Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filming locations

UPDATE – I just drove by this location last week and was shocked to discover that the entire thing had been completely torn down. The only part of it left standing is the All American Burger sign pictured below. 🙁 A Chipotle restaurant is currently being built in its place. So incredibly sad! I will leave this post up, though, for those stalkers who are interested in seeing photographs of how it used to look.

A few weeks ago, I dragged my boyfriend out to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to stalk a restaurant named All American Burger – a location which has been on my list of places to stalk ever since fellow stalker Owen informed me that it stood in for the Clown Dog diner where Bryan (aka Josh Charles) worked in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. In a random twist of fate, Owen happened upon this information during his search for the main house used in Don’t Tell Mom back in September. While trying to track down that location, Owen came across an interview with actor Keith Coogan, who played Christina Applegate’s younger brother Kenny in the flick, who had this to say, “The film was shot entirely in Southern California. Mostly in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley areas. The house is really close to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Some locations were in the heart of Hollywood, like the roof of the Holiday Inn, and the Clown Dog is actually an ‘All American Burger’ located on Sunset Blvd. Some scenes were shot in Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as some interiors which were filmed in Simi Valley/Sherman Oaks.” (Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find the source of that interview online, otherwise I would post a link to it here.) An actor who not only remembers where scenes from his movies were filmed, but actually references them in an interview??? SO LOVE IT!!!!! Thank you, Keith!!! So, once I heard where Clown Dog was located, I immediately added the address to my long “to stalk” list and finally made it out there to see the place in person just a few weeks back. YAY!

And, let me tell you, this was one stalk that was DEFINITELY worth the wait. As fate would have it, the owner of the restaurant, an INCREDIBLY nice man named Lang, was working behind the counter when we arrived. Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, “Was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filmed here?” Lang laughed and told me that yes, indeed, the movie had been filmed on the premises. I then asked him if everyone who came in inquired about the very same thing, to which he replied “You’re only the second person in the twenty-plus years I’ve worked here who has ever asked me that!” LOL It’s nice to know I’m unique! Lang seemed truly amused at my excitement over stalking his restaurant and really could NOT have been nicer about it. Not only did he tell me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted . . .

. . . BUT HE ALSO LET ME DON ONE ONE OF THE ALL AMERICAN BURGER UNIFORMS AND STEP BEHIND THE COUNTER TO POSE FOR A PIC! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I also so love it that the real All American Burger hat is almost exactly the same as the Clown Dog hat that Christina Applegate wore in the movie! 🙂

Because my fiancé and I were both starving at the time, we just had to grab a bite to eat during our stalk. And, let me tell you, we were not disappointed! While All American Burger is by no means fancy, their food is simply A-MA-ZING! The menu features your typical all-American fare, such as burgers, hot dogs, and French fries, all of which happen to be right up my alley. 🙂 My fiancé and I ended up splitting a cheeseburger and fries – both of which were excellent! And the Grim Cheaper was very excited about the fact that the entire meal cost us $4! Even more exciting to him, though, had to be the restaurant’s working pinball machine, which he played quite a few games on. So cool! (Please pardon the above picture, I was in a goofy mood that day. 🙂 )

All American Burger pops up twice in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. It first shows up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Sue Ellen (aka Swell), gets a job working behind the counter of the fast food restaurant.

Fed up with Mr. Egg, her perennially happy boss, Swell quits her new job after only one day of work, but not before making a romantic connection with fellow Clown Dog employee Bryan.

The restaurant next shows up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Swell, upset over her recent fight with Bryan, drives by Clown Dog and sadly watches him working through the window.

I am very happy to report that although over 18 years have passed since Don’t Tell Mom was filmed, All American Burger still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. Missing in real life, of course, is the circus themed decor that was used to dress the restaurant during the filming. Besides Don’t Tell Mom, All American Burger has also been featured in a recent episode of Southland and in an album cover for one of musician Howie Day’s CD’s. And because the restaurant is something of a Hollywood institution, celebs have been known to stop in there from time to time, including The O.C.’s Adam Brody, who is a regular. 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: All American Burger, aka Clown Dog from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Thought I’d take a little break today from writing about New York filming locations as there is a movie house that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked a few weeks back that I am just dying to blog about – Christina Applegate’s home from fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead! I swear, I’ve wanted to stalk that house for what seems like forever, but could never figure out its location. In fact, Mike and I had become convinced that the house wasn’t really a house at all, but a facade that had been built on a studio back lot somewhere. So, a few weeks ago, I decided to ask fellow stalker Owen for some help in either locating the house or getting a confirmation that it had been just a set. Well, not twenty-four hours later, Owen emailed me back . . . with an address!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had somehow managed to track down a crew member from the 1991 film who confirmed that the house was real. And while he didn’t remember its exact location, he said he had the address written down in one of his files and promised to look it up for us. So, later that day, the guy actually WENT THROUGH HIS FILES and found the address!!!! How incredibly nice is that????? And pretty much immediately after I had it, Mike and I were on our way to stalk the house.

Because the Don’t Tell Mom house had been at the very top of my Must-Stalk list for YEARS, I was practically bursting with excitement the entire car ride there! I’m actually surprised my head didn’t explode or something! LOL And I am very happy to report that, in person, the house did not disappoint! 🙂 Over eighteen years later and it still looks very much the same as it did in the movie. 🙂 The crew member had told Owen that they had roughed up the house a bit for the filming and dressed it to look dingier than it actually was. He also told Owen that, using camera angles, the house was made to look much smaller onscreen than it actually was in real life. Well, I really had to laugh when I heard that, because the one thing I’ve always remembered about the Don’t Tell Mom house was how absolutely HUGE it was. So, for the crew member to say that it was even bigger in person absolutely boggled my mind! Anyway, due to the behind-the-scenes info that Owen was told, I wasn’t really expecting the house to look at all the same in person as it did in the movie. So, you can imagine my surprise when Mike and I pulled up to the house and saw that it was still completely, one hundred percent recognizable from the film! YAY! Because the angle of the house shown in the movie was not the view of the house seen from the street, I was, unfortunately, not able to get great photographs of it. In the movie, the exterior shots of the house were filmed mostly from the driveway area, with the camera facing West. The view from the street, however, which you can see in the above photograph, faces South.

Pictured above is the view of the house from the West, but because of the many trees on the property, not much is visible from that angle. 🙁

Other behind-the-scenes info the crew member told Owen was that the real interior of the home was used extensively for the filming, but that it, too, was made to look dingier and smaller for the production. He also told Owen that the “Dishes Are Done” scene in which Kenny (aka Keith Coogan) stands on the roof of the house with his friends and shoots the dishes instead of cleaning them, was not filmed on the home’s actual roof, but on a fake roof that was built in the backyard area. If you’ll notice in that scene, the camera never pans back far enough to show the whole house, because there wasn’t a whole house to show. The boys were actually standing just a few feet off the ground. 🙂

The crew member also said that the home’s real life backyard and pool area were used for the filming of the fashion show scene. And, as you can see in the above screen capture and aerial image, both look very much the same today as they did in the movie.

And can I just say that I so love the fact that the house was made a part of the Don’t Tell Mom movie poster! So cool!

On an ironic side note: About a year ago I got to meet Christopher Morley, who played the Marilyn Monroe drag queen who stole Christina Applegate’s car in the movie. And even though he wasn’t in any scenes that took place at the house, pretty much the very first words out of my mouth when I met him were “Do you happen to know where the house from Don’t Tell Mom is located?” To which he replied, “Oh honey, I don’t even remember where I filmed my scene, let alone where they filmed scenes I wasn’t even in!” LOL I always find it amazing when people forget things like that. And, while I realize that, as hard as it may be to believe, most people aren’t as interested in stalking locations as I am, I still find it odd when crew members don’t remember the addresses to places where they worked for days at a time. For about a year and a half, I worked as a personal assistant and, I’m telling you, my former boss could call me up today and say, “Do you remember where you bought those sheets for my guest house in May of 2007?” and, even though I’m not particularly interested in bedding, not only could I tell him the name of the store and it’s exact location, but also the color of the sheets I got him and the cost! And that’s not just because that particular store offered me champagne when I walked in the door, either. LOL No, no matter what anyone says, I will just never understand how people can forget something as important as a filming location! 😉

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Big, big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead house is located at 15548 Iron Canyon Road in Canyon Country, near Santa Clarita.

Tag: Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filming locations

Clown Dog Restaurant from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

The Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead House