Beverly Hills 90210 – Page 5

February 4, 2010February 4, 2010

Brenda and Dylan’s Palm Springs Hotel from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Another Beverly Hills, 90210 location that I stalked recently was the Hyatt Westlake Plaza which stood in for both Brenda’s hotel – the Desert Palm Mirage – and Dylan’s hotel – the Desert Mirage – in the Season One episode entitled “A Fling in Palm Springs” (aka “Palm Springs Weekend”). Why that particular episode has two different names I’m not entirely sure, but I digress. I found this location thanks to Geoff over at 90210 Locations who posted the address a few weeks back. The “Palm Springs Weekend” episode has always been one of my favorites (mostly due to the charades game played at the end during which Dylan points to Brenda to convey the movie Pretty Woman to the rest of the gang – SO CUTE!), so when I saw that Geoff had tracked down the hotel featured in it, I just about started screaming. I had literally wanted to stalk that location for as long as I can remember. So, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to the Valley to do some long overdue “Palm Springs” stalking, Beverly Hills, 90210-style.

And while the exterior of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when 90210 was filmed there over 18 years ago,

sadly the interior has been extensively remodeled in recent years and looks quite a bit different today.

In the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode, Kelly and Donna mistakenly drop Brenda off at the Desert Palm Mirage hotel to meet Dylan for a romantic rendezvous, but as fate would have it Dylan is actually staying at the similarly named Desert Mirage hotel. And because Brenda has misplaced her wallet and can’t get ahold of Kelly or Dylan (how did people ever survive without cell phones???), she is forced to spend the night on a cot in the hotel’s broom closet. God, I miss 90210! The areas used in the episode include the main entrance;

the front desk,

and the pay phone station, which is now an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office. As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the interior of the hotel is virtually unrecognizable from the episode. 🙁

But I did manage to dig up a few old pictures of the hotel from the Here Comes the Guide website (YAY!) and as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the former front desk matches the one that appeared on 90210 exactly.

Another thing I noticed while looking at old photographs of the hotel was that up until the recent remodel, a piece of furniture seen in the background of the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode was still on display in the Hyatt’s lobby. So cool! If only I had stalked this place two years ago! UGH! 🙁 You can take a virtual tour of the former lobby area here.

Later on in the episode, Brenda shows up at Dylan’s hotel only to find him hanging out with a random girl named Janie. The Hyatt Westlake Plaza also stood in for Dylan’s hotel in the episode.

After catching him with Janie, Brenda has a minor meltdown (during which she actually screams “Bogus!” LOL) in front of the Hyatt’s elevators, which I am happy to report look EXACTLY the same today as they did on 90210. 🙂 So darn cool!

And while I didn’t recognize much of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza from the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode of 90210, what I did recognize it from – pretty much immediately upon entering – was another television series – ABC’s The Bachelor! As it turns out, the Hyatt Westlake Plaza is the very hotel where the contestants are put up for a few days pre-show before they move into the mansion. And, in this particular season’s opener, quite a bit of filming was done on location at the Hyatt. The areas used in that episode include the inside of several of the girls’ hotel rooms;

the lobby;

and the main entrance. And according to the February 1st issue of US Magazine, part of the alleged affair between booted contestant Rozlyn Papa and former Bachelor producer Ryan Callahan took place at the hotel where the girls were staying pre-show – which we now know is the Hyatt Westlake Plaza. 🙂 The Bachelor is FABULOUS this season, by the way, and as always I am ABSOLUTELY addicted to Reality Steve’s coverage of it. 🙂 If you’re not watching, you really should be!

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Big THANK YOU to Geoff over at 90210 locations for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Westlake Plaza is located at 880 South Westlake Boulevard in Westlake Village. You can visit their website here.

February 3, 2010February 3, 2010

The Walsh Family’s Minnesota House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One Beverly Hills, 90210 location that both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have long wanted to stalk was the Walsh Family’s former Minnesota residence which briefly appeared in the Season Four episode entitled “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye”. Sadly, though, because no address number or background information which would point us to the home’s location were visible in the episode, we had no idea where to even begin looking. So, this past week I called upon the usual suspects, fellow stalkers Owen and Chas, to help us track down the residence. And sure enough, they did! Chas ended up getting into contact with a former 90210 crew member who remembered that the home was located somewhere in Altadena, in the very same vicinity as Casa Walsh. So, Owen got to cyberstalking aerial views of the area and, voila, fairly quickly found the home! YAY! As it turns out, the “Minnesota” house is located a mere two blocks away from Casa Walsh, so it looks like when the Walsh’s moved, they didn’t go very far. 😉 And, let me tell you, once Owen gave me the address, I immediately hopped into my car and dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place! As fate would have it, when we pulled up to the house, the owner – an incredibly nice woman named Judy – just happened to be standing outside, so I of course had to strike up a conversation with her. 🙂

Judy truly could not have been nicer and did not find it at all weird that I was stalking her home. 😉 She even shared some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes information with us, the most exciting of which was the fact that not only did her home appear in the “So Long, Farewell” episode of 90210, but also in the opening credits of the Season One episode entitled “The Green Room” – which you can watch here. In the credits, the house is featured in one brief scene in which a mailman is shown picking up the Walsh’s forwarded mail from their snow covered former home in Minnesota. For some reason, though, that particular segment appeared only in “The Green Room” episode’s opening credits and never again. It’s too bad, too, because I think it would have been a really cute way to start off each show. Judy told us that it was about 105 degrees in Altadena on the day that scene was filmed and that the producers were having a hard time keeping the “snow” – which in reality was just a soap suds mixture – from evaporating in the heat.

In the “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye” episode, Brenda returns to Minneapolis for the first time since her family’s move to Beverly Hills in order to begin her Freshman Year at the University of Minnesota. Before school starts, Cindy takes Brenda to see their former home and she knocks on the front door, hoping to take a peek at her old bedroom, but unfortunately no one is home. Is it while standing in the front yard of her former home, though, that Brenda first starts to have doubts about attending college in Minnesota. Those doubts soon turn into all out misgivings and in the following episode she leaves Minnesota and heads back to Beverly Hills to attend CU with Brandon, Kelly, and the rest of the gang. 🙂

In the scene, Brenda mentions that as kids she and Brandon used to play on a tire swing that their father had hung from a tree in their former home’s front yard. So, I was absolutely floored when I noticed that the house had a swing hanging from a tree in the front yard in real life, too, as you can see in the above photograph. So cool!

Judy also told us that for the past eight years her family has hosted a huge – and I do mean HUGE – annual Halloween spectacular in their front yard, consisting of a 40 foot maze, creepy clowns, life-size animatronics, monsters with chainsaws, and screenings of horror movies, along with numerous other tricks and treats to both terrorize and delight. Judy’s a woman after my own heart, I swear, as Halloween has always been my very favorite holiday. 🙂 The “Haunted Yard”, as it has come to be known, attracted some 3,500 spectators this past year, including the Los Angeles Clippers Cheerleading Team who led the entire crowd in a spontaneous rendition of Michael Jackson’s zombie dance from Thriller. Which begs the question, HOW IN THE HECK DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS???? I mean, I would have absolutely DIED to have seen that!!!! And it was all happening just a few miles from where I live! Oh, how I wish I had been there. 🙁 Ugh. Maybe I can convince the Clippers to do a repeat performance next Halloween! 😉 You can read more about the annual “Haunted Yard” on fave website AltadenaBlog here.

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A big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, and Chas for finding this house. This one was definitely a group effort! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh Family’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1640 Braeburn Road in Altadena.

January 27, 2010January 27, 2010

Dylan’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Still licking our wounds this past weekend after finding out that the Walsh Family garage had recently been dismantled, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to head over to Dylan McKay’s house to do some more Beverly Hills, 90210 stalking. And, as fate would have it, the real life owner of Dylan’s home, an INCREDIBLY nice woman named Mary, just happened to be outside doing some gardening work when we arrived! So, we got to talking to her and found out quite a bit of behind-the-scenes information, the most fascinating of which was the fact that throughout the show’s entire second season, all of the scenes which took place at Dylan’s residence were actually filmed inside of Mary’s house and not on a soundstage! And, let me tell you, I just about died when I heard that! Interestingly enough, though, Mary’s house was not used for the exterior establishing shots of Dylan’s house until early in the show’s third season!

The house used as the exterior of Dylan’s abode during the show’s second season is pictured above. And, ironically enough, it’s also the very same house that was used as Andrea’s residence in the Season One episode of 90210 entitled “Spring Dance”. LOL The location manager’s wires must have gotten crossed somewhere along the line while dealing with this residence! 😉

The interior of Mary’s house first appeared early on in the series’ second season in an episode entitled “Necessity is a Mother” (pictured above). According to Mary, whenever filming would take place at her home, producers would use her actual furniture in all of the scenes. She said she and her husband owned a pink couch at the time and producers would cover it up with Indian-style blankets during the filming, as you can see in the above screen captures. So, that finally answers the question of how Dylan McKay’s blanket-happy decorating style came to be. 😉

The exterior of Mary’s house (pictured above) didn’t show up until a full year after the “Necessity is a Mother” episode aired. Its first appearance was in the premiere episode of the Third Season, which was entitled “Misery Loves Company”. I guess producers didn’t figure viewers would notice that Dylan’s house changed mysteriously mid-series, but they really should have accounted for all of us stalkers out there. 😉

According to Mary, the interiors of her house were used throughout the filming of the entire second season and into the beginning of third, at which time producers ended up building an exact replica of the structure on a studio soundstage.

They even rebuilt the home’s front porch and side patio area (pictured above), complete with a replica red Webber BBQ, just like the one Mary and her husband owned at the time! So cool! You can watch a clip which features an extensive view of Dylan’s house from the Season 3 episode entitled “A Song of Myself” here.

Mary also told us that a scene from the Season Four episode entitled “Twenty Years Ago Today” was also filmed inside of her house. In the scene, Dylan is shown taking a shower, just as Brandon pulls up to pick up a picture frame he had purchased for his parents’ twentieth wedding anniversary. Because Dylan can’t hear him knocking, Brandon ends up breaking the glass on the back door and entering the house. Dylan hears the glass break, grabs his gun, and almost shoots him. Ah, dontcha just love 90210 drama? Mary said that for the filming of Brandon’s breaking-and-entering scene, a fake back door – complete with break-away glass – was built and that she got to keep the door after the filming was completed! She still has the door in her garage! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it, but I think it is so incredibly cool that she still has it after all these years.

She also told us that her real life bathroom was used for the scene in which Dylan is showering in that episode, which means that Luke Perry actually stood in her shower! Sigh! Mary also said that Shannen Doherty was her favorite out of all of the actors on the show. YAY! Go Team Brenda! See, I knew Shannen had to be nice! 🙂

Because Mary’s front door is glass, you can easily see inside of the house when standing on the front porch. And, let me tell you, I was ABSOLUTELY DYING looking at the interior because it looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did on 90210. But while Mary told us that we could take all the pictures we wanted of the house’s exterior and the front porch area, she asked us not to take any photos of the interior through the glass. 🙁 Apparently fans are apt to do that and she’s not too keen on it. And even though it killed me not to, I had to respect her wishes. 🙁 Ugh, such a bummer as I would have LOVED to have posted photographs of the inside here. But you can see some great interior photos of the house from before Mary owned it here and a photograph that someone did actually take through her front door here.

The house’s front porch area, which showed up countless times on 90210, is absolutely HUGE and Mike and I just had to take pictures of every single angle of it! 🙂

The house is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and extremely unique, in person. It’s appearance from the street is actually quite deceiving, though, as it seems to be rather small and quaint. . .

. . . when in reality it is absolutely huge and stretches the length of an entire block. When you walk by, the place literally seems to just keep going and going and going.

Mary’s house was also used as Jesse Bradford’s residence in the super cute 2002 movie Clockstoppers.

Besides its cinematic significance, the house also has quite a bit of historical significance, as well. The dwelling is known as the “Parsons House” in architectural circles and it was originally built in 1910 by Arthur and Alfred Heineman, former Greene & Greene Brother’s’ apprentices. Amazingly enough, the house wasn’t always located in Altadena, though. It was originally built on East California Boulevard in Pasadena, four miles away from its current location. In 1980, a condominium development company purchased the land where the Parsons House used to stand and slated the area for demolition. The developer ended up giving the home to the Pasadena Heritage Society, who later sold the entire structure for one dollar to a man named Phil Elkins. Elkins hired architect Tim Anderson to restore the Parsons House and then purchased a vacant lot in Altadena, where he would eventually move the structure. In order to do so, though, the home had to be cut into three separate pieces, using a chain saw, no less! But the house survived the cut and the four mile journey to Altadena and two years later the entire property was completely restored. Anderson says, “We probably could have built a reproduction of the house for less than what it cost to restore. Had we all been less enthusiastic and naive about this project, the house would not have been saved.” You can read an entire history of the house on Tim Anderson’s website here.

Only the home’s chimney and front porch area had to be rebuilt from scratch, but they were made in exact replication of the originals. Ironically enough, George McDavitt, the stoneworker who did all of the masonry work on the new porch – and who also did the stone work on Bob Dylan’s Malibu house – actually showed up one day at Mary’s front door with his teenaged daughter. It turns out that his daughter was a huge 90210 fan and she didn’t believe that her father had actually built a part of Dylan McKay’s house, so he wanted to show her his name, which he had engraved in one of the rocks (pictured above). So cool!

I honestly cannot tell you how exciting it was to be able to see Dylan’s house in such an up-close-and-personal way and to talk to Mary about her amazing home and the historic filming that took place there almost two decades ago. It was truly a dream come true! 🙂

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On a side note – My good friend Kristin, who owns my very favorite restaurant POP Champagne and Dessert Bar in Pasadena, will be appearing on KTLA tomorrow morning at around 9:45 in honor of dineLA’s Restaurant Week. If you live in the Los Angeles area be sure to tune in for the segment. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dylan’s house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1605 East Altadena Drive, at the corner of Altadena Drive and Porter Avenue, in Altadena.

January 26, 2010January 26, 2010

The Casa Walsh Garage – A Distant Memory

Like Mike, from MovieShotsLA said yesterday, it’s officially the end of an era. While the two of us were out doing some Pasadena area stalking on Sunday, we made our regular pilgrimage to the Walsh House from Beverly Hills, 90210 and saw a very sad sight, indeed. In fact, Mike was so out of sorts over the whole thing that he almost crashed the car upon viewing it. Not kidding! Apparently, just last week, Jack, the real life owner of Casa Walsh, tore down the Walsh garage – the hallowed spot where Brandon and Jim’s famous basketball hoop used to hang. 🙁 Mike and I actually knew this was coming, as Jack had mentioned he had plans to install a new garage on the property last December during our interior tour of the home, but it was still sad to see nonetheless. I am not a person that handles change very well anyway, and being that my parents just last week decided to sell the house we’ve lived in ever since moving to Southern California a decade ago, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of it lately. Granted I moved out of that house a year and a half ago, but that’s entirely beside the point. 😉 So, when I saw that my beloved 90210 house had also been altered, it was almost too much to bear. And while Jack says that some change can actually be for the better, I’ll take the status quo over something new any day. 🙂

Pictured above is what’s currently left of the Walsh garage. I told Jack he should seriously consider selling pieces of the rubble on eBay, like the pieces of the Berlin Wall that were sold back in the 90s, but I don’t think he took me seriously. 😉

And here is the empty footprint where the Walsh garage – and basketball hoop – used to stand.

Pictured above is the garage area as it appeared in December of 2008.

And what it looks like today. So sad. See what I mean? It truly is the end of an era!

Jack also removed the little patio area that used to be located just outside of the Walsh’s backdoor – an area which the producers of 90210 had built especially for the filming of the show. 🙁

Pictured above is what that patio area used to look like.

Our visit to the Walsh house wasn’t an entirely sad event, though. As always, Jack regaled us with some fabulous tales from the days when the show was filmed on his property. And, let me tell you, I just cannot get enough of those stories! I could literally listen to Jack talk all day long! Which Mike and I pretty much did – we were there for close to two hours! Not kidding! Jack has to be one of THE nicest guys on the planet, I swear! One story he told us had us absolutely cracking up. Apparently, a few months back, a fan from Belgium came to the house and asked to see the inside. Jack’s wife was hesitant about doing so, but the girl was very persistent, so she eventually showed her the area just inside the front door. Well, the girl took one look at the inside and completely burst into tears. Apparently, she thought the show was actually filmed inside of the real life house and expected it to look exactly the same in person as it does on TV and she became terribly upset when that was not the case. If only she had read my blog before stalking the house, she would have been saved some heartache. 😉 One interesting little tidbit of information that Jack shared with us that I found fascinating was that there were actually three houses being considered for the Walsh residence once the series got picked up by Fox. The three residences were Jack’s house, which ended up being chosen, Jack’s neighbor’s house directly to the east (pictured above) . . .

. . . and the house located across the street (pictured above). I think they made the right choice, don’t you think? How different the show would have been – at least to me – if one of the other houses had been chosen. The house across the street from Jack’s was eventually used as both the residence of Melissa, aka 90210’s Baby Mama, in the Season One episode entitled “One Man and a Baby” and the backyard area was used as Tiffany Morgan’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Every Dream Has Its Price”, both of which I blogged about here.

Ironically enough, Jack also told us that the very same backyard also stood in for Steve Sander’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Higher Education”.

Another little bit of 90210 trivia that Jack clued us into was the fact that the front yard of the house located directly west of Jack’s masqueraded as the backyard of Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s home in the Season 10 episode entitled “The Easter Bunny”.

In the episode, Steve and Janet erroneously believe that her parent’s dog, whom they are pet-sitting at the time, killed their neighbor’s pet rabbit, so the two of them concoct a plan to replace it with a new rabbit. Because Jack’s neighbor’s house doesn’t have a backyard with much open space, producers dressed the front yard area – just to the west of the home’s front door – and added a fence and a gate to make it appear as if it was really the home’s backyard. So interesting!

One thing I noticed while in Jack’s backyard was that the Walsh house actually has two small upstairs balconies, not just one as I had previously believed. I recognized the smaller of the two balconies from the Season One episode entitled “Isn’t It Romantic” the last time I stalked the house. And this time, I immediately recognized the other balcony from the Season One episode entitled “Seventeen Year Itch”, which I had randomly watched the night beforehand. 🙂 In the episode, Cindy Walsh is shown pining over her former fling Glen Evans while standing out on the balcony looking up at the stars. And while the balcony looks a bit different today than it did when it appeared on 90210 – a cement awning has since been added – it was still very cool to see it in person nonetheless. 🙂

And another little bit of trivia – according to Jack, the exterior light located just to the left of the balcony door is the very light that used to be located on his front porch during the 90210 years. It was purchased by producers to match the light located on the front porch set that had been built at the studio.

The highlight of the day, though, had to be when – are you sitting down for this????? – Mike asked Jack if the two of us could each possibly have one of the roof tiles from his former garage. Jack thought we were incredibly silly to want such a thing, but he happily obliged. Thank goodness we stalked the place before all of the rubble had been removed! And, to top it all off, he even signed the tiles for us! Can you believe it????? I was absolutely DYING! I mean now I can actually say that I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!! I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!!!!!!!! How incredibly cool is that??? I was literally pinching myself the whole drive home and I almost still can’t believe it happened!!!!! 🙂 So, I guess what Jack said is actually true – some change can be for the better, because had he not dismantled his garage, we never would have been given a part of it. And while I, of course, would prefer that the Walsh garage was still standing, being given a real piece of the show isn’t such a bad consolation. 🙂 And I will of course take photographs and report back to my fellow stalkers once the new Walsh garage has been completed – it’s going to look totally different, by the way – but according to Jack, that won’t be for about six months.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Casa Walsh is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena. Please keep in mind that this is a private residence and please do not disturb the owners. It was a fluke that Mike and I were lucky enough to have been given a tour of the home, but this is not a regular occurrence. I’d hate to have people bothering Jack for tours due to the fact that I put this information on the internet, so please be respectful of his privacy. 🙂 The two houses which producers also considered using as the Walsh house can be found at 1689 and 1690 East Altadena Drive. 1690 East Altadena was also used as 90210’s Baby Mama’s house and its backyard was used as both Steve Sander’s backyard and Marianne Moore’s backyard during Season One. The house which stood in for Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s house in “The Easter Bunny” episode can be found at 1665 East Altadena Drive.

December 30, 2009December 29, 2009

The “Keep It Together” Park from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I visited during our Valley stalking day back in October was the Van Nuys – Sherman Oaks War Memorial Park, aka the spot where Brandon Walsh was “discovered” in the Season One episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Fame Is Where You Find It”. The War Memorial Park is so named because in 1947 the American Legion organization raised money to purchase a 63 acre parcel of land which was then donated to the City of Los Angeles to be used as a public park dedicated to the memory of war veterans. The original plan was to build the park as a sort of homage to “The Wizard of Oz” books – what “The Wizard of Oz” has to do with war veterans, I’m not exactly sure, but I guess that’s why I’m not a city planner 🙂 – with different sections of the property featuring scenery from the Land of Oz. In the end, though, only two “Wizard of Oz” structures were ever built – an “Over the Rainbow” bridge and a castle, both of which have since been demolished. 🙁 The absolutely ginormous War Memorial Park currently boasts two basketball courts, a jungle gym, a football field, a soccer field, a gymnasium, eight tennis courts, three running tracks, and eight baseball diamonds. Like I said, the place is absolutely HUGE! And it is actually thanks to those baseball diamonds that Mike discovered this location. As fate would have it, in the early ‘90s Mike belonged to a softball league which held its weekly games on the War Memorial Park fields. So, when he first watched the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode of 90210, he recognized the park immediately. YAY! And, of course, ever since he mentioned the place to me, I was absolutely dying to stalk it. Which I finally got to do this past October. Thank you, Mike!

Sadly, though, when we arrived at the park we discovered that the little picnic table canopy area, which just so happens to be the part of War Memorial most recognizable from 90210, was in the process of being torn down. 🙁 Such a bummer!!

War Memorial Park shows up numerous times in the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode. It first appears at the very beginning of the show, in the scene in which Brandon plays a little solo game of street hockey next to a playground.

As fate would have it, an episode of the show Keep It Together just so happens to be filming at the very same park where Brandon is playing. When a key actor fails to show up to the set, Brandon is immediately hired to replace him, and voila, a star is born! Or so Brandon thinks.

Brandon’s small Keep It Together scene, in which his only line is “Hey, Babe! Looking good. Real good, babe.” – LOL – was also filmed at War Memorial Park. The now defunct “Over The Rainbow” Bridge is visible behind Keep It Together’s lead actress Lydia Leeds in the above screen capture.

At the end of the episode, the park pops up once again in the scene in which Brandon forgives Lydia for being such a diva.

On a very interesting side note – While watching the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode a few months back, Mike – who has got to be one of the most observant people I’ve ever met in my life!!! – noticed some very fascinating scenery in the background of a few of the scenes. Because the episode centered around the filming of the television show Keep It Together, much of the action took place on a studio backlot. But instead of renting out a different Hollywood lot for the filming of the Keep It Together scenes, producers simply decided to masquerade their own 90210 soundstages as those of the show within the show. Which, of course, makes sense. But what they didn’t realize was that, years later, an eagle-eyed stalker would figure out their little location trick. As you can see in the above screen capture, the famous red brick Peach Pit After Dark wall is visible in the background of the scene in which Lydia Leeds applies Brandon’s makeup in the Keep It Together makeup trailer. And I am fairly certain that the makeup trailer used in that scene was the real life 90210 makeup trailer! Yes, ladies and gentleman, that means that you are looking at the actual spot where Shannen Doherty, Luke Perry, Jennie Garth, and Jason Priestley got their makeup done before filming each and every morning! SO DARN COOL!

I took the above photograph of the Peach Pit’s brick wall back in August of 2008 during Mike and my private tour of the former 90210 studio. As you can see, it matches the brick wall pictured behind Lydia in the make-up trailer scene perfectly. Mike told me that he actually drove by the 90210 studio several times while the show was still on the air and that the make-up and wardrobe trailers were indeed parked in the area directly in front of the Peach Pit wall. So darn cool!!!!!!!

Because the former 90210 studio was located in a industrial area, it was surrounded by various warehouses, one of which happened to be a washing machine factory. When Mike and I visited the studio last year, he pointed out the factory to me and, let me tell you, I’ve never seen so many washing machines in my entire life! There were literally hundreds upon hundreds of them lined up alongside the building. LOL Well, in the scene in which Brandon and Lydia arrive at the Keep It Together studios via limousine, you can not only see that washing machine factory, but you can even see quite a few of their washing machines! Too darn funny!

The above image is an aerial view of the area where that scene was filmed. The pink “X” denotes the spot where Lydia and Brandon were standing and the purple circle shows the hundreds upon hundreds of washing machines stationed just outside of the studio. LOL LOL LOL

Most interesting, though, was what showed up in a later scene from the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode – the scene in which, while walking around the studio, Brandon finds out that the entire Keep It Together script has been rewritten.

In that scene, you can ACTUALLY SEE THE REAL LIFE WALSH FRONT PORCH SET AND THE EXTERIOR OF THE WALSH’S DINING ROOM WINDOW (denoted with the pink arrows above)!!!!! How incredibly cool is that???? When Mike first sent me the screen captures from that scene and pointed out the Walsh house in the background I just about died I was so excited. LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! 🙂

And, a little bit of 90210 trivia for you – a very young Melissa Rivers (pictured above) made one of her first television appearances in the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode playing an actress named MacKenzie, who, according to Lydia Leeds, only has a career because her uncle is “like this really big producer” . Hmmm, sound familiar, Tori Spelling?? 😉

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A big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for discovering all of the behind-the-scenes location information from the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode! You are my hero! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks War Memorial Park, aka the park where Brandon Walsh was discovered, is located at 14201 Huston Street in Sherman Oaks. The area used in the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode can be found near the corner of Hazeltine Avenue and Huston Street.

December 29, 2009December 29, 2009

Tamale Heaven from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has been begging me to blog about for over a year now is the Canoga Park burger restaurant that stood in for Tamale Heaven in the Season Two episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Ashes to Ashes”. In real life that restaurant is named Michael’s Burgers and even though it has been on my “To Stalk” list for ages now, because I rarely find myself in the Canoga Park area, I had yet to visit the place. So, during our Valley stalking day back in October, Mike made a point of stopping by the tiny restaurant to finally show it to me. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited! 🙂 Especially because the “Ashes to Ashes” episode has always been one of my favorites, thanks to the fact that it featured all of the elements that made 90210 such a classic show – a sugary sweet, albeit cheesy, moral message, Dylan and Brenda back together and madly in love, and boyscout Brandon not only taking on the Beverly Hills Security Patrol, but race relations, as well! Love it! One of my favorite 90210 lines EVER was actually spoken during this episode, in the scene in which Devo (love the name!) accuses Brandon of trying to score drugs at Tamale Heaven, causing Brandon to say, “Hey, I’m not a doper, man!” LOL LOL LOL See what I mean? Classic 90210!

Amazingly enough, Mike frequented Michael’s Burgers on a regular basis back in the early ‘90s. So, when the restaurant appeared in the “Ashes to Ashes” episode, he immediately recognized the place. Love it! According to Mike, the burgers at Michael’s are out of this world, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to eat there while stalking the place. 🙁 Oh well, it looks like I’m just going to have to drag my fiancé back there in the near future. In the “Ashes to Ashes” episode, only the back entrance and rear parking lot area of Michael’s Burgers were used.

For some reason, the front exterior, which is pictured above, was never shown.

The areas which appeared in the episode include the main rear door,

the interior,

the rear employee entrance,

and the dumpster area. Because Tamale Heaven is supposed to be located in the ghetto, somewhere between “Watts and the airport”, producers really dressed the place down for the filming. In reality, though, Michael’s Burgers is not located in a bad area at all, nor is it completely covered over with graffiti. And, amazingly enough, despite a change in paint color and the lack of graffiti, Michael’s Burgers still looks almost exactly the same today as it did eighteen years ago when the episode was filmed! LOVE IT!

On a side note – While making screen captures for today’s post, I spotted something quite interesting. If you look in the above screen capture, you will notice a sign in the upper left hand corner which ends with the letters “R” and “S”. I am fairly certain that that sign read “Michael’s Burgers” and that it wasn’t actually supposed to appear in the scene. I am guessing that producers either forgot to take the sign down for the filming or left it up thinking it would not be visible in the shot. Whoopsie! 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for taking all of the photographs featured in this post. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael’s Burgers, aka Tamale Heaven, is located at 7225 Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park. You can visit their website here. Directly across the street from Michael’s, at 7218 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, is the strip mall that was used in the 1999 movie Blast from the Past.

December 1, 2009December 1, 2009

Big Oaks Lodge from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Before I left on my New York vacation just about two months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I spent a day together stalking in and around the San Fernando Valley. And even though we had a long list of places to stalk, the location we were most excited about seeing had to be a place called Big Oaks Lodge, which was used in the Season 2 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Camping Trip”. Before arriving at Big Oaks Lodge, I was actually a little nervous about the drive up there, though, as I had read that the place was located completely out in the middle of nowhere, but, as it turns out, it’s not really as out in the middle of nowhere as I had thought. The Lodge is located a brief twenty minute drive from the City of Santa Clarita, and while the road which leads there is remote, windy, and lacks a Starbucks, it’s really not a bad ride at all. 🙂 Big Oaks Lodge was originally built in the 1920s as a rest stop and eatery for traveling stagecoaches. In the 30s, 40s, and 50s, the Lodge and its surrounding area became something of a Hollywood hotspot for the likes of such legends as gangster “Pretty Boy” Floyd and the original Brangelina – Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford – who even ended up building their own private cabin near the restaurant. In later years, the property served as a training spot for boxers like Mike Quarry and Michael Doakes and even boasted its own outdoor ring, which has since been removed. The Lodge now serves as a meeting place and rest stop and features not one, but two different eateries on the property. The first is a little food stand named the Char House, which serves up such culinary staples as hamburgers, chili, and tri-tip sandwiches and is popular with the Harley Davidson set. The Lodge’s more upscale restaurant is named Cavi and it specializes in authentic homemade Italian food. The Lodge is still popular with celebrities to this day and has played host to talk show host Jay Leno and members of the band ZZ Top.

Big Oaks Lodge is actually much smaller than I expected it to be and consists solely of the main lodge area, which houses Cavi restaurant, the Char House shed, an outdoor patio, and two small cabins, which can be rented out nightly. While stalking the place, Mike and I had the good fortune of meeting one of the Lodge’s owners, who absolutely could NOT believe that we had driven all the way out to Big Oaks just to see a location from an episode of 90210 which had aired over 18 years ago. And, let me tell you, he just about fell over when we showed him Mike’s portable DVD player, where we had the “Camping Trip” episode all cued up. LOL 🙂 The owner told us we were free to walk around the property and take all of the photographs we wanted. And you really should have seen the two of us! We could not have been more excited and were screaming like little schoolgirls pretty much the entire time! “Oh, look there’s the firewood shed!” and “Ohmigod, there’s the tree Brandon leaned against!” LOL We were both pretty bummed out, though, that neither of the Lodge’s restaurants were open while we were there, as we had hoped to grab a bite to eat during our stalk. 🙁 But you know what that means, don’t you? My fiancé will definitely be getting dragged out there in the near future so that I can re-stalk the place. 🙂

In the “Camping Trip” episode, thanks to a patch of bad weather, Brandon, Brenda and the gang get stuck at Big Oaks Lodge while on their way to a camping trip in Yosemite. The entire episode was pretty much shot on location at the Lodge and made use of the entire Big Oaks property, which I am happy to report still looks very much the same as it did on 90210. Pictured above is Big Oaks’ front entrance, which showed up several times in the episode.

The firewood storage area, which looks a bit different today than it did when 90210 was filmed, was the spot where the gang first took shelter from the rain after pulling over at Big Oaks.

Had to do it! 🙂 LOL

The “Char House” restaurant stood in for the Lodge’s main office where Brenda and Dylan booked a cabin for the group to spend the night.

Once upon a time there were actually ten different cabins located on the Big Oaks property, but today there are only two and both of those cabins were featured in the “Camping Trip” episode. The 90210 gang stayed in the wood shingled lodge, which at the time of the filming was painted red, but is now a light grey color.

And the Newlyweds stayed in the rock cabin located directly next door.

And although a full exterior shot of the rock cabin was never shown during the episode, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the front door still looks exactly the same today as it did during the filming. Love it! And I was very excited to find out that the real life interiors of both cabins were also used extensively in the episode. Unfortunately, though, the owner didn’t have his keys on him while we were there, so he was not able to take us on a tour of the cabins. 🙁 Next time!

The picnic table area in front of the Char House was used as the location where the gang fretted about Dylan and Brandon’s early morning disappearance.

The road in front of the Lodge and the main parking area showed up in the scene in which Brandon and Dylan return to the campsite after their little hiking mishap.

And finally, a large tree in the Lodge’s dirt parking lot – aka “Brandon’s tree” – was featured as the spot where Brandon contemplated life after his near death experience of almost falling off a cliff. So, of course, I just had to pose like him! 🙂

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A little bit of 90210 trivia for you – The highly dramatic scene where Dylan downed a few airplane bottles of liquor (pictured above) was not actually filmed at Big Oaks Lodge, but in the backyard of the real life Walsh house! Mike and I learned that little tidbit of information from the owner of Casa Walsh during our private tour of the home. 🙂 So cool!

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According to the Big Oaks Lodge website, the property has also been featured in the movies Frances, Enough, American Gun, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and in episodes of the television series Dynasty and Highway to Heaven, and in commercials for AT&T and Vonage. It’s a very cool place and I highly recommend stalking it, especially to fans of the original 90210!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Big Oaks Lodge from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 33101 Bouquet Canyon Road in Santa Clarita, just nine miles north of where Bouquet Canyon Road intersects with Plum Canyon Road. You can visit the Big Oaks Lodge website here. Cavi restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday, beginning at 5 p.m. The Char House is open Saturdays and Sundays, starting at 11 a.m.

August 7, 2009February 18, 2010

The Walsh House – Circa August 2009

UPDATE 2/18/10 – The Casa Walsh garage has been torn down in the months since I wrote this post. You can see pictures of the rubble here. And to see the inside of the real Walsh house, click here.

My fiance tried to talk me out of writing this post today, but it just seemed to be too important of an item for me to ignore. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, last week, while giving a stalking tour of Pasadena to my good friend Kerry and her husband Jim, I drove by the Walsh House from fave TV show Beverly Hills, 90210 and almost had a full blown panic attack right there in my car! While cruising down Altadena Drive, I, Lindsay Blake, almost passed right by my favorite stalking location of all time without even recognizing it!!!!! I actually turned to Kerry at one point and said, “Wait a minute! Where’s the 90210 house???” What I didn’t realize at that time was that some pretty major changes had been made to the exterior of the house rendering it almost unrecognizable to me. OK, OK, maybe I’m being slighty melodramatic here, but, let me tell you, the whole experience was pretty JARRING. I mean, not only had a large hedge been removed from the Walsh’s driveway, but their entire house had been PAINTED PINK! Oh, Jack, say it ain’t so!

Ironically enough, when I showed my fiance photographs of the newly painted 90210 house, he said “What are you talking about?? It looks exactly the same as it always did! You CANNOT write a post about that!” LOL LOL LOL It’s amazing to me how two people can have such differing views of the same exact thing. To me, the difference in the house’s appearance was absolutely STAGGERING, yet my fiance didn’t even notice it! Men! LOL I also showed the photos to my mom, though, who said “THAT’S what you’re so upset about? From the way you were talking, I thought they had painted the house black or something!” LOL OK, OK, I will concede that the paint color isn’t that different, but I guess because the 90210 house is so cemented in my memory, any change in its appearance, no matter how minor, is going to seem huge. And, to be fair, the paint color doesn’t show up well in pictures. In person, the house is PINK! Anyway, against my fiance’s better judgement, I just had to write a post today about the house and how it looks post-paint.

Also altering the appearance of the house was the removal of the large hedge which used to stand along the West side of the Walsh’s driveway. As you can see in the two screen captures pictured above, the hedge used to run the length of the driveway, separating the Walsh property from that of their neighbor’s.

But, as you can see in the above photographs, that hedge has been completely removed, which only adds to the difference in the home’s appearance, especially if you approach it from the West.

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At least the garage still looks pretty much the same as it always did – minus Brandon’s basketball hoop, of course. Last November, when Mike and I met Jack, the owner of the house, he told us that he was in the process of remodeling his garage and we both got looks of absolute HORROR on our faces! Jack laughed and said “What? Is it a crime to change the Walsh garage or something?” To which both Mike and I replied with a resounding “YES!” LOL Obviously Jack didn’t heed our words of wisdown, though! SUCH A BUMMER!

I guess it’s really true what they say – the only constant is change. But this is one filming location I was convinced would stay as fixed in real life as it is in my memory. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena, CA.

July 23, 2009July 22, 2009

The Second Peach Pit

Two weekends ago, thanks to Mike from MovieShotsLA, I was able to stalk a location that I have long been on the lookout for – the storefront that was used as the second Peach Pit on the original Beverly Hills, 90210 series. Yes, I did say the “second” Peach Pit. As most fans of the series know, for some odd reason, three different locations were used to represent Brandon, Brenda and the gang’s favorite afterschool hangout throughout the show’s ten year run. And while Mike and I had found the other two Peach Pit locations a while back, the “second” one proved to be quite elusive. Until a few weeks ago, that is, when Mike randomly walked by it while doing some stalking in the Venice area and recognized it immediately!

Truth be told, what Mike actually recognized was not the Peach Pit storefront itself, but the alleyway located right next door which currently houses a nursery. During our search for this location, Mike and I had spent hours studying screen captures of the Peach Pit and could not for the life of us figure out what was located directly next door to it. It appeared to be some sort of empty lot or alleyway enclosed by a detailed wrought iron gate. So, when Mike saw that gate in person, he immediately recognized it! It is very surprising to me that producers chose to use this location for the Peach Pit, because, as far as I know, it is the only Venice location every used on the series.

I am very happy to report that the Peach Pit still looks exactly the same today as it did when Beverly Hills, 90210 was filmed there back in 1990. And, ironically enough, while the storefront where the Peach Pit supposedly existed is currently vacant, it looks as if a diner style restaurant is in the process of moving in there. 🙂 How apropos!

This particular location was only used as the Peach Pit during the show’s first season, beginning with the episode entitled “Higher Education”. The last episode it was featured on was the Season One finale entitled “Home Again”.

When Nat decided to remodel his restaurant in the Season Two episode entitled “”Pass, Not Pass” (pictured above), the producers moved to an entirely new location to film the Peach Pit’s exteriors. The reasoning behind the location change has remained a 90210 mystery, but my best guess is that either a new owner moved into the Venice storefront and wasn’t cool with the filming, or, even more likely, the producers decided that the Venice location was just too far out of the way to go for filming and decided to relocate the Pit to Pasadena, just a few miles from the Walsh House.

I cannot recommend stalking the “second” Peach Pit enough!!!!! It is absolutely unbelievable to me that, almost two decades later, it still looks exactly the same as it did during the 90210 days. For all of you 90210 fans out there, this location will definitely bring back some memories! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The “second” Peach Pit can be found in the Venice Place Building which is located at 1027 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. The first Peach Pit is located at 10801 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles and the third, final, and most recognizable Peach Pit is located at 45 South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena.

May 28, 2009August 12, 2009

The Taken Mansion

This past weekend, my fiance and I rented the movie Taken – which was phenomenal, by the way!!!! – and I immediately recognized a home featured in it that was originally used in a Season One episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. I have been dying to stalk the home for the past few years, but, unfortunately, it is located inside of a gated community and I haven’t been able to get past the guards. Yet!!! 🙂 But that’s why God created real estate websites – which is where I got the above photo. 🙂 The home, which was built in 1915 and is located inside of the exclusive Fremont Place complex in Hancock Park, has been featured in DOZENS of productions over the years. It has five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, boasts 8,240 square feet, and sits on almost two acres! Besides being featured on the silver screen, the home was also lived in by both Mary Pickford and Mary Miles Minter at different points in time.

In the movie Taken, the mansion stood in for the home of Liam Neeson’s ex-wife, Lenore, and her new uber-wealthy husband, Stuart. The mansion shows up several times in the movie, most notably as the site of Liam’s daughter’s birthday party.

Way back in 1990, the mansion was featured as the home of Brenda’s shoplifting pal Tiffany Morgan in the Season One episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Every Dream Has It’s Price”. Ironically enough, though, no actual filming of Beverly Hills, 90210 took place at the home. A very brief establishing shot of the mansion was used in the episode, but all of the actual filming took place in the backyard of an Altadena home located directly across the street from Casa Walsh.

The same house also showed up in the Season 7 episode of CSI: Miami entitled “Dead on Arrival”. In the episode, the mansion was used as the setting of the fictional Bachelor-esque reality series “The Marrying Kind”.

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The mansion was also used in the Season Six episode of Cold Case entitled “November 22” as the present day home of pool shark Baltimore Red. And, as if all of that was not enough, in 2008 alone the home was featured in an infomercial, a DiGiorno pizza commercial, and episodes of Prison Break, Monk, Numbers, and the episode of The Mentalist entitled “Ladies in Red”. How cool would it be to own that place?!?!? Oh, I would be in heaven!!!! 🙂

According to The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, the movie War of the Roses was also filmed in the Fremont Place community, just a few houses down from the Taken mansion. But, if you compare the above screen capture to the aerial image of the property supposedly used, the two houses don’t quite seem to match. So, unless some major renovations were done to the home since the filming of War of the Roses took place, I don’t think The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book’s information is correct. 🙁 Supposedly, the house from the Rocky movies is also located on the same street, but I haven’t been able to verify that yet. You can see photographs of some of the Fremont Place homes that have been used for filming and a really cool schedule of the 2007 and 2008 productions that filmed there here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Taken mansion is located at 56 Fremont Place in Los Angeles. The supposed War of the Roses home is located just down the street at 119 Fremont Place West. Please keep in mind that both of these houses are located inside of a gated, private community and trespassing is not allowed. 🙂