Echo Park

January 17, 2020January 17, 2020

Candace’s Rental from “You”

Though Anavrin was by far my favorite locale from the second season of the Netflix series You, I was also pretty darn smitten with the charming Victorian that Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers) rented during her stay in Los Angeles while posing as Amy Adam. I was struck by the picturesque property as soon as it came onscreen in episode 6, “Farewell, My Bunny,” and though its appearance was all-too-brief, it stuck with me. I set out to find it just as soon as the closing credits began to roll and, thankfully, it was not a long hunt. Global Film Locations pinpointed the home right where I thought it would be – in the heart of Angelino Heights, the Echo Park neighborhood that boasts the largest concentration of Victorian homes in Los Angeles. So I ran right out there while in the area a few weeks back. (I would be completely remiss if I did not note here that Ambyr Childers is the first wife of Randall Emmett, Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent’s fiancé. Let that sink in for a minute!)

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Known as the Collins Residence in real life, the stunning Eastlake-style property was originally built in 1888 for Santa Fe Railroad agent Michael T. Collins.

Per Flickr member Michael Locke, the pad was initially located on Whittier Boulevard, but was moved to its current home at 890-892 West Kensington Road in 1987.

Despite that unique provenance and the fact that the place is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 266, I could find virtually no additional information about it online.

According to Redfin, the three-story residence boasts 1 bedroom (though I believe that to be incorrect), 2 baths, 2,272 square feet, and a 0.21-acre plot of land.

It is quite the quintessential historic Los Angeles home, so it is no surprise that it wound up as Candace’s rental on You.

In “Farewell, My Bunny,” Forty Quinn (James Scully) informs Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) that his ex, Candace, aka “Amy,” is leasing a home somewhere on Loma Vista Lane in Echo Park. Joe then searches the fictional “BnB” website for rentals on Loma Vista and comes across a listing for a “fully-furnished” “historic Victorian in Angelino Heights” with a private bathroom, balcony and “tee-pee access” (whatever that means).

Describing the pad as a “Gothic Barbie dreamhouse,” Joe surmises it must be the spot Candace leased.

He promptly breaks into the home later that night, toting a backpack filled with duct tape and rope, to presumably kill Candace. But the property’s owner, the Krav Maga-trained Superhost Rachel (Madeline Zima), thwarts his devious plan, knocking him out with a quick fist to the face and then hog-tieing him in her living room. In a thoroughly head-scratching move, though, she ultimately lets Joe go, believing his claim that Candace hired him to enact a “rape fantasy.”

I am fairly certain that the actual inside of the home was also utilized in the episode, though I could find no interior photographs with which to verify that.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Collins Residence, aka Candace’s rental from You, is located at 890-892 West Kensington Road in Echo Park. Several other homes in the neighborhood have also appeared onscreen – Jesse (John Stamos) and Becky’s (Lori Loughlin) honeymoon send-off from Full House can be found at 1320 Carroll Avenue, Oliver’s “San Francisco” house from A Lot Like Love is located at 1321 Carroll, the Sanders House at 1145 Carroll is where Ola Ray hid from zombies in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 1329 Carroll portrayed the Halliwell sisters’ residence on Charmed, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) grew up at 1355 Carroll on Mad Men, and Holly’s (Amy Ryan) Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is at 1347 Kellam Avenue.

June 22, 2018August 10, 2018

Jesse and Becky’s Honeymoon Send-Off Location from “Full House”

I have grown used to productions playing fast and loose with location continuity, but was still flummoxed when I came across a thread back in January 2016 on a now defunct website in which a commenter asked if anyone knew which residence was used as the Tanner family home in the Season 4 episode of Full House titled “The Wedding: Part 2.” At the time, I was completely unaware that a pad other than the one at 1709 Broderick Street in San Francisco (which I blogged about here and here) had ever been utilized as the Tanners’ on the series. I immediately emailed my friend/guest poster extraordinaire/resident Full House expert Michael (you can read his many IAMNOTSTALKER articles here) to see if he had any intel on the locale and was not at all surprised when he wrote back telling me that he did. As he informed me, in “The Wedding: Part 2,” Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos) and his new wife, Becky (Lori Loughlin), are sent off on their honeymoon from outside of 1320 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park.

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For those who don’t remember the circumstances of “The Wedding: Part 2,” all 8 seasons of Full House are currently available for streaming on Hulu. I’ll also provide a little refresher here, though. Thanks to a series of hapless events, Jesse winds up arrested and jailed in “Tomato Country” on his wedding day and has to be bailed out by his bride-to-be moments before the ceremony. The nuptials finally go off without any additional hitches and by the end of the episode, the couple are sharing their first dance (to “Jailhouse Rock,” no less) in the Tanner family living room. (And wow, can I just say that is quite the headdress on Becky!)

Not that D.J.’s (Candace Cameron Bure) is much better. But I digress.

After Becky and Jesse cut the cake and toss the requisite bouquet and garter, the scene cuts to a night shot on what is supposedly the Tanners’ San Francisco street, where Danny (Bob Saget), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), D.J., and the rest of the clan wave good-bye to the departing newlyweds as they venture off via motorcycle on their honeymoon. The residence barely visible in the background of the scene is known as the Heim House in real life. Other than a similar style of architecture, it does not bear much resemblance to 1709 Broderick – though, truth be told, it is never really specified that the pad is supposed to be the Tanners’ in the episode. In all fairness, maybe producers intended it to be a neighboring property or perhaps one across the street. Regardless, being that Full House was lensed in Los Angeles, it makes sense that cast and crew did not travel all the way to San Francisco to shoot the brief honeymoon send-off segment and instead found a suitable replacement location closer to home.

What perplexed both Michael and me is why the production did not make use of the Midwest Residential Street homes on the Warner Bros. Studio backlot where we both thought the show had been lensed. As Michael emailed me, “The scene is so quick and dark that the WB houses could have been used to similar effect.” As he came to find out, though, Full House was not shot at Warner Bros. during its entire eight-year run. Stage 28 at Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City was actually home to the series for its first 6 seasons. (To confuse matters further, Sony was known as Lorimar-Telepictures when Full House initially began shooting in 1987. The Sony changeover took place in 1989.) It was not until the start of Season 7 in 1993 that the production was moved to the WB in Burbank. Because Sony does not have a backlot to speak of, producers had to head to a real street to shoot “The Wedding: Part 2” in 1991 – and what better place to go to than the 1300 block of Carroll Avenue, which is comprised of the largest concentration of Victorian-style homes in Los Angeles.

The Heim House, originally built in 1887, boasts one of the block’s prettiest façades with a wraparound porch, carved wooden detailing, two towers, and zigzag trim.

The Queen Anne-style pad is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #77.

The picturesque property also briefly appeared in the Season 3 episode of Charmed titled “Primrose Empath” as one of the houses from which Prue (Shannen Doherty) could hear the voices and feel the pain of its inhabitants.

The two dwellings located east of the Heim House, 1300 Carroll Avenue, which is known as the Phillips House in real life, and 1316 Carroll Avenue, aka the Russell House, are also visible in “The Wedding: Part 2,” though as you can see below, the former is now obscured by foliage and can no longer be seen from the angle from which the episode was shot.

On a Tanner house side-note – when I went to input a map link for 1709 Broderick Street in the opening paragraph of this post, I noticed that a large group of fellow stalkers can be seen posing for photos in front of the Tanner home in the most recent Google Street View imagery of it from June 2017, which absolutely cracked me up.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Michael for finding this location! Smile You can check out his many IAMNOTASTALKER guest posts here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: In “The Wedding: Part 2” episode of Full House, Jesse and Becky are sent off on their honeymoon from outside of 1320 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park.

April 16, 2018April 15, 2018

Oliver’s San Francisco House from “A Lot Like Love”

I have made no secret over the years of my obsession with the 2005 romcom A Lot Like Love. And I thought I was quite well-versed in its locations. So I was shocked when fellow stalker Tovangar2 (you may remember him from this post) published a comment on my site in November 2015 alerting me to the fact that the supposed San Francisco house where Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) lived in the flick was actually located in Los Angeles – at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park, to be exact. For the life of me I could not remember the exterior of Oliver’s SF residence being shown in the movie, so I immediately popped my A Lot Like Love DVD into my computer, started scanning, and, sure enough, about 45 minutes in was a shot of Oliver returning to a large Victorian pad after a long day at work. Considering I’ve seen the film about 25 times, I don’t know how I missed it! Fortunately, I happened to be in L.A. just a few days after learning about the locale, so I ran right out to stalk it. Thank you, Tovangar2!

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According to Big Orange Landmarks, the pad, which is known as the Beaudry House in real life, has quite an interesting history. Constructed in the Queen Anne/Eastlake style in 1887, the dwelling was initially located at 1145 Court Street, just west of North Boylston, about seven blocks south of where it currently stands. You can check out a map showing where it was originally situated here.

By the late ‘70s, the Beaudry House had grown severely dilapidated, the result of a downturn in the neighborhood and negligible maintenance. Though the property as well as its neighbor, the Irey House at 1123 Court Street, were rewarded Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status, they both suffered from vandalism, graffiti and age. At around the same time, a group of Carroll Avenue homeowners banded together to form the Carroll Avenue Restoration Foundation in the hopes that they could thwart the development of a large vacant plot of land on their street. Fearing that the addition of a sizeable contemporary residence on the lot would be at odds with the community’s decidedly historic Victorian aesthetic, the organization resolved to purchase the plot and relocate the Beaudry and Irey Houses there. Thanks to some savvy maneuvering and many generous donations, CARF was successful and the two dwellings were moved via flatbed truck to their new street on March 22nd, 1978. You can check out a photo of the drive, which took two hours to complete, here.

Today, the Beaudry House, which is actually classified as a duplex, is a glowing example of preserved Victorian architecture. The 3,201-square-foot property – which consists of a 1-bedroom, 1-bath unit downstairs and a 2-bedroom, 1-bath second-level space, as well a carriage house that has been converted into a studio – boasts pocket doors, period sconces, wood detailing, stained glass windows, a 3-car garage, and 0.28 acres of land.

The residence last sold in December 2015 for $1.2 million. You can check out some interior photos from the listing here. Because the pad is a duplex with a converted carriage house, it oddly has three different kitchens, which is a bit jarring to see.

Here’s hoping the new owners will convert the property back into a single-family home.

The Beaudry House appears only once in A Lot Like Love, in the scene in which Oliver returns home from work to learn that his live-in girlfriend Bridget (Moon Bloodgood) wants to break up with him just minutes before dinner guests are expected to arrive. in the movie, the residence actually belongs to Bridget. As Oliver later explains to his on-again/off-again love Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet), “I’ve been killing myself at work – nights, weekends, even at home. Well, Bridget’s home. See, I moved in with her. That was my big mistake right there. I should have stuck to the plan. I mean, the plan, the plan was working! And the irony of it is that Bridget actually loves plans.”

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the film, as you can see in the screen capture as compared to the MLS photo of the home pictured below.

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

Big THANK YOU to Tovangar2 for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Oliver’s “San Francisco” house from A Lot Like Love is located at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park. Several other homes in the neighborhood have also appeared onscreen – the Sanders House at 1145 Carroll is where Ola Ray hid from zombies in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 1329 Carroll portrayed the Halliwell sisters’ residence on Charmed, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) grew up at 1355 Carroll on Mad Men, and Holly’s (Amy Ryan) Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is around the corner at 1347 Kellam Avenue.

October 21, 2015September 29, 2017

The Weller Residence from “Castle”

What is it about Victorian-style dwellings that lends itself so well to scary movies and television shows with a spooky theme? I so often find myself blogging about Victorians this time of year. (There’s the Mills View House from House, the Blankenhorn Lamphear House from Teaching Mrs. Tingle, and the Miller and Harriott House from the Halloween themed episode of Modern Family titled “Open House of Horrors,” just to name a few.) Today’s post is in that same vein. Last May, I happened upon an absolutely uh-ma-zing Queen Anne residence while stalking the Girls United group home from The Fosters. Figuring it had to have acted as a filming location at some point, I snapped some photos of it and was floored to later discover that not only had it appeared onscreen, but as a spooky old hotel no less!

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In real life, the house is known as the Weller Residence and it was built in 1894 for a businessman named Zachariah Weller. In the book Beautiful America’s California Victorians, author Kenneth Naversen suggests that the property may have been fashioned upon a design found in a pattern book created by mail-order architect G.F. Barber.

Oddly, when the Weller Residence was originally built it stood in a different location, at what was then 401 North Figueroa Street in Echo Park. That address is now 401 North Boylston Street. In 1900, the area became populated with large oil derricks, several of them popping up around Zachariah’s home. It was not a pretty sight. You can see a photograph of what it looked like at that time here. So Weller did the only rational thing – he broke the house into two pieces and moved it about 3,000 feet north to a vacant plot of land at 824 East Kensington Road. He also had the property wired for electricity at that time. The Weller Residence has the distinction of being the first home in the area to feature electrical power.

Zachariah Weller passed away in 1903. The home remained in his family through 1953, when it was purchased by Albert and Helen McNellis. Their son still owns it to this day.

The Weller Residence was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1979.

The two-story house boasts ten rooms, pocket-wood doors, vintage crystal chandeliers, hardwood flooring, a large front porch, a second story balcony, and a peaked tower.

The property is absolutely spectacular in person! It is easily one of the most beautiful Victorians I have ever seen. Not to mention one of the largest. You can read a more in-depth account of its history on the Big Orange Landmarks blog.

The Weller Residence was featured in the Season 5 episode of Castle titled “Scared to Death.” In the episode, which was an homage to horror movies (Wes Craven even had a cameo!), Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) investigated the death of a young girl, Val Butler (Alison Trumbull), who died three days after receiving a DVD that predicted her exact time of death, a la The Ring. Images of the dwelling appeared in the DVD that Val was sent, which Castle watched at the beginning of the episode.

Beckett’s team later discovers that the Victorian pictured in the DVD is Port Campbell’s Brunswick Inn. To convince Beckett that the property deserves investigating, Castle tells her, “The inn must be the place where some unspeakable horror befell the spirits. Think about it! The Ring, Psycho, The Shining – it’s when we get to the creepy old motel that everything starts really going south.” Love it!

The interior of the Weller Residence also appeared in the episode. While Beckett is exploring the hotel with Javier Esposito (Jon Huertas), she says, “It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here.” To which Javier says, “Doesn’t look like anyone’s been here this century!”

On a side-note – I’m pretty sure that Matthew Del Negro (whom I met recently – you can see my photo with him here) had a featured extra role as a policeman in “Scared to Death.”

The Weller Residence also appeared as the old Winterborn house in the 1980 CBS Children’s Mystery Theatre episode titled “The Treasure of Alpheus T. Winterborn,” which I was floored to discover starred none other than Keith Coogan, who is married to my friend Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Weller Residence, aka Brunswick Inn from Castle, is located at 824 East Kensington Road in Echo Park. The Girls United group home from The Fosters is located just up the street at 766 East Kensington.

April 16, 2015April 9, 2015

Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – SoCal’s “Furious 7” Locations

Don’t forget to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about the L.A. locations featured in Furious 7. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

February 12, 2015February 4, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce”

Be sure to stop by LAMag.com today to read my latest post – about Echo Park’s recent appearance in Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

August 29, 2013August 10, 2018

One location that I have wanted to stalk ever since June 2012, when I wrote my post about MacArthur Park from New Girl (which you can read here), was the similar-looking Echo Park in L.A.’s Echo Park neighborhood. Sadly though, my efforts were thwarted for over a year due to an extensive restoration project that was taking place on the premises. The property eventually reopened two months ago and I was absolutely chomping at the bit to stalk it, and finally managed to do just that a couple of weekends ago when the Grim Cheaper and I were in Los Angeles for a brief stay. I can honestly say that the place was worth the wait, though, because it is easily one of the most beautiful locales that I have ever visited.

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The 29-acre parcel of land now known as Echo Park was originally a natural ravine created from the flow of the Arroyo de Los Reyes stream. A 20-foot dam was built on the site in 1868 that turned the ravine into Reservoir Number 4, which provided drinking water to nearby residents. In 1892, the city decided to turn the reservoir and its neighboring land into a public park and landscape architect/Superintendent of the Department of Parks Joseph Henry Tomlinson was commissioned to design it. Legend has it that the site got its name due to the fact that Tomlinson heard an echo as he shouted across the property one day while developing the space. Echo Park, which was declared a City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument in 2006, is one of the oldest public parks in L.A.

Today, the 26-million-gallon, 13-acre Echo Park Lake serves as a detention basin for the City’s storm drain system. As stated in the “Land o’ Lake” article that was featured in the June 2013 issue of Los Angeles magazine, “Runoff from streets and storm drains pauses here before heading into the Los Angeles River and, ultimately, the ocean. In dry weather about 110,000 gallons pass through the lake each day.”

The lake is perhaps best known for its iconic three-geyser fountain, which was installed as part of a Los Angeles beautification project just prior to the 1984 Olympic Games.

In 2011, a two-year, $45-million restoration/water quality project was begun, during which 40,000 cubic yards of sediment was removed from the bottom of the lake – as was trash, debris and random discarded items including a skateboard, a Frisbee and a toilet (LOL!). Four acres of wetland were also added to the premises . . .

. . . as well as two observation decks, a café and a large jogging path.

The site’s vast lotus bed (once the largest lotus bed in the western United States), which had disappeared by 2008, was also restored thanks to a fortuitous bit of thievery.

In 2005, a horticulturalist named Randy McDonald pilfered a lotus from the lake, violating a municipal code which states that removing plants from city parks is illegal. He cultivated the small stem and began selling its offshoots to unsuspecting customers. A few years later, when the restoration project first got underway, landscape architect Josh Segal heard buzzings that McDonald had a spawn of the iconic Echo Park lotus plant and contacted him. He wound up purchasing 376 plants from the thief – at a cost of $30,000! – to stock the new and improved lake. As journalist Marisa Gerber wrote in a June 2013 Los Angeles Times article, “Finding McDonald gave the restoration ‘a special story that involves theft,’ Segal said, breaking into a laugh. ‘It’s L.A.’”

The netting that currently covers the lotus bed, as well as most of the other vegetation in the park, will be in place for about a year and serves to protect the greenery from hungry birds.

The newly restored Echo Park was reopened to the public on June 15th, 2013.

The result is easily one of the most picturesque places I have ever visited in my life.

Shortly after the reopening, the lake’s infamous pedal boats were also brought back. And, as you can see below, business was booming when we showed up – the wait time to rent a boat was about two hours!

A café named Square One at the Boathouse was also launched in the park’s iconic 1932 boathouse shortly after the reopening.

Due to its immense picturesqueness, Echo Park has been featured in countless productions over the years – so many that it would be virtually impossible for me to list them all. What follows are some of the property’s onscreen highlights.

The park’s most famous appearance was arguably in the 1974 classic Chinatown, in which it was the spot where JJ Gittes (Jack Nicholson) secretly photographed Commissioner Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), who was boating with a woman who was not his wife.

In 1991, Echo Park masqueraded as the Stationary Bike Riding Park, where running was not allowed, for the opening scene of fave movie L.A. Story.

In the 1991 thriller Dead Again, Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) took Grace (Emma Thompson) on a date to Echo Park, where they ate at the boathouse and then walked around the lake.

Despite several websites claiming that the scene took place in MacArthur Park, Echo Park was actually where Dr. Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross) and Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) plotted to kill Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) in the 1994 Season 2 finale of Melrose Place, which was titled “Till Death Do Us Part.”

As you can see below, the view of the U.S. Bank Tower and Citigroup Center that was shown in the episode matches perfectly to the view of those buildings from Echo Park.

Echo Park was used again in the 1996 Season 4 episode of Melrose Place titled “Melrose Unglued,” as the place where Jo Reynolds (Daphne Zuniga) and Dr. Dominick O’Malley (Brad Johnson) confronted Laurie (Justine Priestley – Jason Priestley’s twin!) about their suspicion that her son was being abused.

In the 1992 flick Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Echo Park was where Sgt. Joe Bomowski (Sylvester Stallone) picnicked with him mom, Tutti Bomowski (Estelle Getty).

Echo Park was turned into the supposed San Francisco-area cemetery where the the funeral for Mark Chao (John Cho) was held in the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “Dead Man Dating.”

The park also popped up in the 2003 Season 5 episode of Charmed titled “House Call,” as the spot where Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) reunited with Glen Belland (Jesse Woodrow).

In 2001’s Training Day, Det. Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) and Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) drove by Echo Park shortly after Harris forced Hoyt to smoke PCP.

In the 2003 comedy National Security, Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence) almost got arrested by police officer Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) for “breaking into” his own car while at Echo Park.

Emily (Amanda Peet) tells Oliver (Ashton Kutcher) about her new fiancé at Echo Park in a deleted scene from the 2005 romcom A Lot Like Love.

Echo Park was where Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) met with Pete Lukins (Gregg Henry) to talk about an upcoming fight in the beginning of the 2006 film The Black Dahlia.

Southland filmed at Echo Park no less than three times during its five-season run. It first popped up in the 2010 Season 2 episode titled “U-Boat,” as the place where Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Chickie Brown (Arija Bareikis) pulled over a car after seeing dope being thrown out of the window.

In the Season 2 episode titled “What Makes Sammy Run?,” which also aired in 2010, Echo Park was where Tammi Bryant (Emily Bergl) was confronted by thugs while taking photographs.

And in the Season 3 episode titled “Fixing a Hole,” which aired in 2011, Officer Cooper and Officer Ben Sherman (my man Benjamin McKenzie) interviewed park-goers outside of the Echo Park boathouse about a boy who had just been found.

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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: Echo Park is located at 751 Echo Park Avenue in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

April 4, 2012April 3, 2012

The Coffee Pot from “90210”

As I mentioned back in March in my post about Bar Keeper in Silver Lake, the whimsical little barware store that stood in for Upon Galley in the 2005 movie A Lot Like Love, one locale that I had been absolutely itching to stalk in recent weeks was the Coffee Pot, an Echo Park-area café that appeared in the Season 4 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Babes in Toyland”. And while tracking down this location required minimal effort on my part, stalking it would be a different story altogether.

The GC and I actually tried to stalk the Coffee Pot not once, but twice, and both endeavors proved futile. Our first attempt took place on a Sunday when we just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop by, only to discover that the shop is closed on Sundays. Then, last weekend, we made a special trip out there, on a Saturday this time, only to be met with a sign on the front door announcing that the small café was closed because “I’m the mom and I said so!” Um, OK. And while it is said that “the third time’s the charm”, I think we will just cut our losses at two unsuccessful stalks for this location. It is unfortunate, too, because the place looked absolutely adorable and I had a major hankering for some coffee at the time.

I was so flummoxed over the shop being closed yet again that I completely forgot to have the GC take my picture out front. I was able to snap two photographs of the Coffee Pot’s interior through the café’s front windows, though, and being that there was also a Starbucks located right across the street and I did manage to score myself a latte, I guess the trip was not a total loss. Winking smile

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In the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210, troublemaker Vanessa (Arielle Kebbel) tries to sabotage Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) and Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) by sending them to the fictional “Echo Park Grill” for a fake meeting with the VP of A&R for Def Jam Records. Oddly enough, three different locations were used to stand in for the restaurant in the episode. The first establishing shot shown in the scene was of the 3900 block of West Sunset Boulevard in the Sunset Junction area of Silver Lake, where Bar Keeper is located.

The second establishing shot was of Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz, which I I blogged about back in August 2011. The exterior of Figaro also appeared in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much is that Liam in the Window”.

And, finally, the Coffee Pot was used for all of the “Echo Park Grill’s” interior scenes, where Adrianna and Dixon waited futilely for the record executive. As you can see above, the café is a pretty cute spot.

Despite the conflicting establishing shots, this location was actually a snap to track down as I had noticed the words “Coffee Pot” on the door of the café while watching the episode. A simple input of the terms “Coffee Pot” and “Los Angeles” into a Google search spit back a result of the Coffee Pot in Echo Park. Yay! Too bad it wasn’t quite as easy to stalk.

Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, also let me know that the Coffee Pot had appeared as “Spark Plug Coffee” where Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) and Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) arrested a man for having placed a hidden camera in a women’s bathroom in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Risk”.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of the Coffee Pot’s Southland appearance.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Coffee Pot, from the “Babes in Toyland” episode of 90210 and the “Risk” episode of Southland, is located at 2201 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.

July 7, 2008February 15, 2009

More Charmed Locations!

My friend Chelsea is just about as obsessed with the TV series Charmed as I am with Beverly Hills, 90210. So while hanging out the other day she asked me to stalk a few Charmed filming locations for her. She was just dying to find Finn’s creepy looking house from the Season Four episode entitled “Size Matters”. In the episode Finn lives in a run-down, haunted-looking, Victorian-style home. The picture to the left is a screen capture of Finn’s house from the show. (I just learned how to do screen captures!!! YAY!)

As soon as I popped in Chelsea’s DVD of the “Size Matters” episode, I immediately recognized the house as what is quite possibly the most famous haunted house in the world. Turns out Finn’s house is the exact same house used in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and I have visited it several times. In the Charmed episode the house looks a lot more run down than it actually appears in real life. I am not sure if the house was actually in a state of disarray back when the Charmed episode was filmed or if producers added a facade to make it appear more spooky. In any event, today the house is not quite as creepy as it was when it played Finn’s home. Ironically, the Thriller house is just a few doors down from the Victorian that is used as the Halliway Sisters’ home on the series.

The next location Chelsea wanted me to stalk was the tunnel used in the Season Six episode entitled “Forget-Me-Not.” In the episode, Piper’s toddler son Wyatt conjures up a dragon who ends up running wild all over San Francisco. In one scene, the dragon flies out of what Piper identifies as the “Presidio Tunnel”. The screen capture above shows the tunnel in the episode. I am so loving this screen capture thing! 🙂 Anyway, after doing a bit of Internet research I found this link on fave website Seeing Stars which led me to a tunnel in Griffith Park called the Mount Hollywood Tunnel.

I was very excited to learn that the Mount Hollywood Tunnel has quite a distinguished filming history. It was used in Back to the Future 2 as the “River Road Tunnel” where Marty tries to get his almanac back from Biff, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit it served as the entrance to Toon Town, in War Games it was the entrance to NORAD, Emma Roberts ran through it in the Nancy Drew movie, and it was also the location of the accident that killed Marissa Cooper in Mischa Barton’s final episode of The O.C. And after looking at the Seeing Stars page, I could immediately tell it was the same tunnel used in Charmed.

So yesterday I set out to stalk the Mount Hollywood Tunnel. I was excited to see that it looks pretty much exactly as it did in the Charmed episode. The only difference is that in Charmed signs were hung on the tunnel entrance saying “Presidio Tunnel”. Those, of course, were not there in real life. Also, for some reason, in real life cones have been put up running down the entire center of the tunnel. If you decide to stalk the tunnel for yourself, please exercise extreme caution! Cars barrel through it at about 40 mph, and I almost got hit while I was there. The tunnel is very dark and I don’t think drivers realize that there might be pedestrians inside – so be careful!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Finn’s house, aka the Thriller house, is located at 1345 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park, just down the street from the Charmed House, which can be found at 1329. Carroll Avenue is a historic neighborhood with a huge collection of beautiful Victorian homes. Walking tours of the neighborhood are conducted monthly and you can even take a tour of the interior of the Charmed house. The Mount Hollywood Tunnel is located in Griffith Park, just off Vermont Drive. Follow Vermont through the park, past the Greek Theatre. Once you pass the Observatory keep going straight on Vermont to where it turns into Mount Hollywood Drive and it will lead you right through the tunnel. Once you drive through the tunnel, there is small dirt parking lot where you can park your car and walk back to the tunnel entrance. The entrance near the parking lot is the side of the tunnel that was used in Charmed.