Category: TV Locations

Royal Dale Townhouses from “The Ropers”

Michael, our resident The Brady Bunch filming locations expert, is back once again with a non-Brady locale. (You can check out his TBB columns here, here, here and here, and his non-TBB columns here and here). Today’s location is one from way back when, so enjoy!

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One summer when I was in middle school, I vividly recall watching a daily programing block of Three’s Company reruns. Those familiar with the show know that in the final episode of the third season, Jack, Janet, and Chrissy’s landlords, the Ropers, sell their rental building. But, in real life, ABC executives were hoping to capitalize on the popularity of Stanley and Helen Roper and create a new sitcom centered around those characters.

During the fourth season of Three’s Company, The Ropers premiered and lasted a 6-episode first season and a 22-episode second season before cancelation. The series’ first episode, “Moving On,” begins with the Ropers in their old apartment while Helen dreams of a move to Cheviot Hills. After Stanley capitulates, we’re treated to a location shot of the Ropers pulling up to their prospective townhouse in the fictional condominium complex, Royal Dale Townhouses, “for the discriminating homeowner.”

Stanley quickly makes a bad impression by driving up in his jalopy while potential new neighbor and real estate agent Jeffrey P. Brookes III (Jeffrey Tambor) watches on. Brookes tries to keep the Ropers from buying the unit, but by the end of the episode, they’ve purchased the townhouse.

Location-filming with the actors was limited to the pilot, but additional footage of the townhouse can be seen throughout the series in establishing shots and the closing credits.

Many of the Three’s Company opening title filming locations have been known for years. Even the rare exterior apartment footage location was more recently uncovered by Lindsay’s friend Owen, however the townhouse from The Ropers has remained a mystery.

In researching the location, I came across a comment online from someone purporting to have frequently driven by the complex in Cheviot Hills, but no specifics were given. And others centered their searches around Cheviot Hills, but had come up dry. Adding to the confusion, even the Cheviot Hills Homeowners Association lists The Ropers as one of the many television productions filmed in the area. I wasn’t so trusting—just because the fictional townhouse was located in Cheviot Hills, I wasn’t ready to believe that the footage was also filmed in that neighborhood.

I decided to try a different method and looked up where The Ropers was produced. Once I found out that the sitcom was taped at CBS Television City, in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, I started looking at townhouse complexes relatively near the studio. My thinking was that since it was rather uncommon for a 1970s sitcom to do any location filming, perhaps the scene was filmed close to the studio. Using this search criteria, I quickly zeroed in on the right spot, Wilshire Country Manor, located only 2.5 miles from the studio. And when I was in Los Angeles last month, I ventured out to see it for myself.

Remarkably, not much has changed since the series was taped nearly 40 years ago, even the distinctively gnarled tree near the curb is still recognizable. The planter near the entrance however, now contains a large tree that obscures a pair of windows and some of the mansard roof, while larger shrubs have absorbed most of the iron fence. The fire hydrant and red curb seen in the screen grab below were only props used in a first-episode gag.

Wilshire Country Manor was constructed in 1973 and as its name hints, it’s located in Hancock Park—a neighborhood which surrounds the Wilshire Country Club. Early ads mention you could buy an “elegant townhouse condominium” starting at $62,500. “A home, in the place, amidst a cultural happening.” I think Mrs. Roper would approve.

Editor’s Note – Big THANK YOU, once again, to Michael for this fabulous – and fabulously retro! – post!

Stalk it: Wilshire Country Manor, aka Royal Dale Townhouses from The Ropers, is located at 646 Wilcox Avenue in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood.

September 28, 2016
Houses from “Life in Pieces”

Today’s post is once again brought to you by my friend, fellow stalker Michael (you can read his other fabulous guest columns here, here, here and here). As was the case yesterday, this article is, surprisingly, not about a The Brady Bunch location. Take it away, Michael!

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Each fall I’m always excited as the newest television season starts to air, but I’m often dissuaded from watching the networks’ latest offerings because it seems as soon as I get into a new show, it’s canceled. However, last year I thought I’d give CBS’s new sitcom, Life in Pieces, a shot. I’m a long-time Dianne Wiest fan, and I thought the concept of the show sounded interesting. Every episode of the 30-minute program consists of four individual stories—each separated by a commercial break. Fittingly, episodes are named with four words—one to describe each story.

Not uncommon for pilots, the first episode of Life in Pieces used a different residence to represent Joan (Dianne Wiest) and John’s (James Brolin) house (the Wilson home from 90210, as Lindsay pointed out to me), while the second episode provides us with the main residences used for the rest of the season.

Joan and John live in a large white traditional-style home, along with their son Matt (Thomas Sadoski) who has moved into the garage. Joan and John’s daughter Heather (Betsy Brandt), son-in-law Tim (Dan Bakkedahl), and grandchildren Tyler (Niall Cunningham), Samantha (Holly J. Barrett) and Sophia (Giselle Eisenberg) move into a Cape Cod just down the street in the second episode (“Interruptus Date Breast Movin’”). And Joan and John’s youngest son Greg (Colin Hanks) lives with his wife Jen (Zoe Lister-Jones) and their daughter in a mid-century modern home.

When I couldn’t find any mention of the show’s filming locations online I started looking into them myself. Thankfully the producers and owners of the homes didn’t try to disguise the locations, leaving the house numbers affixed and painted curb addresses unobscured.

Then it was just a matter of finding the right neighborhoods. I had an inkling that the two traditional-style homes might be located in Cheviot Hills. I’d spent some time in the area last year looking at filming locations from The Goldbergs and Modern Family, and it was easy to picture the residences from Life in Pieces in that neighborhood. Using the addresses that I could glean from the show, I started checking like-numbered blocks until I hit pay dirt.

Like the show would have you believe, Joan and John’s house is located just a couple homes away from Heather and Tim’s. When in Los Angeles last month, I headed right out to Cheviot Hills to have a look.

Since I’m used to tracking down locations that were filmed 30-40 years ago, it’s always a delight and a little jarring to find a contemporary location and have it look exactly the same as it does on television.

Even the neighbors’ homes along Patricia Avenue can be seen in many episodes.

Having found two of the homes for the price of one, I just needed to track down Greg and Jen’s mid-century modern. Since that style would be out of place in Cheviot Hills, I started looking into other neighborhoods. After investigating a few suspected possibilities with no luck, I tuned into the then-latest episode (“Tattoo Valentine Guitar Pregnant”) and the dialog referred to Greg and Jen’s Mar Vista home. Since it’s not unusual for the fictional location of a television show to not mesh with the actual location used for filming, I didn’t get my hopes up, but still figured it was worth checking out.

And once again the show itself helped me zero-in on the proper location. Greg and Jen’s house is indeed located in Mar Vista, a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, nestled between Venice, Santa Monica, and Culver City.

The house used on Life in Pieces isn’t the only mid-century modern home in the area. In fact it’s one of 52 residences built on the Mar Vista tract on Meier and Moore Streets, originally marketed as “Modernique Homes” and designed by architect Gregory Ain, a student of renown California Modern architect Richard Neutra. Thankfully these homes are now part of a Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone which limits alternations to architecturally important structures.

Until recently, I’d never visited Mar Vista, but in addition to checking out the Life in Pieces house, I’d certainly recommend a stroll around the block to check out the unique architecture. [Editor’s Note – the fabulous mid-century modern home where Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) lived in Matchstick Men is located on the same block!)

Editor’s Note – A big THANK YOU to Michael once again for yet another fabulous post! I have yet to watch Life in Pieces, but I think it’s time I start. And I need to get myself out to Mar Vista pronto to peruse the Modernique Homes – they sound right up my alley!

Stalk Them: Joan and John’s house (and Matt’s garage) from Life in Pieces is located at 3321 Patricia Avenue in Cheviot Hills. Heather and Tim’s house is located at 3308 Patricia Avenue in Cheviot Hills. Jen and Greg’s house can be found at 3531 Meier Street in Mar Vista. (Editor’s Note – Roy’s house from Matchstick Men is located just down the block at 3508 Meier Street.)

September 27, 2016
Harmon Pet Care from “Fuller House”

Well, my fellow stalkers, I am finally home from my trip back east. Over the course of twelve days, the Grim Cheaper and I hit up Washington D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia and stalked a myriad of locations in the process (I took close to 3,000 pictures! I’m shocked my computer didn’t crash when I uploaded them all!). Those posts will be coming soon. In the meantime, though, we had to scoot off on another quick trip (I swear I think I have traveled more this year than any year prior), so my friend, fellow stalker Michael, of countless The Brady Bunch posts fame (you can read them here, here, here and here) has graciously stepped in yet again with a slew of fabulous guest columns that I will be publishing over the course of this week. Thank you, Michael! So without further ado . . .

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I’m back for my fifth guest post. And brace yourself, it’s not about The Brady Bunch—what ever happened to predictability? I’ve flipped the calendar from the 70s to 2016 to cover a contemporary comedy, Fuller House, created and produced by the same folks that brought us Full House and starring most of the cast from the 90s classic.

I had anxiously awaited the release of the new series since it was first announced, even visiting Warner Bros. last winter (and again this summer, but that’s a story for another day) to get a better look at a backlot facade they’d built to stand in for the San Francisco-located home used on the original sitcom. I was looking forward to seeing how they’d incorporate the new facade into the program and how they’d redo the iconic opening titles.

Although I was pleased enough with the new show, I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that Fuller House didn’t go all out and create a multi-location opening title a la Full House, and instead went with a more modern opening without any on-site filming. The tenth episode, “A Giant Leap,” was filmed partly on location at AT&T Park in San Francisco, but even those scenes were limited to the ball park. The new series didn’t offer many new establishing shots to track down, and even the facade that had been built on the Warner Bros. backlot went mysteriously unused, while vintage footage of the San Francisco home was dusted off to establish scenes set in the iconic house.

Something new did catch my eye, though—an establishing shot used throughout the first season. D.J. Tanner—not to be confused with her sister Stephanie who’s now a D.J. spinning under the name D.J. Tanner—is a veterinarian working at Harmon Pet Care. And while all of the interior scenes were shot at Warner Bros. in Burbank, the establishing shot of the clinic was filmed in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Admittedly, it wasn’t much work to pin down this location. Paper lanterns, ornamental street lights, and a sign that reads “Welcome to Chinatown” left little doubt.

On my last visit to San Francisco, I headed to the Dragon’s Gate—the formal entrance to Chinatown, and the beginning of a major shopping artery. The Dragon’s Gate actually appeared in the unaired original pilot episode of Full House. Rather than send the cast to Northern California, production had body doubles for the actors filmed at quintessential San Francisco landmarks. These clips were then used extensively in the closing titles of the pilot, and some also reappeared in the first season opening and closing titles.

Continuing my walk, I quickly came upon the intersection shown in Fuller House—Grant Avenue and Sacramento Street, looking south.

As I started to line up the shot, I noticed something that I hadn’t at home. The Harmon Pet Care sign is mounted to an entirely different building than the building with the Harmon Pet Care awning. Because of the angle of the shot used on Fuller House, you can’t see much of the facade behind the sign. I imagined that the pet clinic signs were digitally added to to a piece of stock footage in post-production. My suspicions about the digital manipulation were confirmed when I noticed that among other changes, an awning at the end of the street in the clip is brown in the Fuller House clip, but is currently red, and has been for at least a couple of years before the production of the new show.

The Harmon Pet Care sign is superimposed over Old Shanghai, a home decor and fashion retailer.

And the awning is that of the Far East Café.

I didn’t dine at the Far East Café, so I can’t attest to their menu offerings, however I’ve read that it’s a particularly vintage restaurant and has some unique architecture. The building dates back to the early 1900s, while the restaurant opened in the 20s and some of the original decoration is even older having been imported from China.

The rest of the block and signage looks very similar to the Fuller House establishing shot.

The eighth episode, “Secrets, Lies and Firetrucks,” contains the only evening establishing shot of the pet clinic. For this footage, the camera was moved to the opposite end of the block.

It wasn’t until I was writing this post that I noticed an entirely different building was shown in an establishing shot for the season’s last episode, “Love Is in the Air.” Nearly all of the business names were digitally removed, but thankfully they left a visible address that allowed me to home in on the alternate location. For this clip, B & C Laundromat on Waverly Place stands in for Harmon Pet Care. The awning from the Far East Café footage was digitally reversed and placed above its entrance.

Editor’s Note – A big THANK YOU to Michael for sharing this fabulous post with us (especially the uh-ma-zing graphic below, which I’m enthralled with)! I’m already looking forward to the rest of this week’s offerings!

Stalk Them: Far East Café and Old Shanghai, aka Harmon Pet Care from Fuller House, are located at 631 and 645 Grant Avenue in San Francisco, respectively. B&C Laundromat, aka Harmon Pet Care from the “Love Is in the Air” episode, is located at 115 Waverly Place in San Francisco.

September 26, 2016
Bow Bridge from “Glee”

I have a thing for Central Park bridges. One of my favorite places in all of New York City – in all of the world, actually – is Gapstow Bridge. I’ve stalked it countless times, blogged about it, and honestly just cannot get enough of its bucolic beauty. Though I have walked pretty much every square inch of the park and seen the vast majority of its bridges, one span that I had never properly stalked until my recent NYC visit this past April was Bow Bridge, which I knew of from its two appearances on the television series Glee.

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Designed by Calvert Vaux, Bow Bridge was constructed between 1859 and 1862 and has the distinction of being the first cast-iron bridge built in Central Park.

The 87-foot-long site gets its name from its arched shape, which is said to resemble the bows of both archers and musicians.

Bow Bridge sits atop the Central Park Lake and, with its 60-foot span, connects Cherry Hill to The Ramble.

The structure’s walkway is made of the highly durable South American ipe (pronounced ee-pay) wood, also known as Brazilian walnut.

Not only is the bridge itself extremely picturesque . . .

. . . but its setting is absolutely magical.

Bow Bridge also boasts some pretty amazing views.

As such, it should come as no surprise that the location has been featured countless times onscreen – far too many times for me to properly document here. But read on for a list of the highlights.

In the Season 2 episode of Glee titled “New York,” Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) surprises Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) with a spontaneous date in the Big Apple, telling her via text to “Meet me in Central Park at Bow Bridge. Dress up. Finn.”

The two meet on the bridge, where Finn gives Rachel flowers, and they then venture off to various landmark Manhattan locales. During their date, Rachel says, “Being in New York is like falling in love over and over again every minute.” I know what you mean, Rachel. I know what you mean.

Rachel returned to Bow Bridge – wearing a fabulous fuchsia trench coat – while singing “Yesterday” in the Season 5 episode titled “Love, Love, Love.”

Bow Bridge was the site of another romantic scene involving another Finn. In 1998’s Great Expectations, Finnegan Bell (Ethan Hawke) met up with Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow) at the picturesque site.

Molly (Brittany Murphy) jumps from Bow Bridge into The Lake in the 2003 comedy Uptown Girls.

Bow Bridge is where Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) breaks up with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) in 2007’s Spider-Man 3.

That same year, Giselle (Amy Adams) danced across the bridge, while Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) followed behind, during Enchanted’s big “That’s How You Know” number.

Patrick Dempsey returned to Bow Bridge for the filming of Made of Honor. It is there that Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) tells Dempsey’s character, Tom, that she is going to Scotland for six weeks in the 2008 romcom.

Beth (Kristen Bell) jogged across the bridge in 2010’s When in Rome.

Bow Bridge was also featured a couple of times in the Season 7 episode of Doctor Who titled “The Angels Take Manhattan,” which aired in 2012.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bow Bridge, from the “New York” and “Love, Love, Love” episodes of Glee, is located in Central Park at 74th Street, just west of Bethesda Terrace.

September 7, 2016
The Rum House from “Birdman”

The Grim Cheaper typically could care less about filming locations, but he is absolutely obsessed with the movie The Godfather. So I included a couple of locales from the 1972 Best Picture winner on the itinerary for our recent trip to the Big Apple. One of those spots was Hotel Edison, a historic Theater District lodging that made a brief appearance in the flick. While we were stalking the place, we happened to strike up a conversation with the super-friendly doorman who informed us that the property’s first-floor bar, The Rum House, had been featured in another Best Picture winner, 2014’s Birdman. So we headed right on in to snap some photos of it. As I’ve said many times before, stalking begets stalking.

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Commissioned by Milton J. Kramer, the 26-story Hotel Edison was originally designed by Herbert J. Knapp in 1931. Thomas Edison was enlisted to turn on the property’s lights (albeit via a remote control from his home in New Jersey) during the grand opening ceremony.

Despite a few renovations that have taken place over the years, the hotel still appears to boast much of its original Art Deco detailing. You can check out a postcard with vintage images of the property here.

At the time of its founding, Hotel Edison featured three onsite restaurants. Today, there is only one eatery/bar in operation on the premises – The Rum House.

The Rum House was originally established in 1973. By the time its owners lost their lease in 2009, the place was in desperate need of a facelift.

Thankfully, a group of restaurateurs including Kenneth McCoy, Michael Neff, and Abdul Tabini took over the space in 2011 and began a renovation. The threesome kept much of the watering hole’s original charm intact, while adding some updates, including a new bar, lighting, and tile flooring. Of the redesign, McCoy stated in a 2015 New York Post article, “We wanted to bring back the feeling of a Times Square piano bar in the 1940s or ’50s.” You can see what it formerly looked like here.

The renovated lounge quickly became a hit with New Yorkers, tourists, and celebrities alike. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Tony Danza, George Wendt, Jake Gyllenhaal, Molly Ringwald, and Jon Hamm. Emma Stone and Bill Murray even tickled the ivories there together one night in 2014.

The Rum House appeared twice in Birdman. It first popped up in the scene in which Mike (Edward Norton) and Riggan (Michael Keaton) discussed their bad preview.

The exterior of The Rum House was also featured in that scene. Through a bit of camera trickery, the bar was made to appear as if it is situated next door to the St. James Theatre, where much of the film took place. In reality, though, it is located three blocks to the north.

Riggan returns to The Rum House to grab a drink in a later scene and winds up confronting theatre critic Tabitha Dickinson (Lindsay Duncan).

According to the Post article, location manager Joaquin Prange chose The Rum House, which shut down for a week to accommodate the shoot, because of its old school aesthetic. He says, “The place needed to fit with Michael Keaton’s character. He’s a recovering alcoholic. Just the fact that he’s taking a drink is a big deal, and the look of the place needed to reflect that. Rum House is dark and woody, with a bit of a patina, like the kind of place where Riggan Thomson would go for a drink by himself. This is not about drinking during the good times, but we also wanted a bar that looked classy, a place that could make you a good cocktail. It was not about finding a dive.” The cast and crew wound up liking The Rum House so much that an impromptu wrap party was held there the last night of filming shortly after the final scene was lensed.

As I mentioned earlier, Hotel Edison appeared briefly in The Godfather. It popped up at the beginning of the scene in which Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) headed to meet with Sollozzo (Al Lettieri). In the segment, Brasi is shown walking through the Edison’s rear hallway, which can be reached via 46th Street. (Sadly, that area of the hotel was closed for renovations when we were there so I could not photograph it.) When Brasi turned the corner to head into the restaurant where he ultimately met his end, though, he was at a different location entirely – a much disputed location. While it has been reported in several books and online that Sollozzo killed Brasi in Hotel Edison’s now shuttered Sofia Ristorante Italiano, according to Scouting NY the scene was actually shot at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn.

The same Hotel Edison hallway appeared in 1994’s Bullets over Broadway as the spot where David Shayne (John Cusack) argued with Julian Marx (Jack Warden) about hiring Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly) for a role in his play.

I was floored to discover while researching Hotel Edison for this post that the site’s now shuttered Café Edison was used in an episode of Sex and the City! In Season 5’s “Anchors Away,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) seeks shelter from the rain – and a bowl of matzo ball soup – at the eatery and winds up being seated next to a woman who has a penchant for lithium-laced ice cream. Café Edison was a longtime Theater District staple that served meals onsite from 1980 through 2014 when its owners, unfortunately, lost their lease. The space currently remains shuttered. You can see some photos of what it used to look like here.

The hotel’s Edison Ballroom also made an appearance in “Anchors Away” as the spot where Carrie and her friends party with the plethora of sailors in town for Fleet Week. At the time, the space was known as Supper Club and, though it looks a bit different today, it is still recognizable from its SATC cameo. You can check out some photos of what it currently looks like here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Rum House, from Birdman, is located at 228 West 47th Street, inside of Hotel Edison, in New York’s Theater District. You can visit the watering hole’s official website here.

August 19, 2016
The TKTS Booth from “Glee”

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I bailed on the television series Glee shortly after the second part of the first season began airing. In my opinion, after starting out so strong, the show totally jumped the shark at that point. But because I love the Big Apple, I did make sure to tune in to the Season 2 episode titled “New York,” which was partially shot in Manhattan. One of the locations featured was the TKTS booth, or TKTS staircase, in Times Square. While I had seen the booth shortly after it was constructed in 2008, I had never properly stalked it. So, since the site is so picturesque and so quintessentially New York, I made sure to amend that while visiting the city this past April.

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The TKTS (pronounced “Tee-Kay-Tee-Ess”) booth was initially established in 1973 to provide theatregoers with same-day discount tickets to Broadway shows. The pavilion was constructed at Duffy Square, a traffic island situated between West 46th Street, 7th Avenue, Broadway, and West 47th Street that was named in honor of World War I military chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy. (A statue honoring Duffy is pictured in the images below.) The original design, which was completed by the Mayers & Schiff Associates architecture firm and stood at the site from 1973 through 2006, consisted of a trailer surrounded by a red truss frame strung through with white canvas panels bearing the TKTS logo. You can see what it looked like here and here.

Though Mayers & Schiff’s design proved iconic, the structure was only meant to be a temporary installation and it eventually began to show signs of wear and tear. In 1999, the Theatre Development Fund, along with the NYC 2000 Millennium Committee and the Van Alen Institute, hosted a competition to re-design the booth. Over 683 submissions were received, but there was one clear winner. Australian architects John Choi and Tai Ropiha’s concept of a red staircase topping a transparent pavilion won the vote. Of their creation, juror Tucker Viemeister said, “The winner is really the winner. Seldom in a design competition with so many excellent entries is the winner so obviously the best choice. It goes beyond meeting the criteria and is even poetic (which is really hard considering the Times Square environment!) It will become a landmark.” The Perkins Eastman architecture firm was brought in to finalize the design, which consists of a glass ticket booth with twelve sales windows . . .

. . . capped by a large set of red bleacher-style steps.

Construction of the new booth began in May 2006 and was completed in October 2008.

The TKTS stairs have gone on to win 18 design awards and today are a favorite gathering place for New Yorkers and tourists alike. The site is also turning into a popular filming location.

In the “New York” episode of Glee, the New Directions members gather at the TKTS booth upon first arriving in the Big Apple for Nationals. While there, they spontaneously break out into an a cappella version of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”

The TKTS booth also popped up later in the episode during the “I Love New York”/”New York, New York” mash-up number.

Alicia Keys and Jay Z made prominent use of the TKTS stairs in their 2009 music video for “Empire State of Mind.”

You can watch that video by clicking below.

Get More: Jay Z, Empire State of Mind feat. Alicia Keys, Music, More Music Videos

A dilapidated version of the TKTS booth was featured in 2007’s I Am Legend, though no actual filming took place at the site.

Instead, the steps were re-created as part of an elaborate set inside of the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx for the shoot. You can see photos of that re-creation and the entire Times Square set here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The TKTS Booth, from the “New York” episode of Glee, is located at 1564 Broadway in Times Square.

August 15, 2016
The Blind Donkey from “Revenge”

I stalk so many places, typically in quick succession, that oftentimes a few get lost in the shuffle. Such was the case with The Blind Donkey, an Old Town Pasadena whiskey bar that I visited back in April, shortly before the Grim Cheaper and I headed off to New York, and then promptly forgot about until this morning when I was going through my many stalking photographs. The site made an appearance during Season 4 of fave show Revenge. I still have yet to watch the fourth and final season of the ABC series (I really need to get on that), but had scanned through the episode titled “Repercussions” to make screen captures for my January post about The L.A. Hotel Downtown. While doing so, I spotted The Blind Donkey in a scene and, though I had never actually set foot in the watering hole at the time, recognized it immediately.

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The spot that now houses The Blind Donkey has been the site of countless eateries over the years. I never dined at any of them when I lived in Pasadena, but I did walk and drive by the space on a fairly regular basis when shopping in Old Town. I even caught a movie being filmed on the premises once, so the place is quite memorable to me. More on that later, though.

The Blind Donkey opened its doors on November 7th, 2012 (my mom’s birthday!). Prior to that time, the space housed Café Atlantic, then Brenart Café Restaurant Gallery, then Brenart Restaurant & Wine Bar (similar name to its predecessor, but a different owner), then Dish Bistro & Bar. Like I said, it has been through a large succession of tenants in a short period of time. It looks like The Blind Donkey is here to stay, though.

Though the establishment boasts several backers, including Ryan Sweeney (the restaurateur behind The Surly Goat, Der Wolfskopf, and Verdugo Bar), The Blind Donkey was actually the brainchild of Pasadena native/whiskey aficionado John Bower.

The watering hole is known for its large stock of whiskey (over 65 varieties), French fry offerings (The Blind Donkey takes its fries very seriously – there are ten variations on the menu), and hearty fare. I opted for the Veggie Burger, which came with cheddar cheese, jalapeno ranch (I was a little skeptical about the dressing as I am not a fan of spicy foods, but it turned out to be uh-ma-zing!), sautéed mushrooms and onions, and a homemade pickle. The bartender who served me could not have been nicer and everything I sampled was fabulous, so it should not have come as a surprise when the space loaded up almost to capacity shortly after I arrived. Lucky for me, I showed up to grab lunch right when the restaurant opened at 1 p.m. on a Sunday and had the place completely to myself (empty eateries make for better photographs), but within twenty minutes all of the bar seats and most of the tables had been filled.

In the “Repercussions” episode of Revenge, Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann) and Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler) discuss the return of David Clarke (James Tupper) over beers at The Blind Donkey. Though I had never actually been inside the space at the time, I recognized enough of what was shown outside of the windows to know where filming had taken place.

I fell in love with the bar’s exposed brick walls and industrial décor on sight and immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list. I am happy to report that The Blind Donkey is just as striking in person.

Back when the space housed Brenart Café Restaurant Gallery, it made an appearance in the 2007 action film Live Free or Die Hard.

It is through the restaurant’s side window that John McClane (Bruce Willis) and Matthew Farrell (Justin Long) watch fake news footage of the United States Capital Building being destroyed. In the scene, John and Matthew are standing in Kendall Alley, which runs along the west side of the eatery.

The window that John and Matthew looked through is still intact and is denoted with pink arrows in the images below.

I actually saw the Live Free or Die Hard scene being filmed very briefly. In late November 2006, I was driving out of the One Colorado parking garage, located just across the street from Brenart Café Restaurant Gallery, and while paying at the ticket booth, looked up and was shocked to see a battered and bloodied Bruce Willis standing in the alley right across from me! Because there were cars behind me and I was heading back to work (I was a personal assistant at the time), I could not stop to watch, unfortunately. But the image of Bruce standing mere feet away always stuck with me and brought a smile to my face every time I ventured past the Brenart space.

While scanning through Live Free or Die Hard to make screen captures for this post, I was floored to spot The Novel Café, from Little Black Book, make an appearance. I was less than floored when I discovered shortly thereafter that the coffee shop had since closed. I loved that place! A Groundwork Coffee Co. now inhabits the spot. I will definitely be checking it out the next time I am in town.

The exterior of The Blind Donkey is also seen briefly in the Season 11 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Target Rich.”

On a random side-note – while scanning through “Target Rich,” I was floored to see that a scene took place outside of my favorite store, Lula Mae, which is located at 100 North Fair Oaks Avenue!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Blind Donkey, from the “Repercussions” episode of Revenge, is located at 53 East Union Street in Pasadena. You can visit the watering hole’s official website here.

August 12, 2016
The “Sex and the City” Starbucks

One of the best things about starting this blog is the people it has put me in contact with – a myriad of fabulous individuals who share my unique affection for filming locations. One such fellow stalker, a New Yorker named Gary, has gifted me with countless Big Apple locales since we first started exchanging emails way back in 2010. Most of Gary’s knowledge comes from driving a cab for three years. The job took him all over NYC, made him familiar with its nooks and crannies, and he now knows the city like the back of his hand. He has also come across quite a few filmings during his tenure in New York and, thanks to his hawk-like memory, can recall where each took place. One such filming was of a Sex and the City episode that Gary witnessed being shot at the Starbucks at 16th Street and Eighth Avenue. Well believe you me, when I read the words “Sex and the City” and “Starbucks,” I practically came unglued and added the locale to my NYC To-Stalk list. And while Gary could not remember which episode the scene appeared in, it did not take me long to figure it out.

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In Season 4’s “The Good Fight,” Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) heads to the Eighth Avenue Starbucks for some respite after getting into a huge fight with then fiancé Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) over the lack of space in their newly shared apartment. (You can watch that fight here.) While there, she says, “I used to think those people who sat alone at Starbucks writing on their laptops were pretentious posers. Now I know – they’re people who have recently moved in with someone. As I looked around, I wondered how many of them were mid-fight, like myself. The hard thing about fighting in relationships as opposed to Madison Square Garden? No referee. There’s no one to tell you which comments are below the belt or when to go to your separate corners. As a result, someone usually gets hurt. And it seems the closer a couple gets and the more stuff they have between them, the harder it is to figure out exactly why they’re yelling. When it comes to relationships, I couldn’t help but wonder, what are we fighting for?” Despite the fact that I have re-watched the entire Sex and the City series a copious amount of times, I often forget how ingenious the writing is. When the Grim Cheaper and I first moved in together, we had Aidan and Carrie’s exact same fight. In preparation for our move – and the tiny closet at our new apartment – I had thrown out countless outfits that I loved. So when the GC showed up with six (six!) medium-sized boxes filled solely with white undershirts, I practically had a meltdown. Thankfully, we survived our tiff (after five of those boxes of undershirts were thrown out, of course), but Carrie and Aiden did not. They broke up just two episodes later.

Most of the Starbucks scene was shot looking in through the property’s south window.

Though the café’s exterior remains unchanged from its onscreen appearance in 2002, I somehow failed to snap a photograph of the correct window.

You can check out Google Street View images of it below, though.

While very little of the Starbucks interior was shown in “The Good Fight,” it is apparent that the space has been remodeled since filming took place and looks a bit different today.

In the scene, Carrie sat at a tall shared table in the middle of the café.

That exact table is no longer there, but a similar one currently stands in the same spot.

I was excited to see that the seating that runs along the south window, which was visible in the scene, remains intact.

It was raining when we showed up to stalk “The Good Fight” Starbucks and, as a result, the place was exorbitantly crowded, which made it a bit difficult to snap pics. The deluge is also the reason I did not pose for my normal photograph out in front of the locale. And although I hate rain pretty much more than anything, as I said that day to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, “I’ll take rain in New York over sun in Palm Springs any day!”

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gary for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Starbucks from “The Good Fight” episode of Sex and the City is located at 124 8th Avenue in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.

August 1, 2016
Arnold’s Turtle – The Inspiration for Central Perk on “Friends”

It appears that my posts have been heavy on filming location inspiration as of late. On Friday, I blogged about the Annie orphanage and the two buildings that it was modeled after. And here I am today with another spot that served as inspiration – this one Arnold’s Turtle Vegetarian Café, the eatery that Central Perk from Friends was based upon.

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I first learned about the place in a 2015 The Huffington Post article titled “8 Behind-the-Scenes Stories You’ve Never Heard About Friends” written by Todd Van Luling. In the column, art director John Shaffner talks about the inspiration behind what became TV-dom’s most famous café. He says, “The coffee house came about because there was a little restaurant that we used to all go down to on West 4th Street in Manhattan and it had a door in the corner. So we went to Kevin [Bright] and Margaret [I believe he means Marta Kauffman] and David [Crane] and when we showed them the model and I said, ‘We want to do a little corner door like the restaurant that we used to go to,’ and they remembered it as well. It was called Arnold’s Turtle.”

The article pointed out that the eatery had long since been shuttered and was now the site of Hamilton’s Soda Fountain & Luncheonette, which, as Luling states, is “not exactly Central Perk, but, for superfans, maybe worth a trip.” You know it! So I headed right on over there during our April visit to NYC.

Arnold’s Turtle was originally established by Arthur Fine and Ingrid DeHart in 1975. The place’s unusual moniker was an homage to Arthur’s first pet, a turtle that was given to him by his grandfather when he was a baby. For years, the turtle had no name and apparently Arthur’s father took to calling him “Arnold’s Turtle.” Who is Arnold, you ask? The imaginary person who cared for the reptile. I know, it’s confusing. You can read the full story here.

The site was apparently a vacant shell at the time that Ingrid and Arthur took over and, with the help of their friends, was transformed into a warm and inviting space in which diners could play backgammon and other games while sipping coffee or waiting on their meals. The menu, which you can take a look at here, was heavy on vegetables and natural fare.

About ten years after opening, Arnold’s Turtle moved from its initial West Village home at the corner of West 4th and Bank Streets to a space at 210 Spring Street in SoHo. (That site was shuttered in 1990 and today Ingrid is a food blogger, nutrition coach and EFT practitioner.) The West Village space has gone through several different incarnations in the years following Arnold’s closure, including an Italian restaurant name La Focaccia, which opened in 2007, and an American Nouveau bistro named Tremont, which followed in 2011. When Tremont closed up shop three years later, Hamilton’s Soda Fountain & Luncheonette opened in its place.

Through all of the changes, those corner doors that figured so prominently in the design of Central Perk, remained intact and the exterior of the building still bears a striking resemblance to the Friends gang’s regular hangout.

If only the interior remained intact, as well. From everything I’ve read, it shared quite a bit with its onscreen counterpart. Eclectic, arty décor? This review of the place states that the atmosphere was “rustic and pleasantly Bohemian.” Check. Casual and inviting aura? This 1976 The Village Voice article said Arnold’s Turtle had “the homey appeal of a friend’s living room.” Check, again. The same article also described the eatery as boasting the following furnishings, “plants, mirrors, stereo, exposed brick.” Check, check, check, and check. Oh, and it served “café standards, espresso and cappuccino (four variations of each).” Again, check. The only thing that seems to be missing is a big orange couch. Ah, how I wish I could have visited when Arnold’s Turtle was still in operation.

I did have the pleasure of dining at Hamilton’s Soda Fountain, though, and absolutely loved the place. Luling, it turns out, was correct – it’s not exactly Central Perk, but worth a trip, regardless, especially for a superfan like myself. (Big THANK YOU to my friend Katie for providing the image below.)

Seeing those corner doors was particularly magical. (That’s fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, standing outside of the famous doors in my photo below, FYI. )

I absolutely loved the message written on the stoop out front, too.

And bonus – the site is also a filming location, from one of my favorite productions, no less! I was thrilled to learn from a fellow stalker named Gary that back in the La Focaccia days, the restaurant had a cameo in the 2008 Sex and the City movie as the spot where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) met Louise’s (Jennifer Hudson) fiancé, Will (Joshua Henry). (SJP had a short commute to work that particular day.)

Unfortunately, and as I only just discovered while doing research for this post, Hamilton’s Soda Fountain & Luncheonette recently closed. I am not sure what is in store for the space in the future, but hopefully it won’t remain shuttered for long. (Big THANK YOU to my friend Katie for providing the images below.)

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Arnold’s Turtle, aka the inspiration for Central Perk on Friends, was formerly located at 51 Bank Street in New York’s West Village. The site was most recently home to Hamilton’s Soda Fountain & Luncheonette, but is currently vacant.

July 25, 2016
The “Sex and the City” McDonalds

Today’s location is a bit of a fail and a lucky twist all in one. My mom always says to trust in the universe – and she’s right. Things happen for a reason. This locale – easily one of my most-wanted ever – is proof of that. I am a pretty simple girl when it comes to most things, especially food. I’ll take McDonald’s over a fancy restaurant any day. So when Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov) and Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dined at an NYC Golden Arches outpost in the Season 6 episode of Sex and the City titled “The Ick Factor,” I practically swooned – and vowed to stalk the place someday. The road to tracking it down was fraught with quite a few twists and turns, though, and even involved stalking an incorrect location (pictured above).

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In “The Ick Factor,” Carrie becomes overwhelmed by Petrovsky’s many extravagant romantic gestures. One night, after he recites a Joseph Brodsky poem to her, she asks if she can read him her kind of poetry and then shares a passage from Vogue about a sleeveless hot pink Oscar de la Renta dress.

The next time the two see each other, Alek has a surprise for Carrie – tickets to a Metropolitan Opera opening . . . and the sleeveless hot pink Oscar de la Renta dress. Now, while Met tickets would leave me fairly cold, any guy who bought me a designer dress for no reason at all would be A-OK in my book.

All does not go as planned for the couple, though, as a funny thing happens on the way to the opera. While walking through the courtyard of Lincoln Center, Alek asks Carrie to dance . . .

. . . and she proceeds to faint. When she comes to, she tells him, “It’s too much. I’m an American. Ya gotta take it down a notch.”

So the two forgo the opera and instead head to McDonald’s for a meal of Chicken McNuggets, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and Supersize fries. Mickey D’s in a designer dress? Now that’s my kind of date!

While standing at the counter awaiting their order, Carrie gets swept up in the romance of it all and tells Petrovsky that she is finally ready for that dance. As I said, swoon! The moment was, hands down, one of my favorite scenes of the series and I wanted nothing more than to dance in the same spot Carrie did – while wearing a designer dress, of course.

Try as I might, though, I just could never seem to find that McDonald’s. Enter my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, who I mentioned my query to in 2010. Per usual, he went above and beyond to help me, even going so far as to contact the NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting. A very kind woman there told Owen that while she was unsure of which McDonald’s was used in the production, he was welcome to come in and go through the permits. Owen made an appointment to do so, but a few days later he heard from the woman once again. As fate would have it, she had found the information we were seeking on, of all places, HBO’s official Sex and the City website! Now I had visited that website many times, especially its filming locations section, but had stopped doing so once I purchased Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell in 2004, as the book has all of the same location information chronicled. What I didn’t realize what that the HBO website updated its locations page at some point, adding “The Ick Factor” McDonald’s. D’oh! As you can see below, according to HBO, the Sex and the City Mickey D’s (Location #14) is said to be at 57th and 6th. (The actual address, which Owen later dug up, is 45 West 57th Street in Midtown West.)

Upon relaying the information, Owen also notified me of the bad news that the eatery had been shuttered in 2007, which meant no dancing on the premises in a designer dress for me! During its tenure at 45 West 57th, McDonald’s leased all three floors of the 8,500-square-foot spot (paying a whopping $800,000 a year to do so!). When the burger chain vacated the site, it was gutted and divided into three different units. The bottom floor was taken over by an organic café named Danku. Prior to opening, the space underwent an extensive $1-million renovation. Danku did not last long, though. By January 2010, it, too, had closed its doors and a fresh&co outpost eventually moved in. Despite the heavy alterations and numerous changes in tenancy, because it was a location that meant so much to me, I added the address to my NYC To-Stalk List and was beyond excited to finally see it in person this past April.

At the time that Owen notified me of his find, I had no imminent plans to head to New York and was also knee-deep in the middle of wedding planning, so I took HBO at its word and did no further investigating. It was not until I sat down to write this post early last week that things started to go awry. While doing research on the 57th Street McDonald’s, I came across some images of what the interior and exterior looked like shortly after Mickey D’s moved out and very quickly realized it was not the right spot. The most glaring tell was the fact that the 57th Street space featured a large floor-to-ceiling window on its western side (as you can see here). That window is still intact and is pictured in my photograph below. Such a window would have been visible behind Carrie in “The Ick Factor” (in the area noted with a pink rectangle), but, as you can see, that is not the case.

The flooring and tile work behind the counter (both of which you can see in this image), doors (which you can see here) and window casings (which you can see here) at the 57th Street McDonald’s were also vastly different from what appeared on Sex and the City. Not to mention, the 57th Street site boasted a large stairwell near its entrance (you can see it here and here). Those stairs should have been visible on SATC in the area denoted with a pink rectangle below, but were not. No doubt about it, HBO listed the wrong location on its site.

Feeling elated over the fact that the right McDonald’s might still possibly be in operation, I immediately headed on over to Google and pulled up a listing for every single outpost located on the island of Manhattan. I spent countless hours on Street View looking for one with front doors and window casings that matched what appeared in “The Ick Factor,” but came up empty-handed. Then the following day, in a very fortuitous turn, I decided to write about Terry’s (Whoopi Goldberg) apartment from Jumpin’ Jack Flash. In the post, I mentioned an old NYC eatery named La Tablita. While researching that restaurant, I came across this West Side Rag article and immediately froze when I saw the top image. It was of a recently-shuttered McDonald’s, said to be at 81st and Broadway, that had the exact doors and windows I had been looking for.

I quickly ascertained that the address of the McDonald’s was 2271 Broadway and started searching for interior photos of it. I found several on Foursquare and what they showed matched the SATC McDonald’s perfectly! As you can see below, the tiling of the front of the counter (pink arrows), the tiling of the wall behind it (turquoise arrows), and the flooring (blue arrows) all correlate to what appeared in “The Ick Factor.”

The doors (turquoise arrows) and window (green arrows) were also a perfect match, as was the triangular mirrored panel (pink arrows) visible behind Carrie in the scene.

I was most excited to see that the half wall located next to the front counter was the spitting image of the one from “The Ick Factor.”

So there you have it, the long complicated story of the Sex and the City McDonald’s. Though I am saddened that the restaurant is closed, I am thrilled that it has now at least been found – and in such a fortuitous way. Had I not attempted to write about the 57th Street outpost the day before blogging about the Jumpin’ Jack Flash apartment, I would have come across that West Side Rag image and thought nothing of it – and the correct McDonald’s might never have been located! As my mom always says, things happen for a reason. Though Owen does believe that HBO owes me an apology and I tend to agree. So HBO? I’m waiting.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The McDonald’s featured in “The Ick Factor” episode of Sex and the City was formerly located at 2271 Broadway on New York’s Upper West Side.

July 13, 2016