Eagle Rock filming locations

September 25, 2012September 24, 2012

Rachel’s House from “(500) Days of Summer”

Today’s post is, unfortunately, going to be a short one being that I am absolutely exhausted from what turned out to be a very exciting and very successful Emmy weekend. (That’s me on the red carpet above! Smile ) While I had a blast, I truly feel like I could sleep for days and am looking forward to what should be a calm week ahead. But I digress! Now, on with the post!

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Way back in May, while perusing through fellow stalker Tony’s amazing On Location in Los Angeles Flickr photostream, I came across a picture of the house where Rachel (Chloe Grace Moretz), the wise-beyond-her-years teenage sister of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), lived in the 2009 flick (500) Days of Summer. And even though I was not at all a fan of the “unromantic comedy” (as Tony calls it) due to the fact that it was incredibly depressing, I did absolutely LOVE the charming and picturesque dwelling that Tony featured on his page (although I did not actually remember seeing it in the movie). So I, of course, ran right out to stalk the place that very weekend.

In real life, the Anywhere, U.S.A.-style home, which was originally built in 1910, boasts four bedrooms, three baths, 2,249 square feet of living space, and a 0.34-acre plot of land. As you can see below, it is absolutely adorable in person!

The house actually only shows up once in (500) Days of Summer, and very briefly at that (which explains why I did not remember it), on Day (11) in the scene in which Tom and Rachel are shown playing a Wii tennis game while discussing Tom’s new girlfriend, Summer (Zooey Deschanel). It is in the scene that Tom says, “She likes Magritte and Hopper and we talked about Bananafish for like twenty minutes! We’re so compatible, it’s insane! She’s not like I thought at all. She’s amazing.” To which Rachel utters her famous line, “Just ‘cause some cute girl likes the same bizarro crap you do, that doesn’t make her your soul mate, Tom.” LOL As you can see below, Rachel’s abode looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen, although the mailbox has since been moved to a different spot.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home also appeared in the scene, although I could not find any interior photographs of the house with which to verify this.

I think one of the property’s bedrooms might also have been used as Tom’s childhood bedroom during the movie’s opening montage, but, again, I could not find any photographs with which to verify that hunch.

I did find an extended version of the Wii scene on YouTube, though, in which Rachel is shown sitting on the residence’s front porch.

More of the property’s interior is shown in the extended scene, as well.

You can watch the extended scene on YouTube by clicking below.

Rachel’s House–”(500) Days of Summer”-Extended Scene

According to this shoot sheet posted on the Seeing Stars website, the same house was also used in a television commercial for Countrywide Financial in March 1997. Because the residence is so incredibly idyllic and picturesque, I am sure it has been featured in countless other productions, as well.

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.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Tony, from the amazing On Location in Los Angeles Flickr photostream, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Rachel’s house from (500) Days of Summer is located at 5231 Shearin Avenue in Eagle Rock. The party house from Teen Wolf (which I blogged about here) is located right next door at 5223 Shearin Avenue.

April 6, 2011April 5, 2011

The “Teen Wolf” Party House

As I mentioned in the post I wrote back in January about the residence where Pamela Wells (aka Lorie Griffin) lived in Teen Wolf, fellow stalkers Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, and Owen recently embarked upon a mission to track down all of the locations used in the 1985 comedy. One of the locales that they both wanted to find was the house where the high school party was thrown in the beginning of the flick, just before Scott Howard (aka Michael J. Fox) finds out that he is a werewolf. Because no address number and no street signs were visible in the background of the scene, though, we really had nothing to go on for this one and Owen was fairly certain that, as the movie had been filmed well over two and a half decades ago, the chances of finding the place were slim to none. Well, as fate would have it, a few months before Owen and Chas began their Teen Wolf hunt, I had been doing some stalking in a residential area of Eagle Rock and had gotten to talking with a homeowner who filled me in on some of the filming that had taken place in his neighborhood. One of the places he pointed out to me was a house that he said had been used in Teen Wolf. Because he had never seen the movie, though, he was unsure of what scene the house had appeared in or if it had, in fact, even made it into the final cut of the flick, so I did not think much of it at the time. But when Owen sent me a screen capture of the party house and asked if I had any idea where it might be located, I recognized it immediately and sent him back the address. There’s an old saying that goes, “Work begets work.” Well, in this particular instance, I’d have to say that stalking begets stalking. Winking smile

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The Eagle Rock house only appeared in one brief scene in Teen Wolf in which Scott and his friends, Rupert “Stiles” Stilinski (aka Jerry Levine) and Lewis (aka Matt Adler), attend a high school house party. It is while in one of the home’s closets that Scott and Lisa “Boof” Marconi (aka Susan Ursitti) kiss for the very first time.

I am very happy to report that the property looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1985 when the movie was filmed.

And, as you can see in these photographs, the real life interior of the property was also used in the filming. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house and take a picture in the closet where Scott and Boof kissed!

From what I can tell from this photograph and this photograph, though, that closet may have been a fake that was built in the room located directly off of the kitchen. As you can see in the above screen capture, the closet door was located next to an arched built-in bookshelf that is visible in the photographs that I linked to.

And as you can see in the above screen capture, the built-in bookshelf is located directly next to the kitchen, which is also visible in the photographs that I linked to. So, from the way that it appears, I believe that producers created a faux closet on what is, in actuality, the home’s backyard patio. Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

You can check out Chas’ extensive Teen Wolf filming locations page by clicking here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Teen Wolf party house is located at 5223 Shearin Avenue in Eagle Rock.

November 18, 2010November 17, 2010

All Star Lanes from “Glee”

Another Eagle Rock-area location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked a few weeks back after our venture to the nearby Eagle Rock Plaza Mall was All Star Lanes – the bowling alley where Finn Hudson (aka Cory Monteith) took Rachel Berry (aka Lea Michele) on a date in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “The Rhodes Not Taken”. I found this location thanks to an eagle-eyed (pun intended) anonymous fellow stalker who lives in the area. My source recognized the bowling alley when it showed up in the episode back in September of last year and emailed me immediately afterwards to let me know. So, thank you, anonymous source! I don’t know who you are, but I will be forever grateful for the stalking tip!

The 22-lane bowling alley, which features state-of-the-art equipment and automatic scoring, was completely empty when Mike and I showed up to stalk it, which made for a prime picture-taking opportunity. The owner finally made an appearance about ten minutes after we showed up and was nice enough to chat with us for a bit about the various filming that has taken place there in recent years. Sadly, he didn’t have much to tell me about “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee, though, because he had never actually watched the show before it filmed on the premises and, therefore, did not pay much attention during the shoot.

He did tell us that part of the episode was lensed in the alley’s retro-style cocktail lounge and, even though it was closed at the time, allowed us to take a quick peek inside. Besides bowling, All Star Lanes also features pools tables, a video arcade, a Chinese food restaurant, and, as was shown on Glee, nightly karaoke! Love it! In 2009, All Star Lanes was voted First Place in the “Best Bowling” category of MyFOX Los Angeles’ “Best of the LA HOTLIST” contest. LA Weekly newspaper also recently dubbed the alley the “Best Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling 2010” thanks to its late-night glow-in-the-dark bowling sessions, which feature glowing pins and balls! How incredibly cool is that?

In “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee, Finn takes Rachel on a pretend date to All Star Lanes in the hopes that he can somehow talk her into re-joining the McKinley High Glee Club.

Will Schuester (aka Matthew Morrison) and April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenoweth) also visit the bowling alley that same night and it is there that Will tells April that one of his biggest regrets in life is never having sung with her.

April then leads Will over to the alley’s cocktail lounge where the two hop up on stage and sing a rousing karaoke rendition of the 1987 Heart song “Alone”.

You can watch their “Alone” duet by clicking above.

The owner of All Star Lanes also informed us that the outside of the alley and its parking lot area were recently dressed to look like the Mid-Atlantic Trailways Bus Station for the Season 8 episode of NCIS titled “Broken Arrow” for the scene in which Ziva David (aka Cote de Pablo) and Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo (aka Michael Weatherly) track down Anthony DiNozzo Sr. (aka Robert Wagner).

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Apparently, the All Star Lanes parking lot is quite the popular filming location because fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, also let me know that it was featured during the opening credits of the 1992 Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs. In the scene, in which the bowling alley is not actually visible, Quentin and the gang walk through the parking lot toward Eagle Rock Boulevard after their famous conversation about tipping which took place at the nearby Pat & Lorraine’s Coffee Shop. The Eagle Rock Plaza strip mall, which is located directly across the street from the alley, is the building that pictured in the above screen captures.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: All Star Lanes from “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee is located at 4459 Eagle Rock Boulevard in Eagle Rock. Rachel and Finn bowled in Lane Nine and Will and April bowled in Lane Fifteen in the episode. In Reservoir Dogs, Quentin and the gang walk east through the alley’s parking lot towards Eagle Rock Boulevard. You can visit All Star Lanes’ official website here.

October 19, 2010October 18, 2010

The “Black Sheep” House

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked last Monday afternoon was the supposed Buckley, Washington-area home where Mike Donnelly (aka Chris Farley) lived in the 1996 comedy Black Sheep. Fellow stalker Owen tracked down this location – along with pretty much every other locale which appeared in the movie – quite a few months back and the place has been on my To-Stalk list ever since. But because I rarely make it out to the Eagle Rock area, I had yet to visit the place – nor had I ever watched Black Sheep before. So, after Mike and I stalked the house last Monday afternoon, I finally sat down to watch the movie. And I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. Even though I am a sucker for screwball comedies, for whatever reason I had not really expected to like the flick at all. I ended up laughing all the way through it, though, especially during the scene in which Mike gets pulled over for driving seven miles per hour on the freeway. LOL!

Owen found Mike Donnelly’s home thanks to one of the Black Sheep crew members who remembered that the residence was located somewhere in Eagle Rock. Even with that bit of information, though, I’m amazed that Owen was able to track the place down, because producers had installed a fake address number of 612 for the filming. UGH! I so hate it when they do that!

It takes a lot more than a simple change of address to fool us stalkers, though! As you can see in the above screen capture, a home with a 4-digit address number was clearly visible in the background of one of the scenes filmed at the Donnelly residence. Once Owen saw that four digit number, he knew that the Donnelly address had to be a fake. He then immediately set about using Google Street View to search all of the blocks in Eagle Rock with four-digit addresses. And sure enough, it wasn’t long before he found the right house. Yay!

In reality, the Donnelly residence, which features 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1,782 square feet of living space, is a lot cuter and far better maintained in person than it appeared in the film.

The house only actually appears twice in Black Sheep. It first shows up in the scene in which Steve Dodds (aka David Spade) first goes to meet Mike Donnelly. Later on in the movie, the house is featured briefly in the scene in which the two men discover that Governor Tracy (aka Christine Ebersole) has fixed the election.

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I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the property was also used in that particular scene.

After watching Black Sheep earlier this week, I became obsessed with stalking the Governor’s Mansion which appeared throughout the flick. Sadly though, fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, informed me that, while Owen had also found this property, it was torn down quite some time ago and another home built in its place, which is absolutely mind-boggling to me! How (or WHY!) someone would tear down such a large and stately piece of property just to build a new one is absolutely beyond me. Chas and I were discussing it yesterday, though, and he came up with a possible explanation. He thinks there quite possibly could have been a fire at the property, which would have forced the owners to demolish whatever was left standing and start anew. I searched for property records on the home, though, to see if I could dig up any further information, but came up completely empty-handed. UGH! The only thing I can say for sure is that the Governor’s Mansion from Black Sheep is no longer standing.

There is some good news, though! For whatever reason, the mansion is still visible via certain angles on Bing Maps. As you can see above, when the Bing aerial view is angled south, the image shows a vacant lot.

BUT when you angle the map east, the Governor’s Mansion magically appears.

AND if you then switch back to the south view once again, the front of the home will sometimes show up. So darn cool!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding these locations!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mike Donnelly’s house from Black Sheep is located at 5158 Highland View Avenue in Eagle Rock. The Governor’s Mansion from the movie was formerly located at 874 West Potrero Road in Westlake Village, but has since been torn down and replaced with a new residence.

October 13, 2010October 12, 2010

Eagle Rock Plaza from “Glee” and Michael Buble’s “Crazy Love” Photoshoot

This past Monday morning, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up to ask if I wanted to do some stalking with him in the San Gabriel Valley. As it turns out, Monday was a holiday – although I hadn’t realized it beforehand – and Mike had the day off from work. So, after first loading up on some Starbucks coffee (but of course) the two of us headed right on over to Eagle Rock, where the first item on our stalking agenda – Eagle Rock Plaza mall – was located. I had been dying to stalk the mall ever since May 18th of this year when it appeared in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “Dream On”, in the scene in which Artie Adams (aka Kevin McHale) starts a flash mob in the middle of a supposed Ohio-area shopping center. My good friend and fellow stalker Kerry’s daughter, Jen – who is a total Gleek – had challenged me to find this location the day after the episode aired and, amazingly enough, it wasn’t too hard to track down at all. I just simply used Google Images to search through interior photographs of Los Angeles-area malls and fairly quickly came upon one of Eagle Rock Plaza, which I recognized immediately. And even though I live only a few miles outside of Eagle Rock, for whatever reason it has taken me this long to get out there to stalk the place. Oh well, better late than never, right? [And yes, I am pretending to dance like Artie in the above picture. ;)]

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In the “Dream On” episode of Glee, Artie visits a local mall with his girlfriend Tina Cohen-Chang (aka Jenna Ushkowitz), and while she is in line buying a hot pretzel, he daydreams about being able to get up out of his wheelchair and dance. He ends up starting a huge flash mob to the 80’s song “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.

As it turns out, Eagle Rock Plaza is a very tiny mall and it wasn’t hard at all to track down the exact spot where filming had taken place. Artie’s flash mob scene was shot in the very center of the property, right in between the mall’s two main escalators and directly in front of the Seafood City Supermarket.

You can watch the “Safety Dance” number by clicking above.

While we were there, Mike and I stopped by the Eagle Rock Plaza’s management office to ask about the filming that has taken place there over the years and the woman on duty literally could NOT have been nicer! She spent quite a bit of time chatting with us and filling us in on some of the productions that have been shot on the premises, including the Season 4 episode of The Closer titled “Time Bomb”, in which Brenda Leigh Johnson (aka Kyra Sedgwick) and her fellow members of the L.A.P.D.’s Major Crimes Division investigate a bomb threat at a local mall.

Ironically enough, only the interior of Eagle Rock Plaza appeared in that episode. All of the exterior scenes were filmed at Los Angeles City College, in front of the campus’ Communications Center, which does actually look quite a bit like a mall.

Eagle Rock Plaza was also featured in Avril Lavigne’s music video for the 2002 hit song “Complicated” . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

One production that shot on location at Eagle Rock Plaza that the management didn’t know about, but that I recognized immediately was Michael Buble’s 2009 behind-the-scenes DVD titled “The Making of Crazy Love”. In the documentary, Michael is shown posing for a photo shoot outside of a Macy’s department store during which he is made to run back and forth through a large parking lot. Michael is a total goofball and EXTREMELY funny during the shoot, announcing to one passerby who drives by, “Welcome to Macy’s!” LOL I can only imagine if I had arrived at the mall on a random day to do some shopping only to find MICHAEL BUBLE standing at the entrance welcoming me! I probably would have had a heart attack right on the spot. But I digress. Anyway, for whatever reason (most likely because MB was so darn funny in the spot – at one point he says, “The next shot is of me shopping at Macy’s . . . finding discounts . . . there is a pillow set that is to die for!” LOL LOL LOL), I have been literally hell-bent on stalking that parking lot ever since watching the DVD late last year. Trouble was, I couldn’t seem to find the darn place anywhere.

Until this past Monday that is, when Mike just happened to drive through the part of the Plaza’s parking lot that is located directly behind Macy’s and I recognized it immediately. YAY! Thank you, Mike!

And I, of course, just had to imitate MB running while I was there. 🙂

You can watch Michael’s absolutely hilarious photo shoot in the Macy’s parking lot by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Jen for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for taking me there! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Eagle Rock Plaza is located at 2700 Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock. You can visit the mall’s official website here. Michael Buble posed for his running photographs in the southwestern portion of the Plaza’s parking lot, directly behind Macy’s department store, in the area depicted with the pink circle in the above aerial view. The “Dream On” episode of Glee was filmed in the center-most point of the mall, in between the property’s two main escalators and directly in front of the Seafood City Supermarket.