90210 & Beverly Hills, 90210 Filming Locations – Page 3

March 27, 2013May 22, 2013

The O’Neill House from "Beverly Hills, 90210"

While perusing the article “The Ultimate Guide to Hidden L.A.” in the February 2013 issue of Los Angeles Magazine, I came across a blurb about the O’Neill House in Beverly Hills – one of Southern California’s most unique residences – and recognized the place immediately. I had seen the property featured in a production a year or so prior, became mesmerized by its whimsical architecture and immediately set about tracking it down, which I did fairly quickly. For the life of me, though, I now cannot remember what production it was. I am only 35 – aren’t I a little young for my memory to be failing? Winking smile My gut is saying that the house popped up in an episode of Californication because I distinctly remember first searching for it in the Venice area – Californication is filmed almost entirely in and around Venice Beach – but I scanned through the Grim Cheaper’s DVDs of the series yesterday and did not spot the abode anywhere. I also contacted fellow stalker Geoff, who chronicles Californication filming locales on his 90210Locations website, but he did not recognize the home at all. I am now starting to doubt that Californication is the correct show. At this point, who knows? I decided to stalk the O’Neill House, anyway, while visiting L.A. a few weeks back in the hopes that I would eventually remember what production had been filmed there, but I still have yet to do so. Randomly enough, though, while scanning through early episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 to make screen captures for yesterday’s post on The Peach Pit, I spotted the property in a very brief scene and just about had a heart attack. It always comes back to 90210 for this stalker. Smile

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In 1978, an art dealer named Don O’Neill and his wife, Sandy, decided to remodel the guest home of their traditional residence in the Art Nouveau-style of Don’s favorite architect, Antoni Gaudi. That guest house is pictured below and is actually the most famous portion of the property.

As you can see below, the detailing on it is nothing short of spectacular.

No matter what one’s architectural style preferences may be, I can honestly say that the residence is amazing to see in person. I don’t know that I would ever want to live there, but I sure could not get enough of looking at the place’s exterior.

Check out the molded fish sculpture to the right of the doorway that conceals what I believe is either a camera or a light fixture. As I said before, the detailing is spectacular!

After construction of the guest house was complete, Don and Sandy decided to rebuild the main part of the house in the same style. Sadly though, Don passed away before the project was finished, but I believe that Sandy still owns the property to this day.

The dwelling, which was designed by architect Tom Oswalt, boasts five bedrooms, six baths, 5,181 square feet of living space, a 0.34-acre plot of land, a pool, a library, maid’s quarters, and a boatload of ornate tile work. As you can see below, the front of the home is much less adorned than the back. According to the fabulous book Los Angeles Attractions, all of the rooms were built in a round or oval shape. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the property here.

The O’Neill house is shown very briefly in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “The First Time”, in the scene in which Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) shows his former girlfriend, Sheryl (Paula Irvine), who is visiting from Minnesota, around Beverly Hills. As they drive through the city, Sheryl takes pictures of various ostentatious residences, one of which is the O’Neill House.

The O’Neill house was also where Jesse Lujack (Richard Gere) stole a baby blue Thunderbird convertible In the 1983 movie Breathless.

In the 1986 thriller 8 Million Ways to Die, the residence was where Angel Moldonado (Andy Garcia) lived. In the movie, Angel talks quite a bit about Antoni Gaudi and how he inspired the unusual home. Areas of the property that were shown in the flick include the guest house;

the breezeway between the guest house and the main house;

the living room of the main house;

and the kitchen.

I am still at a loss as to the other production I saw the O’Neill house featured in, so if any of my fellow stalkers recognize it, please let me know!

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! Smile

Stalk It: The O’Neill House, from “The First Time” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 507 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The guest house is located behind the property and can be viewed from the alley that runs north off of Park Way in between North Rodeo Drive and North Camden Drive.

March 26, 2013March 26, 2013

The Apple Pan from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

While the Grim Cheaper and I were out and about doing some stalking in the West L.A. area two weekends ago, we happened to pass by The Apple Pan, the exterior of which masqueraded as the original Peach Pit on fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. Finding ourselves both hungry, we decided to pop in for a bite to eat, which turned out to be quite the magical experience for this stalker, let me tell you! So, even though I have stalked and blogged about The Apple Pan once before – very, very briefly, way back in May 2008 (you can read that post here) – because it was such a short write-up and because I did not venture inside during that particular visit, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a re-hash.

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The Apple Pan was first established by Alan and Ellen Baker on April 11th, 1947 and, amazingly enough, still currently stands in the exact same spot that it did on that opening day. Even more astounding is the fact that the eatery is still owned and operated by the Baker family over six decades later! Alan and Ellen made the fortuitous decision to purchase the land on which The Apple Pan now stands (long before they ever built the restaurant, in fact), and, thankfully, despite countless – and very large – offers from developers to sell, held onto it, which is a big part of how it has managed to survive for so long.

Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, about the eatery has been altered since its inception – not the menu (which consists of age-old family recipes), not the seating, not the décor, not even the employees, most of whom have worked there for well over thirty years! Such a refreshing thing to see in a city where change seems to be the norm.

The Apple Pan menu, which you can take a look at here, consists of a scant 11 items – two burgers (the Steakburger and the Hickoryburger), five sandwiches [Southern Baked Ham, Swiss Cheese, Combination (a ham and cheese combo), Tuna Salad, and Egg Salad], three pies (Pecan Pie, Fresh Apple Pie and Cream Pie), and French Fries, which are simply uh-ma-zing! According to a 2007 Los Angeles Times article, of the stalwart menu, owner Martha Gamble (Alan and Ellen’s daughter) said, “My dad was a perfectionist. He tried recipes out at home until it was the way he wanted it.” Alan is my kinda guy – why mess with something that is obviously working? There are also a few “secret” menu items available to those in the know, including Grilled Cheese, Tuna Melts, and Pickled Peppers.

I opted for the Steakburger with cheese and, even though I am not AT ALL a meat person, absolutely LOVED it. As you can see below, The Apple Pan serves its burgers standing up and wrapped in paper, utilizing much the same method as Johnny Rockets restaurants. Apparently, Johnny Rockets founder Ronn Teitelbaum used the The Apple Pan as the model for his popular diner chain. There are other similarities, as well, including the use of small cardboard plates to serve French Fries and ketchup, as you can see above.

The Apple Pan serves its sodas (Coca-Cola, Root Beer, Orange, and Dr Pepper) in paper cones that sit inside of stainless steel cup-holders, which apparently used to be commonplace back in the 1940s. This stalker had never seen anything like it before, though, and thought it was so incredibly cool!

The tiny, 26-stool, Zagat-rated eatery is so immensely popular that it is pretty much standing-room only every single day of the week (except for Monday, when it is closed). Even celebs have been known to frequent the place. Such stars as the Jonas Brothers, Tori Amos, Michael Kors, Emma Stone, Rob Lowe, Rob Reiner, Rodney Dangerfield, Sammy Davis Jr., Joel Siegel, Lee Iacocca, and Magic Johnson have all been spotted there at one time or another. Drew Barrymore and then fiancé/now husband Will Kopelman even ate Valentine’s Day dinner there in 2012. Of the eatery, Drew told the JustJared website, “It’s an institution basically and you HAVE to try it. You’ll love it.”

The exterior of the Apple Pan showed up only twice on Beverly Hills, 90210. It first appeared at the very end of the Season 1 episode titled “Every Dream Has Its Price (Tag)”, in the scene in which Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) took Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) out for a piece of “the best pie in L.A.”

It then showed up again in the episode titled “One on One”, in the scene in which Brandon stopped by his workplace to ask Nat Bussichio (Joe E. Tata) for his paycheck and, while waiting, ran into James Townsend (Tico Wells), his rival for a spot on the West Beverly High basketball team. Ironically, in the scene’s establishing shot of The Peach Pit, The Apple Pan sign was visible, as you can see below! LOL Oddly enough, in the very next episode, which was titled “Higher Education”, The Apple Pan had been replaced with a different exterior – one at 1027 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, which I blogged about here. That location was used throughout the end of Season 1, until it, too, was replaced by a third exterior in the Season 2 episode titled “Pass, Not Pass.” That third and final exterior, which I blogged about here, can be found at 45 South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena.

While I knew (thanks to Darren Star’s DVD commentary for the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Spring Dance”) that The Apple Pan had served as the model for The Peach Pit’s interior set, I was not at all prepared for how closely the real life restaurant would resemble its onscreen counterpart. When I walked through The Apple Pan’s front doors, I honestly felt like I had stepped right inside The Pit! For a die-hard 90210 fan like myself, the experience was nothing short of exhilarating! Not only is The Apple Pan set up exactly like The Peach Pit, with a small U-shaped counter surrounding an open kitchen . . .

. . . but, as you can see below, the doors and windows are also an exact match.

As is the wood wall paneling . . .

. . . and the vintage cash register! Love it, love it, love it!

In a 2008 interview with the Zap2It website, Jason Priestley mentioned The Apple Pan, saying, “That’s what the Peach Pit was modeled after. If you watch the early episodes of 90210, the Peach Pit is laid out almost exactly like The Apple Pan. Whenever I’d have dinner with Charles Rosin, the show runner, we’d go there. “ He also calls the burgers “amazing.” Smile

The Apple Pan was also featured in THREE different Huell Howser specials over the years – one in 1992, one in 1996, and one in 2009.

You can watch one of those specials 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! Smile

Stalk It: The Apple Pan, aka The Peach Pit from Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 10801 West Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

February 22, 2013February 21, 2013

The Marina del Rey Marriott from “90210”

One location that has been on my To-Stalk List for ages now is the Marina del Rey Marriott, which appeared in the Season 1 episode of fave show 90210 titled “That Which We Destroy” – in two different scenes featuring my girl Shannen Doherty, no less! And while I had planned on stalking the locale last July when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were in the area for a full-day stalking adventure, as so often happens when the two of us get together, we had far too many locations and far too little time. Thankfully though, my and the Grim Cheaper’s new L.A. home-base is in Santa Monica, just a few miles north of the hotel, so, while we were in town last weekend, I made it a point to finally visit the place.

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The Marina del Rey Marriott, which is within walking distance of both Venice Beach and Mother Beach, features an outdoor pool, a fitness center, views of Marina del Rey’s gorgeous waterways (and, ironically enough, the parking lot where Jack McKay was killed on Beverly Hills, 90210, which I blogged about here), 24 different meeting rooms comprising a total of 18,000 square feet of space, and a ginormous rooftop ballroom named the Bayview Ballroom, which boasts 360-views of Los Angeles, a huge outdoor patio area and a helipad!

The Marina del Rey Marriott has won several accolades over the years, including being named an LA’s the Place Top Pick in 2010. Playboy Magazine also recognized the hotel’s outdoor bar, Glow Ultra Lounge, as one of the top ten lounges in Los Angeles.

With its dark red pillars, shining marble floors and glowing accent candles, the Marina del Rey Marriott gives off a very hip and trendy vibe and it is not at all hard to see how it ended up onscreen on 90210.

The Marriot actually popped up three times in the “That Which We Destroy” episode of 90210. First, one of the hotel’s hallways masqueraded as the hallway of the theatre where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) starred in a local performance of Hamlet.

It is thanks to the carpet in that hallway that I was able to figure out this particular location. For a while I was stumped as to where filming of the theatre scene had taken place, but after watching the episode for the umpteenth time, I noticed that the carpeting looked very much like hotel carpeting – Marriott carpeting in particular. (My dad has been a Marriott Rewards Member for years, so I am extremely familiar with the chain’s carpeting, which seems to be the same at every single property.) So I started looking through photographs of the various Marriotts in the L.A. area, starting with the ones nearest to Manhattan Beach Studios where the series is lensed and working my way outward, and it was not long before I came across the right one.

Once I figured out the “theatre” location, I realized that two other scenes from the “That Which We Destroy” episode had also been shot at the Marriott. The hotel’s Stones restaurant was used as the spot where Debbie Wilson (Lori Loughlin), Harry Wilson (Rob Estes), Tracy Clark (Christina Moore), and Sean Cavanaugh (Josh Henderson) went for a getting-to-know-each-other dinner.

Again, the carpet was a dead giveaway that the dinner scene had taken place at a hotel.

And finally the lobby bar was where, in my favorite scene from the episode, Brenda told Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) that she could no longer be friends with her because “I don’t want to fight over Dylan or Ryan or whoever. You know, I’m over all of that drama.” You tell her, Brenda! Tables were brought in for the filming of the scene in order to make the lobby bar look like a sit-down restaurant. In reality, there are couches situated in that area, as you can see below. Ironically enough, it looks like 90210 was filming at the Marina del Rey Marriot once again this very week.

90210 was hardly the first production to film at the hotel. In 1989’s Lethal Weapon 2, the exterior of the Marina del Rey Marriott was used as the establishing shot of the hotel where Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) first met Leo Getz (Joe Pesci).

The Marriot was only used for the brief establishing shot, though. All actual filming took place about ten miles away at the InterContinental Los Angeles Century City hotel, which was at the time a JW Marriott, the same JW Marriott that was featured in the 1990 thriller Pacific Heights.

In 2006’s Drake and Josh Go Hollywood, the Marina del Rey Marriott stood in for The Chambrulay, where Drake Parker (Drake Bell), Josh Nichols (Josh Peck) and Audrey Parker-Nichols (Nancy Sullivan) stayed while (accidentally) visiting L.A.

The Marina del Rey Marriott also stood in for the Grand Saville Hotel where almost all of the Season 1 episode of Chuck titled “Chuck Versus the Undercover Lover” took place.

Glow Ultra Lounge also appeared briefly in one of Chuck’s mind flashes in the episode.

Only the interior of the Marriott was used in “Chuck Versus the Undercover Lover.” The establishing shot was of the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, which is currently in the process of being torn down in order to make way for what will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

In the Season 3 episode of fave show Dexter titled “I Had a Dream”, the Marriott stood in for Hotel Belvedere, the supposed Miami, Florida motel where Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) stalked his former partner-in-crime, Asst. District Atty. Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used in the episode.

One of the Marriott’s actual rooms was also utilized in the filming.

As you can see below, though, some CGI trickery was used to cut off the top floors of the hotel in the episode, making it virtually unrecognizable. In fact, had it not been for fellow stalker Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, I never would have realized Hotel Belvedere was the Marina del Rey Marriott.

The Season 9 episode of American Idol titled “Los Angeles, CA Auditions” was also filmed at the Marina del Rey Marriot. The actual auditions took place in the hotel’s Bayview Ballroom.

Some scenes from the episode were also lensed in front of the hotel;

and in the lobby. And while the judges apparently arrived via helicopter and landed on the Marriott’s roof in the episode, I could not footage of that anywhere online.

In the 2010 movie Valentine’s Day, football player Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) made a speech on the rooftop of the Marina del Rey Marriott. Check out those views!!

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! Smile

Stalk It: The Marina del Rey Marriot, from the “That Which We Destroy” episode of 90210, is located at 4100 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

February 14, 2013February 15, 2013

Tom Rose’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper surprised me with tickets for the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert annual Discovery Home Tour as a sort-of Welcome-to-Palm-Springs gift. The tour was an experience, to say the least. I honestly cannot remember the last time the GC and I laughed so hard – and for so long. I was “live texting” fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, throughout the day and at one point, after describing a house that had a microwave, mini-fridge, espresso machine, and pantry set up in multiple bathrooms directly across from toilets
(I’m not making this up – residents of that particular abode could literally be sitting on the toilet and making espresso at the same time!), he asked, “What f*cking desert have you moved to? The Sahara?” I have tears in my eyes right now going back through all of the texts from that day. Ah, good times! Anyway, while driving through the Las Palmas neighborhood mid-tour, I mentioned to the GC that I had yet to stalk the Palm Springs residence that Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) visited in the Season 5 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “P.S. I Love You.” I remembered that fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, had the address posted on his site, so I pulled over to look it up. As fate would have it, I actually pulled over directly across the street from the home! I mean, what are the odds of that? So I jumped out of the car and quickly snapped a few pics.

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In real life, the residence, which was originally built in 1983 and sits perched above Patencio Road, boasts seven bedrooms, seven baths, 6,989 square feet of living space, and a 0.73-acre plot of land. The ginormous property was last sold in December 1986 for $3,428,000.

According to a September 2010 Palm Springs Life article, the dwelling belongs to none other than Barbra Streisand and James Brolin, although I was unable to verify that claim through property records or other sources.

The article also states that the residence boasts a “guest mansion”, which, from looking at aerial views, can only be the structure denoted below. It was also built in 1983 and features five bedrooms, six baths, 6,948 square feet, and a 0.9-acre plot of land. Some guest mansion! That place is bigger than most houses!

In the “P.S. I Love You” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Dylan and Charley Rawlins (Jeffrey King) head to Palm Springs to meet with a possible investor for their movie. That investor, Tom Rose (James Handy), turns out to be a mobster and, as you can see below, things don’t go quite according to plan. Gotta love the later years of 90210!

Before Dylan winds up hanging off of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, though, he meets with Tom Rose at the mobster’s desert mansion. As you can see below, the home’s front gate looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. (A HUGE thank you to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making screen captures of Tom’s house for me. I do not own Season 5 of 90210 on DVD, but presumed that the episode would be available for download on iTunes or elsewhere online. Sadly, that was not the case. I could not find “P.S. I Love You” ANYWHERE! Because the vast majority of the episode took place in the Coachella Valley, I was really looking forward to watching it, too. Boo!)

The property’s intercom now looks completely different, though, and was either swapped out for the filming or has since been replaced.

In an odd twist, the house that appeared in the episode looks nothing at all like the actual house that stands behind that front gate. As you can see below, Tom Rose’s residence was Moroccan in style and featured a tall, domed tower . . .

. . . while the real life residence is modern in style and lacks any sort of a tower.

The home’s real life driveway does not match what appeared in the episode, either. While Tom Rose’s driveway opened up to the front of his residence, the actual driveway opens up to the side of the house. Tom’s driveway was also flanked by short stone walls . . .

. . . which are missing in real life. If I had to guess, I would say that, while it is possible that the residence has been vastly remodeled since the filming of 90210 in 1995, I think it is much more likely that a different house (most likely one in the Los Angeles area) was used for the scenes that took place behind the front gate. Don’t quote me on that, though – it is just a guess. If Barbra Streisand really does own the home, as Palm Springs Life states (and because it was last sold in 1986, that means she would have owned it at the time of the filming, as well) this scenario would make sense, as Babs does not strike me as the sort of person who would EVER allow a film crew inside of her residence.

The interior of the property that appeared in the episode is pictured below. And while I am certain that a real life interior was used in the filming and not a set, I am guessing that said interior is located elsewhere, most likely in Los Angeles.

Check out the boom microphone visible in the top of the screen capture below, which Mike pointed out to me.

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 Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the screen captures that appear in this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking – and a very happy Valentine’s Day to all of my fellow stalkers!

Stalk It: Tom Rose’s house from the “P.S. I Love You” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 555 North Patencio Road in Palm Springs.

February 12, 2013February 12, 2013

Roger Azarian’s House from "Beverly Hills, 90210"

One location that I had wanted to stalk pretty much ever since first moving to Southern California was the mansion where Roger Azarian (a pre-Friends Matthew Perry) lived in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “April Is the Cruelest Month”. So when fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, managed to track it down a few years back, I was BEYOND excited – until I took a look at the place on Google Street View, that is, and saw that no part of it was visible from the road. Boo! So I never wound up stalking it. Flash forward to a couple of days before my move to the desert, when I grabbed my buddy E.J.’s Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites book and headed to the San Fernando Valley for a solo stalking adventure. At one point I randomly found myself on Louise Avenue in Encino and thought the street name rang a bell. I pulled over to do some searching on my iPhone and quickly discovered that Louise Avenue just so happened to be where the Azarian mansion was located. So, even though I knew the pad would not be at all visible, I decided to head right on over there for a little looksie.

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As it turns out, Google Maps did not lie – Roger’s residence, sadly, cannot be viewed from the street.

But Bing Maps does provide some fabulous aerial views of the place, so I guess there’s that. Winking smile As you can see below, Roger Azarian’s mansion and the parcel of land that it sits on are both absolutely ginormous!

After doing a bit of research, I believe that the property is actually comprised of two separate dwellings (a main house and a guest house) with two different addresses – one being 4839 Louise Avenue and the other 4825 Louise Avenue.

While the front gate displays a single address, 4839, Zillow shows that the residence located at that number only consists of a scant one bedroom, one bath and 1,200 square feet – far too small to be Roger Azarian’s manse. I believe that those measurements refer instead to a guest house located on the property. According to Zillow, the house at 4825 Louise Avenue boasts seven bedrooms, six baths and 7,186 square feet, which sounds much more like the dwelling that appeared onscreen in Beverly Hills, 90210. For whatever reason, though, the 4825 number is not displayed anywhere on the front gate. You can check out some interior photographs of the property, which was originally built in 1932 and appears to be named “Encino Acres”, here.

In the “April Is the Cruelest Month” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) befriends wealthy budding tennis star Roger Azarian and fairly quickly begins to fear that he is planning to kill to his own father. Quite a few areas of the house were used in the episode, including the front exterior;

the interior;

the pool;

and the pool house.

While doing research for this post, I discovered that Roger Azarian’s manse is quite the oft-used locale. It was also featured on 90210’s sister show, Melrose Place, as the mansion where Arthur Field (Michael Des Barres) lived.

The abode also appeared in another 90210 spin-off, the 1994 series Models Inc., as the home of Chris White (Kurt Deutsch).

In the 1983 television series Emerald Point N.A.S., the dwelling was where Harlan Adams (Patrick O’Neal) lived.

In Seasons 5 through 8 of the television Falcon Crest, the manse was used as the residence of the Agretti family.

In the Season 3 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “Welcome to America, Mr. Brand”, the dwelling belonged to Kenneth Clayton-Dobbs (David Fox-Brenton).

Oddly enough, though, a different residence was shown for the establishing shots of the property in the episode.

In the Season 5 episode of Alias titled “Bob”, Encino Acres was where Jack Bristow (Victor Garber) met up with Elizabeth Powell (Caroline Goodall).

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 Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Gilles in France for finding episodes of Models Inc. and Emerald Point N.A.S. for me on YouTube and for making the Falcon Crest screen captures that appear in this post! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Roger Azarian’s house from the “April Is the Cruelest Month” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 4825/4839 Louise Avenue in Encino.

July 30, 2012July 27, 2012

Floodlights Nightclub from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Located directly across the street from Calvert Studios – the studio where fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 was lensed and the location that currently stands in for the exterior of The Rub massage parlor on the Lifetime television series The Client List – is the office building that masqueraded as Floodlights nightclub in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Slumber Party”. And while I had known about this locale for what seems like ages, for some reason, I had never stalked it during any of my prior visits to Calvert Studios. Thankfully though, when I was there with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a couple of months back, he reminded me about the place and suggested that I stalk and blog about it. So here goes!

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In the “Slumber Party” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) takes Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) to a nightclub named Floodlights. After the teens are denied entry at the door, due to the fact that they are both obviously underage, they walk back to the club’s parking lot area where they meet Trina (Growing Pains’ Julie McCullough) and Shelly (Judie Aronson), two scam artists who end up stealing Steve’s Corvette. And while the police do catch and arrest the women later on in the evening, Trina begs Steve to bail them out of jail, promising to “make it up to” him, and Steve being Steve, he, of course, does – after which Trina gives him a coupon for a free manicure. Ah, the good old days!

In real life, the Floodlights building is not a nightclub at all, but a simple office space that currently serves as the headquarters for ProAction Products, which, according to its website, is a custom plastic injection molding, assembly and tool manufacturing firm – whatever that means. And while I am not sure what the structure housed back in 1991 when the “Slumber Party” episode was filmed, judging by the industrial nature of the area, I am guessing it was a similar type of company. I cannot express how incredibly weird it is to see the small, quiet and normal street where Calvert Studios is situated and picture the Beverly Hills, 90210-gang arriving there each and every morning to tape what was then the most popular television series on the planet. Most movie studios are surrounded by huge gates, fences and guard shacks, and, barring a tour, are largely off-limits to the public. But Calvert Studios is, in essence, just a warehouse and, while it is slightly more inaccessible now, back in the 90210 days, it was completely visible from the street. I cannot even imagine working in one of the nearby offices at the time and getting to see Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry arrive on set everyday. How incredibly cool would that have been?!? Sigh!

Oddly enough, thanks to its unique façade, producers did not have to do much to transform the 1972-office building into Floodlights nightclub. They simply covered over the glass entrance doors to make the structure appear less “officey”, added a neon sign and a fake cactus plant, and, voila, they had themselves what looked exactly like an early ‘90s-era club.

Ironically enough, while scanning through the pilot episode of The Client List, which was titled “The Rub of Sugar Land”, to make screen captures for last Friday’s post, I spotted the Floodlights office building in the background of the scene in which Riley Parks (Jennifer Love Hewitt) discovered that the word “whore” had been spray-painted on her car.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And you can take a look my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for reminding me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Floodlights Nightclub, from the “Slumber Party” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 14940 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. The Rub from The Client List is located across the street at 15001 Calvert Street. The back of the Peach Pit and the door to the After Dark from Beverly Hills, 90210 is actually the east side of the warehouse located right next door to The Rub at 15041 Calvert Street. Steve Sander’s bus stop from the “Chuckie’s Back” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 was built on the west side of that same warehouse. You can read my post on those locations here and here.

July 27, 2012July 26, 2012

The Rub from “The Client List”

Another The Client List location that fellow stalker Owen (aka Jennifer Love Hewitt’s biggest fan), from the When Write Is Wrong blog, tracked down recently was The Rub – the supposed Sugar Land, Texas-area massage parlor where JLove’s character, Riley Parks, works on the series. Owen had actually been looking for the locale for quite some time and when he finally found it and sent me the address I literally just about fell off my chair! As it turns out, The Rub is the exterior of Calvert Studios in Van Nuys, the very same studio where Beverly Hills, 90210, my favorite show of all time, was filmed! How I did not recognize it while watching The Client List is absolutely BEYOND me. In my defense, though, at the time that Owen gave me the address, I had only seen one episode of the series. Anyway, once I found out about the location, I added it to my Re-Stalk list and Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I headed right on over there while in the area two months ago.

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The two warehouses pictured below were both formerly a part of the Calvert Studios complex and the interior of each was used in the filming of Beverly Hills, 90210. As you’ll notice, the place does not look anything at all like a typical movie studio. That is because Calvert Studios was originally a light manufacturing facility located at the end of a cul-de-sac in a small industrial area of Van Nuys. In 1989, Aaron Spelling purchased the site to film his new television series Beverly Hills, 90210 and transformed the two warehouses, which comprised 45,000 square feet of space, into sound studios and production offices. And for the next ten years magic happened inside of those walls. Well, for the next four years – we can all attest to the fact that the show went seriously downhill after Shannen Doherty left. But I digress. Anyway, after 90210 went off the air in 2000, Spelling Productions continued to do filming at the site. Then, when Aaron passed away in 2005, CBS took over the property and used the studio to shoot such shows as Jericho, Heist, Harper’s Island, and the ill-fated 2009 Melrose Place re-boot.

Then, sometime last year, CBS sold off one of the warehouses to Genie Air Conditioning & Heating Inc., cutting Calvert Studios in half. And sadly, the warehouse sold was the most recognizable one, the one that was used regularly as the back of the Peach Pit and the famous entrance to the Peach Pit After Dark on 90210.

Sadder still is the fact that Genie has since painted over the warehouse’s legendary red brick exterior and the building is now a drab blue and grey color and is virtually unrecognizable. GAH!

Unfortunately, while the After Dark door – which, in reality, is one of the warehouse’s side doors – is typically visible from the street, it was covered over by a huge tower of wooden crates on the day that Mike and I stalked the place. Its location is denoted with a pink arrow in the photograph below. You can check out some pictures that I took of that door on my first visit to Calvert Studios – during which Mike and I were invited onto the lot – here.

The side of the Genie warehouse was also used as other locations besides the Peach Pit during 90210’s ten-year run. Most prominently, it doubled as the rave where Emily Valentine (Christine Elise) slipped Ecstasy into Brandon Walsh’s (Jason Priestley’s) drink in the Season 2 episode titled “U4EA”. The white door visible in the screen captures pictured below is actually the famous After Dark door. The camera was just facing the opposite angle from which the After Dark scenes were usually shot.

And the opposite (west) side of the warehouse was used as the bus station where Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) caught a bus to Albuquerque, New Mexico in the Season 2 episode titled “Chuckie’s Back”.

The bus depot, which was, of course, just a fake, was set up in front of the first window pictured below.

And although they can’t be seen in the episode, when Steve’s bus drives off in the scene, it passes right through the Calvert Studios gates.

Those gates are pictured below.

One of the Genie warehouse employees was nice enough to let us onto the property while we were there, so I, of course, just had to pose for a pic in the spot where the gang was standing in the episode.

While the Genie warehouse is no longer used for production, the other warehouse still is. And not only does the front exterior of it stand in for the entrance to The Rub on The Client List, but the interior is actually comprised of the soundstages where the series is filmed.

In The Client List, The Rub is the not-so-above-board strip-mall massage parlor where Riley Parks gives massages . . . among other things. As you can see below, it looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it does onscreen, minus a few potted plants and some retro light fixtures.

As I mentioned in my post about the house where Riley lives on the series, The Client List is actually based upon the true story of The Healing Touch massage parlor, which got raided by the police in a huge prostitution scandal in May 2004. In real life, The Healing Touch was located at 3631 North Dixie Boulevard in Odessa, Texas.

Ironically enough, in the Season 1 finale of The Client List, which was titled “Past Is Prologue”, the back (north) side of the Genie warehouse was featured in the scene in which The Rub’s owner, Georgia (Loretta Devine), took Riley “next door” to “Bucky’s Appliances” and suggested that she relieve some of her anger at her ex-husband by hitting washing machines with a baseball bat.

It absolutely cracked me up to see those washing machines because, as I mentioned back in December 2009 in my post about the “Keep It Together” park from Season 1 of Beverly Hills, 90210, Calvert Studios is surrounded by appliance warehouses and washing machines were visible in the background of more than a few episodes of the series.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for figuring out Steve’s bus stop location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Rub from The Client List is located at 15001 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. The back of the Peach Pit and the door to the After Dark from Beverly Hills, 90210 is actually the east side of the warehouse located right next door at 15041 Calvert Street. Steve’s bus stop from the “Chuckie’s Back” episode of 90210 was built on the west side of that same warehouse.

July 17, 2012July 16, 2012

The Parking Lot Where Jack McKay was Killed on “Beverly Hills, 90210”

This past Saturday (which, as you can see above, was extremely overcast and cloudy – boo!), Mike, from MovieShotsLa, and I spent all day stalking in the Venice Beach/Marina Del Rey-area. After stopping by the Killer Café (aka the former Edie’s Diner from Enough and Dexter), which I will be blogging about soon, Mike pointed to the parking lot across the way and mentioned that it was where Jack McKay (Josh Taylor), father of Dylan McKay (Luke Perry – my high school love, sigh!), was killed by a car bomb in the Season 3 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Dead End”. Well, as you can imagine, I was completely bowled over at hearing this bit of information and asked Mike to take me right on over there to stalk the place.

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It’s funny, but even though I had only seen the “Dead End” episode once, way back in 1993 when it first aired, the parking lot where Jack McKay was killed was seared into my memory and, as soon as Mike pointed it out, I recognized the place at once and was immediately transported back to my high school days. It is amazing how some television shows and movies have that capability! I mean, I could literally almost feel the braces on my teeth! Smile

In “Dead End”, Jack, who has just been released from federal prison, moves into a humongous, borrowed yacht with his girlfriend, Christine Pettit (Valerie Wildman), and Dylan. In the episode, the vessel was docked at the very end of Berth E2500 in Marina Del Rey.

One rainy morning, shortly after moving in together and mending their relationship, Dylan goes to move his father’s car from the marina parking lot. In the scene, he walks out of the gate marked “E2500, 2700, 2900”.

As fate would have it, just as Dylan is about to unlock the car door, Jack calls out to him to inform him that Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) is on the phone. (And I just have to say here that while scanning through “Dead End” to make screen captures for today’s post, I got seriously fed up with Kelly’s incessant baby-talk! Blech! I realize that this goes without saying, but Team Brenda all the way! Smile ) Jack then runs up the dock to give Dylan the phone and tells him that he will move the car because, “Well, hey, what are dads for, huh?”

While Dylan is talking to Kelly, Jack’s car blows up, killing him (or so producers would have us believe) and forever altering Dylan’s life.

And I, of course, just had to imitate Dylan’s reaction to the explosion while I was there. (For some reason, I thought he had his arms out during the scene.)

The very same parking lot was also the spot where Dylan got rid of his gun – and let go of his anger over his father’s murder – with his girlfriend, Antonia “Toni” Marchette (Rebecca Gayheart), standing by his side in the Season 6 episode titled “Gypsies, Cramps and Fleas (a.k.a. Halloween VI)”.

The parking lot was also used in the Season 2 episode of Dexter titled “An Inconvenient Lie”, as Gulf Shore Motors, the used car dealership where murderer Roger Hicks (Don McManus) worked and where Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) stalked him.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And don’t forget to take a look at my latest post – about my no-carb diet – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for showing me this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The parking lot where Dylan McKay’s father was killed in the “Dead End” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is Public Parking Lot # 9 located at 14110 Palawan Way in Marina Del Rey. In the above map, the location of Jack’s boat is denoted with an orange arrow; the gate Dylan and his father walked out of (for berth E2500, 2700, 2900) is marked with a blue arrow; the spot where Jack’s car was parked is designated with a pink arrow; the area where Dylan was standing when the bomb exploded is denoted with a yellow “X”; and finally, the used car lot from the “An Inconvenient Lie” episode of Dexter is stamped with a green circle.

April 4, 2012April 3, 2012

The Coffee Pot from “90210”

As I mentioned back in March in my post about Bar Keeper in Silver Lake, the whimsical little barware store that stood in for Upon Galley in the 2005 movie A Lot Like Love, one locale that I had been absolutely itching to stalk in recent weeks was the Coffee Pot, an Echo Park-area café that appeared in the Season 4 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Babes in Toyland”. And while tracking down this location required minimal effort on my part, stalking it would be a different story altogether.

The GC and I actually tried to stalk the Coffee Pot not once, but twice, and both endeavors proved futile. Our first attempt took place on a Sunday when we just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by, only to discover that the shop is closed on Sundays. Then, last weekend, we made a special trip out there, on a Saturday this time, only to be met with a sign on the front door announcing that the small café was closed because “I’m the mom and I said so!” Um, OK. And while it is said that “the third time’s the charm”, I think we will just cut our losses at two unsuccessful stalks for this location. It is unfortunate, too, because the place looked absolutely adorable and I had a major hankering for some coffee at the time.

I was so flummoxed over the shop being closed yet again that I completely forgot to have the GC take my picture out front. I was able to snap two photographs of the Coffee Pot’s interior through the café’s front windows, though, and being that there was also a Starbucks located right across the street and I did manage to score myself a latte, I guess the trip was not a total loss. Winking smile

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In the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210, troublemaker Vanessa (Arielle Kebbel) tries to sabotage Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) and Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) by sending them to the fictional “Echo Park Grill” for a fake meeting with the VP of A&R for Def Jam Records. Oddly enough, three different locations were used to stand in for the restaurant in the episode. The first establishing shot shown in the scene was of the 3900 block of West Sunset Boulevard in the Sunset Junction area of Silver Lake, where Bar Keeper is located.

The second establishing shot was of Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz, which I I blogged about back in August 2011. The exterior of Figaro also appeared in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much is that Liam in the Window”.

And, finally, the Coffee Pot was used for all of the “Echo Park Grill’s” interior scenes, where Adrianna and Dixon waited futilely for the record executive. As you can see above, the café is a pretty cute spot.

Despite the conflicting establishing shots, this location was actually a snap to track down as I had noticed the words “Coffee Pot” on the door of the café while watching the episode. A simple input of the terms “Coffee Pot” and “Los Angeles” into a Google search spit back a result of the Coffee Pot in Echo Park. Yay! Too bad it wasn’t quite as easy to stalk.

Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, also let me know that the Coffee Pot had appeared as “Spark Plug Coffee” where Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) and Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) arrested a man for having placed a hidden camera in a women’s bathroom in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Risk”.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of the Coffee Pot’s Southland appearance.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Coffee Pot, from the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210 and the “Risk” episode of Southland, is located at 2201 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.

March 29, 2012March 28, 2012

The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey from “90210”

Way back in July of last year, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves on the West Side of Los Angeles with a few hours to kill, so we decided to head down to Marina del Rey as I had never before done any stalking there. I ended up absolutely falling in love with the seaside community, especially its downtown shopping area where I know I could have done some serious damage to my credit cards had the GC not been with me. Anyway, one of the area locations that had long been listed in my trusty stalking notebook was The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey hotel, which had made an appearance in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. So I dragged the GC right on over there as soon as we got into town. Flash forward to this past February when I was checking out fellow stalker Geoff’s 90210Locations website and, let me tell you, I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that the hotel had been featured prominently in a recent episode of the series. Now, as you all know, I watch 90210 religiously and am always keeping my eye out for locations, but, for whatever reason, I had somehow not recognized the place at all! Am I losing my touch here? Winking smile

The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey is situated on a 5.6-acre plot of land directly overlooking the picturesque marina from which the town gets its name. With its dark paneled walls, marble floors, and huge floral arrangements, the beautiful hotel reminded me quite a bit of The Langham Huntington in Pasadena, which, not so coincidentally, was formerly owned by the Ritz-Carlton Corporation. Needless to say, I fell in love with the place on the spot and so wanted to book a room and spend the night there, but the GC was having absolutely none of that. Shocking, I know. Winking smile

The Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey, which is Los Angeles’ only waterside AAA Five Diamond hotel, features 304 guest rooms, each with its own “Juliet” balcony, tennis courts, marina and city views, over 30,000 square feet of event space, a fitness center, and a Michelin-recommend restaurant. According to the hotel’s website, it also boasts “L.A.’s only waterfront pool and whirlpool” (pictured above). Besides being a filming location, the place is also a big-time celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Adrian Grenier, John Travolta, Johnny Depp, Bridget Marquardt, Brooke Shields, Chris Henchy, Zac Efron, The Bachelorette’s DeAnna Pappas and then fiancé Jesse Csincsak, Brad Garrett, Mary Hart, Halle Berry, Hulk Hogan, Dave Annable, Odette Annable, Jason Lewis, Jason Mraz, Scott Caan, Paul Bettany, and Steve Carell. Snoop Dogg and childhood sweetheart Shante Taylor got married there in 1997. And pop star Britney Spears is a regular guest. In fact, these famous (and oh-so-classy) photos of BritBrit and then fiance Kevin Federline were taken on one of the hotel’s balconies.

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In the Season 4 episode of 90210 titled “No Good Deed”, the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, popped up twice. The hot tub area was first used as the spot where Naomi Clark (AnnaLynne McCord), wearing a very skimpy, blue cut-out bathing suit (and I’m telling you, if I had that body, I’d be wearing that bathing suit every single day of my life!), convinced movie star Mitchell Nash (Will Kemp) to let her throw a party for him.

That spa area is pictured above.

Later in the episode, the hotel’s pool area was the site of the Hillingsbrook Foundation’s “Clean Up Castillo Bay” charity event which Annie Wilson (Shenae Grimes) hosted.

The spot where Liam Court (my love Matt Lanter) rescued the drowning girl is located just outside of the pool area, in the Marina del Rey harbor.

The scene where the event’s silent auction was held was also most likely filmed at the Ritz, although I did not see any areas which resembled the screen captures above while I was there, nor can I find any similar-looking rooms on the hotel’s website.

In the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey’s pool stood in for the pool of the fictional “The Stafford Hotel”. Interestingly enough, two other spots were also used to masquerade as The Stafford in the flick – the exterior was the Treasure Island Administration Building in San Francisco and the interior scenes were filmed at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena.

The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey was also used extensively in the Season 5 episode of Dexter titled “Take It”, as the hotel where Jordan Chase (Angelina Jolie’s ex-husband Jonny Lee Miller) hosted his “Take It” convention. Quite a few areas of the hotel were used in the episode, including the exterior;

The Ritz-Carlton Ballroom, which you can see a photograph of here;

one of hotel’s outdoor terraces;

The Ritz-Carlton Suite, which you can see a photograph of here;

and two neighboring 7th floor suites.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for informing me of the hotel’s 90210 connection! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, from the “No Good Deed” episode of 90210, the “Take It” episode of Dexter, and The Parent Trap remake, is located at 4375 Admiralty Way in Marina del Rey. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.