The property seems so incredibly rural and remote, it is hard to believe it is located on a bustling canyon road right next door to a restaurant.

Sadly though, as you can see below, not much of it is visible from the street.

The gate, which looks like something from a movie set (and who knows – it might be! ), was pretty darn cool to see, though.

In 1986, the cabin popped up in Murphy’s Law as the home of Ben Wilcove (Bill Henderson), where Jack Murphy (Charles Bronson) and Arabella McGee (Kathleen Wilhoite) sought refuge.

The interior was also utilized in the filming.

The Friday the 13th franchise returned to Kelly Gulch to film a few brief scenes for the 1998 sequel titled Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Although the majority of the flick was lensed in Alabama, the scene in which Robin (Elizabeth Kaitan) is killed was filmed at the Topanga residence. You can check out a photograph of the room that segment was shot in here.

According to the Camp Blood website, Kelly Gulch was also used in the scene in which Jason is shown looking up at the house. You can see a photograph of that particular angle of the house here.

Kelly Gulch was where the group of teenaged campers hid out after accidentally killing Billy Harley (Matthew Hurley) in 1989’s Pumpkinhead.

The interior of the cabin was used in the filming, as well.

In 1994’s My Girl 2, the residence is where Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) tracked down her mom’s first husband, Jeffrey Pommeroy (JD Souther).

A different interior was used in the filming, though.

In the 1996 movie Eraser, the cabin was where a federal witness named Allison hid out and was later murdered.

The interior of the residence was used in the filming of that movie, as well.

In the 2000 thriller Ed Gein (a true story that inspired the movie Psycho), the cabin was where the Anderson family lived.

The interior was also used in the movie.

Kelly Gulch was where the body of Jessica Garner (Elena Fabri) was found in the Season 2 episode of Medium titled “Judge, Jury and Executioner”, which aired in 2005.

In 2008, the cabin was where Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (cutie Jerry Ferrara – sigh!) were put up during the filming of Vince’s new movie Smokejumpers in the Season 5 episode of Entourage titled “Pie”.

The interior also appeared in the episode.

In the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Hunting Trip”, which aired in 2009, Kelly Gulch stood in for the Slippery Elm Park ranger station where Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) hosted his annual hunting trip – and got shot in the head.

The interior of the house was also used in the episode.

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 Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kelly Gulch, from the “Hunting Trip” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 1801 North Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Topanga Canyon.

April 26, 2013
Malibu Hindu Temple from “Beverly Hills Ninja”

A couple of weeks back, while doing research on the Calabasas-area mansion where the contestants live on the fabulous Bachelor parody series Burning Love (which I blogged about here), I came across a blurb in fave book Los Angeles Attractions detailing the Malibu Hindu Temple. I had never before heard of the place, but my interest was immediately piqued when I read the words, “It was the setting for scenes in Beverly Hills Ninja.” Um, sign me up! So I immediately added the site to my To-Stalk list and headed right on over there with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, while I was in L.A. for a couple of days last week.

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As we pulled up to the temple, which sits on 4.5 acres nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains, my first thought was, ‘How in the heck had I not known about this place until just recently?’ As you can see below, not only is it absolutely HUGE, but it is also quite spectacular.

The sanctuary, which is also known as the Sri Venkateswara Temple, was originally constructed in the Chola style by Indian craftsman in 1981 and is owned and operated by the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California. According to Los Angeles Attractions, it is the largest Hindu temple on the West Coast, with 120,000 worshipers visiting annually.

The temple complex consists of two sections – the upper (and main) portion (pictured below), which is presided over by Lord Venkateswara . . .

. . and the lower portion (pictured below), which is presided over by Lord Shiva.

Amazingly enough, for being such an impressive structure, I could find virtually no information about the place online, other than the fact that Britney Spears attended services there in 2006 with son Sean Preston.

While there, I did, of course, venture into the temple, even though I had to remove my shoes to do so – and immediately started having visions of the Season 6 episode of Sex and the City titled “A Woman’s Right to Shoes” (one of my all-time favorites!), in which Carrie Bradshaw’s (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker’s) Manolo Blahniks were stolen after she was forced to doff them while attending a party. Before heading inside, I did vow to “register” for a new pair of wedges, like Carrie did in the episode, if mine were stolen. They weren’t, thankfully. (Speaking of Sarah Jessica Parker and shoes, the actress will be auctioning off three pairs of hers to benefit the LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and the Performing Arts on April 24. You can bid here.)

The temple is quite beautiful on the inside, as well.

In Beverly Hills Ninja, which premiered in 1997, Malibu Hindu Temple was where Martin Tanley (Nathaniel Parker) met with a rival gang in order to pick up counterfeiting plates, shortly after capturing Haru (Chris Farley). While at the temple, Allison Page (Nicollette Sheridan) rescues Haru, but winds up being captured by Martin herself just a few minutes later.

The interior portion of the temple also appeared in the movie.

In 1998, the temple was featured during a musical sequence in the Indian Tamil move Jeans.

Malibu Hindu Temple also popped up in Fog & Smog’s 2001 parody music video “Yoga Girl”.

You can watch that video 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: Malibu Hindu Temple, from Beverly Hills Ninja, is located at 1600 Las Virgenes Canyon Road in Calabasas. You can visit the temple’s official website here.

April 17, 2013
Now! Clothing from “L.A. Story”

My second most-wanted location from the 1991 classic comedy L.A. Story was Now!, the ultra-hip clothing store with unisex dressing rooms where SanDeE* (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker) worked. (My first most-wanted was, of course, the iconic freeway sign that I blogged about last Thursday.) So I was floored to see that the locale was included in “The L.A. of L.A. Story” special feature on the movie’s 15th Anniversary Edition DVD. In the feature, which was lensed in 2006, production designer Lawrence Miller said, “This was a clothing store at the intersection of La Cienega and Santa Monica Boulevard and is now, regrettably, a Sav-on drug store.” I was shocked to learn this information as Now! had always looked like a Venice Beach-type shop to me and I had even spent quite a bit of time looking for it in that area. D’oh! Well, believe you me, once I had the correct address, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list and ran right out there just a few days later, while in L.A. for a brief visit. It was not until I started doing research for today’s post, though, that I discovered what a ridiculously vast history the place has – such a vast history, in fact, that while I had intended on publishing this column last Friday, I was still compiling information at 8 p.m. on Thursday night and had to postpone it until today.

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Now! clothing is currently a CVS pharmacy. (CVS Caremark acquired all Southern California Sav-on drug stores in 2006.) Amazingly enough, though, it still looks almost exactly the same today as it did 22 years ago when L.A. Story was filmed! But more on that later.

The location has gone through many different incarnations during its lifetime, each of them quite unique and notable. It was originally constructed in 1940 as a 22-lane bowling alley named La Cienega Lanes, which you can see a photograph of here.

La Cienega Lanes, which was owned at one point by Art Linkletter, was featured numerous times in the 1956 thriller Man in the Vault, as the hangout of locksmith Tommy Dancer (William Campbell). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the alley appeared in the movie.

La Cienega Lanes closed sometime in the late 1970s. In July 1979, music producer Denny Cordell opened a private, members-only “roller boogie palace” named Flippers at the site. The exclusive club, which had a cap of 1,000 members who paid $200 annually plus a $7 entrance fee for each visit, boasted a bar, a restaurant, a custom skate shop, and a skating floor made of polyurethane. You can check out a photograph of the exterior of the rink in all of its bright blue and purple glory here. By February 1980, the tropical-themed club ceased being a members-only institution and was opened to the public. It also became a popular concert venue at that time, with such legends as The Go-Go’s, John Cougar, The Ramones, and Prince on the line-up. The band Cerrone even featured the exterior of the rink on the cover of their 1984 album Club Underworld. Flippers was also a major celebrity hot spot and in its heyday such stars as Cher (who was rumored to be part-owner of the place), Olivia Newton-John, Cheryl Ladd, Loni Anderson, Robin Williams, Jane Fonda, Aretha Franklin, Jacqueline Bisset, Patrick Swayze, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all got their skate on there.

Flippers has a bit of a filming history, as well. The club was featured in the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Angels on Skates”, in which the Angels – Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), Kris Munroe (Cheryl Ladd), and Tiffany Welles (Shelley Hack) – investigated the kidnapping of a young skater named Rita Morgan (Lory Walsh).

The interior of the roller disco was also used in the episode.

Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, let me know that Flippers was also featured in the Season 3 episodes of CHiPs titled “Roller Disco: Part 1” and “Roller Disco: Part II”. Unfortunately, Season 3 of CHiPs has not yet been released on DVD, nor is it available for streaming on iTunes, Amazon, or Netflix, but I was able to make the grabs below thanks to the Melissa Sue Anderson Fan website.

According to both Wikipedia and IMDB, the roller disco set from Skatetown, U.S.A. (which was built inside of the Hollywood Palladium) was based on the real life interior of Flippers, but I think that information is actually incorrect. Flippers opened its doors in July 1979 and Skatetown was released just a mere three months later, in October 1979. Being that movies typically take at least eight months to edit, even if they had done a rush job on the flick, the timing simply does not add up. Not to mention that the Skatetown set looks nothing at all like Flippers.

And while a few websites have stated that 1979’s Roller Boogie was filmed at Flippers, that information is also incorrect. The exterior roller rink scenes from the movie were shot at at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, which I blogged about back in October 2010.

I am unsure of where the interior scenes were filmed, but, as you can see below, it was not Flippers. According to a poster named “Wanda Pr of Arlington” on Flickr, who was in the movie, the interiors were shot at “an old dance hall on Sunset.”

For whatever reason, Flippers did not last long. In 1983, the space was purchased by Doug and Susie Tompkins, owners of the popular San Francisco-based Esprit de Corp. clothing brand. The site was to become the company’s first freestanding retail store. The couple quickly began a $15-million, 15-month renovation of the building and hired famed designer Joseph D’Urso to carry it out. He remodeled both the interior and the exterior of the property and added a three-story, 150-space parking lot (pictured below). The 32,000-square foot store, which became Esprit’s flagship, opened in December 1984.

According to a 1985 Milwaukee Journal article, D’Urso designed a swirling ramp at Esprit’s entrance to provide handicapped access as well as a “ceremonial route” to the double front doors.

He also designed a small “tree-shaded plaza” in the hopes that “people would feel more protected from the traffic” cruising by on the busy Santa Monica and La Cienega Boulevards.

It was during its time as an Esprit store that the building was used in L.A. Story. The location popped up twice in the movie, first in the scene in which Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) went shopping with his girlfriend, Trudi (Marliu Henner), and wound up meeting SanDeE*, who sold him a pair of white pants. Only the interior of the store was shown in that scene.

In “The L.A. of L.A. Story”, Lawrence Miller stated that the interior, which featured Zolatone walls, metal catwalks, and black waxed cement, was left pretty much as-is for the shoot. He also said they were “blessed” to such a find such a perfect interior in which to film and that it worked perfectly as “part of the build-up” to Harris and SanDeE* meeting in an environment that “shows how inappropriate she is”. Man, what I wouldn’t give to have seen that interior!

Harris later returns to Now! to pick up his pants, which were being altered, and it is in that scene that the exterior of the building is shown. As you can see below, aside from a few very minor changes, the site stills looks exactly the same today as it did then!

As you can imagine, I could hardly contain myself when I arrived at CVS and saw how much it still looked like Now! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! It was all I could do not to start spinning out in front of the store like SJP did in the flick.

Despite immense popularity among the teen set, Esprit de Corp. suffered a major downfall in the late ‘80s, due in large part to Doug and Susie’s messy divorce, and the flagship store closed its doors in 1994. The site sat vacant for a decade, despite talks of the city of West Hollywood purchasing it to use as their City Council chambers and a library. Sometime in 2004 or 2005, the building was turned into a Sav-on. Thankfully, though, the exterior was left intact for all of us stalkers to appreciate. And, according to this April 2013 article on the WeHoVille blog, the shadow of the Esprit sign is STILL visible on the side of the building! I so wish I had known that before stalking the place! For those who are interested, the shadow is located on the eastern-most side of the parking structure. You can just barely see it in the Google Street View image 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: Now! Clothing from L.A. Story, aka CVS pharmacy, is located at 8491 West Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

April 15, 2013
The “L.A. Story” Freeway Sign

One locale that the Grim Cheaper suggested I track down a few years back – and that I have wondered about ever since – was the spot where the freeway sign from the 1991 classic comedy L.A. Story once stood. Because it was a prop sign that was situated on a long expanse of a non-descript Southern California road, though, I figured that, short of getting ahold of a crew member, it would be a virtually impossible find. Cut to two weeks ago when, while doing research on the O’Neil house from Beverly Hills, 90210, I came across this Wikimapia page which stated that the L.A. Story freeway condition sign had been located on Burbank Boulevard in Encino. I just about fell out of my chair upon learning this news because I had never before seen it mentioned anywhere. And while I tried to find other articles that backed up the claim, I came up empty-handed. I knew that the information had to have come from somewhere, though, so I searched Amazon to see if a DVD commentary for the movie was available. While no such commentary exists (how is that possible?!?!), I did come across a listing for the 15th Anniversary Edition of L.A. Story which included – are you ready for this? – a vignette titled “The L.A. of L.A. Story: An Interactive Map of the Popular Sites Filmed for L.A. Story”. Um, yes, please! The DVD is sadly out of print, but I did find a used copy of it on eBay for $5 and, let me tell you, it was the best $5 I ever spent – although I am sure the GC would disagree.

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The L.A. of L.A. Story, which was shot in 2006 and is absolutely amazeballs, features production designer Lawrence Miller (who sadly passed away in 2009) returning to ten of the movie’s most iconic locations to tell the stories behind them. LOVE IT! One of the locales visited was, of course, the famous freeway sign. In the piece, Lawrence describes shooting on Burbank Boulevard, just east of Hayvenhurst Avenue, but never specifies the exact spot where the sign stood. I was having a heck of a time pinpointing the location via Google Street View, so I enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who found the right area almost immediately. Thank you, Mike! As you can see below, the two double-pronged trees visible behind Lawrence in the feature match up perfectly to the spot that Mike found on Burbank Boulevard. So the two of us ran right out to stalk the site this past Sunday afternoon while I was in town for a couple of days.

In L.A. Story, wacky weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin – who also wrote the screenplay!) encounters a rather cheeky freeway condition road sign that instead of foretelling traffic statuses, predicts the future of his life. According to Lawrence, the sign was custom-built and was programmed to “talk” to Harris in several different languages so that its lines would not need to later be dubbed when shown in foreign countries. So interesting!

As you can see below, the Los Angeles cityscape was digitally added to the background of the road sign scenes.

In real life, the area behind where the sign once stood is comprised of a massive amount of foliage.

In The L.A. of L.A. Story, Lawrence also states that Burbank Boulevard was chosen as the sign site because it is a “freeway lookalike” that is easy to close down, and that he was the person who actually chose the exact spot where the sign would be installed on the day of the shoot.

As you can see below, the area still looks very much the same today as it did in 2006 when the special was filmed.

Unfortunately though, there is currently quite a bit more plant growth than there was when Lawrence visited the site seven years ago.

Which is especially upsetting because when The L.A. of L.A. Story was filmed, he was actually able to find the hole where the sign once stood, which I just about lost my mind over! And while Mike and I ferociously dug through the underbrush looking for that hole (we were pretty much on our hands and knees pulling back weeds – I can only imagine what passersby were thinking!), we were unable to uncover it. I did vow to go back with a rake and a shovel one day, though, so have no fear! I will locate that darn hole if it’s the last thing I do!

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 Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The L.A. Story freeway sign was located on eastbound Burbank Boulevard, just east of Hayvenhurst Avenue at what Google Maps lists as 16388 Burbank Boulevard, in Encino.

April 11, 2013
The Safari Inn from “True Romance”

One oft-filmed-at locale that I had known about for ages, but had never gotten around to stalking was the historic Safari Inn on West Olive Avenue in Burbank. I had driven by the motel countless times over the years – I get my hair done right across the street, in fact – and, even though I knew of the site’s prestigious filming pedigree, for some odd reason, I never thought to stalk it. Then, a couple of weeks ago, my hair stylist happened to be running late, so I decided to pop on over to the decades-old inn to finally do some proper stalking of the place.

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The Safari Inn was originally constructed in 1955 and, amazingly enough, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did then.

The site is most famous for its iconic neon sign, which has stood as a beacon on Olive Avenue, beckoning passersby and road-trippers alike, since the day the motel was founded.

Today, the boutique hotel, which was just recently renovated, boasts 55 rooms and suites, most with their own kitchen or kitchenette, a fitness center, laundry facilities, free parking, and complimentary shuttle service to and from the Burbank Airport. Not bad for around $100 a night. And the traveler reviews on TripAdvisor all look to be pretty favorable, to boot.

The Safari Inn also features a large, second-story patio deck . . .

. . . which overlooks a pool.

I absolutely love the pool’s feather-shaped cut-out, which you can see in the bottom left of the photograph below and which matches the feather on the inn’s famous signage. So cute!

The Safari Inn’s most notable onscreen appearance was in 1993’s True Romance, where it masqueraded as the supposed Hollywood-area motel where Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) and Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) stayed while visiting L.A. Some camera trickery and crafty editing was used to make the hotel appear as if it was located on Sunset Boulevard in the movie, though, and not in the heart of suburban Burbank.

The interior of Clarence and Alabama’s room was just a set and not an actual Safari Inn room. You can see what one of the hotel’s real life rooms looks like here. Despite this fact, a girl in one of my former acting classes booked the “True Romance room” for her True Romance-loving boyfriend’s birthday one year.

Because Clarence and Alabama’s door is never actually shown in the movie, I was not able to figure out what room was used for the exterior shots.

All I was able to ascertain was that it was a second floor room, located in the northwest corner of the property, in the vicinity of the area denoted with a pink arrow in the photograph below.

True Romance is hardly the first production to utilize the Safari Inn, though. Thanks to the L.A. Bizarro website, I learned that way back in 1970 the property masqueraded as the Sunshine Motor Inn where Shirley Renfrew Partridge (Shirley Jones) and her family stopped to take a shower after being sprayed by a skunk in the Season 1 episode of The Partridge Family titled “But the Memory Lingers On.”

In 1995’s Apollo 13, the Safari Inn stood in for the supposed Florida-area motel where Marilyn Lovell (Kathleen Quinlan) stayed the night before her husband, Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), embarked on his mission to the moon.

In 2000, the motel was featured on the The Wallflowers’ sampler CD for (Breach).

In the Season 4 episode of Six Feet Under titled “Can I Come Up Now?”, which aired in 2004, the Safari Inn was where George Sibley (James Cromwell) and Ruth Fisher (Frances Conroy) visited George’s estranged son, Kyle, (James Waterston). In the episode, the exterior of the hotel is shown only very briefly.,

The interior of one of the Safari rooms was also used in the filming. It is while there that Kyle, who is somewhat agoraphobic, announces that he has purchased a $7,500 espresso machine so that he never has to leave his motel room. Now that’s an idea I can get behind!

Thanks to fellow stalker Dal, I learned that the Safari Inn served as the finishing point for The Law Enforcement Desert Relay in the Season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Dead Ringer,” which also aired in 2004.

In the 2005 movie Coach Carter, the Safari Inn was where the Richmond High School basketball team stayed – and snuck out to go party – during the Bayhill Tournament Championship.

The real life interior of two of the Safari’s room were also used in the filming.

The Safari Inn also popped up in the Season 4 episode of Prison Break titled “The Price”, which aired in 2008, as the motel where Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies) had a run in with Gretchen Morgan (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe – whom I did not even recognize in the role!).

One of the hotel’s real life rooms also appeared in the episode.

In 2009, the Safari Inn was where former child star Christine Rapp (Elizabeth Perkins) tried to hide out and wound up killing someone in the Season 8 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk’s Favorite Show.”

In the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Pleasant Little Kingdom”, which aired in 2010, the Safari Inn was where Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) said goodbye to her switched-at-birth daughter, Grace Sanchez (Cecilia Balagot).

In 2012, the Safari Inn stood in for Sunset Boulevard’s Crystal Motel, where Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) discovered the body of Gwyneth Adler in the Season 7 episode of The Closer titled “Hostile Witness.” Only the interior of one of the Safari’s rooms appeared in the episode.

According to IMDB, both the Season 3 episode of T.J. Hooker titled “Undercover Affair” and the Season 7 episode of Falcon Crest titled “Legacies” were filmed at the Safari Inn, but I could not find copies of either with which to verify that information.

And while IMDB also states that the Season 1 episode of Southland titled “Mozambique” was filmed at the Safari Inn, that information is incorrect. “Mozambique” was actually filmed at the Saharan Motor Hotel located at 7212 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood – a site I am going to have to stalk in the near future as it is where Patrick Swayze and his wife, Lisa Nieme, lived upon first moving to Los Angeles.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – I FINALLY wrote a new one – about mozzarella-stuffed meatballs on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Safari Inn, from True Romance, is located at 1911 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. You can visit the motel’s official website here.

March 15, 2013
The “Easy A” House

The Easy A location that I was most excited about stalking while in the Ojai area almost two years ago was, not surprisingly, the charming clapboard residence where Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) lived with her unique family (notice they are all named after a food of some sort) – dad Dill (Stanley Tucci), mom Rosemary (Patricia Clarkson) and brother Chip (Bryce Clyde Jenkins). So imagine my disappointment when we arrived there only to discover that the home was located inside of Persimmon Hill, which the sign outside the entrance stated was “a private community”. And while there was no gate restricting access to the neighborhood, nor any “No Trespassing” signs posted, I have always been a by-the-book kind of girl, so I decided to pose for a picture by the Persimmon Hill sign instead of venturing past. Well, as luck would have it, a community resident happened to drive by while I was posing for the photo and asked what I was doing. When I explained that I was a huge fan of Easy A and had come to see Olive’s house, he told me that it would be absolutely fine to head on over there and snap some pics. WAHOO!

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Many months prior to my and the GC’s visit to Ojai, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, had spent copious hours trying to track down Olive’s residence, all to no avail. Then, one day, he happened to notice the number 300 painted on the curb outside of the home in the scene in which Lobster Todd (Penn Badgley) dropped Olive off after her disastrous date with Anson (Jake Sandvig) at the local Lobster Shack (which I blogged about here). And voila! Once he had a house number, finding the location was a snap.

As you can see below, Olive’s house was absolutely idyllic onscreen in Easy A.

And I am very happy to report that in person it did NOT disappoint. I love, love, love this residence. It reminds me a bit of the house where the Newton family lived in the 1992 comedy Beethoven, which I blogged about here.

And while I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also used in the flick, I could not find any interior photographs with which to verify that hunch.

According to fave website Zillow, in real life, the residence, which was originally built in 1986, boasts four bedrooms, four baths, 2,894 square feet of living space, and sits on a huge 2.11-acre plot of land.

The property was last sold in 1998 (for $700,000) – and it’s not very hard to see why. If I owned that place, I would never let go of it either!

Best closing shot ever, by the way. I am a sucker for any ’80s movie reference.

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 Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Olive’s house from Easy A is located at 300 Longhorn Lane in Ojai. Please remember that this home is inside of a private community and that permission is needed to enter.

March 14, 2013
The Lobster Shack from “Easy A”

Another location from fave movie Easy A that fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, informed me of while the Grim Cheaper and I were out and about doing some stalking in the Ojai area almost two years ago was the Carrows Restaurant that masqueraded as the Lobster Shack where Woodchuck Todd (Penn Badgley) worked in the flick. So we drove right on over there shortly before heading home that afternoon. And while the Carrows chain serves up some of the best chicken strips and ranch dressing that this stalker has ever sampled, unfortunately, because it was getting late and we had a long drive home ahead of us, we did not wind up eating on the premises that particular evening.

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Even though we were not dining onsite, the staff at Carrows could NOT have been nicer and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming. The hostess informed me that the Easy A shoot had taken place not in the main section of the restaurant, but in an auxiliary room that is only used during the eatery’s busiest hours. And she was even nice enough to open up the room for us and turn on the lights so that I could snap some photographs of it. LOVE it!

The Lobster Shack popped up only once in Easy A, in the scene in which Anson (Jake Sandvig) took Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) – in a clever twist, Penderghast is an anagram for “pretend shag” – out on a less-than-stellar first date. Interestingly, according to a September 2010 Ojai Valley News Blog article, Easy A director Will Gluck, who is a long-time resident of the “Shangri-La of Southern California,” decided to film in the city he calls home “because I wanted the town to be one of my ‘characters’ in the script. Ojai was the perfect place to capture this. It’s also the most beautiful town in the world, and I tried to make it look as good as we all know it to be.”

As you can see below, Carrows Restaurant was dressed heavily with marine-themed décor and white twinkle lights for the shoot.

A lobster tank was even brought in and positioned on the front side of one of the restaurant’s real life planters for the scene.

In what turned out to be a massive stroke of good luck, while I did not have any Easy A screen captures on hand for reference, I somehow managed to pose for a picture in the exact same spot where Olive sat in the scene. Why I chose that particular booth to pose, I will never know, but something in my memory clicked when I saw it and I had a hunch it was where filming had taken place. For whatever reason, my brain holds onto the oddest filming factoids, but, hey, I’ll take it!

Olive’s booth is the second booth in from the back side of the room and is denoted with a pink arrow in the photographs below.

The Carrows parking lot also appeared in Easy A, although I accidentally took photographs from the opposite angle of what was shown onscreen.

As you can see below, all of the Carrows signage was swapped out for Lobster Shack signage during the shoot. What I wouldn’t give to have been there to see all of that in person!

In the scene, Anson’s car was parked in the space denoted with a pink X in the aerial view pictured 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.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Carrows Restaurant, aka the Lobster Shack from Easy A, is located at 211 West Ojai Avenue in Ojai. Olive’s date scene was filmed in the restaurant’s auxiliary room, which is situated just to left (east) of the front entrance.

March 12, 2013
The “Easy A” Coffee Shop

Last Friday, while reading the latest post on Emily Schuman’s fabulous Cupcakes and Cashmere blog, in which she mentioned a recent overnight trip she had taken to Ojai, I was reminded of a stalking adventure along Highway 126 that the Grim Cheaper and I had embarked upon almost two full years ago. We had originally headed up that way to stalk Georgia Rule locations in Santa Paula (which I have yet to blog about), but wound up in Ojai, aka the “Shangri-La of Southern California”, in the late afternoon hours and both absolutely fell in love with the place. While we were there, I happened to text fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, to see if he knew of anything that had been filmed in the area and, as luck would have it, he did! He texted me right back with a list of pretty much every locale featured in fave movie Easy A, one of which was the Ojai Coffee Roasting Company. Well, as you can imagine, once I read the word “coffee”, I immediately told the GC to head on over there.

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Ojai, the name of which was taken from the Chumash Indian word for “moon” and is pronounced “oh-high”, is an absolutely idyllic little community nestled about 12 miles inland from Ventura. The quaint town (it is the smallest city in Ventura County) is known for its picturesque geography, health-minded resorts and charming downtown area. Thanks to a city ordinance, chain stores are, for the most part, restricted from setting up shop (there is no Starbucks within the city limits – egad!), which makes for a unique collection of family-owned and operated specialty stores and restaurants that attract thousands upon thousands of tourists each year. And while I badly wanted to nab a room for a spontaneous little staycation while we were there, because Ojai hotel rates are pretty astronomical, the GC was having none of that.

I was able to sample a latte from the Ojai Coffee Roasting Company, though, so there’s that. The small java shop was originally founded in 1995 by Stacey Jones and I am very happy to report that it serves up some great coffee and tea. The baristas were also incredibly nice and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming. And the place is even something of a celebrity hot-spot! Reese Witherspoon apparently gets her java on at Ojai Coffee Roasting Company wherever she is in town and her friend Renee Zellweger stopped by while visiting Ojai for Reese’s wedding to Jim Toth.

Ojai Coffee Roasting Company popped up only once in Easy A, in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene in which Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) learns that her friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) has run off with a “big, hulking black guy.”

The baristas were even nice enough to tell me where Emma Stone stood in the scene so that I could pose for a picture there, although my positioning was a little too far forward. As you can see below, the blue and white ceramic water dispenser that was visible behind Emma in the scene was there in real life, too. Love it!

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 Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Ojai Coffee Roasting Company from Easy A is located at 337 East Ojai Avenue in Ojai. You can visit the shop’s official website here.

March 11, 2013
O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Restaurant from “The Truth About Cats & Dogs”

Last month, while spending the weekend in Santa Monica, the Grim Cheaper and I randomly grabbed dinner at Finn McCool’s Irish Pub on Main Street. Immediately upon sitting down, I asked the bartender if anything had ever been lensed on the premises – as I am apt to do whenever I find myself dining somewhere for the first time. (Shocker, I know. ) And while he was not sure about Finn McCool’s filming history, he did inform me that a scene from the 1996 romantic comedy The Truth About Cats & Dogs had taken place at a different Emerald Isle-themed watering hole located just a few doors down – O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Restaurant. Because Los Angeles is a place where change seems to be an epidemic, I was absolutely shocked – and pleased – that an establishment that appeared in a movie shot almost two decades ago was still in existence. So I dragged the GC right on out there the following night.

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O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Restaurant was originally founded in 1995, the same year that The Truth About Cats & Dogs was filmed. Amazingly enough, though, despite its longevity, I could find little to no information about the place’s history online.

What I can say, though, is that the watering hole serves up some fabulous food. I opted for O’Brien’s Veggie Patty, with added toppings of cheddar cheese and sautéed mushrooms, and am happy to report that it was absolutely divine. The GC ordered the Slider Burgers and was also very happy with his choice. I was most excited about O’Brien’s champagne offerings, though, which were fantastic!

I loved the place’s low-lit, wood-paneled ambiance, as well.

Check out the antique books displayed on the shelf above the opening to the restaurant’s main room in the photograph below. Love it!

O’Brien’s Irish Pub was featured only once in The Truth About Cats & Dogs, in the scene in which Noelle (Uma Thurman) poses as radio host/animal expert Dr. Abby Barnes (Janeane Garofalo), who is in turn posing as Noelle’s fictional friend Donna, while the two are out on a date with Brian (Ben Chaplin).

It is while at O’Brien’s that Abby spills salsa all over the front of her shirt causing her to say, “Of course! Of course I would do that!” Amen, Abby! That is SO something I would do, as well.

The Truth About Cats & Dogs was filmed in O’Brien’s bar area, which is located towards the back of the restaurant.

The exterior patio area also appeared briefly in the flick.

In a rare twist, the restaurant’s real life name and location were used in the filming. Not only did Brian tell Noelle to meet him at the bar “on the corner of Main and Pier” – O’Brien’s actual location – for their date, but a sign reading “O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Restaurant” was visible on the door in the background of the scene. So incredibly cool!

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: O’Brien’s Irish Pub & Restaurant, from The Truth About Cats & Dogs, is located at 2941 Main Street in Santa Monica. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

March 5, 2013
Bahooka Family Restaurant from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”

This past Sunday morning, my mom emailed me a link to a Los Angeles Magazine article about the upcoming closure of a veritable San Gabriel Valley institution, Bahooka Family Restaurant in Rosemead, with the admonishment, “You’d better take pictures! It HAS to have been in movies.” And she was right. Bahooka has starred in no less than three films over its 37-year history, most notably in a scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that featured Johnny Depp. I was absolutely shocked to learn that the iconic restaurant would soon be shuttered. While I had never dined there, I worked as a substitute teacher in Rosemead for over eight years and would drive by the oddly-decorated eatery almost every single day. I also used to hear quite colorful stories about the place from fellow teachers who had grown up in the area. So when I found out that Bahooka’s days were numbered, I was a bit heartbroken and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there that very afternoon with the hopes of grabbing some Polynesian-style lunch. Sadly though, we were not able to do so as there was a two-plus-hour wait for a table and the GC was having none of that. I was at least able to snap some photographs of the place for posterity’s sake, though.

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The first Bahooka Family Restaurant, or Bahooka Ribs & Grog as it is also known, was founded by siblings Betty Twigg and Jack Fliegel in 1967 in a building located at 1312 West Francisquito Avenue in West Covina. The tiny eatery featured a scant 13 tables. The second, and much larger, Bahooka location opened in 1976 at 4501 Rosemead Boulevard. And while the West Covina outpost closed its doors in 1980 (allegedly due to a property dispute), the Rosemead outpost, which boasts seating for 350 patrons and a banquet room that serves 80, had been going strong ever since with a loyal following of neighborhood regulars.

When Twigg and Fliegel decided to retire years ago, they handed Bahooka, which supposedly means “shack”, over to their respective children, Steve and Stacey. Now Steve and Stacey are looking to hang up their aprons, as well, but unfortunately, according to this LA Weekly article, have no children to pass the restaurant along to. So on the market it went – with a $3.3 million price tag. The 8,598-square-foot establishment sold in just one day. The new proprietor apparently purchased the Bahooka building, its hundreds upon hundreds of fish (which I’ll get to in a minute) and the site’s liquor license. The Bahooka name, though, was not for sale, as the Twiggs and Fliegels (as well as co-owner Suzanne Schneider) plan on continuing to sell their signature salad dressing, which comes from a 47-year-old family recipe, at grocery stores, including Ralphs and Costco.

Bahooka’s decidedly unique tiki- and nautical-themed décor was collected from various antique shops and scrap yards over the years, creating what countless websites and reviewers have described as a “flotsam and jetsam” dining experience.

Just a few of the whimsical touches include an actual set of antique post office boxes in the restaurant’s entrance area . . .

. . . and a cannon in the parking lot.

The tables, most of which were empty while we were there (which does not coincide with the supposed two-hour wait time), are fashioned with nautical – and Christmas! – adornments.

A few tables are even situated inside of an old jail cell.

The eatery’s most notable décor, though, has to be the 105 (yes, 105!) built-in aquariums which house countless fish, with varieties including pacus, silver dollars, catfish, Jack Dempseys, Oscars, clown knives, and koi. Almost every booth in the place is flanked by at least two aquariums.

The bar, which inexplicably does not have any bar stools, was even fashioned out of a fish tank.

Thanks to the site’s truly unique look, it is not hard to see how it ended up onscreen numerous times over the years. In 1998’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Bahooka masqueraded as a Hollywood-area restaurant where Dr Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) stopped to use a pay phone, while his friend Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) ordered drinks at the bar.

The restaurant’s legendary 34-pound, 36-year-old pacu fish, Rufus, was even featured in the movie.

Rufus is absolutely HUGE in real life. The photograph below does not even begin to do him justice.

On a Rufus side-note – in a typo worthy of fellow stalker Owen’s When Write Is Wrong blog, the poor fish’s name is misspelled on the sign displayed below his tank.

Rufus’ “twins”, who are both also huge, are pictured below.

In 2007’s The Number 23, Bahooka was the site of the Christmas party where Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) was hit on by his co-worker Sybil (Michelle Arthur).

In the 2010 comedy Barry Munday, Bahooka was where Barry Munday (Patrick Wilson) met Ginger Farley (Judy Greer).

And while IMDB states that the 1993 movie Kalifornia also did some filming at Bahooka, I scanned through the flick yesterday and did not see the restaurant pop up anywhere.

Besides being a filming location, Bahooka is also something of a celebrity magnet. Such stars as Topher Grace, Valente Rodriguez, Oscar De La Hoya, Kirstie Alley, and David Hasselhoff have all been spotted dining there over the years.

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: Bahooka Family Restaurant, from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, is located at 4501 Rosemead Boulevard in Rosemead. You can visit Bahooka’s official website here. The restaurant will only be open until Sunday, March 10th, after which time its doors will be closed for good.

February 27, 2013