Category: TV Locations

Spencer’s House and Barn from “Pretty Little Liars”

Though all of the homes featured on Pretty Little Liars are pretty darn amazing design-wise, my personal favorite, hands-down, is the farm-like residence where Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) and her family live. So when I began tracking down the locales used in the pilot, which was shot in Vancouver, Spencer’s pad was at the top of my list of places to find. And find it, I did. While not much of the dwelling is visible from the street, sadly, I still had my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry drop by to snap some pics of it for me during a recent weekend trip to Canada.

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Spencer’s house played a pivotal role in the Pretty Little Liars pilot. Not only was the home shown repeatedly throughout the episode (though never in a full exterior shot) . . .

. . . but the Hastings’ family’s large barn was the site of the Liars’ slumber party, from which Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) mysteriously disappeared.

The real life interior of the residence, including the kitchen . . .

. . . and one of the bedrooms, was also used in the filming.

I spent so many hours searching for Spencer’s house that I honestly no longer remember the exact story of how I ended up finding it. What I do remember is scouring Google and Bing aerial views for Vancouver neighborhoods with large plots of land and eventually coming across the Southlands area. While perusing that region, I spotted a large home with a barn in the backyard and, voila, it matched what appeared on PLL.

Spencer’s house sits on an absolutely massive corner plot of land. So massive, in fact, that it has two addresses – 3275 Celtic Avenue and 7376 Blenheim Street.

As I mentioned, very little of the main house can be seen from the street due to the fact that it is surrounded by a huge wall of foliage.

But there is good news! Spencer’s barn is located on the Blenheim Street side of the property and it is visible from the road, though the area that can be seen is not the area that appeared on Pretty Little Liars. In the pilot, the only portion of the barn shown was the eastern portion, while the western side is the side that is visible from the street. Sadly, that side of the barn is not really recognizable, but as you can see below the barn doors are a direct match to what was shown onscreen.

According to the book Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide, the Blenheim Street side of the property is a commercial horse facility known as Golden Oaks Stables.

Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up by ABC Family (now Freeform) and filming moved to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, a house on Midwest Street was tapped to stand in for the Hastings’ residence. That façade should look familiar to Gilmore Girls fans as it was formerly used as Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) home on the popular series.

Producers also had a re-creation of the Vancouver barn constructed in front of the Hastings’ home once the series got picked up.

Fun fact – all of the residences on Midwest Street are built with multiple facades so that they can mask as different properties depending on which way the camera is angled. The front of Spencer’s house is actually the back side of the dwelling that serves as Mona Vanderwaal’s (Janel Parrish) home on the series.

Interestingly, while the Vancouver house is no longer used for filming, it still pops up occasionally in establishing shots.

The interior of the Hastings’ residence was also re-created on a soundstage once production moved to Warner Bros. Though the re-creation is not an exact match to the Vancouver home, it is fairly close.

I am absolutely in love with the sitting area located just off of the family’s kitchen. I am so ready for a fireplace in my life! I’ll take that settee, too, while I’m at it.

Spencer’s bedroom set is also pretty fabulous. Actually, I should say “was” pretty fabulous. Sadly, it was dismantled last year when filming of the five-year time jump commenced.

Spencer’s room was my favorite out of all the girls (with Aria’s running a close second). I especially loved the metal “S” sign that hung on her wall.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Spencer’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 3275 Celtic Avenue/7376 Blenheim Street in Vancouver. The barn is situated on the Blenheim Street portion of the property. The mansion featured in the 2011 Disney Channel movie Geek Charming is located next door at 3233 Celtic Avenue.

January 14, 2016
The Ultimate “Pretty Little Liars” Guide to Warner Bros. Studio

Be sure to check out my latest post for Discover Los Angeles, The Ultimate Pretty Little Liars Guide to Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood Part One and Part Two. It is a continuation of my February 2015 article, which covered locales from the series’ first two seasons. I had so much fun putting this one together – and even had a very apropos “A” moment while doing so! I hope my fellow stalkers enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

January 13, 2016
Lord Byng Secondary School from “Pretty Little Liars”

I hope y’all aren’t sick of Pretty Little Liars locations yet, because I still have a few more up my sleeve, as well as a huge soon-to-be published article on the subject for Discover Los Angeles. Today’s locale is Vancouver’s Lord Byng Secondary School, which stood in for Rosewood High School in the pilot episode. For those who have not read my other PLL articles (which you can do here, here, here, and here) and are unfamiliar with the production of the show, I’ll give you the skinny. While the series is lensed almost in its entirety at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, the pilot was shot in Vancouver. I recently became a bit obsessed with tracking down locations from the inaugural episode and found the school featured in it thanks to the Pretty Little Liars Wikia page. My good friend/fellow stalker Kerry was nice enough to stalk it for me during a recent trip to Canada. Thank you, Kerry!

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The stately Lord Byng Secondary School was originally constructed in 1925 and was named after The Lord Byng of Vimy, who, at the time, was the Governor General of Canada. You can see a photograph of what the site looked like when it was first constructed here.

The property has been expanded several times over the years. You can see some photos of those additions being built here.

Lord Byng popped up a few times in the Pretty Little Liars pilot and establishing shots of it still appear on the series from time to time.

The real life interior of the school was also used in a few scenes.

Once the show got picked up, production moved to the Sunshine State, more specifically to Warner Bros. Studio. Outside of an occasional establishing shot of Lord Byng, a brick-faced façade located in the Midwest Street portion of the lot has since been used to mask as Rosewood High. Surprisingly, that structure (pictured in the second photograph below) bears quite a resemblance to Lord Byng Secondary School. I say “surprisingly” because the façade was not constructed for Pretty Little Liars, but has been a lot staple since it was built the ‘50s. The Dukes of Hazzard fans should recognize the place as the infamous Hazzard County Courthouse.

As I mentioned in my post about Aria Montgomery’s (Lucy Hale) house, the parts of Mike Montgomery (Cody Allen Christian) and Byron Montgomery (Chad Lowe) were re-cast after the Pretty Little Liars pilot was shot, which required many scenes to be re-shot. A few of those scenes took place at Rosewood High and the re-shoots made use of the Warner Bros. façade. Those scenes included the segment in which Aria dropped Mike off at lacrosse practice . . .

. . . and close-up shots from the scene in which Byron dropped Aria and Mike off at school on the first day of classes.

Lord Byng is an oft-used filming location. In fact, it has appeared in so many productions that it would be impossible for me to chronicle them all here, but I’ll list a few. In 1986’s The Boy Who Could Fly, LBSS was where Milly (Lucy Deakins) attended high school.

Lord Byng has appeared in no less than five episodes of 21 Jump Street, including Season 2’s “After School Special,” which aired in 1987. For that episode the rear side of Lord Byng was utilized. You can read about more of the episodes filmed there on the 80sFilmLocations site.

LBSS was where Nicole Walker (Reese Witherspoon) went to high school in the 1996 thriller Fear.

In 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the school was where Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) and Scott Summers (Tim Pocock) had a showdown.

And in the Season 1 episode of Emily Owens, M.D. titled “Emily . . . and the Outbreak,” which aired in 2012, Lord Byng masked as Robert M. Johnson High School, where Emily Owens (Mamie Gummer) taught a sex education class.

Kerry also let me know that the site is currently portraying Erie Harbor School on the new Apple TV+ series Home Before Dark.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lord Byng Secondary School, aka Rosewood High School from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars, is located at 3939 West 16th Avenue in Vancouver.

January 11, 2016
Aria’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – stalking begets stalking! One of the Vancouver locations I was most interested in finding from the Pretty Little Liars pilot was the gorgeous Craftsman-style house where doe-eyed beauty Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) lived. There was virtually nothing to go on, though – no address number, no street signs, no clues visible in the background. So I put that hunt on the back burner and instead set my sights on tracking down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain home from the episode. As fate would have it, finding it led me right to Aria’s house!

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While scanning through the pilot during my search, I almost fell out of my chair when I noticed that Aria’s house was actually visible in the background across the street from the DiLaurentis/St. Germain residence in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) walked Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson) home from school.

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, thanks to a visible address number, I was able to track down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain house in just a few minutes. And sure enough, when I looked across the street using Google Street View, there was Aria’s pad! Because I don’t have any trips to Vancouver planned in the coming year, my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, was nice enough to stalk the place for me during a recent (rainy) visit to Canada. Thank you, Kerry!

Sadly, Aria’s house looks a bit different today than it did when the pilot was shot back in December 2009. As you can see below, besides a color change from yellow and red to gray and white, most of the windows have been swapped out for new ones, and the roofline of the second story above the porch has been altered.

You can see some of the work being done in old Google Street View images from May 2015.

But if you toggle Street View back to May 2014, the home appears exactly as it did onscreen. Oh, how I wish I had gotten to see it before the alterations were made.

In real life, the residence boasts 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 5,000 square feet of living space.

Sadly, Aria’s awesome front porch swing is nowhere to be found.

Typically when shooting a pilot, the interior of a house will be utilized. Then if the series is picked up, that interior will be re-created on a soundstage for all future filming. That was not the case with this particular location. The segments that took place inside of Aria’s home in the pilot were not shot in Canada at all, actually, but at a practical house set on Midwest Street at Warner Bros. Studio. I did not realize that factoid until making screen captures for this post. In the scene in which Aria talked to her father, Byron (Chad Lowe), while standing in the family’s entry, the green doorway of a residence across the street was visible in the background. I knew that doorway belonged to a studio house immediately upon seeing it, did some further research, and discovered it was part of a façade that is, sadly, no longer standing.

The house once stood at the southern end of Midwest Street, but was dismantled in 2014 – along with the façade of Toby Cavanaugh’s (Keegan Allen) house – to make way for the studio’s newly-unveiled Stage 48: Script to Screen exhibit. You can see some faraway photographs I took of the structure while on a tour of the WB a few years back below.

Once I figured out the location of the green-doored façade, I was able to discern that the Montgomery house interior scenes from the pilot were shot inside of the home pictured below, which is also located on the southern edge of Midwest Street. Why were those segments shot at the WB lot and not on location in Vancouver like the rest of the pilot, you ask? Well, I looked into it and learned that the roles of both Byron and Aria’s brother, Mike (Cody Allen Christian), were recast after the pilot had been filmed, so any scenes involving them had to be re-shot. The vast majority of those scenes took place inside of the Montgomery home.

Interestingly, during one of my most recent visits to the WB back in June, I asked our tour guide for help in tracking down a couple of PLL locations that I knew were on the backlot, but that I couldn’t seem to find. He did not end up having time to show me the locales during the tour, so after it ended he took me and my friends on a private tour of the studio (it was amazing!), during which he pointed out the house below and informed us that it was used for exterior shots of Aria’s residence. As you can see, the bottom portion of the façade is painted to match the original coloring of the Vancouver home.

I can only recall one time when the façade exterior appeared on the series (though I am sure there are other instances). In the Season 6 episode titled “Don’t Look Now,” a very tight shot of the home was shown in the scene in which Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) dug through Aria’s trash, looking for her anti-anxiety medication.

All of the homes on Midwest Street are designed in such a way that their various sides can appear as different properties. The actual “front” of the structure that is used as Aria’s house is pictured below. The area that appears onscreen in Pretty Little Liars can be found on this residence’s southern side.

Our tour guide had also informed us that the interior of the home contained the set of Aria’s living room. And while sheet-covered furniture and props were visible through the front window of the house (as you can see below), which points toward a set being located there, I did not put a whole lot of credence into his assertion. Because the interior of Aria’s house is utilized with such regularly, I figured the sets were most likely situated on a soundstage and not inside of the Midwest Street dwelling. But now it appears that his information was correct.

Though I do still believe that some of the Montgomery home interiors exist inside of a soundstage (most notably, the set for Aria’s bedroom), it does seem that at least a portion of them were constructed inside of the Midwest Street façade.

UPDATE – I just came across the website of Pretty Little Liar’s production designer Rachel Kamerman and a caption on her portfolio page confirms what our tour guide told us. As you can see below, according to Rachel, the interior of the Montgomery house is a permanent set built on the W.B. backlot and not inside of a soundstage.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Aria’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1990 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver. The DiLaurentis home from the episode is located across the street at 1995 West 19th Avenue.

January 8, 2016
Ali’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

Pretty Little Liars will be returning to the small screen on January 12th and I could NOT be more excited! Though I found the recent mid-season finale to be absolutely ridiculous, not to mention a total let-down (this was SO me and my mom while viewing it), to the point that I thought I might never watch again, I now find myself thrilled that new episodes are only a few days away! As detailed in my February 2015 post titled “The Pretty Little Liars Guide to Warner Bros. Studio,” the ABC Family (soon to be re-named Freeform) series is shot pretty much in its entirety on the WB lot in Burbank. The pilot, though, was lensed in Vancouver and last year I managed to track down most of the locales that appeared in the episode. (There is one that remains unfound and a real thorn in my side, but more on that later.) My good friend/fellow stalker Kerry lives in the Pacific Northwest and recently took a weekend trip up to Vancouver. I asked if she wouldn’t mind stalking some PLL locations for me while she was in town and stalk them she did! Every single one! Thank you, Kerry! So I figured what better time to blog about them than in the days leading up to the premiere – and what better locale to start with than the DiLaurentis family house, which played such a pivotal role in the pilot.

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For those not in the know, the pilot of Pretty Little Liars centers around the disappearance of a teenage girl named Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse). The mysterious details of her disappearance, which took place a year prior, are revealed in flashbacks. In the episode, it is said that the DiLaurentis family, distraught over losing Ali, has chosen to sell their large Victorian-style residence and a new family is shown moving in.

The home was actually the first locale I tracked down from the episode. It was a snap to find thanks to its unique architecture and a “1995” number placard that I spotted above the front door in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) welcomes the new girl, Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), to the neighborhood. Address number in hand, I did a Google search for “1995,” “Victorian house,” and “Vancouver,” and the first link to pop up was a real estate listing for a residence located at 1995 West 19th Avenue. Sure enough, the images featured in the listing were a perfect match to Ali’s house. Wahoo!

The massive dwelling, which was originally built in the 1920s, is just as stunning in real life as it appeared onscreen (as least as evidenced by Kerry’s photos). In actuality, though, the property is not a single-family home, but a multi-unit dwelling.

The residence appears a couple of times in the pilot, most notably in the scene in which (spoiler alert!) Ali’s body is discovered buried in the side yard.

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the episode. Not only was one of the home’s bedrooms used as Maya’s bedroom . . .

. . . but, in an odd twist, the dwelling’s ornate wood-paneled stairwell masked as a back area of the church where Ali’s funeral was held. It is on those stairs that Ezra Fitzgerald (Ian Harding) and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) share a passionate kiss. You can check out some photographs of the stairway here.

Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up, production moved from Vancouver to California and the DiLaurentis house was “re-created” in the Jungle area of the Warner Bros. Studio backlot. I say “re-created” because the façade that was constructed looks absolutely nothing like the house that appeared in the pilot.

Aside from a large set of entry steps, the two homes don’t resemble each other in the slightest, as you can see below.

As for the location I mentioned earlier that remains a thorn in my side? I cannot for the life of me seem to track down the interior of Hollis Bar & Grill, where Aria and Ezra met for the first time.

My buddy Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, did manage to locate the building used in the establishing shot. The exterior of Hollis Bar & Grill is actually that of Ashland City Hall, located at 20 East Main Street in Ashland, Oregon. The image shown in the scene was likely stock footage, as no actual filming took place in the Beaver State. The interior, though, remains a mystery. If any of my fellow stalkers are familiar with the Vancouver area, please take a look at the above images and let me know if you can identify the watering hole pictured in them.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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 DiLaurentis house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1995 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver.

January 6, 2016
The “Wicked City” Library

I have one more Wicked City location up my sleeve (for the time being, at least – I did track down a couple of others after watching the recently-released final five episodes, but have yet to stalk them) – the former Second Church of Christ, Scientist in West Adams, which masked as an L.A. library in “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” I have long been familiar with the stately, domed structure thanks to my many area stalkings (Fatty Arbuckle’s former house is located on the same street, as is the oft-filmed St. Vincent de Paul Church) and recognized it immediately upon viewing the episode. I had never done a proper stalking of it, though, and promptly dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to remedy that a couple of weeks ago.

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Second Church of Christ, Scientist was designed by architect Alfred H. Rosenheim, who also designed the American Horror Story house. The prolific Albert C. Martin, Sr. (of Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles City Hall and Thomas Higgins Building fame) acted as the engineer. The massive Italian Renaissance-style structure, which was modeled after the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, aka the “Mother Church,” took more than two years to complete at a cost of $318,000. Its doors were opened to the public on January 23rd, 1910.

The property, which was built out of terracotta, brick, stucco and granite, was so grand that, according to the Big Orange Landmarks website, a 1908 Los Angeles Times article deemed it “the largest and most elaborate church west of Chicago.”

At the time of its completion, the interior featured a pipe organ, mahogany woodwork, stained glass windows, wainscoting throughout, and seating for 1,200 churchgoers.

The site’s most impressive feature, though, was – and still is – its 130-foot tall copper-clad, poured-concrete dome, which according to Big Orange Landmarks, measures 70 feet in diameter and weighs 1,400 tons.

The green-tinted dome seems to sparkle in the sunlight and only adds to the grandeur and beauty of the already picturesque church, which was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1968.

Due to declining membership and the high cost of maintaining the property, Christian Science Church vacated the building in 2008. The empty structure proved attractive to vandals, who spray painted the once stately structure with graffiti and broke many of its stained glass windows.

In December 2009, the site was sold to The Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches meditation, yoga, breathing, and emotional balance. The group lovingly repaired the damage done to the property and today use it as their main headquarters.

The former Second Church of Christ, Scientist played a significant role in Wicked City’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

Masking as a local library, it is there that Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) leaves the head of one of his murder victims among the stacks of books for detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) to find.

I initially thought that the actual inside of the former church had also been used in the filming of the library scenes, but as soon as I looked through these interior photographs of the place I realized that was not the case.

As it turns out, interior filming took place at DC Stages, a downtown Los Angeles studio that has been around since 1988. The facility, which was originally called Dos Carlos Stages, is situated inside of a a former perishable food storage center and boasts several standing sets including that of a police station, a city hall, a courthouse, political offices, a hospital, a jail, apartments, hotel rooms, a restaurant, and, of course, a library. You can check out a drone video shot of the various sets here and some some photographs here. What I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place in person!

Many sources state that the Second Church of Christ, Scientist was used regularly as the Fulton County Courthouse on the television series Matlock, but I have not been able to verify that. I downloaded a couple of episodes to scan through and in each of them a different building masked as the courthouse, neither of which was the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, as you can see below. The series aired for nine seasons, though, so it is quite possible the West Adams church did make an appearance (or several appearances) at some point during that run.

The locale also pops up as the Radiant Assembly of God church on the HBO series Perry Mason.

Only the exterior of the building is utilized on the series. Interior church scenes were shot at the Trinity Auditorium, located at 851 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Second Church of Christ, Scientist, aka the Wicked City library, is located at 948 West Adams Boulevard in University Park. DC Stages, which was used for the interior library scenes, is located at 1360 East 6th Street in downtown L.A. Be advised that the studio facility is not open to the public.

January 5, 2016
Edgeway Auto Upholstery from “Wicked City”

ABC finally released the remaining five episodes of Wicked City on both ABC.com and Hulu. Watching them proved to be a bit of a double-edged sword because the show got really good. And I already thought it was great! By episode 8, I realized what a real contender it could have been, with a long life on the small screen, but, sadly, that was not to be. I was thrilled, though, that producers were given a bit of a heads-up about the cancellation which allowed them to grant the story some closure. But seeing that closure only made me wonder what the original ending was intended to be, as I am sure it was vastly different from what did make it to the airwaves. My guess is that (spoiler alert!) the death of Karen McClaren (Taissa Farmiga) was a last-minute departure from the planned storyline, but who knows? Here’s hoping a DVD with behind-the-scenes info will be released at some point. (If I don’t eventually find out what was up with the Fly Brand cocaine, I may go crazy!) For those who have yet to see the final five episodes, I highly recommend watching. As fate would have it, Edgeway Auto Upholstery, where Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) worked on the series – a spot I had previously stalked, but had yet to blog about – figured prominently in one of them.

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Edgeway Auto Upholstery first popped up in the episode titled “Running with the Devil,” in the scene in which Kent pretended to be a Hollywood producer while making a phone call to a production company in order to try to track down an actress he wanted to kill. (The storyline was dark, but oh so enthralling!)

Edgeway turned out to be an easy find. I figured filming had most likely taken place at a real auto upholstery facility, one that was most likely located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. Besides the fact that the shop had a very Valley look to it, many of the spots featured in the series, such as Kent’s house and Valli Tropics, where Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) lived, were located in the area and producers often pick places to film that are in close proximity to each other. So I started searching for upholstery shops in the SFV and came across Nacho’s Auto Upholstery at 12443 Victory Boulevard in Valley Glen within minutes. Sure enough, it matched what had appeared on Wicked City.

Nacho’s looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. I love the fact that although the name was changed for the filming, producers used the shop’s actual lettering style for the fake signage.

Besides “Running with the Devil,” Nacho’s also popped up in “Heat Wave.” In the episode, detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) figure out that the serial killer they’ve been chasing works at an upholstery shop. While hunting down leads, they spot a vintage red Corvette similar to one that the killer had been seen driving, parked at Edgeway Auto Upholstery and they break into the shop to investigate.

Quite a bit of the location was shown in “Heat Wave.”

A sign reading “Nacho’s Auto Upholstery” was even visible in the background at one point. Whoops!

The shop’s small office area, which Roth and Contreras search through, was actually just a set, though.

And not even a full one, at that, as I learned thanks to a photograph that executive producer Jon Cassar tweeted along with the caption, “Sometimes 2 walls is all you need.” Ah, the magic of filmmaking.

Only the rear side of Nacho’s, which is reached via a back alley, appeared in Wicked City. The front of the shop, pictured below, was never shown onscreen.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Nacho’s Auto Upholstery, aka Edgeway Auto Upholstery from Wicked City, is located at 12443 Victory Boulevard in Valley Glen.

January 4, 2016
Downtown Christmas Shopping District from “The Brady Bunch”

Today’s Christmas-themed post comes, once again, courtesy of Michael, the fellow stalker who gifted us with the fabulous write-up about The Golden Spoon café from The Brady Bunch back in November. While visiting L.A. last week, Michael tracked down and stalked another BB locale, this one with a holiday slant. After returning home to Minnesota, he asked if I would be interested in having him write a second guest post about said locale and I very enthusiastically replied yes! (I’d also be interested in a third, a fourth and a fifth guest post, if the mood ever strikes you, Michael! ) So without further ado . . .

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Fully cognizant that this may now typecast me as the very Brady guest blogger, I’m back with another Brady Bunch location…a very merry Brady location. In the first season episode of The Brady Bunch, “The Voice of Christmas,” Cindy asks Santa Claus for a laryngitis-struck Carol to get her voice back in time to sing the solo at Christmas church services. Before the department store scenes with Santa (filmed on a soundstage at Paramount), brief establishing shots of an outdoor shopping area are shown.

After looking at the establishing shot more carefully, I noticed that the name on the building, although obscured, read “Radio Shack.” Even though the the shot was assumedly framed to emphasize the Christmas trees and Toyland sign in the windows, garland and bow on the lamp post, and children hauling a Christmas tree down the street, I knew Radio Shack was my best bet for tracking down the address.

Last week, while on vacation in Los Angeles, I stopped at the Central Library to search through their archived Western Los Angeles phone books from the 1970s. Letting my fingers do the walking, through the 1975 edition, I found less than 20 Radio Shack locations. Thinking that the establishing shot was of a pedestrian mall, the first listing that caught my eye was for the Golden Mall, in downtown Burbank. Perhaps Mike really was being accurate when he told Carol, “We’re going to go downtown and finish the shopping.”

I then started researching the Golden Mall, and came across a postcard that showed the same unique cane-shaped lampposts with glass globes as in the Brady Bunch clip. Fairly convinced I was on the right path, it was just a matter of finding out more about this shopping district. [Postcard scan courtesy of San Fernando Valley Blog]

In the 1960s and 70s, many downtown areas closed off vehicular traffic to their major shopping streets and created pedestrian malls in an effort to help compete with the growing popularity of suburban shopping centers. Burbank followed suit, and in 1967 closed off six blocks of San Fernando Road, from Magnolia Boulevard to San Jose Avenue. Then, removed of cars, the street was landscaped with grass, angular paths, modern playground equipment, benches, fountains, hexagonal planters, and public restrooms. [1973 photo courtesy of Burbankia]

By the 1980s, the mall was showing its age. There isn’t one definitive reason for the decline of the mall, but some oft-repeated theories involve business owners leery of updating the appearance of their stores only to have the city gobble up their properties as part of a City Centre Redevelopment Project, customers finding parking at the mall to be a chore, and the popularity of more modern nearby regional shopping centers siphoning shoppers away. [1985 photo courtesy of Burbankia]

In an effort to revitalize the shopping district, in October of 1989, the mall was reopened to traffic, and in 1991, Media City Center (now named Burbank Town Center) opened at Magnolia and San Fernando, abutting the former Golden Mall.

Since the Radio Shack address listed in the phone book—100 S Golden Mall—no longer exists, I tried searching for its present-day equivalent—100 S San Fernando Boulevard. Much to my surprise, I came up with a listing for Radio Shack at that address. A recent Google Street View showed a Bank of the West branch in that spot, but archived Street Views showed Radio Shack in its place as recently as 2011.

Worried that everything fell into place too easily, I contacted the good folks of the website, Burbankia. They quickly helped me confirm that the Radio Shack was indeed at that site from the 70s into recent years.

A May 1969 advertisement trumpets the grand opening of the Golden Mall Radio Shack. Seeing as this episode of The Brady Bunch aired in December of 1969, Radio Shack would have been in the midst of its first holiday season during the filming of the establishing shot. According to a recounting posted on Burbankia, this Radio Shack was located in the Gregg Building, which prior to the electronics retailer, housed a drug store.

Metal panels over the second story windows—a mid-century technique to modernize traditional brick buildings—have since been removed, ostensibly leaving the structure closer in appearance to when it was built in the early 1900s.

Although the facade has had some superficial changes over the years, I was happy to notice one similarity between my photos and the establishing shot—the placement of the bus bench along Olive Avenue.

After enjoying breakfast at nearby Frank’s, it was time to check out the former Radio Shack for myself. Although it was a Sunday morning, I’m happy to report that the restaurants lining the former Golden Mall were bustling, and Burbank Town Center was abuzz with families visiting Santa. One can only assume his wish-granting powers are as strong as in ’69.

Thanks again to Mike and Wes at Burbankia. If you’re interested in seeing more photos from the Golden Mall, or learning more about Burbank’s history, I highly recommend their website. Thanks also to the always informative San Fernando Valley Blog for sharing your photos of the mall. And, of course, a BIG thank you to Lindsay for giving me the opportunity to write another Brady-centric post. [Editor’s note – a BIG thank you to you, Michael, for the fabulous write-up! Here’s hoping for more in 2016!]

Stalk It: Bank of the West, aka the former Golden Mall Radio Shack, aka Downtown Christmas Shopping District from The Brady Bunch is located at 100 South San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank.

December 21, 2015
Tracey Ross from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

‘Tis finally the season – the season for holiday-themed filming locations! As is the case every year, because Christmas locales in the L.A. area are rather limited, I waited to start blogging about them until the end of December. And I should mention here that my postings over the next two or three weeks will be fairly limited, as well, due to some holiday events and trips that I have planned, including a shopping visit to L.A. (I can’t wait! There’s no shopping like L.A. shopping!) Anyway, today’s locale comes from my favorite television show ever, Beverly Hills, 90210. While scanning through the Season 2 episode titled “A Walsh Family Christmas” prior to writing my post on Lake View Medical Center in October, I spotted an establishing shot of the store where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) briefly worked and got a bit distracted. I had not remembered an exterior of the shop ever being shown on the series and became very excited about the possibility of tracking it down, which I eventually did. As it turns out, though, Geoff, of 90210Locations, had already found the place and listed the address on his site, which would have saved me quite a bit of time had I known. #blondemoment

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In “A Walsh Family Christmas,” Brenda lands a sales job at a local Beverly Hills boutique a few days before Christmas. The exterior of the boutique was shown several times in the episode and I was thrilled to see that both a store name, Tracey Ross, as well as a 105 address number were visible.

So I got to Googling and discovered that, while Tracey Ross is no longer currently in existence, there did indeed used to be a boutique by that name located at 105 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Grove. Today, that location houses an outpost of Lululemon.

At the time that “A Walsh Family Christmas” was filmed, the building that housed Tracey Ross looked considerably different due to the fact that the bottom level was split up into five different spaces, as you can see in the Google Street View imagery below from August 2007.

Tracey Ross was located in the northern portion of the building, two storefronts south of Alden Drive.

At some point in 2008, Rock & Republic opened an outpost on the premises and combined the building’s two northern units (including the one formerly occupied by Tracey Ross) into one big space. Though R&R has since moved out, that storefront has remained one unit ever since.

Thankfully, some recognizable elements remain despite the many changes that have taken place since 90210 was filmed. As you can see below, the Robertson storefront is still recessed, much like it was when it was featured in “A Walsh Family Christmas.” And the black-tiled facade of the suite next door is still a direct match to what appeared onscreen.

A close-up view of the storefront next door is pictured below.

Tracey Ross’ actual interior was also used in “A Walsh Family Christmas.”

In the episode, Brenda’s boss, Deirdre (Rebecca Staab), kicks a homeless man dressed as Santa Claus out of the store on Christmas Eve. When Brenda leaves the shop later that night, she sees some police officers harassing Santa and, in classic Walsh style, winds up rescuing him and bringing him home to her house for Christmas Eve dinner. Ironically, the shop visible across the street in the scene is Les Habitudes, the very same shop that designed the wedding dress that Tori Spelling wore in Beverly Hills, 90210’s final episode, “Ode to Joy.” The only reason I know that random factoid is that I worked as an extra in the episode and overheard Tori discussing the gown with a crew member.

Because the name Les Habitudes is so unusual, it stuck with me. When I happened to pass by the shop a couple of weeks later while walking on Robertson Boulevard, I recognized the moniker immediately. The boutique has since moved a few blocks south, but whenever I pass by the stone-covered building where I originally spotted it (which is currently vacant), I am immediately flooded with warm memories of being on the set of 90210.

Tracey Ross also appeared in the next episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, titled “Fire and Ice” (which is one of my favorite episodes of the series ever).

As if kicking Santa Claus out of the store on Christmas Eve wasn’t bad enough, in “Fire and Ice,” Deirdre steals a large commission from Brenda. But instead of immediately quitting, Cindy Walsh (Carol Potter) helps her get even.

Dressed as a wealthy Beverly Hills socialite, Cindy heads to Tracey Ross and proceeds to select thousands of dollars worth of items to purchase. When she receives receiving a parking ticket in the middle of her shopping expenditure, Deirdre offers to pay it for her, at which point Cindy announces that she doesn’t actually want any of the items, nor does she care for Deirdre’s attitude, but that she appreciates the ticket being taken care of. She then turns on her heel and stomps out of the store. Ah, snap!

The actual Tracey Ross has a much better reputation than Deirdre. Raised in Long Beach, the fashionista worked at several upscale Los Angeles boutiques after dropping out of UCLA in the ‘80s. She was a natural at selling clothes and eventually began styling celebrity clients, which led to her opening her own store in 1990. It was wildly successful. In 1996, when the rent was raised at her Robertson Boulevard space, Tracey moved to a new storefront at Sunset Plaza and it was a hit, as well. During its heyday, the boutique, which even had an onsite manicurist, became the stomping ground of such stars as Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, Natasha Henstridge, Courtney Love, Bob Dylan, Melanie Griffith, Lindsay Lohan, Ellen Pompeo, Nicole Richie, Kelly Lynch, Virginia Madsen, Linda Gray, Samantha Ronson, and Kate Hudson. Sadly, the Sunset Plaza shop was shuttered in 2009 due to the poor economy. You can read two great Los Angeles Times articles about Tracey here and 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: Tracey Ross, aka the store where Brenda worked during Season 2 of Beverly Hills, 90210, was formerly located at 105 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Grove. Today, that space houses a Lululemon. In “A Walsh Family Christmas,” Brenda rescued Santa on the southwest corner of Alden Drive and South Robertson Boulevard. The former Les Habitudes storefront, which can be seen across the street in the scene, can be found at 101 North Robertson.

December 15, 2015
Valli Tropics from “Wicked City”

Locations, locations, locations! Aside from Ed Westwick, locations were easily the best aspect of the now cancelled ABC series Wicked City. The show took place in Los Angeles circa 1982 and the location manager did a fabulous job of securing spots evocative of that era. None was more spectacularly retro than the apartment building where Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) lived. I became obsessed with the place, and all of its pink-accented glory, while watching Wicked City’s pilot episode, but, unfortunately, had a heck of a time tracking it down.

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In the pilot, a sign with the name “Valli Tropics” was prominently shown posted outside of Betty’s apartment. Because the complex had somewhat of a tropical aesthetic, I figured the name might be legitimate and did a Google search for “Valli Tropics” and “Los Angeles.” It yielded nada, though, so I abandoned my hunch that the name was real and began searching for images of tropical-style apartments in L.A. I poured through countless photographs, but none was of the right spot. I then looked through all of my local architectural guidebooks to see if the complex was pictured, but came up empty-handed. So I abandoned the hunt for a bit.

When the third episode, titled “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” aired and Betty’s apartment was featured prominently, I decided to start the pursuit up again. I revisited my original hunch that the name might be legit and this time did a search for “Valli Tropics Apartments” and “Los Angeles,” which led me to a yelp review written by the manager of a Valli Tropics in Studio City. From there, the complex was a snap to find. I honestly cannot believe that I spent so many fruitless hours searching for the place, when the name of it was right in front of me the entire time! The blonde factor was strong with this one.

In person, Valli Tropics did not disappoint!

Every square inch of the place was just begging to be photographed.

And the vintage signing was to die for!

I was floored to see that the retro-ish sign that had been so prominently featured in Wicked City was a real life element of the building.

Surprisingly, other than the fact that it was built in 1956, I could find virtually no information online about Valli Tropics.

The complex is actually situated in an odd way, with the front entrance running diagonal to the street. One could easily drive right past it without noticing its architectural splendor.

Valli Tropics was featured repeatedly throughout the three episodes of Wicked City that made it to the airwaves. Besides the front exterior, the courtyard was also utilized on the show.

I am fairly certain that the interior of a real life Valli Tropics unit was used for the filming of the pilot . . .

. . . and that a set re-creation appeared in the other two episodes.

Oddly, while a brief shot of the exterior of Valli Tropics was shown in Wicked City’s second episode, which was titled “Running with the Devil” . . .

. . . a scene that was supposed to take place there was actually shot about five miles away, on the corner of Kittridge Street and Wilkinson Avenue in Valley Glen.

Thanks to the Litany of Schist blog, I learned that the Valli Tropics masked as the apartment of murder victim Jason Devereaux (Ben Feldman) in the Season 10 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Working Stiffs.”

In the episode, Jason was said to live at 1120 Marapasa Parkway in Las Vegas, the numbering of which meshes with Valli Tropic’s real life address of 11120 Acama Street. The crew failed to remove the extra “1” from the building’s address placard, as well as from the Valli Tropics sign for the shoot, though, so the scripted address didn’t end up gibing with what appeared onscreen. Whoops!

Valli Tropic’s courtyard was also used in the filming of CSI.

As was the interior of one of the apartment units.

In the Season 11 episode of Criminal Minds titled “A Badge and a Gun,” the Behavioral Analysis Unit investigates a murder at the Valli Tropics, which is said to be in Atwater Village.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Valli Tropics, aka Betty’s apartment from Wicked City, is located at 11120 Acama Street in Studio City.

December 4, 2015