Blog

Falken’s Cabin from "WarGames"

So I realize I am like one of maybe ten holdouts left in the world, but I still have an AOL account. I know, I know – 1995 called, it wants its email address back. I think I’m finally ready to give it up, though, because the search function straight. up. SUCKS. Formerly, it was great – I could type in a key word I knew had been written in a particular correspondence and up would pop the exact email I was looking for. I used to utilize it regularly when writing my posts. I can’t always remember the exact process behind every location search (how I came to start looking for a place, how I figured out a certain detail, etc.), so in the past I would look back through old emails sent to various sources (like Mike, from MovieShotsLA, or Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog) to refresh my memory. And AOL always came through! Now that is no longer the case. Upon waking up last Sunday, the Grim Cheaper announced that he wanted to go to Big Bear Lake for a couple of days to play in the snow. So we literally tossed a few items of clothing into a bag and headed right up the mountain. It was such a last minute trip that I didn’t even remember to bring my good camera – or my stalking notebook. It wasn’t until we checked into our hotel that I remembered WarGames had been filmed in the area. Early last year, Owen and I tracked down the cabin where Falken (John Wood) lived in the 1983 movie, but unfortunately I did not have my notes on hand to check the address. Countless emails had gone back and forth between us during our search, though, so I promptly logged into AOL and started looking for those messages. I never found a one! By hour two of the fruitless hunt, I was ready to throw the GC’s laptop right out the window. Fortunately, Owen had his notes handy and texted me the location so that I could stalk the place while I was in town. Big thanks to you, buddy, for saving the day!

[ad]

Falken’s cabin was only featured briefly towards the end of WarGames, in the scene in which teenage hacker David (Matthew Broderick) and his friend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) met with the reclusive scientist to ask for help in stopping a dangerous computer simulation that David unwittingly started.

I got the itch to track down the cabin last March while writing my Top 10 Totally Awesome 80s Movie Locations in Los Angeles article for Discover L.A., in which I wrote about the Hancock Park residence that stood in for David’s home in the flick. In WarGames, Falken is said to live on an island in Oregon, but it has long been common knowledge amongst stalkers that the scenes involving his wood-shingled house were lensed at Big Bear Lake, a mountain town located about one hundred miles east of L.A. Outside of that, though, information on the locale was pretty scant. I decided to do some digging and stumbled upon this 2005 message board thread in which a commenter named “jb4lcm” stated that the cabin could be found in the Pleasure Point neighborhood. So I started searching the area via aerial views and eventually came across a spot that I was 99% certain was the right place. Upon further scouring, I dug up this image titled “WarGames Cabin Big Bear,” as well as this one, this one and this one, which showed different angles of the home. In comparing them to the aerial view, I became 100% certain I had found the right spot.

When I switched to Google Street View, though, the imagery of that area showed an empty plot of land – and my stomach sank. Could it be that the WarGames cabin had been torn down? Oh, say it ain’t so! I started digging further and found a message board from 2009 in which commenter “Around the Lake” stated that he had heard there were plans to demolish the home, which had originally been built in 1924, in order to make way for a new, massive 17,000-square-foot residence. As you can see in the aerial view below, there is a large house situated next door to the WarGames cabin. According to Zillow, that residence was built in 2009 and boasts 6 bedrooms, 6 baths and 5,107 square feet of living space. Not quite 17,000 square feet, but I believe it is the place that Around the Lake was referring to.

The timing of the tear down strikes me as odd. Per Historic Aerials, the WarGames cabin was not demolished until 2010, after the 2009 property had been completed. Yet, according to eppraisal.com, the cabin and its land were last sold in April 2007, well before the larger house was built.   The two residences also do not appear to be situated on the same plot, so why the cabin had to be razed is unclear. My best guess is that the owners of the 2009 property purchased two adjoining plots of land and originally planned on keeping the cabin intact, but when construction on the new house was completed, it was decided that the cabin sat too close to it, so they eventually tore it down. That is just wild speculation on my part, though.

The 2009 house is pictured below. You can also check out some interior photographs of it on Zillow.   The dwelling is inarguably pretty, but if you ask me, I’d take the WarGames cabin over it any day. That property was just simply the quintessential mountain cabin. As Owen said to me recently, “It was like something out of central casting.” It is a shame it is gone.

According to eppraisal.com, when it stood, the WarGames cabin boasted 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,992 square feet of living space, and a 1.63-acre plot of land. Today, all that remains is a tree-dotted expanse of terrain.

Oh, how I wish I could have seen it in person!

The WarGames cabin also boasted a large garage situated next to the road, which is still visible on Google Street View if you toggle back to the imagery from November 2007.

Street View imagery of that same spot circa April 2014 is pictured below.

And here’s a matching photo that I took of that same area last week. Again, what a shame!

Unfortunately, the Google Street View imagery from November 2007 does not provide very good views of the actual cabin.

According to the WarGames DVD commentary with director John Badham and screenwriters Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, no filming took place inside of the Big Bear cabin. The interior of Falken’s home was a set built at M-G-M Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) – one that utilized props and set pieces from the television series Little House on the Prairie.

UPDATE – Fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout website, recently alerted me to several other movies in which Falken’s cabin made an appearance. In the 1998 comedy The Opposite of Sex, it masked as the Canadian lodge where Dede Truitt (Christina Ricci) hid out with Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei) and Jason Bock (Johnny Galecki).

I believe the real life interior of the cabin was also used in The Opposite of Sex, but that is just a guess, so don’t quote me on that.

In the 1999 movie Rites of Passage, it portrayed the cabin belonging to the Farraday family. Please pardon the craptastic screen grabs, but I could not find the movie available for streaming anywhere online and had to make captures from a preview on YouTube.

The lodge was also featured prominently in the movie American Weapon, which, per this Big Bear Grizzly article, was filmed in 2009, but, for whatever reason, was not released until 2014. Now having seen all of the filming that took place at the home, I am even more shocked that it was torn down! If nothing else, the dwelling was a great income property and it is surprising that its owners wouldn’t have left it standing for that reason alone. As I said above, what a shame!

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for not only helping me to find this location, but for coming to my rescue by texting me the address while I was in Big Bear! And a big THANK YOU to fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout website, for informing me of the home’s many other onscreen appearances.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Falken’s cabin from WarGames was formerly located at 39224 Waterview Drive in Big Bear Lake, just southwest of the home at 39248 Waterview Drive. It has since been torn down and the site is currently vacant land.

February 8, 2016
A New Venture with Mike the Fanboy!

I am very excited to announce a new venture that I am absolutely over the moon about! I have partnered up with my dear friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, and will be writing a monthly column for his blog. For my first post, I compiled a filming locations guide to Warner Bros. Ranch. You can check it out here! Enjoy!

February 5, 2016
The “Say Anything . . . ” Amphitheatre

Sorry to have been MIA the past couple of days. The Grim Cheaper surprised me on Sunday morning with a two-night trip to Big Bear to play in the snow. We had an absolute blast scurrying around in the frost and even managed to get some stalking in! I will be blogging about those locations soon, but in the meantime, on with today’s post! My recent Say Anything . . . kick is showing no signs of waning. As of late, I have been working with an awesome guy named Greg, who runs The Uncool, Cameron Crowe’s official website, to try to track down some of the 1989 movie’s unknown locales. He has proved invaluable and recently figured out that the graduation scene was lensed at Santa Monica College’s amphitheatre. I had been on the hunt for that darn amphitheatre for what seemed like eons! It was one location (of many) that constantly lingered at the back of my mind, always begging me to find it. I cannot tell you how many Google searches I did for “amphitheatre” and “Los Angeles.” I even thought I had found the right spot a few years back when I happened to walk by Blair High School in Pasadena and spotted its large outdoor theatre. Upon arriving home later that day and comparing photos I snapped to screen caps from Say Anything . . . , I realized it was not the right place. So when Greg informed me that he had found it, I was ecstatic! That happiness didn’t last long, though.

[ad]

Late last year, I recruited fellow stalker Michael, of The Golden Spoon Café and Downtown Christmas Shopping District from The Brady Bunch fame, to assist in the search for missing Say Anything . . . locations, so when I received the fabulous news from Greg regarding the amphitheatre, I immediately let Michael know. He quickly shot me an email back, though, that quelled my excitement. While doing some preliminary research on the amphitheatre, Michael discovered that the venue had been torn down. More heartbreaking still was the fact that it was only just razed in 2009! Had I only found it a few years earlier, I could have seen it in person. Despite my dismay over the demolition, I decided it was still a blog-worthy locale and recently set out to stalk where it once stood.

Thanks to a 2007 aerial view of Santa Monica College provided by Michael, I knew that the amphitheatre was formerly situated in the northeast section of the campus . . .

. . . just beyond the wall pictured below.

That area is currently a construction zone (hence the wall surrounding it), but will eventually be the site of a new student services building.

Michael also tracked down the photograph of the amphitheatre that appears below (he seriously did all of my legwork for me – thank you, Michael!), which was featured in a study of the college’s renovation performed by Christopher A. Joseph & Associates.

In Say Anything . . . , the Santa Monica College amphitheatre masked as the outdoor theatre where the supposed Seattle-area Lakewood High School graduation ceremony took place. As you can see, the venue that appeared in the scene is a direct match to the amphitheatre pictured in the image above. Oh, how I wish I had gotten to see it in person!

The amphitheatre was only featured briefly in the graduation scene and was the site of Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) famous “I’ve glimpsed our future and all I can say is ‘Go back!’” valedictorian speech.

The scene that takes place immediately following the graduation ceremony was filmed elsewhere, at a park-like location that I am as yet unsure of.

Santa Monica College was originally established in 1929 and at the time was known as Santa Monica Junior College. It was renamed Santa Monica City College in 1945 and then, in 1970, it underwent yet another name change when “City” was dropped from its title. Today, it is known simply as Santa Monica College.

The campus’ 1,500-seat amphitheatre, which was funded by the Associated Students, was built in 1967.

Besides its appearance in Say Anything . . ., the school has another show biz connection – it boasts many famous alumni, including Dustin Hoffman, James Dean, Hilary Swank, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nia Long, Laila Ali, Penn Badgley, Cam Gigandet, David Geffen, Alison Lohman, Sean Penn, Ryan Seacrest, Gloria Stuart, Buzz Aldrin, and Kristine Sutherland.

Santa Monica College is quite beautiful and, while I figured that it had to have been featured in other productions over the years, try as I might I could not find any information verifying that.

Big THANK YOU to Greg, of The Uncool website, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Michael for his instrumental help in researching it!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Santa Monica College is located at 1900 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica. The amphitheatre that appeared in Say Anything . . . was formerly located in the northeast corner of the campus, just north of the Art Complex and northeast of the Theatre Arts building, in the area denoted with a pink arrow below.

February 3, 2016
The Palms Motel from “My Name Is Earl”

Another day, another motel location. Today’s is one that has been covered on many other blogs, so I realize I am a bit late to the game. I only just recently stalked it, though, and was shocked to discover that its most recognizable element had been removed! I am talking about the Palms Motel where Earl Hickey (Jason Lee) lived with his brother, Randy (Ethan Suplee), on the television series My Name Is Earl. Up until writing this post, I had never seen a full episode of the show, but my dad is a huge fan, so I had caught many bits and pieces of it over the years. I had also long been familiar with the real life location of the Palms Motel. In actuality, it’s known as the Palm Tree Inn Motel in North Hills. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, first pointed it out to me during one of our many Valley stalks ages ago and, when I was in the area recently, I decided to stop by to stalk it for my dad. I was absolutely shocked upon arriving, though, to see that the hotel’s iconic, murky-watered pool was no longer!

[ad]

For those unfamiliar with My Name Is Earl, the series centers around ne’er-do-well Earl, who, after winning $100,000 in the lottery and then promptly losing the ticket, decides to change his ways by adhering to the tenets of karma. He draws up a list of all of the people he has wronged throughout the course his life and proceeds to try to make amends with each of them. I absolutely love Earl’s mantra of “You do good things and good things happen to you. You do bad things and they’ll come back to haunt you.” It’s not a bad way to operate. After losing his winning lottery ticket and being dumped by his wife in the pilot episode (oh, and getting hit by a car – the guy was not having a good week), Earl and his brother move into a low-budget inn named the Palms Motel.

The motel went on to be featured regularly throughout the series’ four-season run. It also appeared each week in the My Name Is Earl opening credits.

The Palms’ dingy, fin-shaped pool was easily its most notable aspect – well, for me, at least.

Before venturing onto the property, I popped into the Palm Tree Inn’s front office to speak with the manager and he could not have been nicer, immediately welcoming me onto the premises to take all of the pictures that I wanted. Before I did so, he informed me that the pool had been filled in a few years prior (I believe around 2010) due to the fact that it was expensive to maintain and rarely used. He pointed me in the direction of the pool’s former location (it now serves as a parking lot addition) and, while distressed over the fact that it was no longer there, I was floored to see that its outline was still visible.

Oh, how I wish I had gotten to see the pool in person, though.

The outline of the circular space where the random blue sculpture once stood is also still visible. I am guessing that area was the site of a hot tub at one point in time.

On the series, the brothers were said to live in Room 231 and that is actually where filming took place.

Room 231 can be found on the second floor of the southeast corner of the Palm Tree Inn Motel.

That area is denoted with a pink arrow in the aerial view pictured below.

While the exterior of Room 231 was featured regularly throughout the series’ run, I believe that the actual (heavily dressed) interior was only used in My Name Is Earl’s pilot episode . . .

. . . and that a set re-creation of it was built for all subsequent filming once the series got picked up. You can check out some photographs of what the Palm Tree Inn’s real rooms look like here.

E & Z Liquor Market, where childhood Earl (Noah Crawford) taught his friend Ralph (Tanner Maguire) about “street piñatas” in the Season 1 episode “Teacher Earl,” is located adjacent to the Palm Tree Inn Motel at 8418 Sepulveda Boulevard.

The Palm Tree Inn Motel was originally built in the 1960s and was known as the Travelyn Hiway Host.

I believe that it did not become the Palm Tree Inn Motel until after My Name Is Earl started filming in 2005, which would mean that the owners re-named it in honor of its TV moniker, the Palms Motel, which is pretty darn incredible! Don’t quote me on that, though.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover while researching this post how much filming has taken place at the 76-room motel over the years.

The Palm Tree Inn appeared very briefly as the L.A. motel where Azamat (Ken Davitian) was living at the end of the 2006 comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

In the Season 1 episode of The Mentalist titled “The Thin Red Line,” which aired in 2008, the motel masked as the Davis Motor Inn in Davis, California, where the CBI team investigated the murder of a state witness.

One of the hotel’s actual rooms, Room 222, appeared in the episode.

A nice view of the pool was also shown.

In the Season 3 episode of Heroes titled “Chapter Four ‘Cold Wars,’” which aired in 2009, the property stood in for the Costa Verde motel where Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) and Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) interrogated Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman).

Ironically, Room 231, the very same room where Earl and Randy live on My Name Is Earl, was utilized in the filming.

Or at least the doorway was. I believe the interior of the room that appeared in the episode was just a set.

The Palm Tree Inn Motel was featured extensively in Kesha’s 2010 music video for “Take It Off.”

Though the property was made to appear as if it was located in a remote, mountainous area for the shoot.

An extensive sequence from the video took place in the motel’s pool.

You can watch the “Take It Off” video by clicking below.

Having viewed the many productions filmed at the motel, I’m rather shocked that the owners decided to have the pool filled in. Though, as I mentioned earlier, I was told it was expensive to maintain, it seems that all of the movies and shows lensed on the premises featured it in some aspect. The pool’s unique shape added a certain je ne sais quoi to the property, making it stand out from the countless roadside motels in the area, and no doubt proved attractive to location scouts. Without it, the place looks like every other motel in L.A., which probably explains why it, sadly, hasn’t seen much filming in recent years.

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 Palm Tree Motor Inn, aka the Palms Motel from My Name Is Earl, is located at 8424 Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills. E & Z Liquor Market, from the “Teacher Earl” episode, is located right next door at 8418 Sepulveda Boulevard. The areas of the motel that appeared on the series, as well as the liquor store, are denoted in the aerial view below. The Budget Inn of North Hills, aka the Little Miss Sunshine motel, is located a mile north at 9151 Sepulveda Boulevard. The Hometown Inn from the 2002 Britney Spears’ movie Crossroads is located just a bit north of that at 9401 Sepulveda Boulevard.

January 29, 2016
Econo Inn & Suites from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”

Well, I am definitely on a hotel kick as of late, because here I am with my third post in a row of the inn variety. Today’s lodging was featured prominently in the Season 9 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Turn, Turn, Turn,” which just so happens to be the production in which a one Miss Taylor Swift made her acting debut. When the episode first aired in 2009, I had not watched CSI in ages, nor was I a particularly big Swift fan (nothing against her, but at the time I was not familiar with much of her music – that’s no longer the case, today “Blank Space” is pretty much my go-to karaoke song!), so I am unsure of how or why I came to tune in. Tune in, I did, though, and I absolutely loved it. The episode is truly gripping, albeit profoundly sad.

[ad]

“Turn, Turn, Turn” centers around Nick Stokes’ (George Eads) dealings with various crimes over a one-year period at a local “Las Vegas” lodging named the Park Pines Motel. Taylor portrayed the manager’s daughter, Hayley Jones, in the episode.

Park Pines was the main location featured in the episode . . .

. . . and it was used extensively throughout.

I spent quite a bit of time searching for the Park Pines location back when “Turn, Turn, Turn,” first aired, but never wound up tracking it down. Then, while watching the Season 2 finale of How to Get Away with Murder, which was titled “What Did We Do?,” I spotted a motel that I thought might be the one I had been looking for. Upon closer inspection, I realized it wasn’t, but I, of course, got the itch to start hunting again. (For those interested, the motel featured in HTGAWM is the Hollywood Premiere Motel located at 5333 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Feliz.)

Thankfully, “Turn, Turn, Turn,” is available for streaming on Hulu – actually all 337 episodes of CSI are! (Side note – the Grim Cheaper and I just got a subscription to Hulu and it is downright amazing! Netflix is for sure the better platform for movies, but when it comes to TV, Hulu can’t be beat! Every single episode of Law and Order: SVU is on there! I mean, come on!) So I re-watched it and was floored to see that the signage of several storefronts was visible across the street from the Park Pines in the episode.

One sign was for a salon named Hollywood Hair & Nails. A quick Google search kicked back a listing for a shop by that moniker located at 10759 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood. Sure enough, when I went to that address on Google Street View, there was the Park Pines Motel located right across the street! Woot!

Though CSI would have you believe that the motel was located in Las Vegas (gotta love the spectacular use of CGI ) . . .

. . . it can actually be found at 10750 West Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood.

In real life, the 25-unit motel is named Econo Inn & Suites.

Sadly, most of the areas that appeared in “Turn, Turn, Turn” are located at the rear of the property and are not visible from the street.

What can be seen, though, is very recognizable.

Several of the motel’s actual rooms were also used in the filming.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Econo Inn & Suites, from the “Turn, Turn, Turn” episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, is located at 10750 West Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood.

January 25, 2016
The Garland Hotel from “Parks and Recreation”

A couple of years ago, I drove by a hotel that looked like a little slice of retro heaven and became transfixed. I made a mental note of its name and vowed to research it further. As soon as I got home, though, I realized the name had escaped me and, because I have no sense of direction whatsoever (my mom says I couldn’t find my way out of a paper bag!), I did not even really remember where it was located. Then this past November, fate stepped in. While the Grim Cheaper and I were driving to the Valli Tropics apartments from Wicked City, we randomly passed by the hotel and I just about did a dance of joy! This time I took note of its name, The Garland, and vowed to book a stay there in the near future. In a synchronistic twist, fellow stalker Michael of The Golden Spoon Café and Downtown Christmas Shopping District from The Brady Bunch fame, happened to mention in an email just a few days later that he had stayed at the Garland on a recent trip to L.A. and loved it. So when it came time to book a hotel for my and the GC’s Christmas shopping trip shortly thereafter, The Garland was the only hotel I looked into. And it turned out to be even better than I had imagined!

[ad]

The Garland stands on a seven-acre parcel of land once owned by Gene Autry. Fillmore Crank, the real estate developer husband of actress Beverly Garland, purchased the large, undeveloped lot in 1970 with thoughts of building an apartment complex there. His good friend baseball player Casey Stengel convinced him to construct a hotel on the land instead. So the couple partnered up with Las Vegas hotelier John Kell Houssels Jr., secured a 20-year deal with The Howard Johnson Company, and in 1972 the Beverly Garland Howard Johnson Motor Lodge opened to the public.

The 155-room hotel was not constructed in the typical Howard Johnson fashion with an angled red roof, but in the Mission style as a nod to its Southern California location.

When the contract with Howard Johnson ended, Beverly and Fillmore ran the hotel independently for a short while before eventually signing on with the Holiday Inn, at which time it was renamed the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn. To locals and frequent guests, though, it was known as the “Beverly Garland” or “The Garland.”

In 2000, Beverly and Fillmore’s son, James Crank, took over management of the hotel, though Beverly could still often be seen flitting around the property, helping guests. When the Holiday Inn contract expired in 2013, James decided to once again operate the site as an independent hotel that he redubbed “The Garland.” He also began a $20-million renovation of the place at that time, the results of which are absolutely spectacular!

From the Instagram-able lobby . . .

. . . to the unique retro touches at every turn . . .

. . . to the lively décor . . .

. . . The Garland is honestly like no other hotel I’ve ever seen.

The Christmas decorations were also majorly on point.

Today, the 257-room hotel boasts a large outdoor pool (which sadly, due to the seriously frosty weather, we were unable to partake of) . . .

. . . countless outdoor spaces . . .

. . . a myriad of activities for families, children and couples, including a foosball table and board games set up in the courtyard. . .

. . . gorgeous vistas . . .

. . . literally everywhere you look (yes, that’s a wall of flying butterflies!) . . .

. . . whimsical design elements around seemingly every corner, which I had fun with . . .

. . . and a massive outdoor garden event space designed by famed landscape architect Jonny Appleseed.

The Garland also offers free shuttle service to Universal Studios and Universal City Walk, complimentary Wi-Fi, a plethora of onsite classes including poolside macramé and garden tai chi yoga, a business center, a gym, a fabulous gift shop that carries all sorts of California- and L.A.-themed goodies, and over 16,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention The Front Yard, the hotel’s onsite restaurant.

Upon checking in, we received a coupon for two complimentary cocktails at The Front Yard, so we decided to try the place out and wound up staying for dinner. The GC and I both opted for the TFY Burger – a ground short rib burger with a potato bun, truffle dijonnaise, wild mushrooms, Point Reyes toma cheese, and red onion balsamic jam. It was uh-ma-zing! So good that the GC was literally craving it all day the next day and couldn’t wait for dinnertime so that we could rush back there.

Oh, and our room wasn’t too shabby, either. It was the perfect combination of retro and modern, with whimsical touches throughout.

All in all, The Garland is a fabulous hotel and I couldn’t more highly recommend a stay there.

To add to the allure, The Garland is also a popular filming venue! The site has been a location scout favorite from the beginning, in fact. Back in its early days, it appeared in everything from Quincy, M.E. to Falcon Crest to Switch. In the book Beverly Garland: Her Life and Career, author Deborah Del Vecchio quotes Garland as saying, “They’ve also done a Six Million Dollar Man and Police Woman [at the hotel]. In fact, they’ve done just about all the big shows here. They have filmed everywhere in the hotel – inside at the desk area, around in the back, jumping off of balconies – and the guests just love it. Of course, it is a mess when they do film because they’ve got cables running everywhere. They’ve done commercials around the pool and the tennis courts. We always put a sign up saying, for instance, “Universal is filming Six Million Dollar Man here today” so that our guests will know that sometimes they would not be able to get to the front desk for a while or do certain things that they’d like to do. And yet they get a kick out of that. Most people enjoy the fact that they are in Hollywood and that the studios are filming here at the lodge. And it’s good publicity for us and we like it!” Couldn’t have said it better myself, Beverly!

The Garland appeared no less than five times on the popular television series Knight Rider. One such instance was Season 1’s “Forget Me Not.”

The episode made use of the hotel lobby and really gives a feel for what The Garland looked like pre-remodel.

An actual room was also used in the filming. It cracked me up to see how different the rooms were back in 1982 when the episode was shot.

In 2012, The Garland masked as Pawnee Supersuites in the Season 4 finale of Parks and Recreation titled “Win, Lose or Draw.” It was in the hotel’s Garland Ballroom, renamed the Jermaine Jackson Ballroom for the episode (LOL!!!), where Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and the rest of the Parks gang waited for the City Council election results.

Very little of the ballroom was actually visible in the episode, though, due to all of Leslie’s campaign decorations.

Nevertheless, it is still recognizable from its appearance.

Pre-remodel, the Garland Ballroom appeared in the Season 2 episode of Knight Rider titled “Speed Demons,” which aired in 1984. The room looks so incredibly different now, it is hard to believe it is the same place where Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) tried to help a down-on-his-luck dirt bike racer.

The “Win, Lose or Draw” episode of Parks and Recreation also made use of one of The Garland’s smaller ballrooms.

That ballroom is pictured below.

In the 2012 comedy The Guilt Trip, The Garland portrayed the Virginia Mountain Motor Inn.

One of the real life rooms was featured in the movie, as well.

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 Garland, from Parks and Recreation, is located at 4222 North Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

January 22, 2016
The L.A. Hotel Downtown from “How to Get Away with Murder”

UPDATE – This hotel is now known as “The L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown.”

Sometimes while viewing a television show or movie, I become absolutely transfixed by a location. So much so that I have to pause what I’m watching and track down the locale right then and there. It happens quite often actually – more often than I’d like to admit – and drives the Grim Cheaper up the wall. Such was the case with the hotel where Eve Rothlow (Famke Janssen) stayed while in town to help Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) in the Season 2 premiere of How to Get Away with Murder titled “It’s Time to Move On.”

[ad]

One look at the frosted glass art installation hanging above the check-in desk had me drooling and I immediately grabbed my laptop to begin tracking down the hotel.

Fortunately, it was an easy find. Thanks to the ultra-sleek décor, I knew that the hotel was either newly built or newly renovated, so I did a Google Images search using the terms “modern,” “new,” “hotel,” “renovation” and “Los Angeles,” and it was not long before I came across some pictures that matched what had appeared onscreen.

As it turns out, the “It’s Time to Move On” episode was filmed at The L.A. Hotel Downtown, an absolutely gorgeous property that did indeed recently undergo a massive renovation.

The 14-story hotel was originally constructed as a Sheraton Grande in 1983.

In December 1997, it was purchased by CapStar Hotel Company and was transformed into the Los Angeles Marriott Downtown.

The 2007 financial crisis hit the property hard, though, and it went into foreclosure in 2010. The site was subsequently purchased by Hong Kong-based real estate development company Shenzhen New World Group, who began a $25 million renovation of the place and renamed it The L.A. Hotel Downtown. Though it was originally set to operate under the Hyatt Regency brand when the renovations were complete, those plans fell through and today the hotel functions as an independent property.

You can check out some photos of the hotel during its time as a Marriott here, here, here, here, and here. It is absolutely fascinating to me to see how different the place looked then as compared to now. It’s virtually unrecognizable!

The L.A. Hotel Downtown currently boasts 400 guest rooms, 69 suites, 25,000 square feet of meeting and event space, 23 conference rooms, 2 ballrooms, a fitness center, a restaurant, a lounge, a business center, and an outdoor pool.

It is honestly one of the most gorgeous hotels I have ever laid eyes on.

And in person, the glass art installation did not disappoint!

It is literally stunning.

Hot to Get Away with Murder also made use of the hotel’s main entrance.

The property also masked as the Manhattan hotel where David Clarke (James Tupper) stayed in the Season 4 episode of Revenge titled “Repercussions” – which reminds me, I really need to watch the series’ final season!

For whatever reason, Revenge did not make use of the outside of The L.A. Hotel Downtown, but instead chose to film the exterior hotel scenes at the Westin Bonaventure.

In the recently-aired Season 5 episode of Major Crimes titled “Family Law,” the site masked as the Hotel Collage, where Mike Tao (Michael Paul Chan) went undercover to hire a prostitute while investigating the death of a divorce lawyer.

And in the Season 6 episode of Scandal titled “Buckle Up,” which aired in 2016, the L.A. Hotel Downtown portrayed the spot where warring presidential candidates Susan Ross (Artemis Pebdani) and Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) stayed while campaigning in Los Angeles.

In the episode, Susan checked into one of the hotel’s Vista Suites . . .

. . . while Mellie stayed in the 932-square-foot, 2-level Grand Suite.

The property’s Presidential Suite was also used as Susan’s Florida hotel room in the episode.

Back in 1987, when the hotel was operating as the Sheraton Grande, it was featured in the made-for-television movie The Last Fling as one of the spots where Phillip Reed (John Ritter) tried to stop Gloria Franklin’s (Connie Sellecca) wedding.

The hotel’s Grand Suite was also used as the apartment of Joanne Preston (Shannon Tweed) in the movie.

The hotel played Atlantic City’s Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino where Robin Givens (Kristen Wilson) was interviewed about her relationship with Mike Tyson (Michael Jai White) in the 1995 biopic Tyson.

In the Season 3 episode of Melrose Place titled “Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dinner at Eight,” which aired in 1995, the Sheraton Grande portrayed the New York hotel where Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) and Amanda Woodward (Heather Locklear) stayed while in the Big Apple to see a doctor.

The two shacked up in one of the hotel’s Vista Suites in the episode.

The following year, the Sheraton Grande popped up on Melrose Place once again, this time in the Season 4 episode “No Lifeguard on Duty” in which it masqueraded as The Beverly Hilton, where Brooke Armstrong (Kristin Davis) moved after separating from Billy Campbell (Andrew Shue).

The Sheraton Grande masked as the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, where the NFL Draft was held, in the 1996 romcom Jerry Maguire.

In 2003, when the hotel was operating as the Los Angeles Marriott Downtown, it popped up as the site of the Royalty Airlines job fair in the comedy View from the Top.

In 2005, it appeared in the Season 4 episode of Alias titled “Another Mister Sloane.”

A dangerous call girl picked up a client in the Marriott’s lobby in the Season 4 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Pleasure Is My Business,” which aired in 2009.

That same year it popped up as the New York hotel where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and the gang attended a meeting in the Season 6 episode of The Office titled “Shareholder Meeting.”

The Presidential Suite was also utilized in the episode.

The hotel’s most famous appearance, though, has to be in Fatboy Slim’s 2001 “Weapon of Choice” music video, which starred a dancing Christopher Walken.

The video, which was shot over two days in December 2000 and went on to win a Grammy and six MTV Video Music awards, made extensive use of the hotel and gives a great view of what it looked like during its days as a Marriott.

Though the property looks vastly different today, fans of the video can take comfort in the fact that its set-up is still the same and that the escalators that Walken danced on remain intact.

You can watch the “Weapon of Choice” video by clicking 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: The L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown, from How to Get Away with Murder, is located at 333 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the property’s official website here.

January 20, 2016
The “Pretty Little Liars” Church

Before we get started, I have a couple of announcements. Some changes will be coming to the blog in 2016. The biggest change will be a major site redesign, which the Grim Cheaper is currently working on and which I could NOT be more excited about. You’ll notice I’ve altered my screen captures a bit in today’s post, which is part of the revamp. My editor at Los Angeles magazine also recently started a new position and until someone is hired to replace her full time, things are a bit up in the air with my Scene it Before column. Regardless of what happens with that, I will be scaling my IAMNOTASTALKER postings down to three days a week (most of the time, anyway), so that I can free up some time to write for other websites (and for my own sanity – throughout most of 2015, I found myself working every weekday plus Sundays, which is no way to operate). One of my new ventures is a monthly column for one of my good friend’s blogs (more info on that to come), which I am thrilled about. So yeah, changes are a-coming. But hopefully my fellow stalkers will embrace them. I have a feeling big things are on the horizon for 2016. And now, on with the post! The winter premiere of Pretty Little Liars, titled “Of Late I Think of Rosewood,” aired last Tuesday night and I have to say it was surprisingly enjoyable. I am really digging the five-year time jump and all of the mysteries that come with it. Well done, PLL! You’ve sucked me right back in, which I wasn’t sure was possible considering the debacle of the whole Big A reveal in August. In honor of the show’s promising return, I am here yet again with yet another Vancouver locale from the pilot episode – Ryerson United Church, which my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry was nice enough to stalk for me during a recent weekend trip to Canada.

[ad]

Ryerson United Church was featured at the very end of the Pretty Little Liars pilot. In the episode, it stood in for the Rosewood, Pennsylvania parish where Alison DiLaurentis’ (Sasha Pieterse) funeral was held.

Most notably, it was while standing outside of the church after the funeral that the Liars received their first ever ominous group text message, which read, “I’m still here, bitches. And I know everything. -A”

Being that I had nothing to go on with this one – no visible street signs or address numbers – I thought the church would be tough to track down, but it was a surprisingly easy find. I simply did a Google Images search using the terms “church” and “Vancouver” and, voila, in the fourth row of results, there was a photo of the place I was looking for! Clicking on said photo led me to a page about Ryerson United Church on the Wedding Mappers website.

The actual inside of Ryerson United also appeared in the Pretty Little Liars pilot. You can check out some photographs of the interior here.

Though, as I mentioned in this post, the supposed church stairs shown in the funeral scene are not located at Ryerson United, but in the Vancouver home that masked as Ali’s in the episode.

It is interesting to be blogging about this particular location now, after having watched “Of Late I Think of Rosewood,” being that the episode so closely paralleled the pilot, especially the funeral scene.

Side note – I absolutely loved the line in the premiere in which Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn), when talking about Radley Sanitarium’s transformation into the boutique hotel “The Radley,” said, “Well, people get do-overs, why shouldn’t buildings?” I couldn’t agree more, Caleb! Oh, how I wish people would stop tearing down old and historic structures! I’m looking at you, owners of the Clueless party house!

When Pretty Little Liars got picked up, production moved from Vancouver to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank and the series began to make use of a structure located on the Midwest Street backlot as Rosewood’s local church. The façade has gone on to appear in countless episodes, including the funeral scene in “Of Late I Think of Rosewood.”

The Midwest Street church is a practical set and its interior also regularly appears on the show, as was the case with “Of Late I Think of Rosewood.”

Back to Ryerson United Church in Vancouver. Pretty Little Liars is hardly the first production to make use of the site. Most notably, the church was the main location featured in the 1983 TV movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

The interior of Ryerson United was also utilized in the production.

In the Season 2 episode of The Flash titled “Legends of Today,” Ryerson United Church masked as St. Marks in Central City, where Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) went to track down a consecrated staff.

The exterior shown in the episode was that of a different church, though.

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: Ryerson United Church, aka the church from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars, is located at 2195 West 45th Avenue in Vancouver.

January 18, 2016
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.

[ad]

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