TV Locations – Page 11 – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 15, 2019March 14, 2019

Olympic Coffee Shop from “Sharp Objects”

I’m not sure what it is about old school diners, but I sure have an affinity for them. My inclination maybe stems from memories of childhood road trips or weekend mornings spent at greasy spoons with my parents during my early years or my nostalgic nature in general. Whatever the cause, if I see a retro café onscreen, chances are I’m going to want to locate it. Such was the case with Gritty’s Coffee Shop, the supposed Wind Gap, Missouri eatery Detective Richard Willis (Chris Messina) frequented in Sharp Objects, the 2018 HBO miniseries based on the Gillian Flynn novel of the same name. Thankfully, the restaurant was a snap to find.

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While set in the Show-Me State, as I mentioned in this post Sharp Objects was largely filmed in Southern California. A Google search for “Gritty’s Coffee Shop” and “Los Angeles” led nowhere, though. Thankfully, I happened to spot an address number of “12912” posted outside of the restaurant while watching the sixth episode, titled “Cherry,” which made my search much more fruitful. As soon as I inputted “Coffee Shop,” “Los Angeles,” and “12912,” a slew of entries for an eatery named Olympic Coffee Shop located at 12912 San Fernando Road in Sylmar was kicked back.

One look at images of the place online told me it was the right spot and I promptly added it to my To-Stalk List.

Then, when I saw the eatery pop up in an episode of Bosch (Season 2’s “Gone”), which the Grim Cheaper and I were binging at the time, that very same week, I knew I had to get out there stat!

Olympic Coffee Shop was originally established way back in 1951 as James’ Drive-In.

It subsequently became Jim Bill’s Restaurant in 1957, then Demetri’s Coffee Shop in 1971, and finally Olympic Coffee Shop in 1984.

Other than its past names, I could not find much information about the place’s history online, which is surprising considering its longevity.

Unfortunately, the GC and I were short on time when we showed up to stalk Olympic Coffee Shop, so we could not dine on the premises. As fate would have it, though, the super-friendly owner happened to see us taking photos outside and welcomed us in for a quick chat and to snap all the pictures I wanted.

He also filled us in on the site’s extensive film resume.

According to him, the place is used in productions almost weekly, which, due to its perfectly preserved 1950s aesthetic, is not at all surprising.

What is surprising is that I had never heard of the place until Sharp Objects!

Olympic Coffee Shop appeared in three episodes of the miniseries. Along with the aforementioned “Cherry,” it also popped up in the episodes “Fix” and “Falling.”

The restaurant’s film history dates back much, much farther, though.

In 1978, it masked as Sybil’s in the comedy Every Which Way But Loose, but both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior looked quite a bit different at the time.

Lincoln Hawk (Sylvester Stallone) challenged his son, Michael Cutler (David Mendenhall), to arm wrestle some local thugs at the restaurant, when it was still operating as Demetri’s, in 1987’s Over the Top.

In the 2000 film Memento, Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and Leonard (Guy Pearce) discuss the faultiness of memories at Olympic Coffee Shop.

Luke Campbell (Dan Byrd) and Sylar (Zachary Quinto) narrowly escape from government agents at the eatery in the Season 3 episode of Heroes titled “Building 26,” which aired in 2009.

Train’s Patrick Monahan falls in love with a waitress named Kate (played by Anna Camp) at Olympic Coffee Shop in the group’s 2010 “Marry Me” music video, which you can watch here.

That same year, the restaurant was the site of a massive shootout in the Season 2 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles titled “Bounty.”

Donna (Catherine Keener) and Patrick (James Le Gros) run into Kathleen (Mikey Madison) at Olympic Coffee Shop at the end of the 2018 drama Nostalgia.

That same year, Johnny ‘Coco’ Cruz (Richard Cabral) has a rather terse reunion with his mom and sister at the café in the Season 1 episode of Mayans M.C. titled “Murciélago/Zotz.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Olympic Coffee Shop, from Sharp Objects, is located at 12192 San Fernando Road in Sylmar. The café is open daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

March 11, 2019May 25, 2020

Hummingbird Nest Ranch from “Book Club”

One of my favorite stalking stories involves the Grim Cheaper and Sex and the City: The Movie, which I saw right when it came out in late May 2008. I was gifted Amy Sohn’s book about the film for my birthday just a few days later and while it did a fabulous job of breaking down the locales, one that I desperately wanted to find was only mentioned in passing. Of the Mexican restaurant where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dined with the girls during her non-honeymoon, all that was said was that filming took place in Simi Valley. As soon as I read those words, though, I knew what I had to do – call up every Mexican eatery in the area and ask if the flick was shot there, obvs! Now I should mention here that I hate telephone calls. The GC likes to say that I am scared of the phone and he’s not far off. So I enlisted his help with this endeavor. It was a rather humorous undertaking being that none of the people who answered his calls had any earthly idea what he was talking about. Needless to say, after spending hours on the task, we came up empty – but the whole thing sure was good for a few laughs. It was not until Mike, from MovieShotsLA, saw the film that the mystery was finally solved. He recognized the Mexican restaurant, which – spoiler! – isn’t really a restaurant at all, as none other than Hummingbird Nest Ranch, an oft-filmed compound nestled north of the 118 freeway in Santa Susana. The property is, unfortunately, closed to the public, but is available to lease for special events. So, since I was newly engaged at the time, it went to the top of my list of spots to tour as a possible wedding venue. I headed out there soon thereafter, but was struck with bad luck thanks to the reality series Tool Academy which had taken over the property for a weeks-long shoot, thereby severely limiting what I could photograph. Regardless, when I saw the site pop up as the idyllic “Sedona” ranch belonging to Mitchell (Andy Garcia) in Book Club (one of my favorite movies of 2018 – available on DVD here and via streaming here), I knew I had to finally blog about it.

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Hummingbird Nest Ranch was the brainchild of Metro Networks founder David Saperstein who, in 2000, purchased a 123-acre plot of picturesque land in the hills of Simi Valley for his second wife, Suzanne. Though a gorgeous 1920s home known as Sitting Bull sat on the property, David envisioned something grander for Suzanne and commissioned architect Richard Robertson to build a massive 17,000-square-foot Spanish-style estate on the grounds for the couple to live in.

Several other structures were also added including 3 riding arenas, 16 guest and staff houses, and a 20,000-square-foot barn. That’s the barn below. Yeah, I know – it’s grander than most homes!

There is also parking for 400 vehicles, numerous swimming pools, a spa, a large pond, a helipad, and a solar-panel farm on the premises.

Saperstein filed for divorce from Suzanne in 2005 and subsequently put the ranch on the market in 2007 for $75 million. When there were no takers, he switched gears and decided to turn the property into a massive 5-star resort complete with 105 rooms, 98 casitas, numerous restaurants and swimming pools, conference facilities, and a convention center.

The city of Simi Valley greenlighted the plan, but once the permits were in place in 2014, Saperstein changed gears yet again and re-listed the site, this time for $49.5 million. It finally sold in December 2015 for $33 million.

Though the purchaser was said to be transforming the place into a wellness hotel, so far those plans have not yet come to fruition.

Because the place sat largely vacant for close to a decade, it became the perfect venue for filming (not to mention a few celebrity weddings including that of Kaley Cuoco and Ryan Sweeting, Nazanin Mandi and Miguel Pimentel, and Morgan Stewart and Brendan Fitzpatrick).

For Book Club, producers chose to use Sitting Bull, Hummingbird Nest Ranch’s original 1920s house, instead of the massive main residence as Mitchell’s charming Arizona pad. Per a 2018 Architectural Digest feature, the property was love at first sight for production designer Rachel O’Toole. Of the home, she says, “It was just so perfect with the archways and the way that the light dapples through the yard and the pool. Standing at the front door you can see all the way through the kitchen into a bathroom, through an arched brick passageway and then outside through leaded glass to a fountain. I said to Bill [director Bill Holderman], ‘We shouldn’t waste our time looking elsewhere because this is it.’”

Diane Keaton, who plays Mitchell’s love interest in the film, also became smitten with the dwelling. When AD asked about her favorite Book Club locale, she responded, “I liked Andy Garcia’s house best. Andy’s house is an old Spanish. I wanted to buy it. That place is gorgeous.”

Of dressing the location for the shoot, O’Toole told AD, “For the color palette, we had burgundies and browns and tans with lots of textures like Persian rugs. We wanted Andy’s character to be grounded and approachable with things he collected from all his travels.”

Not much of the home was altered for the flick. Along with digitally adding the Arizona desert into the background of a scene . . .

. . . production also updated the pad’s 1970s kitchen, though it was only seen in a brief shot from outside the front door towards the end of the movie.

Sitting Bull also portrayed Gregory Sumner’s (William Devane) ranch on the popular nighttime soap Knots Landing, which aired from 1979 to 1993.

Though most of the Mexican resort scenes in Sex and the City: The Movie were shot at this house in Malibu, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masked as the hotel restaurant where a waiter guts Carrie by referring to her as “Mrs. Preston.”

Shortly after Sex and the City: The Movie debuted, the ranch popped up as Destinies, the rehabilitation center where Joan McCallister (Judy Davis) worked during the second season of The Starter Wife.

That same year, the ranch portrayed yet another rehab, this time on the Season 1 episode of 90210 titled “There’s No Place Like Homecoming” as the spot Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) was sent after almost overdosing.

As I mentioned earlier, Hummingbird Nest Ranch was used extensively as the home of the competing couples on Tool Academy, which began airing in 2009.

Also in 2009, Hummingbird Nest Ranch masqueraded as Calistoga Canyon Resort and Spa where the CBI team investigated a murder in the Season 1 episode of The Mentalist titled “Crimson Casanova.”

In the Season 7 episode of NCIS titled “Rule Fifty-One,” which aired in 2010, the Nest portrays the Mexican estate of Paloma Reynosa (Jacqueline Obradors).

The massive main house plays Steve Jobs’ (Ashton Kutcher) tony Silicon Valley mansion in the 2013 biopic Jobs.

On July 27th, 2014, Scheana Marie (one of the most miserable brides ever!) married Michael Shay at Hummingbird Nest Ranch. The event was chronicled in the Season 3 episodes of Vanderpump Rules titled “For Better or Worse” and “Ring on a String” which aired the following year.

In the 2015 Entourage movie, the ranch masks as the Texas home of Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thornton) and his son, Travis (Haley Joel Osment).

That same year, Hummingbird Nest showed up in the Season 1 episode of Stitchers titled “The Root of All Evil” as the mansion belonging to Joe Parks (Cameron Daddo) and his wife, Suzanne (Courtney Henggeler).

Also in 2015, the ranch popped up as the home of Dr. Irving Pitlor (Rick Springfield) in the Season 2 episode of True Detective titled “Night Finds You.”

Hummingbird Nest masked as the Palm Springs Hotel where Ace Amberg (Rob Reiner) trysted with Jeanne Crandall (Mira Sorvino) in the Season 1 episode of Hollywood titled “(Screen) Tests,” which hit Netflix in 2020.

The couple stayed in Sitting Bull in the episode.

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hummingbird Nest Ranch, aka Mitchell’s house from Book Club, is located at 2940 Kuehner Drive in Santa Susana. You can visit the venue’s official website here. Please be advised that the ranch is private property and not open to the public.

January 28, 2019November 5, 2019

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s South Galleria from “The West Wing”

The Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles is a rare bird when it comes to filming locations in that virtually every square inch of it has appeared onscreen – and I’m talking in multiple major productions! This factoid fascinates me and I thought it would be fun to cover in an in-depth article, so a few years back I pitched the idea to my editor at Discover L.A. who told me to run with it. Though I chronicled ten areas of the vast hotel in the column, which was published in 2016, due to length concerns there were a few spots I had to leave out including the South Galleria, an ornate hallway that was most famously featured in Pretty in Pink. I had planned on writing about the beautiful space on my own site as a follow-up to the article shortly thereafter, but never got around to it. Then, last week, while watching an early episode of The West Wing (which the Grim Cheaper and I just started binging and are absolutely obsessed with!), I spotted the Galleria and decided it was high time I finally dedicate a post to it.

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The South Galleria, which is situated along the southwest edge of the Biltmore, connects the hotel’s South Grand Street entrance to its Main Galleria and provides access to the Heinsbergen Room, the Regency Room, and the Biltmore Bowl.

The gilded hallway, inspired by the opulent Roman villas of ancient Pompeii, boasts an intricate Beaux Arts-style vaulted ceiling featuring bucolic frescoes hand-painted by muralist Giovanni Smeraldi.

The dramatic space is also flanked by elaborate friezes, carved columns, and sweeping archways.

The gilded gates situated on its south side . . .

. . . lead to an equally grand stairwell that heads down to the Biltmore Bowl and the Regency Room.

Being that the South Galleria is situated in a tucked away area on the side of the hotel, it would, sadly, be quite easy for visitors and guests to spend ample time at the Biltmore and not even realize the impressive space exists. If you happen to find yourself on the premises, do not make that mistake. The striking hallway is not to be missed!

In the Season 1 episode of The West Wing titled “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet,” which aired in 2000, the South Galleria portrays Washington D.C.’s Old Executive Office Building (now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building), where President Jed Bartlet’s (Martin Sheen) speech to the United Organization of Trout Fishermen is moved at the last minute due to some unforeseen rain.

Producers cheated a bit with the locale in the scene by shooting from both ends of the Galleria in order to make it appear as two different hallways that the President has to walk down on the way to deliver his speech. The West Wing does love a good lengthy walk-and-talk segment!

John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) gets into a fight with the paparazzi during the Grammy Awards at the top of the staircase/escalator leading down to the Biltmore Bowl in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born.

In the 1986 classic Pretty in Pink, Andie (Molly Ringwald) trepidatiously ventures alone down the South Galleria on her way to her Senior Prom (which was held in the Biltmore’s famed Crystal Ballroom) . . .

. . . only to find her BFF Duckie (Jon Cryer) waiting for her at the other end.

Though Richard Alleman asserts in his book New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide that “James Caan, as the novelist in Steven King’s Misery (1990), celebrated his latest best seller” at Tavern on the Green, I discovered that information was incorrect while doing research for my June 2018 post about the famed NYC eatery. In actuality, at the end of the film, Caan’s character, Paul Sheldon, shares a celebratory lunch with his agent, Marcia Sindell (Lauren Bacall), at none other than the South Galleria, which was dressed to look like an upscale Big Apple restaurant.

The South Galleria also posed as a restaurant in Atlas Shrugged: Part I. In the 2011 drama, it served as the spot where Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling) confronted Francisco D’Anconia (Jsu Garcia) about his shady copper mine investments.

But the South Galleria’s noted onscreen appearances don’t end there! The space also pops up as a Beirut hotel hallway in the Season 7 episode of The Mentalist titled “Orange Blossom Ice Cream,” which aired in 2014.

And Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) have a terse conversation in the South Galleria during an awards ceremony in the Season 1 episode of The Morning Show titled “A Seat at the Table,” which aired in November 2019.

Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) is also shown walking down the Biltmore Bowl staircase on her way to the ceremony in that same episode.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles is located at 506 South Grand Avenue in downtown L.A. You can visit the property’s official website here. The South Galleria, from the “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet” episode of The West Wing, can be reached via the hotel entrance situated just north of and adjacent to Coffee on Grand at 530 South Grand Avenue.

January 4, 2019January 3, 2019

Harry Bosch’s House from “Bosch”

I contemplated chronicling the best movie and television productions I discovered in 2018 as my first post of the new year. Had I done so (and I still might later this month), Bosch would have topped the list. As I mentioned in my recent write-up on Demitasse café, the Grim Cheaper and I started watching the Amazon original series just a few months ago and were immediately hooked. A police procedural with a sarcastic and fabulously deadpan leading man set in Los Angeles – what more could this crime-obsessed, L.A.-loving stalker ask for? The locations used are seriously phenomenal, by the way – none more so than the cantilevered hilltop home of titular character Detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch (Titus Welliver). The pad couldn’t be more quintessentially Los Angeles if it tried. So I, of course, ran right out to stalk it shortly after viewing the first episode.

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Bosch is based upon a bestselling series of novels by author Michael Connelly. I have never read any of the books, but have been able to piece together the various info written about Harry’s house in them thanks to a detailed forum on MichaelConnelly.com. In the novels, Detective Bosch is said to live on Woodrow Wilson Drive in the Hollywood Hills, though his specific address varies from “next to” 7203 Woodrow Wilson in 2010’s The Reversal to 8620 Woodrow Wilson in 2018’s Dark Sacred Night. Per a commenter on the forum, Connelly has apparently stated that Harry’s pad doesn’t exist in real life, but that the site where he placed it in his stories is a burnt-out foundation of a former cantilevered residence that the author stumbled upon in 1992. Additional commenters did some massive legwork on the subject and surmised that the location of said foundation is 7207 Woodrow Wilson Drive. And they’re right – I came across a video of Connelly showing the exact spot where he imagined the home (a still of which is pictured below) and compared it to Street View imagery of that address (again, pictured below) and, sure enough, it’s the spot! You can check out some photographs of the foundation and the land it sits on here.

In Blue Neon Night: Michael Connelly’s Los Angeles, a special limited edition DVD released in 2004 in which, as Amazon notes, the author “provides an insider’s tour of the places that give his stories and characters their spark and texture,” a house located at 7143 Woodrow Wilson is shown to be Harry’s and Connelly describes it as such, “Bosch’s home was fourth from the end on the right side. His home was a wood-frame, one-bedroom cantilever, not much bigger than a Beverly Hills garage. It hung out over the edge of the hill and was supported by three steel pylons at its mid-point.”

When it came time to start shooting the series in November 2013, producers found an even more perfect embodiment of that Blue Neon Night description at 1870 Blue Heights Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

Sitting high atop a hill, the architectural stunner, which was built in 1958, boasts 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,513 square feet of living space, and a 0.26-acre lot.

Per Zillow, it is currently worth a whopping $2,130,000.

The striking pad first popped up in Bosch’s pilot and has gone on to appear in pretty much every episode since. It is the rear of the residence – its cantilevered side, which stands on a cliff overlooking the Sunset Strip, Culver City and beyond – that is regularly shown on the series.

The street side of the house, which is much less spectacular than the rear, was featured briefly in Season 4’s “Devil in the House.”

While situated on a private cul-de-sac, that side of the property can be viewed from a portion of Blue Heights Drive that is open to the public – though there is not much to see.

Just west of the home’s front entrance, though, in an area that is also publicly accessible, is an open expanse of land where views matching those of Harry’s pad can be gleaned.

And let me tell you, those views are absolutely incredible!

I mean, come on!

Last one, I promise.

We know – thanks to this video – that the actual interior of the Blue Heights Drive residence was utilized in Bosch’s pilot. And I am fairly certain that a few additional early episodes were shot on location inside the home, as well (quite possibly all of Season 1). At some point, though, a set re-creation was built on a studio soundstage that has since been used for all subsequent seasons.

How does a cop afford such a stellar pad, you ask? Per the storyline of both the books and the series, Paramount made a movie based upon one of Harry’s cases, for which he was paid handsomely.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Harry Bosch’s house from the television series Bosch is located at 1870 Blue Heights Drive in Hollywood Hills West. The best views of the structure can be seen from the 1600 block of Viewmont Drive and the 8800 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

January 2, 2019December 31, 2018

Grand Central Market from “Bosch”

Happy 2019, my fellow stalkers! I was originally going to write about a different locale today, one that was sadly lost in the Woolsey Fire, but decided it would be best to start the year off on a happier note. So instead I’m covering a quintessential Los Angeles spot that I have stalked countless times, but somehow never blogged about – DTLA’s Grand Central Market. The bustling food emporium/retail grocery mart is a virtual city landmark, though I only visited it for the first time while on jury duty in 2007, a full seven years after I moved to Southern California! Upon stepping inside the vibrant marketplace and poring through the rows upon rows of diverse food vendors – an activity that was recommended as part of jury orientation – I was immediately enthralled. The Grim Cheaper and I subsequently popped by countless times in the years that followed to grab a bite to eat or do some specialty grocery shopping, but it was not until spotting the place in a Season 4 episode of Bosch recently that I realized I had yet to dedicate a post to it. So here goes.

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Grand Central Market is situated on the ground floor of what is, interestingly enough, two adjacent buildings. The Homer Laughlin Building, which fronts Broadway, was designed by architect John Parkinson for Homer Laughlin, founder of the Homer Laughlin China Company, in 1897. Eight years later, Harrison Albright was commissioned to build an adjoining structure, facing Hill Street, to enlarge the property. My photos below show the secondary edifice, known as the Laughlin Annex/Lyon Building. Upscale department store Ville de Paris became the first tenant of the two building’s massive street level space, which opens to both Hill and Broadway.

I had always assumed Grand Central was a more recent addition to the Los Angeles landscape, established sometime in the 1990s or thereabouts, and was shocked to discover while researching for this post that it actually opened its doors on October 27th, 1917, just a few months after Ville de Paris relocated to a different location downtown. More than one hundred years later, the market is still a DTLA staple.

Stretching a full city block, the 30,000-square-foot emporium initially housed 90 vendors and catered to the wealthy Angelinos living just up the road in Bunker Hill, who accessed the market via Angels Flight situated right across the street. Today, the locale plays host to more than 25,000 visitors each day – area businessmen and women, tourists and locals alike, all looking for a unique bite to eat or specialty ingredient to take home.

Grand Central Market has been rehabbed a few times throughout its history – first in the 1960s, then in 1990, and then again, to the chagrin of many locals, in 2013. Regardless of the revamps, the site is doing better than ever today. In fact, Bon Appétit magazine named the entire place one of the best new restaurants of 2014! Boasting 38 stalls, the locale offers such varied fare as German currywurst, Japanese bento boxes, fresh oysters, and handmade Salvadorian pupusas. You’ll also find staples like handcrafted bread, gourmet coffees and teas, and artisanal cheeses.

Bright, vibrant and colorful, GCM serves as the heartbeat of downtown. As such, it is no surprise that the site has wound up onscreen in numerous L.A.-set productions.

In the Season 4 episode of Bosch titled “Ask the Dust,” which aired in April 2018, Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) walks through the Broadway entrance of Grand Central Market and is then shown exiting the Hill Street side on his way to Angels Flight, where the murder of a prominent lawyer has recently occurred. Only the outside of the locale is shown in the scene, though.

Back in 1974, Grand Central Market was the site of a lengthy chase and shootout in the comedy/action flick Busting.

Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) convinces Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) to track down accountant/embezzler Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin) over breakfast there at the beginning of 1988’s Midnight Run.

In 1991, Huell Howser chronicled Grand Central Market in the episode of California’s Gold titled “L.A. Adventures,” which you can watch here.

Gy. Sgt. James Dunn (Keenen Ivory Wayans) takes refuge in the emporium at the end of the 1997 thriller Most Wanted.

Seth (Nicolas Cage) and Dr. Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan) shop for produce there in the 1998 drama City of Angels.

Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) does the International House of Pancakes quiz with a random stranger – and mistakenly gets arrested for solicitation – at Grand Central Market in I Am Sam, though very little of the place can be seen in the 2001 drama.

Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) are very, very briefly shown grabbing pupusas there in the 2016 favorite La La Land.

And in 2018’s Will & Liz, Grand Central Market is the spot where titular characters Will (Nathan Wilson) and Liz (Christine Tucker) go on a date.

Though several sites claim that GCM was also featured in National Treasure, that is incorrect. The 2004 adventure flick’s market scene was actually lensed about 3,000 miles away at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, as I blogged about here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Grand Central Market, from the “Ask the Dust” episode of Bosch, is located at 317 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the emporium’s official website here.

December 12, 2018June 14, 2019

“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Christmas House

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – well, as much as it can in SoCal – which means it’s time to start posting holiday locales! I’m kicking off the season with the pad that portrayed the Banks family residence in the Season 1 Yuletide-themed episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air titled “Deck the Halls.” Now you’re probably thinking, ‘But you’ve blogged about the Fresh Prince house already, years ago.’ And you’d be correct. Way back in 2008, I did write about the massive Colonial manse that regularly appeared as the home of Will (Will Smith), Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro), Uncle Philip (James Avery), Aunt Viv (Janet Hubert), Hilary (Karyn Parsons), and Ashley (Tatyana Ali) on the popular series. (Spoiler! It’s actually in Brentwood, not Bel-Air!) But . . .

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. . . as a fellow stalker named Ashley informed me in August 2013, for whatever reason a different home was utilized as the family’s pad in the “Deck the Halls” episode. Thinking it would make for a great Christmas post, I set out to find the place, which turned into quite a long and tedious affair. I started by scouring the Colonial section of every online location database, then spent hours poring over Google Aerial Views looking for any large properties with a rounded portico – all to no avail. I once even thought I saw the house pop up in the Instagram story of a friend who was attending a holiday soiree at a Colonial-style dwelling. I quickly figured out the name of the party’s hosts and searched property records to find their address, only to discover upon getting a better look at the residence via Street View that it was not, in fact, the right place. Oh, the (admittedly crazy) lengths I go to to bring filming location information to the masses! It was not until this past February (almost five years after my search began!) that an unexpected source came to my rescue.

That month, upon the (very emphatic) recommendation of Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, the Grim Cheaper and I started watching Barely Famous, VH1’s fake reality series about the lives of sisters Erin and Sara Foster, daughters of music producer David Foster (who just so happens to be the man largely credited with discovering Michael Bublé – but I digress). While viewing the pilot episode, I just about screamed as an establishing shot of Erin and Sara’s home came into view. In an instant, I knew it was the pad from “Deck the Halls.” Thank you, Pinky!

Barely Famous not only provided much more expansive views of the residence, but an address placard was also visible in several episodes. Though I couldn’t quite make out the number displayed, it was apparent that said number was five digits, which meant the property was located somewhere in the Valley. Up until that point, I had only been searching the Hollywood/Hancock Park areas and their environs, near Hollywood Center Studios (now Sunset Las Palmas Studios) where The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s first season was lensed, as sitcom location managers typically don’t veer far from the lot when choosing locales. Oops!

Knowing the place was actually in the San Fernando Valley gave me a whole new lease on the hunt! Armed with the information, I headed over to Google Maps and found the Banks’ Christmas house/Barely Famous residence fairly quickly at 10436 Kling Street in Toluca Lake.

The 2-story, 17-room American Colonial Revival-style estate is definitely fit for a king – or the Banks family, as the case may be – with 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,898 square feet of living space, a master suite with a massive walk-in closet, multiple fireplaces and built-in bookcases, a 0.42-acre yard, a pool, a spa, a putting green (!), a detached 3-car garage, and a gazebo. You can see some interior photos of the pad, which was originally built in 1941, here.

In the “Deck the Halls” episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which aired in 1990, Will laments the fact that Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil are less than traditional when it comes to decorating for Christmas. So Viv gives him free reign to adorn their mansion – and soon comes to regret that decision. The Toluca Lake pad was shown a few times in establishing shots of the Banks’ home in the episode.

The property does bear a strong resemblance to the Brentwood estate typically used on the show, as you can see below, but not so much so that eagle-eyed viewers wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

All of the interiors from the “Deck the Halls” episode were, of course, shot on a studio set.

The property was only utilized for establishing shots on Barely Famous, as well.

All interiors were filmed elsewhere – I believe at an actual house and not on a set, though I am unsure of exactly where.

The pad is also where Juanita Solis (Madison De La Garza) attends a princess-themed birthday party in the Season 5 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow,” which aired in 2008.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Ashley for asking me to track down this locale and to Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for providing the key that finally helped me find it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Banks mansion from the “Deck the Halls” episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, aka Sara and Erin’s house from Barely Famous, is located at 10436 Kling Street in Toluca Lake. The estate regularly used as the Banks home on Fresh Prince can be found at 251 North Bristol Avenue in Brentwood.

December 7, 2018December 6, 2018

Nick’s Cafe from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”

It is not everyday that a one-minute clip gets me hooked on an entire television series, but that is exactly what happened with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. A few months back, my friend Kate texted me a hilarious highlight from a Season 5 episode in which Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) leads a group of criminals in a rousing acapella rendition of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” during a police lineup. I had never heard of the show at that point, but, let me tell you, as soon as the first strains of “You are my fire . . . “ hit my ears, I was done for! Any procedural that incorporates boy band music into its storyline is guaranteed to be a surefire favorite with me! The Grim Cheaper and I started watching the series that very night and have been binging it ever since. Not only is the acting superb and the dialogue laugh-out-loud funny, but (bonus!) it is shot in L.A., which means plenty of stalking for me. One of its locales, the small Chinatown eatery Nick’s Cafe, I first spotted in Season 3’s “House Mouses” and then again just a few weeks later on yet another series we are obsessed with, Bosch. So I decided I just had to run out and stalk the place.

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A veritable city institution, Nick’s Cafe (not to be confused with Nick’s Coffee Shop & Deli on Pico) was founded way back in 1948 by Navy vet Nick Viropolous.

In an unusual move, Nick chose to operate the place sans a name for the four decades that he owned it. As longtime waitress Lois Fuentes recalled in a 1995 Los Angeles Times article, “We went 41 years without a name. People would call it the Corner Cafe, the Ham House, all sorts of things. Nick was afraid if he gave it a name it might bring in more people. ‘Then you gotta hire more help,’ he’d say.”

The Ham House moniker, which is still sometimes used today, came about thanks to the bone-in ham, sliced to order, that Nick displayed daily on the eatery’s U-shaped counter.

Amazingly, the original counter is still intact today, seventy years after the restaurant first opened!

In the mid-90s, Viropolous sold the eatery to two LAPD homicide detectives who finally gave the place a name – Nick’s Cafe, in honor of its founder. The duo also installed a train track around the perimeter of the ceiling with a running model train that would circle the diner during open hours. Those tracks remain on display today (you can see them in the photos below), though the locomotive cars no longer operate.

Considering the profession of the new owners, it is not surprising that Nick’s became immensely popular with local police following the change of hands. As such, the restaurant has since been featured on numerous detective shows. But more on that in a bit.

In 2009, the cafe was taken over by a man named Rod Davis and it is still going strong today, largely thanks to the fact that little has been altered over the years. Not only is much of the décor original, but many of Nick’s recipes are still in use today.

I opted for a grilled cheese sandwich during my visit and it was honestly one of the best I’ve ever had. Granted, a grilled cheese is pretty hard to mess up, but the one served at Nick’s is stellar, with perfectly buttered toast and thick layers of two different kinds of cheese.

Most hours of the day at Nick’s are standing-room only, due to both its popularity and small size – the only available seating is at the counter, which is lined by a scant 25 stools, though the outside patio can accommodate an additional 25.

In the Season 3 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “House Mouses,” which aired in 2016, Jake convinces fellow detectives Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) to take over his drug case by buying them lunch at Nick’s.

The restaurant’s filming history far pre-dates Brooklyn Nine-Nine, though.

In 1997, Nick’s was the setting for the Depeche Mode video “It’s No Good,” which you can watch here.

Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) and Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) visit Nick’s Cafe while investigating a terror suspect in the Season 3 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles titled “Patriot Acts,” which aired in 2012.

That same year, on yet another procedural, Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) counsels Officer Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) about not getting emotionally attached to cases while standing in line at Nick’s in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Risk.”

The diner is the site of an armed robbery in DJ Snake and Justin Bieber’s 2016 “Let Me Love You” music video, which you can watch here.

Fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, informed me that the same year Ian Gallagher (Cameron Monaghan) and Lip Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) lunched outside of Nick’s in the Season 7 episode of Shameless titled “Swipe, F***, Leave.”

As I mentioned earlier, Nick’s also appeared on Bosch. In Season 3’s “Clear Shot,” which aired in 2017, Detective Santiago Robertson (Paul Calderon) discusses a recent case with Terry Drake (Barry Shabaka Henley) at the eatery.

And in yet another police-related production, Ponch (Michael Peña) meets some local CHP officers at Nick’s in the 2017 comedy CHIPS.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Nick’s Cafe, from the “House Mouses” episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is located at 1300 Spring Street in Chinatown. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. The eatery closes at 3 p.m. each day, so please plan accordingly.

December 3, 2018August 24, 2020

The Dutch Chocolate Shop from “Castle”

I am an extremely excitable person. A visit to Disneyland, randomly running in to a friend, a surprise sale at a favorite store, unexpected access to an off-limits filming location – all can send me into a tailspin. Such was the case last week when the Grim Cheaper and I were driving to stalk the former Dutch Chocolate Shop – a stunning oft-used locale in downtown L.A. that typically sits hidden away behind an unsightly metal rolldown door. As I ventured past the site looking for parking, I saw that the door happened to be open and got so excited I nearly careened the car into oncoming traffic. After calming down (slightly) and securing a parking spot, I ran back to the store, hyperventilating all the way, and was met by the extremely friendly man that runs it, who, lo and behold, invited us inside! More hyperventilating ensued (obvs). Still, days later as I sit here and write this, I cannot believe I actually got to see the inside of the place. As Yelper Andrew W. recently noted, the Dutch Chocolate Shop is “the Holy Grail of downtown Los Angeles’ – heck, maybe all of Los Angeles’ – historical and artistic sites.”

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I was first made aware of the Dutch Chocolate Shop when writing my post about The Magic Castle in October. While doing research on the historic Hollywood club, I came across a mention on IMDB that it had portrayed the headquarters of the Greatest Detective Society in the Season 8 episode of Castle titled “G.D.S.” I headed right on over to Amazon to download and scan through the episode, but one look at the cavernous space shown onscreen and I knew IMDB had gotten it wrong. The locale was most certainly not The Magic Castle. I was absolutely captivated by it, though, and promptly started trying to track it down, which I did fairly quickly thanks to Castle Wiki. As the website informed me, filming had taken place at a former chocolate shop, of all things, once located at 217 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Situated on the ground floor of a rather non-descript (and now graffiti-covered) 1898 building, the confectionary was the brainchild of E.C. Quinby, P.W. Quinby, and W.M. Petitfils of the Chocolate Shop Corporation.

The group leased the four-story structure in 1913 and renovated the street level space to the tune of $40,000. Architecture firm Plummer & Feil was commissioned to carry out the redesign.

The architects secured Pasadena artisan Ernest Batchelder to wallpaper the interior of the Dutch Chocolate Shop (or “the Chocolate Shoppe” as it was sometimes referred to) with his famous tilework, including murals which were to be Dutch in theme.

Per Big Orange Landmarks, “The Shoppe was to serve as a prototype for a whole chain of soda parlors, each with a different European country as its theme. For whatever reason – some say it was the high cost of Batchelder’s work – this never came to pass, and the 6th Street location was the first and last Chocolate Shoppe.”

Ernest’s fees might have been high, but the owners certainly got what they paid for because the finished product is absolutely stunning, with groined arches, tiled pillars, and 21 bas relief murals all depicting imagery of life in Holland.

The space, which is extremely reminiscent of Grand Central Terminal’s Whispering Gallery, is exquisite.

According to a commenter on Curbed Los Angeles, Feil instructed Ernest to fashion the tiles to look like chocolate bars. While a sweet (see what I did there) anecdote, I do not believe it to be true being that not only did Batchelder regularly utilize dark brown hues in his work, but per a different Curbed article and a Los Angeles Conservancy reference manual, the shingles’ current shading is actually an unintentional discoloration caused by shellac.

The Dutch Chocolate Shop, which operated as a confectionary, a soda fountain and a lunch/dinner restaurant, opened to the public in 1914.

You can see what it looked like in its early days here and here.

Though beautiful, the Dutch Chocolate Shop was not successful in the long run and by the early 1920s it was shuttered. The tiled space changed hands several times in the years that followed before being transformed into Finney’s Cafeteria in 1947. The eatery proved highly popular with the downtown set and remained in operation for almost forty years, until it, too, closed its doors in 1986 and was subsequently sold to an investment group.

For some inexplicable reason, the former Dutch Chocolate Shop was transformed into an arcade of sorts in 1997 – its vaulted rooms divided up by stalls, its gorgeous tiling covered over with particle board, and stacks of wares piled in every available nook and cranny. You can see some photos of its tragic appearance from that time period on Big Orange Landmarks. The space then became an electronics/pager store, as the signage hanging outside still attests to.

In 2012, the site, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, rather fortuitously wound up in the hands of former furniture dealer Charles Aslan. As reported in a Los Angeles Times article from that year, “The funny thing was that Aslan hadn’t come to the building for Batchelder. The exuberant businessman, born in Singapore, had only recently learned who Batchelder was.” After removing the plywood covering the former arcade’s walls and accidentally unearthing the virtually pristine historic murals and tile work, though, an idea took shape – to revitalize the entire structure by opening an upscale hot chocolate bar on the ground level, a restaurant on the second, artist studios on the third, and a tile manufacturing shop on the fourth. Again, from the L.A. Times – “Soon this man who once sold over-the-top factory furniture from an open lot on La Cienega Boulevard was expressing his devotion to the Pasadena artisan who epitomized the handmade. ‘The whole building is going to be Batchelder,’ Aslan said proudly of the 25,000-square-foot, four-story structure he has leased for the next 13 1/2 years.” Sadly, his intentions to reinvigorate the once grand space have not yet come to fruition. The roadblocks are mainly due to the structure’s lack of a rear exit, which is needed in order to secure a large enough certificate of occupancy to accommodate a restaurant of any sort. Though the building looks to have been put on the market for a brief time in late 2017, there weren’t any takers and current plans for the Dutch Chocolate Shop site seem to be uncertain.

Today, it sits vacant and, outside of the occasional filming, closed up . . .

. . . but thankfully well-preserved.

The “G.D.S” episode of Castle, which aired in 2016, made spectacular use of the Dutch Chocolate Shop. One look at the images below and it should be clear why I became so obsessed with the place.

Interestingly, “G.D.S.” was not the first Castle episode to utilize the site. In 2012, the Dutch Chocolate Shop masked as “the lair of an evil laser-gun-making genius” named Benjamin Donnelly (Armin Shimerman) in the Season 5 episode of the series titled “The Final Frontier.”

The exterior of the building also appeared in the episode.

The Dutch Chocolate Shop’s filming history far predates Castle, though.

Way back in 1918, Sheila Moore (Dorothy Gish) got a job there in The Hope Chest. Sadly, I could not find a copy of the movie with which to make screen captures anywhere, but photos from it appear on both Wikipedia . . .

. . . and The Daily Mirror website.

In the 1980 drama The Hunter, Ritchie Blumenthal (Eli Wallach) convinces bounty hunter Papa Thorson (Steve McQueen) to bring in fugitive Tony Bernardo (Thomas Rosales Jr.) while eating lunch at what was then Finney’s Cafeteria.

The Dutch Chocolate Shop site masks as The Museum of Human Misery: Hall of Low-Grade Crappiness in the Season 2 episode of The Good Place titled “Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent,” which aired in 2018.

And it masquerades as a secret cellar beneath the Sisters of the Divine Path convent in the Season 5 episode of Lucifer titled “Detective Amenadiel,” which aired in 2020.

According to the nice man who runs the place, the locale was also utilized in a Shania Twain video, though I was unable to figure out which video in particular.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Dutch Chocolate Shop, from the “G.D.S.” episode of Castle, is located at 217 West 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the space is closed to the public and typically hidden from view.

November 26, 2018January 10, 2020

Woodbury University from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”

Today’s locale, Woodbury University, was originally going to be included in this year’s Haunted Hollywood postings. I first learned about the Burbank college thanks to its appearance in the 2018 horror flick Truth or Dare and ran right out to stalk it, figuring it would fit in perfectly with my annual October theme. It was not until I sat down to research the place that I discovered its incredibly extensive film resume. The school easily has to be one of the San Fernando Valley’s most oft-used locations! From The Wonder Years to The Office, the site has popped up in countless notable productions over the years, including my and the Grim Cheaper’s latest favorite, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Anytime a college is needed for an L.A.-area shoot, it seems, cast and crew head straight to Woodbury. How I had never heard of the place is beyond me! Thinking the university was better suited to a non-horror-related post, I back-burnered it and am thrilled to finally be writing about it now!

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Woodbury Business College, as it was originally known, was founded by entrepreneur F. C. Woodbury in 1884. Initially housed in single-room space at 316 North Main Street in downtown L.A. with a staff of two, the school offered four classes, all related to practical business skills – bookkeeping, English, spelling, and penmanship. It was not long before high enrollment brought about a need to expand and the college took over an entire floor of the Stowell Building located a few blocks away at 226 South Spring Street. The structure, sadly, has since been demolished. In 1924, Woodbury received charter status from the state and expanded its curriculum to include business administration, foreign trade, and marketing courses. As the student body continued to grow, the school moved numerous times until 1937 when it finally set up shop at a Streamline Moderne building designed by Claud Beelman at 1027 Wilshire Boulevard, where it remained for the next fifty years. Sadly, that property was also since razed.

In 1961, the school received full charter status. That same year, its name was officially changed to Woodbury University.

When the need to expand arose once again in the 1980s, administrators acquired the former Villa Cabrini Academy Catholic girls high school, a 22.4-acre Burbank site that was initially built in 1927 as a summer home for orphans and underprivileged youth.

The new Woodbury campus, which opened to students in the fall of 1987, featured landscaped grounds, a gym, a pool, an athletic field, and dormitories. Additional facilities were also built in order to accommodate an eventual prospective enrollment of 2,500.

Woodbury University continued to flourish in its new home and today the school boasts two additional campuses (in Hollywood and San Diego) and offers degrees in over twenty subjects including business, computer information systems, and design.

The college is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous landscaping . . .

. . . tucked away spots . . .

. . . a tree-lined central quad . . .

. . . and both modern design elements . . .

. . . as well as Italian Romanesque, which harken back to the site’s secular roots.

So it comes as no surprise that Woodbury is a frequent screen star. And what fun I had putting together a comprehensive list of its many cameos!

The school’s original gym was used extensively in the 1989 action flick Best of the Best as the spot where Alexander Grady (Eric Roberts) and the rest of the Team USA martial artists regularly practiced.

In 2001, that gym was transformed into the university’s Design Center. Though completely remodeled, the basketball court markings are still intact today, as you can see in photos here and here.

The exterior of the gym also made an appearance in Best of the Best . . .

. . . as did one of the school’s parking lots.

That same year, the gym popped up as the Kennedy Junior High School gymnasium, where Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) took a stand against his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano), constantly being picked last for team sports, in the Season 2 episode of The Wonder Years titled “Loosiers.”

In 2001, Woodbury masked as the fictional University of Northeastern California in two Season 1 episodes of Undeclared – “Eric Visits” . . .

. . . and “Hell Week.”

In the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Business Trip,” which aired in 2008, Woodbury poses as New York’s Pratt School of Design, where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) tearfully tells Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) that she failed her art class. Filming took place outside of Woody’s Café and the Cabrini Gallery, though very little of either building can be seen.

Woodbury University appears very briefly in the Season 6 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Middle Man,” which aired in 2010, in the scene in which the Behavioral Analysis Unit canvases college campuses in search of a group of serial killers.

In the Season 3 episode of Workaholics titled “Flashback in a Day,” which aired in 2012, Woodbury poses as RC Polytechnic.

The school’s gorgeous library (which originally served as Villa Cabrini Academy’s chapel) masquerades as the Brooklyn Public Library, where Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) chase down a suspect in a deleted scene from the Season 1 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “The Tagger,” which aired in 2013. You can watch that scene here.

Sadly, the library was closed when we visited Woodbury, so we only got to see its exterior.

During the fourth season of Shameless, which started airing in 2014, Woodbury was utilized regularly as the interior of Chicago Polytechnic, where Lip Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) attended school.

That same year, Woodbury’s School of Business popped up in an establishing shot of the Raviga Capital Management offices in two Season 1 episodes of Silicon Valley – “Articles of Incorporation” and “Third Party Insourcing.”

Colette Kimball-Kinney (Fortune Feimster) and Jody Kimball-Kinney (Garret Dillahunt) attend a Physicians on the Front orientation in Woodbury’s auditorium in the Season 6 episode of The Mindy Project titled “Danny in Real Life,” which aired in 2017.

That same year, the school portrayed Danton College, where JJ DiMeo (Micah Fowler) shot a guest part in Bikini University 3, in the Season 2 episode of Speechless titled “B-I– BIKINI U-N– UNIVERSITY.”

Woodbury popped up as Long Beach Tech in another episode of Speechless, Season 3’s “THE S-T-A– STAIRCASE.”

In the 2018 horror flick Truth or Dare, Woodbury was used extensively as Westlake University, where Olivia Barron (Lucy Hale) and the rest of her doomed friends attend college.

The movie’s first freaky truth or dare challenge – which was featured in the trailer – takes place in the school’s library.

Actor Hayden Szeto, who played Brad Chen in the flick, posted the image below, of the Truth or Dare cast posing on the campus’ fountain, to Instagram the day that filming wrapped in July 2017, so I of course had to replicate it while I was there. Winking smile

Said fountain can be found in the center of campus in the Alumni Quad.

That same year, Woodbury masked as the Mumbai university where Bravo team rescued a group of American students who had been taken hostage in the Season 2 episode of Seal Team titled “Say Again Your Last.”

The school portrayed Howard University, Dre Johnson’s (Anthony Anderson) alma mater, in the Season 4 episode of Black-ish titled “Black Math” that same year.

Woodbury’s library makes an appearance in 2019’s Booksmart.

The school pops up in the Season 4 episode of Lucifer titled “Super Bad Boyfriend” as Callaway Prep, where Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) and Chloe Decker (Lauren German) investigate the murder of a beloved teacher.

And the library is where Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) checks out books for her uncle in the Season 1 episode of Truth Be Told titled “No Cross, No Crown.”

Woodbury has also been featured in episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Community, Felicity, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Just Add Magic, though I am unsure of which episodes in particular. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Woodbury University, from “The Tagger” episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is located at 7500 North Glenoaks Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the school’s official website here.

November 5, 2018November 4, 2018

Catherine Willows’ House from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”

I’ll never forget the first time I saw CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It was back in 2003 and my parents had come home from a random stop at the video store (remember those?) with a DVD of the series’ inaugural season in hand. I had not heard of the show at the time and decided to give the pilot a watch with them. I was immediately transfixed, as were my parents. We proceeded to binge all 23 episodes (the old-fashioned way!) in pretty much one sitting and then ran right back out to the video store to grab Season 2. I continued to be an avid viewer of the procedural (as well as the spin-offs CSI: Miami and CSI: NY) for years. Then somehow it fell off my radar. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to receive an email this past August from a fellow stalker named Sacha who wanted to know if I had any intel on the house belonging to Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) in the series’ twelfth season. I headed over to Hulu to take a look at the residence Sacha was searching for and recognized it immediately. It’s a place I’ve not only stalked, but blogged about before! As it turns out, Catherine’s pad is none other than South Pasadena’s Cox House, which portrayed Oliver Trask’s (Taylor Handley) Palm Springs dwelling on The O.C. Because the property has since gone on to appear in an episode of Ray Donovan, I figured it was due for another write-up.

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The Cox House, named for original owner Paul Cox, was designed by local Pasadena architect John Galbraith in 1959.

The Mid-Century Modern masterpiece is also known as the “Tree House” thanks to the large conifer that grows right through the roof of its entryway.

The one-story pad, which boasts Miesian Modernist and Southern California Regional Modernist elements, features 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,032 square feet of living space, glass and stone walls, a massive tile fireplace, hardwood flooring, a 0.46-acre lot, multiple patios, a pool, and a hot tub.

The property last sold in December 2000 for $641,000.

You can check out some interior photos of it here.

While undeniably striking and cinematic, I am surprised the place wound up on CSI, which is set in Las Vegas, being that it doesn’t really have a Sin City vibe. A different home was actually utilized as Catherine’s in Season 5’s “Weeping Willows” (it’s at 17145 Nanette Street in Granada Hills) and it, too, had a decidedly Mid-Century Modern-style, though, so what do I know?

The Cox House first popped up on CSI in Season 12’s “Zippered,” which aired in 2011. Only the interior of the residence was shown in the episode, in the scene in which Catherine meets up with her old friend Laura Gabriel (Annabeth Gish).

The pad was subsequently featured in the next episode of CSI titled “Ms. Willows Regrets.” In the episode, Catherine returns home from visiting a crime scene and winds up ambushed herself. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the property were featured prominently in the episode.

The Cox House appeared again in the following episode of CSI titled “Willows in the Wind,” in which the team investigates Catherine’s attack.

As I mentioned earlier, the home was also featured on The O.C. In Season 1’s “The Links,” which aired in 2004, Oliver invites Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), and the rest of the Harbor School gang for a weekend visit to his parents’ Palm Springs pad, said to be located “right on PGA West.” Now the Cox House portraying a Palm Springs property I can certainly buy. The residence definitely bears that desert look.

While the home’s actual interior appeared in the episode (as well as some of the actual furniture) . . .

. . . the two bedrooms shown were just sets built at Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios (now MBS Media Campus), where the series was lensed.

Not surprisingly, the Cox House also popped up as a Palm Springs residence on Ray Donovan. In Season 1’s “Black Cadillac,” which aired in 2013, Mickey Donovan (Jon Voight), Bunchy Donovan (Dash Mihok), and Daryll (Pooch Hall) visit Daryll’s mother, Claudette (Sheryl Lee Ralph), at her supposed desert home. Upon arriving, Mickey proclaims, “What the f*ck kinda architecture is this?” It’s called Mid-Century Modern, Mickey! Mid-Century Modern at its finest!