Tag: filming locations

Mike’s House from “Say Anything . . . “

As I mentioned in last Thursday’s post about North Hollywood Park – aka the location of the iconic Boombox scene from Say Anything . . . – Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I recently went on a mission to track down some missing locales from the classic 1989 flick. And I am very happy to report that our hunt was successful! One location that Mike found was the house where Mike Cameron (Jason Gould) lived in the movie. So he took me right on over there to stalk the place way back in early June, shortly after we had stalked both North Hollywood Park and the 7-Eleven from the flick (which I blogged about on Friday).

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In Say Anything . . . , Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) becomes the unwitting “key-master” – aka the designated driver who holds onto all of the partygoers’ car keys and then judges who is able to drive home and who is not – for a high school graduation party that he has brought his dream girl, Diane Court (Ione Skye), to on their first date. After the party, he winds up having to take a drunk classmate named Mike home. The only trouble is that Mike cannot remember where he lives and the drive to his house winds up taking over three hours. When they do finally drop him off, Mike stands on the curb and says, “You guys are the best! Give me a call or uh – “, but before he can finish the sentence, Lloyd cuts him off by speeding away. LOL

Mike found this location thanks to an address number of 4936 that was visible on the curb in the scene. He figured that the residence was most likely located in the same general vicinity as North Hollywood Park and the 7-Eleven from the flick and started looking in the NoHo area before working his way outward until he found the right spot.

It is absolutely mind-boggling to me (in a good way) that the house looks exactly – and when I say exactly, I mean EXACTLY – the same today as it did back in 1989 when Say Anything . . . was filmed. Even the tree in the front yard appears just as it did onscreen – albeit slightly taller, but not by much. In real life, the residence, which was originally built in 1947, measures 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and 1,473 square feet, and sits on a 0.17-acre plot of land.

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

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Mike Cameron’s house from Say Anything . . . is located at 4936 Sunnyslope Avenue in Sherman Oaks.

August 20, 2012
The 7-Eleven from “Say Anything . . . “

Located directly across the street from North Hollywood Park – aka the spot where the iconic Boombox scene from Say Anything . . . was filmed, which I blogged about yesterday – is the 7-Eleven that appeared in the 1989 flick. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I found out about this locale once again thanks to Mike’s fiancé, Ame, who grew up in the North Hollywood area and had heard about the filming when it took place 24 years ago (yikes, has it really been that long?!?!). So, after stopping by the park – where we, of course, re-enacted the Boombox scene – Mike and I headed right across the street to stalk the 7-Eleven.

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At the beginning of Say Anything . . . , Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) takes Diane Court (Ione Skye) to a supposed Seattle, Washington-area 7-Eleven convenience store to grab a Big Gulp and some coffee on their way home from a high school graduation party in the wee hours of the morning.

Amazingly enough, despite a fairly minor roof alteration, the store looks very much the same today as it did when Say Anything . . . was filmed almost two-and-a-half decades ago.

While we were there, Mike pointed out that even the brick border separating the parking lot from the sidewalk that Lloyd and Diane walked over in the flick is still there to this day – albeit a little worse for the wear. Love it, love it, love it!

In the movie, while leaving the 7-Eleven, Lloyd spots some broken glass on the ground and, almost instinctively, brushes it out of Diane’s way so that she does not walk through it. Now that’s chivalry at its finest!

So I, of course, just had to pretend to step on broken glass while we were there.

North Hollywood Park – pretty much the exact spot where Lloyd stood during the Boombox scene, in fact – is visible in the background behind Lloyd and Diane as they walk off-screen after leaving the 7-Eleven.

Say Anything . . . is not the 7-Eleven’s only claim to fame. According to the Rob Dyrdek Foundation website, on May 18th, 2010 the convenience store was converted into an urban skate shop for the day in conjunction with the grand opening of the charity’s third Safe Spot Skate Spot – a state-of-the-art skating plaza located inside of North Hollywood Park.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER and you can take a look at my my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and his fiancé, Ame, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Say Anything . . . 7-Eleven is located at 11340 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood. North Hollywood Park, where the iconic Say Anything . . . Boombox scene was filmed, is located directly across the street at 11455 Magnolia Boulevard.

August 17, 2012
North Hollywood Park from “Say Anything . . . “

A few months back, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, informed me that his fiancé, Ame (who grew up in North Hollywood), had just told him that the iconic Boombox scene from the 1989 classic Say Anything . . . was filmed at, of all places, a park – North Hollywood Park in North Hollywood to be exact. I was absolutely shocked to hear this information because, not only had I always assumed that the flick was filmed in its entirety in Seattle, Washington, but the scene was made to look as if it took place in a residential area, directly outside of the house where Diane Court (Ione Skye) lived, and not at a public park. As we both came to find out, though, thanks to the Washington State Film Locations website, while the vast majority of the movie’s establishing shots were lensed in the Pacific Northwest, all actual filming took place right here in Southern California! Well, believe you me, once Mike and I learned that bit of information, we set about tracking down some other locales from the flick and had quite a bit of success. And we also ran right out to stalk North Hollywood Park.

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In the brief, but iconic Say Anything . . . scene, shortly after Diane breaks up with him, a heartsick Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) stands outside of Diane’s bedroom window (or so producers would have us believe) at night, holding a large Boombox that is playing Peter Gabriel’s hit 1986 song “In Your Eyes”. The memorable scene has been duplicated and parodied countless times since, on everything from Saturday Night Live and South Park to The Colbert Report and fave movie Easy A.

In an interesting twist, Peter Gabriel came thisclose to turning down director Cameron Crowe’s request for “In Your Eyes” to be featured in the movie. In a November 2009 Entertainment Weekly article, Crowe explains that he was on the phone with Gabriel a few days after sending him a Say Anything . . . screener, but Gabriel refused to sign off on the song’s use. Of the call, he says, “I just remember being in the kitchen and just going, ‘Oh man.’ I said I understood and I appreciated it and was he sure and he said yes, he was sure, and I was saying goodbye to him and I remember the phone was like on its way to the cradle, I think we’d already even said goodbye. And I just, like, was seized with this thing and I pulled the phone back up and I go, ‘Why? I got to ask you why. Why can’t we have the song? Why was it wrong?’ And he said, ‘Well when he takes the overdose it just didn’t feel like the right kind of use of the song.’ And I’m like, ‘When he takes the overdose?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’re making the John Belushi story [Wired], right?’ I said, ‘No, no, no. It’s a movie about the guy in high school with the trench coat.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, the high school movie. We haven’t watched that yet.’ Hallelujah! ‘Please watch the high school movie and let me know if it works in the high school movie.’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah yeah yeah, okay, great.’ And then we got the word back that he said yes.” And the rest is (very often re-enacted) history.

Before heading out to the park, Mike had told me to wear a trench coat and that he would be bringing along a Boombox from work so that I could recreate the iconic scene. As fate would have it, though, the Boombox went missing a few days before our stalk, but Mike was thankfully able to work his magic by digitally adding the stereo into the below picture. Love it!

I would venture a guess that North Hollywood Park was also the park featured in the Say Anything . . . montage scene, but I, unfortunately, have not been able to verify that hunch.

And thanks to the Hollywood Lost and Found blog, I learned that Pee-wee Herman (Paul Ruebens) rode his beloved red bike through North Hollywood Park – in almost the exact same spot that appeared in Say Anything . . . – at the very beginning of 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

Sadly, I can’t say that I would really recommend stalking North Hollywood Park. While the tree-lined, 99-acre space, which was originally founded in 1927, is quite beautiful and boasts countless amenities, including a library, three baseball diamonds, a public pool, tennis courts, a playground, a skate park, and a recreation center, the place seemed to be a haven for the homeless and a den of criminal activity. The police were actually called and wound up arresting someone in the brief ten minutes that we were there.

And let me tell you, when you’re standing around in shorts, wedges and a trench coat and holding a non-existent Boombox above your head, the “locals” tend to get just a wee-bit rowdy. LOL

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER and you can take a look at my latest post – about low-carb chicken noodle soup – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and his fiancé, Ame, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: North Hollywood Park, where the iconic Say Anything . . . Boombox scene was filmed, is located at 11455 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood. In the scene, Lloyd Dobler was standing on the southwest corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue, in the area denoted with a pink arrow above.

August 16, 2012
Floodlights Nightclub from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Located directly across the street from Calvert Studios – the studio where fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 was lensed and the location that currently stands in for the exterior of The Rub massage parlor on the Lifetime television series The Client List – is the office building that masqueraded as Floodlights nightclub in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Slumber Party”. And while I had known about this locale for what seems like ages, for some reason, I had never stalked it during any of my prior visits to Calvert Studios. Thankfully though, when I was there with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a couple of months back, he reminded me about the place and suggested that I stalk and blog about it. So here goes!

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In the “Slumber Party” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) takes Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) to a nightclub named Floodlights. After the teens are denied entry at the door, due to the fact that they are both obviously underage, they walk back to the club’s parking lot area where they meet Trina (Growing Pains’ Julie McCullough) and Shelly (Judie Aronson), two scam artists who end up stealing Steve’s Corvette. And while the police do catch and arrest the women later on in the evening, Trina begs Steve to bail them out of jail, promising to “make it up to” him, and Steve being Steve, he, of course, does – after which Trina gives him a coupon for a free manicure. Ah, the good old days!

In real life, the Floodlights building is not a nightclub at all, but a simple office space that currently serves as the headquarters for ProAction Products, which, according to its website, is a custom plastic injection molding, assembly and tool manufacturing firm – whatever that means. And while I am not sure what the structure housed back in 1991 when the “Slumber Party” episode was filmed, judging by the industrial nature of the area, I am guessing it was a similar type of company. I cannot express how incredibly weird it is to see the small, quiet and normal street where Calvert Studios is situated and picture the Beverly Hills, 90210-gang arriving there each and every morning to tape what was then the most popular television series on the planet. Most movie studios are surrounded by huge gates, fences and guard shacks, and, barring a tour, are largely off-limits to the public. But Calvert Studios is, in essence, just a warehouse and, while it is slightly more inaccessible now, back in the 90210 days, it was completely visible from the street. I cannot even imagine working in one of the nearby offices at the time and getting to see Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry arrive on set everyday. How incredibly cool would that have been?!? Sigh!

Oddly enough, thanks to its unique façade, producers did not have to do much to transform the 1972-office building into Floodlights nightclub. They simply covered over the glass entrance doors to make the structure appear less “officey”, added a neon sign and a fake cactus plant, and, voila, they had themselves what looked exactly like an early ‘90s-era club.

Ironically enough, while scanning through the pilot episode of The Client List, which was titled “The Rub of Sugar Land”, to make screen captures for last Friday’s post, I spotted the Floodlights office building in the background of the scene in which Riley Parks (Jennifer Love Hewitt) discovered that the word “whore” had been spray-painted on her car.

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 you can take a look my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for reminding me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Floodlights Nightclub, from the “Slumber Party” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 14940 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. The Rub from The Client List is located across the street at 15001 Calvert Street. The back of the Peach Pit and the door to the After Dark from Beverly Hills, 90210 is actually the east side of the warehouse located right next door to The Rub at 15041 Calvert Street. Steve Sander’s bus stop from the “Chuckie’s Back” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 was built on the west side of that same warehouse. You can read my post on those locations here and here.

July 30, 2012
Johnson Lake in Pasadena from “Celebrity Rehab”

A couple of weeks ago, while trying to track down the lake house belonging to Donna Meagle (Retta) in the Season 4 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Sweet Sixteen”, I discovered that there was a lake in Pasadena and just about fell right off my chair! Having lived in the area – as a stalker, mind you! – for well over a decade now, I consider myself a virtual expert on Pasadena and its environs, so how in the world had I not previously known that there was a lake – like an actual lake! – within the city limits? Well, believe you me, I immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there.

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There seems to be quite a bit of discrepancy online about the origins of Johnson Lake, which was formerly known as Mirror Lake and is also sometimes referred to as Johnson’s Lake, Johnston Lake and Beaudry Lake. According to the book Images of America: Garvanza by Charles J. Fisher, the lake is a natural one that was originally located on land belonging to Prudent Beaudry, the thirteenth Mayor of Los Angeles. At the time, the property was part of an area called Garvanza, but it was later integrated into Pasadena. Some other online reports stipulate that the lake was initially part of a natural spring that was dammed to provide irrigation to the 2,200-acre San Rafael Ranch, which was then owned by the Campbell-Johnsons, the very same family who built the oft-filmed-at Church of the Angels. And then there are further reports still which state that the site was first developed by the Annandale Golf Club and/or the San Rafael Winery in the late 1890s. (You can see a picture of the lake taken during that time period on the Pasadena Adjacent website here.) Whatever the case may be, at some point the lake became part of Brookmere, a private gated community comprised of about twenty homes. The Brookmere gates are pictured below.

Because Johnson Lake is located inside of a gated community, I scoped the place out online before heading over there to make sure that it was viewable from the road. And, as you can see below, it is clearly visible via Google Street View. So I was absolutely shocked when we arrived and the lake was nowhere to be found! As the GC later explained, the Google Street View camera is elevated and therefore had a view above the large hedges which surrounded the Brookmere community. Man, I have got to get me one of those!

Have no fear, though – the GC was able to snap some pics of it by holding the camera up over his head. So while we never actually got to lay eyes on the lake ourselves, our camera got a nice view of it and, as you can see below, it is pretty darn amazing.

You can also catch a very small glimpse of the lake through Brookmere’s front gates.

Oddly enough, the house that seems to have the most lakefront land is not located inside of Brookmere at all, but is on La Loma Road, a public street, just a few blocks west of the Beaches mansion (which I blogged about here). The 5,100-square-foot Craftsman-style home, which was designed by area architect Doug Ewing in 2006, boasts four bedrooms, five baths, a .59-acre plot of land, a whopping seven patios, and a 20-foot boat dock! You can see some interior photographs of the place here and here. Have a bib handy to catch the drool, though, because the place is nothing short of breathtaking! I realize that I stated in Monday’s post (which you can read here) that Chris Traeger’s apartment from Parks and Recreation was my dream home, but I think I’d be OK with this place, too.

Because the residence is so incredibly unique, not to mention picturesque, it is, of course, no stranger to filming. In the Season 3 episode of Celebrity Rehab titled “Family Weekend”, Dr. Drew takes his patients, including Heidi Fleiss, Dennis Rodman, and Mackenzie Phillips, to the house for a reunion with their family members. In the episode, the home was referred to as the fictional “Johnston Lake Retreat Center”, but in reality the place is just a private home where actual (and extremely lucky) people live.

Thanks to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, I learned that the home also appeared as the residence belonging to Gabrielle Cafferty (Marisa Coughlan) and Joel Tiernan (Max Casella) in the Season 5 episode of Medium titled “Soul Survivor”. In the episode, quite a bit of the property was used, including the front exterior;

the interior . . .

. . . and the backyard and lake.

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!

Stalk It: Johnson Lake can (sort of) be viewed from the 800 block of Burleigh Drive, just south of where it meets Laguna Road, in Pasadena. The Johnson Lake Retreat Center from Celebrity Rehab is actually a private residence located at 1260 La Loma Road in Pasadena.

July 12, 2012
Chris’ Apartment from “Parks and Recreation”

I realize that I am on serious Parks and Recreation overload here, but today’s location is one that I could not not blog about being that I am absolutely OBSESSED with it! What is the location you ask? The supposed Indianapolis-area ultra-modern loft that Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) owns on the series. I became just a wee bit consumed with the pad the first time it popped up during Season 3 of P&R. One look at its high ceilings, open floor plan and towering staircase and I literally went weak in the knees and started drooling. Oddly enough, though, I did not recognize the place even though I had once previously stalked it. There I go having yet another blonde moment!

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Way back in December of 2008, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I went on a quest to track down the liquor store from L.A. Confidential, which we had heard was located on Larchmont Boulevard. (As it turns out, it wasn’t – the L.A. Confidential liquor store is actually on South Cochran Avenue. You can read my post on it here.) During the hunt, we spent hours driving back and forth down Larchmont looking for the store’s facade and also stopping in to speak with several different area shop owners, trying to gather some intel. And while no one had any information on the liquor store, one helpful person informed us that the movie Funny People had recently spent several weeks filming at the Larchmont Lofts on the corner of Larchmont Boulevard and Melrose Avenue. So Mike and I, of course, went to take a look at the building and snap some pics. We did not venture inside, though, nor did I ever see Funny People, so I had no idea what the interior of the actual apartment units looked like.

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago when fellow stalker Justin asked me to track down some Parks and Recreation locales, one of which was Chris Traeger’s apartment building. At the time, I was not even sure if the location was a real one. Chris’s loft is so darn sleek and shiny that I figured it might just be a set. But I started to do some digging anyway and eventually discovered (thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations) that Chris’ pad was real and that it was located in none other than the Funny People building! Talk about a small world! Once I found out that information, I, of course, immediately began searching for rental rates being that Chris’ apartment is pretty much my dream home.

The three-story, ultra-modern Larchmont Lofts building was first completed in 2008. Its 21 loft-style units were originally slated to be sold as condominiums for $750,000 to $1.25 million a piece. Not a’ one of ‘em was purchased, though, according to fave website CurbedLA, and the spaces were eventually leased out as apartments. Rates currently start at a whopping $3,000 a month for a 1-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,200-square-foot flat. Um yeah, like the Grim Cheaper would ever go for that! What I wouldn’t give to live there, though! Sigh!

Chris Traeger’s apartment first popped up in the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Indianapolis”. Interestingly enough, though, while the front entrance and interior of one of the units were used in the episode, the exterior establishing shot was of a different location altogether, one that is no stranger to the screen. The exterior of Chris’ building is actually the exterior of the residence where Mitch Hiller (Billy Campbell) lived in the 2002 movie Enough, which Mike, from MovieShotsLA, stalked a while back. You can take a look at his photos of the property here.

In the “Indianapolis” episode, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) travel from Pawnee to Indianapolis to accept a special commendation on behalf of the Parks Department. While there, they meet up with Chris, who, at that point in the show, lived in the area. A brief scene from the episode was filmed in the Larchmont Lofts lobby, which you can see behind me in the photograph below.

In “Indianapolis”, Chris is shown to live in Unit #207, which is one of the Larchmont Lofts’ three-story townhomes.

As you can see below, the interior of his apartment is nothing short of STUNNING! Love, love, LOVE it!

Especially the large, open-air staircase. Sigh!

Chris’ apartment also appeared in the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Road Trip”, in the scene in which Chris hosts Leslie and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) on an overnight at his home. You can check out some interior photographs of the Larchmont Lofts building – including a three-story townhouse unit like Chris’ – on Curbed LA here.

And I, of course, just had to pretend to buzz Chris from the intercom while I was there.

In Funny People, Larchmont Lofts is the building where Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), Leo Koenig (Jonah Hill), Mark Taylor Jackson (Jason Schwartzman), and Daisy Danby (Aubrey Plaza, who, ironically enough, plays April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation) live. The exterior of the building shows up quite a few times in the flick.

As does the interior of one of the building’s two-bedroom flats. As you can see below, the inside of Ira, Leo and Mark’s apartment in the flick closely resembles that of Chris’ apartment on Parks and Recreation – minus the awesome staircase, which is only a feature of the building’s three-story townhomes.

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 you can check out my latest post – about low-carb tacos – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chris Traeger’s apartment building from Parks and Recreation is actually the Larchmont Lofts, which is located at 5700 Melrose Avenue in the Larchmont Village area of Los Angeles. You can visit the complex’s official website here. And to contribute to the Lindsay-Wants-to-Live-at-the-Larchmont-Lofts fund, you can click here. Ha ha, just kidding.

July 10, 2012
The Smallest Park from “Parks and Recreation”

I just recently finished watching Season 4 of fave new show Parks and Recreation (and yes, I was devastated when I came to the end of the last episode being that I now have to wait until September to watch a new one!) and can honestly say that the episode titled “Smallest Park” had to be one of the best of the entire series. I found myself in tears when (spoiler alert!) Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) finally got back together. So when fellow stalker Owen gave me the address of the eponymous Smallest Park, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to Studio City to stalk the place. Well, truth be told, that’s not exactly how things happened.

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Earlier this year, before I had ever even seen an episode of the show, Owen had given me a list of several Parks and Recreation locales, one of which was the Smallest Park. I did not stalk any of them, though, until I finally started watching the series back in May. Flash forward to early June, when I was stalking April and Andy’s house (which I blogged about here), and realized that the abode was located just a short distance from the “Smallest Park”. So, even though I had yet to begin watching Season 4 at the time, since we were in the area, I decided to drop by and snap some pics. Because the Smallest Park is in actuality just a parking lot, Owen had only given me an approximate address for it. Well, as fate would have it, when we pulled up to that address, I noticed a vacant plot of land (pictured below) across the street and immediately assumed it was the right place. And while I did say to the GC, “It really doesn’t look all that small to me!” (LOL), I did not realize my mistake until a few weeks later when I watched the “Smallest Park” episode. I am SUCH a blonde sometimes! That’ll teach me to stalk a location prior to seeing the production in which it was featured!

It wasn’t until last weekend that I was finally able to get back out to Studio City to stalk the correct location – which, as you can see below, is the rear parking lot of a strip mall and does not look anything like a park, hence my original confusion.

In the “Smallest Park” episode of Parks and Recreation, Pawnee’s last remaining telephone booths are torn down, leaving a 0.000003-square-mile patch of concrete, on which Leslie and Ben (aka the “Dream Team”) decide to build the city’s “newest tourist attraction – the smallest park in Indiana”.

As you can see below, the Smallest Park was actually just a square plot of cement that producers placed at the western-most edge of the parking lot, covering up the first spot.

And while just a vacant parking lot, I could NOT have been more excited to stalk this location, most likely because the Smallest Park and the episode in which it was featured were both so incredibly memorable. It is at the park that, in what had to be one of the series’ cutest moments EVER, Leslie tells Ben how much she misses him and the two seal their reunion with a kiss. Sigh! I’m tearing up just looking at the screen capture below.

And I, of course, just had to stand where Leslie stood while she was picketing the park in the episode (and announcing its nightly midnight fireworks show) – although I was having another blonde moment at the time and accidentally had the GC snap a pic from the opposite direction of what was shown onscreen.

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 check out my new blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Smallest Park from Parks and Recreation was built in the northwesternmost parking space of the Valley Stores Shopping Center’s rear parking lot in Studio City. The lot can be found next to the property located at 4378 Kraft Avenue in Studio City.

July 9, 2012
The Bulge from “Parks and Recreation”

Another day, another location from fave show Parks and Recreation! Seriously, I hope you guys aren’t getting sick of P&R locales yet. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I hit up the Oxford Inn in Van Nuys, aka the bar that stands in for the Bulge – Pawnee, Indiana’s local gay bar. I learned of this location, as always, from fellow stalker Owen of the When Write Is Wrong blog.

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While watching the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Go Big or Go Home”, Owen had noticed an address number of 13713 written above the Bulge’s front door. One quick Google search of “13713”, “bar” and “Van Nuys” (because the show typically films in that area), led him to the Oxford Inn at 13713 Oxnard Street, directly across from Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant from The Office, which I blogged about here. And, voila, the Inn turned out to be the right place. Yay! Come to find out, though, our search would not end there. But more on that later.

While the interior of the Bulge has been featured in two episodes of Parks and Recreation (Season 2’s “Pawnee Zoo” and Season’s 3 “Go Big or Go Home”), the exterior has only popped up once – in “Go Big or Go Home”. In the episode, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) crash Ann Perkin’s (Rashida Jones’) first date with Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) and then convince the two of them to go dancing at the Bulge. As you can see below, aside from the fake neon “the Bulge” sign, the Oxwood Inn looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. And, in a synchronistic twist of fate, the Oxwood Inn is actually a gay bar in real life, too!

The interior, however, is another story entirely. As you can see below, the interior of the Oxwood Inn has a very definite blue hue to it. And while I did not remember that blue hue from the series, I figured that producers had changed the lighting for the filming. Oh, how wrong I was.

When I got home and re-watched “Pawnee Zoo” and “Go Big or Go Home”, I realized that a completely different bar had been used for all of the interior scenes – which meant that I had another hunt on my hands.

Because I am like a pit bull when it comes to stalking (once I latch on to a search, I have a very hard time letting go), I immediately started looking online for “divey” bars located in the San Fernando Valley. And while it took me a looooooooong time to track the place down, I am very happy to report that I finally did! As it turns out, the interior of the Bulge is Serra’s Dine & Dance in Studio City. I, of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to grab some lunch just a few days later, but unfortunately the eatery is only open at night, so we were unable to go inside. I will be definitely be heading back there for a re-stalk in the near future, though. In the meantime, you can check out some interior photographs of Serra’s here and here. As you can see, it looks much the same in person as it does onscreen.

I am guessing that the reason two different bars were used as the Bulge’s interior and exterior is because the exterior of Serra’s Dine & Dance does not look very much like a small-town dive bar, while the Oxwood Inn does, as you can see below.

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

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 check out my new blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Oxwood Inn, aka the exterior of The Bulge from the “Go Big or Go Home” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 13713 Oxnard Street in Van Nuys. You can visit the bar’s official website here. Right across the street from the Oxwood Inn at 13726 Oxnard Street is Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant from The Office, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Bad News Bears, which I blogged about here. You can visit the Barone’s website here. Serra’s Dine & Dance, aka the interior of The Bulge from Parks and Recreation, is located at 12449 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You can visit Serra’s official website here.

July 5, 2012
A Free View of Universal Studio’s “War of the Worlds” Set!

Many moons ago, shortly after we first met, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me to a place that quickly became one of my very favorite “only in L.A.” spots – a residential street from which the Universal Studios War of the Worlds plane crash set is visible. And even though I always make it a point to take visiting friends to the site (which is located on the 3400 block of Blair Drive in the hills just south of Burbank), I somehow forgot to add it to My Los Angeles Must-Stalk List back in May. I have since corrected the problem and figured that now was as good a time as any to blog about the location. (I also just turned My Must-Stalk List into a page on my site in order to make it more accessible to my fellow stalkers. I will be adding to the list as I discover more must-stalk locations, so check back regularly. )

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When Mike first took me to the 3400 block of Blair Drive, I was absolutely aghast at both the fact that such an amazing set piece was so openly visible from a residential street and that it had not, for whatever reason, ever been written about in any of my L.A. guide books. That is the beauty of going stalking with someone born and raised in L.A., as Mike was. He knows the city – and all of its little hidden treasures – like the back of his hand. Mike had actually discovered this location back in the early ‘90s, before the War of the Worlds set even existed, while working for the radio station Power 106. When he first began his DJing job, the station moved him into a hill-top house with several other DJ’s. That house happened to be located on Blair Drive, directly across the street from what was then the site of Falls Lake – a 2.7-million-gallon water tank and green screen in the Psycho Flats area of Universal Studios. (Falls Lake was moved a few hundred feet west in 2004 to make way for the War of the Worlds set, but you can still see it in the background of the pictures below).

According to the fabulous The Studio Tour website, the War of The Worlds plane crash shoot took place on January 5th, 6th, and 7th of 2005 and the set was then left, virtually untouched, to be featured as one of Universal Studios’ backlot attractions. The only changes made to the set after the filming were the relocation of a few of the houses and the removal of some debris in order to provide a pathway for the tram to pass through during tours. Otherwise, though, the scene appears pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! On a side-note, one of my favorite movie lines ever was uttered in War of the Worlds. When Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise – and I canNOT believe that he and Katie Holmes are getting a divorce!) begins making peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, his daughter, Rachel Ferrier (Dakota Fanning), informs him, “I’m allergic to peanut butter!”, causing Ray to laugh and say, “Since when?”, to which Rachel states, “Birth!” LOL LOL LOL

The War of the Worlds plane crash set is so realistic, it is almost unbelievable! I cannot even imagine living on Blair Drive back in 2005 during the filming and getting to witness not only the construction of the massive set, but the actual shoot. How incredibly cool would that have been?!?

It is actually quite surprising that I like this location as much as I do being that I am absolutely petrified of flying, but I guess that is the magic of the movies!

As you can see below, when the Universal Studios tour tram passes through the crash set, smoke begins to rise from several of the props.

The set features an actual Boeing 747 airplane that the production team cut up and distressed. Supposedly it cost $2 million in transportation fees alone to get the aircraft to the studio.

I visited Universal Studios way back in June of 2008 (you can read my post here) and snapped the below close-up photographs of the War of the Worlds plane crash set. As you can see, it is nothing short of incredible – no matter which vantage point you view it from!

From the 3400 block of Blair Drive, you can also catch a glimpse of one of the Whoville sets from the 2000 movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas;

the back of the house where Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) lived in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho;

the Old Mexico and Six Points Texas backlot areas;

and the Falls Lake green screen/backdrop.

Which I decided to have a little bit of fun with.

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 check out my new blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The War of the Worlds plane crash set at Universal Studios can be viewed from the 3400 block of Blair Drive, just off of Barham Boulevard, in Los Angeles.

July 3, 2012
Villa d’Este – The “Under the Yum Yum Tree” Apartment Building

Thank you to all of my fellow stalkers for putting up with my two recent – and much-needed – blogging hiatuses. It felt so good to relax and recharge and I will now be back with a vengeance. And now, on with the post! A couple of months ago, after stalking Romanesque Villa, my girl Marilyn Monroe’s former West Hollywood pad (which I blogged about back in early May), I dragged the Grim Cheaper a few blocks east to Villa d’Este, the idyllic and picturesque apartment building featured in the 1963 film Under the Yum Yum Tree. I found out about this location thanks to fave stalking book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide by travel writer Richard Alleman. And while I had yet to see Under the Yum Yum Tree at the time (nor had I ever even heard of it), since the place was right around the corner from Marilyn’s former building, I figured I might as well stalk it. And I am so glad that I did because Villa d’Este is nothing short of majestic! Under the Yum Yum Tree, however, which I finally sat down to watch last week, left quite a lot to be desired. I found it just a wee bit boring and silly, and I still have yet to figure out what in the heck its odd title means.

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But the cat in the movie was awesome, as you can see below, so I guess there’s that.

Anyway, because Villa d’Este is such a magical place, I decided it was most-definitely blog-worthy. The property, which was constructed in 1928 and was originally called the “Court of the Fountains”, was designed by brothers F. Pierpont and Walter S. Davis – the so-called “founding fathers of the L.A. courtyard apartment” who also designed the Roman Gardens Apartments in Hollywood, the since-demolished French Village at what is now the entrance to the Cahuenga Pass, and St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral near Exposition Park. The two-story Italian Renaissance-style building was inspired by the legendary 16th-century villa and gardens of the same name in Tivoli, Italy.

As you can see below, the detailing of Villa d’Este is nothing short of incredible. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to live in a place like that!

Sadly, the building is gated and off-limits to the public, so we were not able to view the interior courtyard. We did catch a tiny glimpse of it through the front gate, though, and it is simply breathtaking! I can only imagine how perfect and peaceful it would be to sit there with my laptop, blogging the day away, with no sounds to distract me but the flow of water from the many nearby fountains. Sigh!

In a cool twist, Lou Ferrigno’s house from I Love You, Man, which I blogged about here, is visible from the street out in front of the property.

As is the world-famous Laugh Factory Comedy Club.

In Under the Yum Yum Tree, Villa d’Este stands in for the Centaur Apartments, where a skirt-chasing landlord named Hogan (Jack Lemmon) rents units to young, naïve, female coeds in the hopes of bedding them. Only the exterior of the building was used in the movie.

The lush, tiered interior courtyard that appeared in the flick was just a set – an amazingly huge and detailed set, but a set nonetheless. I actually almost prefer the onscreen courtyard to its real life counterpart. It is amazing to me that set design was that advanced back in 1963 when Under the Yum Yum Tree was filmed! I mean, the faux courtyard pictured below is even more realistic and beautiful than the one that was featured on Melrose Place almost thirty years later!

The red-hued apartment that Hogan called home was also just a set.

As was the adorable apartment where Robin Austin (Carol Lynley) and her fiancé, Dave Manning (Dean Jones), lived. You can check out what the interior of an actual Villa d’Este apartment looks like on fave website CurbedLA here. Talk about character! The place just oozes charm! Back in 2008, when the CurbedLA article was written, a one-bedroom Villa d’Este apartment rented for a cool $3,450 a month, while a two-bedroom went for $4,500. Yikes!

Besides being a filming location, Villa d’Este has also been home to countless celebrities over the years, especially during the heyday of Hollywood. According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, just a few of the luminaries who have lived there include silent film actresses Pola Negri, Theda Bara, Priscilla Dean, Jetta Goudal, and Mabel Normand, voiceover actor Charles Judels, and legendary director Cecil B. DeMille.

I mentioned in last Monday’s post that I was about to begin a new project that I was very excited about. Well, that project is finally off the ground and I would like to share it with my fellow stalkers. I just started a diabetes blog (because I have so much extra time – ha! ) called The Well-Heeled Diabetic. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes seven years ago and, since that time, have learned a lot about the disease and think I might be able to help others who are afflicted. If you would like to check it out, you can do so at www.wellheeleddiabetic.com. And if you happen to know someone who is diabetic, please pass the site along to them.

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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Villa d’Este, aka the Centaur Apartments from Under the Yum Yum Tree, is located at 1355 North Laurel Avenue in West Hollywood. You can visit the building’s official website here.

July 2, 2012