Burbank filming locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 9, 2013August 13, 2013

Mr. Y’s Apartment from "Behind the Candelabra"

Back in June, while doing research on the house where Liberace (Michael Douglas) lived in Behind the Candelabra (which I blogged about here), I came across a fabulous production slideshow about the movie on HBO.com. The slideshow featured behind-the-scenes images of several of the locations used in the biopic and one – the mid-century modern-style apartment where drug dealer Mr. Y (Nicky Katt) lived – had me absolutely drooling.

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The caption included with the image of the apartment (which is pictured below) stated, “Shot on location in Burbank, this penthouse was owned by Elvis Presley’s hairdresser and had been abandoned for years. Biomorphic plaster wall treatment was original to the unit.” Well, believe you me, I could NOT take my eyes off of that unique “biomorphic plaster wall treatment” and became bound and determined to track the place down and stalk it.

So I did a Google search for “penthouse” and “Burbank” and the first result to come back was a January 2013 Los Angeles Times article about a 1970s-era building with a penthouse located at 600 East Olive Avenue that had just been sold for $15.6 million to the Champion Real Estate Company. Unfortunately though, no photographs of the actual penthouse unit were posted online, so I was unable to verify if it was right location. Then, on a hunch, I did a Google search for “Behind the Candelabra” and “600 East Olive Avenue” and, sure enough, found this July 2012 posting on fave website OnLocationVacations in which a commenter named Steve shared that the flick was filming at that address. Thank you, Steve! So I ran right out to stalk the building while I was in L.A. two weekends ago.

The 62-unit building, which was formerly named “Villa 600”, but is now known as “Villa Olivia Apartments”, was originally constructed in 1973 by Burbank-area architect August Bacchetta and was still owned by the Bacchetta family up until the recent sale.

According to the L.A. Times article, the penthouse (pictured below in a real estate listing photo) boasts a whopping 8,000 square feet of living space, as well as a rooftop patio and pool. It was originally constructed to be used as an owner’s unit and, as stated in this article, was lived in by members of the Bacchetta family up until two years prior to the sale – which leads me to believe that it was never actually occupied by Elvis’ hairdresser (a man named Larry Geller) unless the family leased it out to him at some point in time. (It was most definitely never owned by Geller, though, as was stated in the Behind the Candelabra production notes.) Of the complex, real estate agent Tyler Stevens says, “It reflects an era gone by when builders constructed apartment buildings with an owner unit, and this particular owner unit was highly unusual.” Um, you can say that again!

The penthouse’s rooftop patio, which is absolutely massive, is semi-visible in the photographs below.

Sadly, the Champion Real Estate Company began renovating the building immediately upon purchasing it and plans are currently in the works to subdivide the penthouse (which is denoted with a pink arrow below) into two apartment units, as well as a common-area screening room and gym. Boo! You can see a rendering of what the site is going to look like post-remodel here.

Mr. Y’s apartment only appeared twice in Behind the Candelabra, in two very brief scenes. It first showed up in the scene in which Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) dropped by Mr. Y’s to score drugs after realizing that his longtime lover, Liberace, was most likely going to break up with him in the very near future.

It next popped up in the scene in which Scott, who has just been unceremoniously dumped by Liberace, is shown watching the pianist’s performance at the 54th Annual Academy Awards on TV. Unbelievably, very little of that amazing biomorphic plaster wall was shown in either scene. (According to a 2013 The New York Times article, the Mr. Y character was based on Scott Thorson’s real life drug dealer Eddie Nash, a nightclub owner who is said to have ordered the so-called Wonderland Murders.)

According to a super-nice construction worker that we happened to speak with while we were stalking the place, the penthouse (pictured below in an aerial view) is actually in fabulous condition, despite being vacant for several years. So I am guessing that the stained rug that appeared in Behind the Candelabra was set decoration and not the unit’s actual carpeting. Don’t quote me on that, though.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mr. Y’s apartment building from Behind the Candelabra is actually the Villa Olivia Apartments which are located at 600 East Olive Avenue in Burbank. You can visit the complex’s official website here.

March 15, 2013April 26, 2018

The Safari Inn from “True Romance”

One oft-filmed-at locale that I had known about for ages, but had never gotten around to stalking was the historic Safari Inn on West Olive Avenue in Burbank. I had driven by the motel countless times over the years – I get my hair done right across the street, in fact – and, even though I knew of the site’s prestigious filming pedigree, for some odd reason, I never thought to stalk it. Then, a couple of weeks ago, my hair stylist happened to be running late, so I decided to pop on over to the decades-old inn to finally do some proper stalking of the place.

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The Safari Inn was originally constructed in 1955 and, amazingly enough, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did then.

The site is most famous for its iconic neon sign, which has stood as a beacon on Olive Avenue, beckoning passersby and road-trippers alike, since the day the motel was founded.

Today, the boutique hotel, which was just recently renovated, boasts 55 rooms and suites, most with their own kitchen or kitchenette, a fitness center, laundry facilities, free parking, and complimentary shuttle service to and from the Burbank Airport. Not bad for around $100 a night. And the traveler reviews on TripAdvisor all look to be pretty favorable, to boot.

The Safari Inn also features a large, second-story patio deck . . .

. . . which overlooks a pool.

I absolutely love the pool’s feather-shaped cut-out, which you can see in the bottom left of the photograph below and which matches the feather on the inn’s famous signage. So cute!

The Safari Inn’s most notable onscreen appearance was in 1993’s True Romance, where it masqueraded as the supposed Hollywood-area motel where Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) and Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) stayed while visiting L.A. Some camera trickery and crafty editing was used to make the hotel appear as if it was located on Sunset Boulevard in the movie, though, and not in the heart of suburban Burbank.

The interior of Clarence and Alabama’s room was just a set and not an actual Safari Inn room. You can see what one of the hotel’s real life rooms looks like here. Despite this fact, a girl in one of my former acting classes booked the “True Romance room” for her True Romance-loving boyfriend’s birthday one year.

Because Clarence and Alabama’s door is never actually shown in the movie, I was not able to figure out what room was used for the exterior shots.

All I was able to ascertain was that it was a second floor room, located in the northwest corner of the property, in the vicinity of the area denoted with a pink arrow in the photograph below.

True Romance is hardly the first production to utilize the Safari Inn, though. Thanks to the L.A. Bizarro website, I learned that way back in 1970 the property masqueraded as the Sunshine Motor Inn where Shirley Renfrew Partridge (Shirley Jones) and her family stopped to take a shower after being sprayed by a skunk in the Season 1 episode of The Partridge Family titled “But the Memory Lingers On.”

In 1995’s Apollo 13, the Safari Inn stood in for the supposed Florida-area motel where Marilyn Lovell (Kathleen Quinlan) stayed the night before her husband, Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), embarked on his mission to the moon.

In 2000, the motel was featured on the The Wallflowers’ sampler CD for (Breach).

In the Season 4 episode of Six Feet Under titled “Can I Come Up Now?”, which aired in 2004, the Safari Inn was where George Sibley (James Cromwell) and Ruth Fisher (Frances Conroy) visited George’s estranged son, Kyle, (James Waterston). In the episode, the exterior of the hotel is shown only very briefly.,

The interior of one of the Safari rooms was also used in the filming. It is while there that Kyle, who is somewhat agoraphobic, announces that he has purchased a $7,500 espresso machine so that he never has to leave his motel room. Now that’s an idea I can get behind! Winking smile

Thanks to fellow stalker Dal, I learned that the Safari Inn served as the finishing point for The Law Enforcement Desert Relay in the Season 4 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Dead Ringer,” which also aired in 2004.

In the 2005 movie Coach Carter, the Safari Inn was where the Richmond High School basketball team stayed – and snuck out to go party – during the Bayhill Tournament Championship.

The real life interior of two of the Safari’s room were also used in the filming.

The Safari Inn also popped up in the Season 4 episode of Prison Break titled “The Price”, which aired in 2008, as the motel where Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies) had a run in with Gretchen Morgan (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe – whom I did not even recognize in the role!).

One of the hotel’s real life rooms also appeared in the episode.

In 2009, the Safari Inn was where former child star Christine Rapp (Elizabeth Perkins) tried to hide out and wound up killing someone in the Season 8 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk’s Favorite Show.”

In the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Pleasant Little Kingdom”, which aired in 2010, the Safari Inn was where Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) said goodbye to her switched-at-birth daughter, Grace Sanchez (Cecilia Balagot).

In 2012, the Safari Inn stood in for Sunset Boulevard’s Crystal Motel, where Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) discovered the body of Gwyneth Adler in the Season 7 episode of The Closer titled “Hostile Witness.” Only the interior of one of the Safari’s rooms appeared in the episode.

According to IMDB, both the Season 3 episode of T.J. Hooker titled “Undercover Affair” and the Season 7 episode of Falcon Crest titled “Legacies” were filmed at the Safari Inn, but I could not find copies of either with which to verify that information.

And while IMDB also states that the Season 1 episode of Southland titled “Mozambique” was filmed at the Safari Inn, that information is incorrect. “Mozambique” was actually filmed at the Saharan Motor Hotel located at 7212 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood – a site I am going to have to stalk in the near future as it is where Patrick Swayze and his wife, Lisa Nieme, lived upon first moving to Los Angeles.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – I FINALLY wrote a new one – about mozzarella-stuffed meatballs on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Safari Inn, from True Romance, is located at 1911 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. You can visit the motel’s official website here.

November 30, 2012November 29, 2012

Frankie’s House from “People Like Us”

As I mentioned in early November in my post about Henry’s Tacos, I did not especially love the 2012 movie People Like Us as I found it to be a bit too depressing. What I did love, though, was the fact that the flick was filmed in its entirety in L.A. So after watching, I, of course, set about tracking down as many of its locales as I could – all by myself! Lately I feel like I do not get to spend much time searching for locations as I am usually too busy writing about them. While I love the hunt, blogging each day and physically stalking sites each weekend does not leave much time for actually tracking them down. So while I typically hand over the task of searching to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, with People Like Us, I decided that I was going to do all of the heavy lifting myself. And I loved every minute of it! Smile The locale I was most interested in finding, of course, was the house that Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) moved into towards the very end of the movie. And I am embarrassed to admit that while finding it should have been a slam dunk, it took me more than a few hours to do so.

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In People Like Us, an address number of 809 was visible on the side of Frankie’s front door. For whatever reason, though, I was absolutely convinced that the number was a fake, so I initially did not pay much attention to it.

And while the filming locations map on the People Like Us Facebook page states that Frankie’s house is located on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles, because the residence was shown to be on a flat, straight street in the movie and because Laurel Canyon is an extremely twisty and hilly road, I knew that information had to be incorrect. (I somehow did not even notice the word Burbank written next to the drawing of Frankie’s home on the map until making a screen capture of it for this post – yes, I am that blonde!) My gut was telling me that the abode was most likely located in the Valley somewhere, so I began searching for it in Van Nuys, Reseda, Valley Village and North Hollywood, but, unfortunately, came up completely empty-handed.

It was not until a few hours into the hunt that I recalled a scene in which Frankie’s son, Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario), wrote a note to Sam (Chris Pine) giving him their new address. And while I did not in a million years imagine that the home’s actual address would have been used in the note, I thought the address given might provide some sort of clue as to the pad’s real life location. So I scanned to that portion of the flick and saw that Josh wrote down 809 Fairview. On a whim, I punched 809 Fairview and Los Angeles into Google and it kicked back a map of 809 North Fairview Street in Burbank. One quick Google Street View glance and I saw that it was the right place. As you can imagine, I felt like a complete and total dolt after that! All those hours searching and it turns out that the home’s location had been spelled right out for me the entire time! D’oh!

Frankie’s house shows up only twice in People Like Us – first in the scene in which she is shown moving into the abode.

And next in the scene in which Sam shows up at Frankie’s house unexpectedly, hoping for a reconciliation. Sadly, as you can see in the photographs and screen captures both above and below, the house has changed quite a bit since the filming of People Like Us. Gone is Frankie’s landscaping and front lawn, the exterior trim is now painted red instead of white, the brick front porch steps have been swapped out for Spanish-style ones, a railing has been added, and the front porch overhang altered. Boo! At least the shutters flanking both front windows still look the same despite a change in paint color.

Thankfully though, the abode pretty closely resembles its onscreen self on Google Street View, as you can see below, so I guess there’s that. Winking smile

I much prefer the look of the house in the movie to its real life appearance. I am just not all that into drought-resistant landscaping, I guess. Winking smile According to Zillow, the 2-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,148-square-foot abode was originally built in 1936 and sits on 0.16 acres of land.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also used in People Like Us, although very briefly.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frankie’s house from People Like Us is located at 809 North Fairview Street in Burbank.

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center from “Parks and Recreation”

One location that had been lingering at the top of my To-Stalk for more than a few months was Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, which stands in for Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, where Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) works, on fave show Parks and Recreation. I found this locale thanks to Mike, from the always-fabulous Franklin Avenue blog, who recognized the site way back in 2010 when it popped up in the Season 2 finale of P&R titled “Freddy Spaghetti”. And while I did drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the place in early June, because I had failed to bring along any screen captures, I could not for the life of me figure out which angle of the building was used on the show and we ended up leaving after just a few minutes. I promptly added Providence to my Re-Stalk list, though, and, after doing some celebrity stalking in the area this past Monday afternoon with my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, I dragged her right on over there to properly stalk the place.

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Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, which was originally founded in 1943 by the Sisters of Providence Health System, is the largest hospital in the entire San Fernando Valley, boasting 431 beds. The location is also one of the largest employers in the SFV, with over 650 physicians and a staff of almost 2,500 on its payroll. The hospital is located directly across the street from The Walt Disney Studios and, in fact, has a very large Disney connection.

Walt Disney himself turned over the first official piece of sod during Providence’s groundbreaking ceremony, provided funding for its construction, commissioned his animators to create artwork for the interior décor, and even served on the hospital’s original Advisory Board (all of which you can see pictures of on the Started by a Mouse website here). And sadly, after collapsing in his home on November 30th, 1966, he was taken to Providence where he remained for the next two weeks before passing away on December 15th. According to the Started By a Mouse website, during his hospital stay, Walt “plotted out designs for his property in Florida [Walt Disney World] on [Providence’s} acoustical ceiling tiles.” Walt’s older brother, Roy O. Disney, also passed away at Providence, five years later – almost to the day – on December 19th, 1971. But the connection does not end there. Just recently, in 2010, the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center (named in honor of Roy O.’s son, Roy E. Disney, and his former wife), was founded. According to the Providence website, the state-of-the-art, four-floor, 55,000-square-foot facility provides cutting-edge care to “treat the body, mind and spirit of each patient” and utilizes both Western medical technologies, such as radiation and chemotherapy, as well as Eastern, including acupuncture, meditation, fitness, yoga, and herbal remedies.

Parks and Recreation and Walt Disney are hardly Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center’s only claims to fame. Due to its proximity to both The Walt Disney Studios and NBC Studios, the hospital has seen its fair share of celebrities come through its automatic doors. Pop star Justin Bieber was taken there in January 2011 after suffering from an allergic reaction while filming an episode of CSI; Lucy Lawless was rushed there in October 1996 after falling off a horse while filming a skit for The Tonight Show; and John Ritter tragically passed away there on September 11th, 2003, as did Corey Haim on March 10th, 2010. (As you can see in the photograph below, some filming was actually taking place while Pinky and I were stalking the hospital, but we did not see any crew members whom we could ask about it. All of the filming signs were marked “BOP” and for the life of me I cannot figure out what that acronym stands for. Any ideas? UPDATE – the Providence Found blog tweeted me to let me know that the television series Body of Proof was filming at the hospital the day we were there. Thanks, Providence Found!)

On Parks and Recreation, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center pops up pretty much weekly in establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, or Saint Joseph’s Medical Center as it is also sometimes referred to.

The interior of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, though, is, of course, just a set.

Oddly enough, though, while Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center is used for all establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, a different location – St. Vincent Medical Center, located at 2131 West 3rd Street, just north of MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles – stood in for the place in the Season 1 finale of Parks and Recreation, which was titled “Rock Show”.

Some actual filming of that episode also took place inside of St. Vincent Medical Center.

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was also featured in the Season 2 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians titled “Kris the Cheerleader”, as the place where Kris Jenner underwent emergency knee surgery, although a different side of the building was shown than what is regularly shown on Parks and Rec.

Filming of the “Kris the Cheerleader” episode also took place inside of the hospital. And I have to comment here that, wow, that show is bad! It was painful just scanning through a single episode to make screen captures for this post! Winking smile

The Providence Found blog let me know that in 2010’s Due Date, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was “Pacific Mercy Hospital” where Sarah Highman (Michelle Monaghan) gave birth and the place that Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) spent the entire movie trying to get to.

The interior of the hospital also appeared in the movie.

Providence Found also informed me that Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center stood in for “Los Angeles Hospital” where Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) discovered that her boyfriend, Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey), was married. The catwalk over the hospital’s healing garden was used in the film.

As was the GI waiting area.

On a stalking side-note – My buddy E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, who is easily one of the best researchers and wittiest writers I know, recently penned a book about Old Hollywood titled Unscripted: Hollywood Back-Stories, Volume 1. I highly recommend checking it out! You can purchase an e-copy of the book (it is currently only available digitally) on Nook here and on Kindle here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, aka Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital from Parks and Recreation, is located at 501 South Buena Vista Street in Burbank. You can visit the hospital’s official website here. The area shown in establishing shots on Parks and Recreation is the exterior of Providence’s emergency room, which is located off Buena Vista Street, while the Alameda Street entrance was the entrance shown on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

July 19, 2012July 18, 2012

Pickwick Bowl from “Parks and Recreation”

While watching the Season 4 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Bowling for Votes” back in June, I wondered aloud about at which bowling alley filming had taken place. The Grim Cheaper, who happened to hear me, looked up from his ever-present laptop and said, “That’s Pickwick Bowl – part of Pickwick Gardens – in Burbank.” Well, I just about fell right off my chair over the fact that he had recognized a filming location (that literally never happens!) and immediately grabbed my iPhone to look up photographs of the place to see if he was right. Sure enough, he was! Thanks, honey! So the two of us ran right out to stalk the alley – and do some bowling – just a few days later. And I have to say that we had an absolute blast while there!

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Pickwick Gardens, which, in its earliest incarnation, housed a trailer park and swimming pool, first opened in the 1940s and was known as Pickwick Swim Park. There are rumors that the place was named after the “Mr. Pickwick” character from Charles Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick Papers. As legend has it, the complex’s original logo featured a cartoon representation of Mr. Pickwick and some Disney imagineers, who worked just down the street, created a replica of it – in the form of a ghost hanging from a chandelier – for the ballroom scene of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but it certainly makes for a good story. Smile In the 1950s, the complex was sold to new owners who changed the name of the place to Pickwick Recreation Center and added an ice skating rink, a 781-space drive-in movie theatre (which has since closed), a restaurant named the Five Horseman Inn (which has also since closed), and a bowling alley. The Pickwick Pool was, sadly, filled in sometime during the 80s and the area transformed into a spacious, two-and-a-half-acre garden, which is used today as a wedding and event venue and after which the complex is now named.

On an interesting filming side-note – the Pickwick Drive-In Theatre was where a forlorn Danny Zuko (John Travolta) sang the song “Sandy” in the 1978 classic Grease. The drive-in was sadly shuttered and demolished in 1989 in order to make way for a strip mall, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from the movie You’ve Got Mail. In an email to Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) writes, “People are always telling you that change is a good thing, but all they’re really saying is that something you didn’t want to happen at all has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store – did I ever tell you that? It’s a lovely store and in a week it will be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap.” And while the Pickwick Drive-In strip mall does not currently house a Baby Gap, it does feature a Pavilion’s grocery store, an El Pollo Loco, a Staples, and a dry cleaner – all of which are just as equally depressing. The one plus? There is a Starbucks. Winking smile You can check out some photographs of what the Pickwick Drive-In Theatre used to look like here.

I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking Pickwick Bowl! The GC and I spent the entire afternoon there and had such a fabulous time! Although I was a little bummed out that the bar did not have champagne. After I came back from inquiring about it, the GC said, “Did you actually think that a bowling alley would serve champagne?” Um, yes, yes I did!

Besides being a filming location, Pickwick Bowl is also something of a celebrity hot spot. Adam Sandler rents out the entire complex each year for his Happy Madison holiday party, at which he has hosted such guests as Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes (and Suri!), AJ Michalka, Aly Michalka, Kate Hudson, Brett Ratner, Penelope Cruz, Jackson Browne, Maria Bello, Kevin James, Bryan Greenberg, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tom Green, Rob Schneider, Demi Moore, Nick Swardson, and David Arquette. Man, what I wouldn’t give to score an invite to that thing! Smile Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus were also spotted bowling at Pickwick back in February of 2011.

In the “Bowling for Votes” episode of Parks and Recreation, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) holds a focus group to see how Pawnee citizens feel about city council candidate Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). One particularly crusty man in the group named Derek (Kevin Dorff) announces that he would not vote for Leslie because “she doesn’t seem like the kind of person you could go bowling with.” Leslie, of course, becomes absolutely fixated by the man’s statement and convinces Ben to host a bowling night for her campaign at “Ricky’s Rock N’ Roll Bowl”, to which she invites Derek in an attempt to win him over. That, of course, does not happen and Ben ends up punching Derek in the face after Derek calls Leslie a b*tch. Gotta love P&R!

While at the alley, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) tells Leslie that Ricky’s Rock N’ Roll Bowl has his “favorite restaurant in Pawnee”. LOL

And I just have to say here that I love, love, love that Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) showed up carrying a Louis Vuitton Ellipse MM as his bowling bag! A man after my own heart, I swear!

And I am not at all ashamed to admit – despite the fact that several people were laughing at me! – that, while at Pickwick, I bowled granny-style, just like Tom did in the episode. And I scored more than a few strikes doing so. Smile

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And don’t forget to take a look at my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pickwick Bowl, from the “Bowling for Votes” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 1001 Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the bowling alley’s official website here.

January 4, 2012February 2, 2012

Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant from “Larry Crowne”

A few days before Christmas, while I was wallowing in a horrible head cold, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch the 2011 flick Larry Crowne. Neither of us had very high hopes for the movie as it had received such horrible reviews, but I am very happy to report that we both ended up loving it. So much so that we watched it again a few days later when my parents came to town to celebrate Christmas with us. The whimsical storyline centers around Larry Crowne (aka Tom Hanks), a middle-aged former Navy chef who is forced to rethink his life after being fired from his job at the local U-Mart Store. He decides to enroll in a nearby community college where he not only makes friends with a group of wildly eccentric and endearing characters, but also finds his life finally start to take shape. If you have yet to see Larry Crowne, I highly recommend ignoring the critics and renting it! Anyway, one of the main locations featured in the flick was Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant – a Burbank-area eatery that I had passed by countless times during my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles, but had, for whatever reason, never dined at. So I immediately added the place to my “To-Stalk” list and dragged the GC right on out there as soon as we returned home from visiting my grandmother in Reno this past weekend.

As we pulled up to Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, I spotted an article about Larry Crowne posted on the café’s front door and knew right away that I was going to LOVE the place.

And I am very happy to report that I did! Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, which is also sometimes called Frank’s Steak House, first opened its doors in 1957 and not much has changed since. Walking into the diner is like stepping back in time about fifty years – and I mean that in the best way possible.

The interior of Frank’s, with its dark vinyl booths, popcorn ceiling, and Formica countertops, is straight out of the 1950s and it is not at all hard to see why countless location managers have flocked there over the years. The place also serves up some FABULOUS food at very reasonable prices, which pleased the GC to no end. I opted for a mushroom cheeseburger with French fries and a side of ranch dressing and it was all simply amazing – especially the steak fries, which were extremely thick and seasoned in a way that was reminiscent of the fries served at fave restaurant chain Red Robin. The GC ordered the homemade split pea soup and it was also out of this world.

I was absolutely floored when I spotted a photograph of Tom Hanks posing with Jose, Frank’s owner, on display on the wall next to the kitchen. As fate would have it, Jose happened to come over to chat with us while we were dining and, let me tell you, the guy could NOT have been nicer! He sat with us for a good twenty minutes and filled us in on the Larry Crowne shoot, which took six days to complete. Jose informed us that the cast and crew were some of the nicest that he has ever encountered – and he has encountered quite a few. He also told us about the restaurant’s vast filming history and showed us countless photographs that he had stored on his cell phone of the various filmings that have taken place on the premises and the numerous celebrities that have posed with him. As you can imagine, I was pretty much drooling the entire time.

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In Larry Crowne, Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant is featured repeatedly as the eatery where Larry and his scooter-riding friends hang out.

Later on in the movie, Larry gets a job working as a line cook in the restaurant’s kitchen.

That kitchen is pictured above.

Jose, who has been a chef for over forty years, actually acted as Tom Hanks’ cooking consultant during the filming of Larry Crowne and at one point had to step in to do some chopping for the actor. The hands you see above, which are supposedly Larry’s in the movie, are actually Jose’s. So incredibly cool!

In the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Squash It”, the exterior of Frank’s stood in for the Reno, Nevada-area diner where Valerie Malone (aka Tiffani Thiessen) convinced Ray Pruit (aka Jamie Walters) to return to Beverly Hills.

As you can see above, though, a different restaurant was used for the interior filming.

Jose informed us that Frank’s Coffee Shop had been featured in no less than 5 episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, one of which is the upcoming “Willows in the Wind”, which just so happens to be Marg Helgenber’s final episode. Unfortunately, Jose was unsure of the titles of the other four episodes filmed on the premises, but I was able to do some digging and tracked down two of them. Then, after publishing this post, a CSI message board led me to the other two. Win! Frank’s first appeared in the Season 6 episode titled “Rashomama” as the supposed Las Vegas, Nevada-area coffee shop where the car belonging to Nick Stokes (aka George Eads), as well as all of the crime scene evidence inside of it, was stolen.

And in the Season 7 episode titled “Law of Gravity”, Frank’s stood in for the restaurant where Michael Keppler (aka Liev Schreiber) ran into Frank McCarty (aka Len Cariou).

In the Season 9 episode titled “Mascara” (CSI’s 200th episode), Frank’s is where Dr. Raymond Langston (aka Laurence Fishburne) met up a few times with his former thesis student Sylvia Mallick (aka Aimee Deshayes).

And in the Season 11 episode titled “The List”, Catherine Willows (aka Marg Helgenberger) met up with Detective Vartann (aka Alex Carter) to discuss the case she was working on.

In the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Ron and Tammy”, Frank’s stood in for the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area restaurant where Ron Swanson (aka Nick Offerman) took his ex-wife, Tammy Swanson (aka Megan Mullally), out for lunch.

Jose also let us know that Frank’s was featured in the 2003 flop Gigli, but I scanned through the movie yesterday while doing research for this post and did not see it anywhere. I did, however, spot it briefly in the flick’s trailer, so the scene that was filmed at Frank’s appears to have been left on the cutting room floor.

That scene can be viewed at the 2:18 mark when Larry Gigli (aka Ben Affleck) tells Ricki (aka Jennifer Lopez), “I got a confession. I think we’re good together.”

Fellow stalker Jason also let me know that Frank’s Restaurant was featured in Chris Daughty’s “No Surprise” music video.

Chris Daughty–“No Surprise” Video Filmed at Frank’s Coffee Shop & Restaurant in Burbank

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Jose also told us that Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant was featured in the A&E Network mini-series Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, but I scanned through it yesterday and did not spot the restaurant anywhere. He also told us that Criminal Minds had filmed on the premises recently, but I scanned through all of the Season 7 episodes that have aired so far and did not see it, so I am guessing that it will pop up in an upcoming episode in the very near future.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Frank’s Coffee Shop and Restaurant, from Larry Crowne, is located at 916 West Olive Avenue in Burbank.

November 15, 2011November 2, 2011

Larry’s Chili Dog from “The Office”

Because fellow stalker Lavonna has been in town for the past few days and I have been doing some major stalking with her, today’s post is, unfortunately, going to be a short one. Sad smile Sorry about that folks, but I do promise to be back tomorrow with a regular-sized write-up. And now, on with the post! One location that has been on my “To-Stalk” list since way back in early February is Larry’s Chili Dog – a tiny Burbank-area hot dog stand that was featured in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “The Search”. As I mentioned quite a few months back in my post about Kung Pao China Bistro, the Chinese food restaurant that was also featured in “The Search”, fellow stalker Owen tracked down every single location which appeared in the episode. And because, as I have also mentioned previously, this stalker absolutely loves herself some hot dogs, I was especially excited to stalk Larry’s, but for whatever reason had just never made it out there. So, a couple of weeks ago, when the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves ravenously hungry after a shopping expedition at the Burbank IKEA, I knew exactly where to head!

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In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being left stranded at a local gas station sans wallet, money, and cell phone, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) decides to go on a “walkabout” through Downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania. He first hits up a pet store and talks to a few random animals about love, before heading over to Larry’s Chili Dog where he orders a hot dog. Because he has no means of paying, he tells the cashier that he will leave his “$45 watch” behind as a sort of marker, to which the cashier says, “We’re not a pawn shop.” Michael tries to barter with the cashier further, but he is having none of it and Michael ends up yelling “You’ve just lost my business” before walking away empty-handed. LOL God, I love that show! It has sadly gone downhill this season, but the reruns of the earlier episodes just never get old!

Larry’s Chili Dog looks much the same in person as it did on The Office and I am very happy to report that the owners truly could NOT have been nicer! They let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming.

They also told me that Steve Carell was extremely nice and had posed for pictures with them during the filming. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Because the owners were so incredibly nice, it seriously pains me to say that I did not enjoy my hot dog all that much. It was of the snap-skin variety, which, for whatever reason, gives this stalker the major heebie-jeebies! As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am an extremely picky eater. The GC absolutely LOVED his hamburger, though, and the French fries and ranch dressing were both A-MA-ZING, so all in all our lunch was not a total loss.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Larry’s Chili Dog, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 3122 West Burbank Boulevard in Burbank.

October 5, 2011September 29, 2017

The Macy’s at Burbank Town Center Mall from “The Mentalist”

One spooky-type location that I have had on my To-Stalk list for just about forever now is the Macy’s department store located inside of the Burbank Town Center Mall, which was featured as a murder site in the Season 2 episode of fave show The Mentalist titled “Redemption”. And while I had recognized the location immediately while watching the episode way back in September of 2009 and had even stalked the Burbank Town Center Mall recently due to its appearance in another episode of The Mentalist, for whatever reason I had completely forgotten about Macy’s. So I promptly dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place this past weekend after doing some shopping at a nearby Ikea.

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In the “Redemption” episode of The Mentalist, CBI Agent Teresa Lisbon (aka Robin Tunney) and her ne’er-do-well consultant Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) are called in to investigate the murder of a man in a supposed-Sacramento-area department store. The scene in which the two arrive at the store was filmed at the bottom of the escalators on Macy’s Second Floor, next to the MAC Cosmetics counter.

Lisbon and Jane are immediately escorted by Police Captain Bocanegra (aka Geoffrey Rivas) to the murder site in the store’s Men’s Department. It was due to this particular segment of the scene, in which Patrick and Jane walk over some unique green tile and wood flooring, that I recognized the episode had been shot at the Macy’s in Burbank. The GC and I once did some shopping in the Burbank Macy’s Men’s Department quite a few years back and while we were there I had commented on how pretty I thought the floors were. They did not look like typical department store floors and made me think of the upscale Herald Square Macy’s on 34th Street in New York in which the Men’s Department is composed of dark woods. Anyway, the image of those floors stuck with me, for whatever reason, so when I saw Lisbon and Jane walk over them in “Redemption”, I recognized them immediately.

Lisbon and Jane are then shown the bludgeoned body of Ivar Rasmussen, which was found in a little waiting area outside of the men’s dressing rooms. It is there that Patrick proceeds to smell the body in order to gather clues, infuriating Captain Bocanegra in the process.

Sadly, the area used for the filming of that scene was being redressed when we showed up to the stalk the place and was not very accessible.

But I did manage to snap a picture of a similar alcove located in a different section of the store.

After properly “sniffing out” the body, Jane proceeds downstairs to the Ground Level Furniture Department in order to interview the patrons who were in the store at the time of the bludgeoning.

It is there that he performs a ritual using the hands of one of the witnesses to lead him to the murder weapon, which turns out to be the base of a crystal wineglass.

After the murder weapon is found, a huge fight breaks out among the killer and the security guards, which ends up causing $250,000 worth of damage to the store. When Lisbon admonishes him for creating the ruckus, Jane says, “What? The case is closed isn’t it?” Ah, I so love Patrick Jane! Smile

That portion of the scene was filmed in Macy’s furniture/bedding/cookware department, which, amazingly enough, looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. I thought for sure the production crew had dressed the area for the filming, but that does not actually appear to have been the case.

On a Mentalist side note – A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, called me up for some help after she discovered that she had locked her keys inside of her car while doing some shopping at the Burbank Town Center Mall. I headed over there and after calling Roadside Assistance and having them jimmy open the lock, we discovered that her keys were not, in fact, inside of the car after all. So I ventured inside the mall to see if anyone had turned them in to the security office. No one had and Pinky’s poor dad ended up having to drive all the way from Ventura to bring her a spare set – and, sadly, her originals have still yet to be found. FAIL! But every cloud does indeed have a silver lining, as they say, because a few days later I was watching the Season Premiere of The Mentalist, which was titled “Scarlet Ribbons”, and just about died when I noticed that a scene was filmed at the Burbank Town Center Mall security office! As I mentioned in the post I wrote about the show’s Season 3 Finale back in June, Patrick Jane finally killed Red John (aka Bradley Whitford) in the middle of the Burbank Town Center Mall at the very end of the episode. Well, when Agents Kimball Cho (aka Tim Kang) and Wayne Rigsby (aka Owain Yeoman) set out to investigate the killing in the Season 4 opener, one of their first stops was the mall’s real life security office, looking exactly as it had when I visited it only days before. SO incredibly cool!

That security office is pictured above. I had to take the photograph a bit on the down-low as I was afraid that one of the security guards might get upset if he saw me snapping any pictures of the place.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Macy’s at Burbank Town Center Mall, from the “Redemption” episode of The Mentalist, is located at 200 East Cypress Avenue in Burbank.

September 16, 2011September 15, 2011

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank from “Heat”

While doing some stalking in the Burbank area way back in November of last year, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Bob’s Big Boy restaurant on Riverside Drive to grab a bite to eat. And even though the eatery has quite a vast Hollywood history, is a filming location, serves fried food (my favorite!), and is currently the oldest remaining Bob’s in the entire restaurant chain, for whatever reason in my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles I had yet to dine there. But, let me tell you, the place was well worth the wait! Both the GC and I absolutely LOVED it!

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank was originally built in 1949 by franchise owners Scott MacDonald and Ward Albert, and was designed by Wayne McAllister, the legendary Googie-style architect who also designed the Biltmore Hotel’s Biltmore Bowl ballroom, the Sands Hotel and Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Cinegrill nightclub. In 1993, after several changes in ownership and a few dining room remodels, the property was purchased by the MacDonald family, who immediately set about an extensive renovation in order to restore the Streamline-Moderne-style eatery to its original glory. The MacDonald’s also added a front patio to the premises, re-fabbed the famous exterior signage, and, best of all, re-instated car-hop service from 5 to 10 p.m. each Friday and Saturday night. So incredibly cool! In 1993, the restaurant was also deemed a California Point of Historical Interest.

Visiting Bob’s Big Boy, one is immediately transported back in time, thanks largely to its curved counter and open kitchen ;

cantilevered roof and petal-like umbrellas,

and commanding 50s-style signage –

the most impressive of which is the 70-foot-tall free-standing display sign pictured above.

And the food! Oh, the food! I ordered the chicken strips and they were absolutely out-of-this-world! And don’t even get me started on the ranch dressing! I was almost ready to start eating it by itself, soup-style, it was so good! The GC opted for the famous “Big Boy” double-decker hamburger, which he loved. The “Big Boy” was originally invented by Bob’s Big Boy founder Bob Wian in 1937 and was the precursor to the now-legendary McDonald’s Big Mac. He created the sandwich as a joke one night when one of his regular customers asked for a “different” kind of burger. And the rest, as they say, is hamburger history. Amazingly, Bob was also one of the very first restaurant owners to offer his employees a profit-sharing plan and medical insurance.

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank has been a celebrity hangout since the very beginning. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there over the years include Bob Hope (who was a regular), James Dean, Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Jonathan Winters, Alexis Smith, Debbie Reynolds, Craig Stevens, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Taylor Lautner, Tiffany Thornton, Tori Spelling, Melissa Joan Hart, David Henrie, Taylor Swift, Joey Lawrence, Cheech Marin, Selena Gomez, Jay Leno, David Lynch, Dennis Haskins, and Freddie Prinze Jr. During the summer of 1965, all four members of The Beatles famously dined at one of the eatery’s back booths, which is pictured above.

That occasion was marked with the gold plaque pictured above, which one employee told me has been stolen countless times over the years. I cannot tell you how much I hate hearing things like that! Apparently, the owners were sick of constantly having to replace the sign, so for a time they left the wall in that area blank. Thankfully though, the plaque was back in its proper place when I stalked the restaurant last year.

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And, as I mentioned above, Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank is also a filming location! The diner was featured twice in the 1995 heist movie Heat. It first popped us as the restaurant where a fresh-out-of-prison Donald Breedan (aka Dennis Haysbert) got hired as a janitor/cook.

Towards the end of the movie, it shows up once again in the scene in which Neil McCauley (aka Robert De Niro), Michael Cheritto (aka Tom Sizemore), and Chris Shiherlis (aka Val Kilmer) convince Donald to be the driver for their upcoming bank heist. Apparently there was once a plaque displayed in the booth where that scene took place commemorating the occasion, but it was stolen countless times as well and had yet to be replaced in November.

In the Season 8 episode of Dancing with the Stars, Derek Hough took Lil’ Kim to Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank to get her into character for their upcoming 50s jive performance. You can watch a clip of that segment being filmed here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the face of About Me! There are only five voting days left – you can vote once every 24 hours now through Tuesday, September 20th.

Stalk It: Bob’s Big Boy, from Heat, is located at 4211 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Priscilla’s Coffee Tea & Gifts, from Desperate Housewives, which I blogged about back in December of 2009, is located just across the street from Bob’s at 4150 Riverside Drive in Burbank.

June 28, 2011June 27, 2011

The “Father of the Bride” Grocery Store

Due to my parents’ recent move and my dad’s recent hospital stay, I have sadly not had time to do much stalking as of late. While in Palm Springs this past weekend my mom happened to ask me if I had some locations stockpiled (or should I say “stalkpiled”? Winking smile ) for times such as this. Well, as I explained to her, I have so many darn locations on my “To Blog” list that half the time I forget about them, which was the case with the spot I am writing about today – the grocery store from the 1991 movie Father of the Bride. I stalked the market way back in early May and had completely forgotten about it until yesterday morning when I was going through my Picasa web albums and spotted the pictures I took while there. So, don’t worry mom! The problem lies not in there being a lack of locations to write about, but in me being able to recall them all! Anyway, a couple of months ago I asked fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, to track down several locations from fave movie Father of the Bride, one of which was the grocery store where George Banks (aka Steve Martin) refused to buy “superfluous” hot dog buns. Fellow stalker Owen had actually tried to find this location last year and had somehow managed to get into contact with actor Britt Leach who played the role of the assistant grocery store manager in the scene. Britt, who has to be one of the nicest guys in the world, not only wrote back to Owen immediately, but subsequently wrote to me as well and did his best in helping us to find the place. He informed us that the store was located in the Burbank area, possibly near the IKEA on North San Fernando Boulevard. So with that information in hand, Owen and I tried to track the place down, but, for whatever reason, came up completely empty-handed.

Enter Chas, who somehow managed to get in touch with a member of the Father of the Bride production team, one who not only remembered the exact address of the store, but who also informed him that it had sadly changed hands in recent years. At the time of the filming, the market was owned by Vons, but the property was shuttered a couple of years back, whereupon it was purchased by Henry’s Farmers Markets and the interior was remodeled shortly thereafter. Such a shame! As you can see in these pictures of the former Vons location, though, the exterior, which was not featured in FOTB, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did before Henry’s took over.

The interior, however, is another story altogether. While it is a beautiful grocery store, the interior is, sadly, completely and totally unrecognizable from its appearance in Father of the Bride.

In FOTB, George Banks heads to a local market in order to cool off after having had a bit of a meltdown over his daughter’s impending wedding. While there, he has an even bigger meltdown over the fact that while hot dogs are sold in packages of eight, hot dog buns are sold in packages of twelve. So, he decides to take a stand by ripping open packages to remove the four offending buns. When a befuddled clerk tries to stop him, George says that the hot dog and hot dog bun corporations “are not ripping off this nitwit anymore, because I am not paying for one more thing I don’t need. George Banks is saying ‘no’!” LOL He winds up getting arrested and is sent to jail, where his wife Nina (aka Diane Keaton) has to bail him out.

And even though the store now looks completely different, I just had to find the hot dog bun aisle while I was there so that I could pose with a package of buns. Smile

Father of the Bride hot dog scene–Henry’s Market in Burbank

You can watch the Father of the Bride grocery store scene by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location! You can check out Chas’ Father of the Bride filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Henry’s Farmers Market, aka the Father of the Bride grocery store, is located at 1011 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank.