Tag: filming locations

The “Mr. Deeds” Soda Fountain

A few weeks ago, while giving my good friend Kerry and her husband a stalking tour of the Pasadena area, we happened to drive by South Pasadena’s Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain, which was used in the 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds. When I pointed out the corner drugstore to Kerry and told her of its cinematic history, she got so excited that she just about had a heart attack right there in my car!!!! LOL  It was then that I realized that I had yet to blog about the tiny restaurant and that I really needed to do so. So, here goes!

Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain has been a South Pasadena tradition ever since it first opened up its doors way back in 1915! Yes, you read that right!!!  When the tiny corner drugstore originally opened almost 95 years ago it was named the South Pasadena Pharmacy and it quickly became popular with the hundreds of visitors and tourists travelling down the legendary Route 66 highway. In the ’20s, the drugstore’s name was changed to the Raymond Pharmacy, but it still enjoyed the same popularity and success with highway motorists. In the 1990’s, a new set of owners took over, changed the drugstore’s name to Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain, and restored the little soda shop to its original state, complete with vintage honeycomb tile floors, authentic pharmacy fixtures, and antique tin ceilings. An authentic old time soda fountain was even brought in, transported all the way from the Me Gee Pharmacy in Joplin, Mississippi. Fair Oaks Pharmacy is still as popular amoung tourists and South Pasadena residents today as it was back in 1915. In recent years, Sunset Magazine even named it “Best Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor in the West” and, according to the Los Angeles Times, it serves up the “Best Ice Cream Sundae”.

In Mr. Deeds, Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain stood in for the corner drugstore in Westchestertonfieldville, Iowa that Winona Ryder supposedly frequented as a child. In an early scene in the movie, when describing her hometown, Winona says that she used to walk down to the corner drugstore to get malted milkshakes. So, when Adam takes Winona back for a surprise visit to her supposed hometown, their first stop is the soda fountain, where the townspeople mistake her for a hunchbacked little girl they used to call “Quasimodo”.    LOL   After leaving the Westchestertonfieldville corner drugstore, Adam and Winona head to her childhood home, which I blogged about on Friday.

I actually saw the Mr. Deeds corner drugstore scene being filmed back in 2001. Well, sort of.  My mom and I used to get our nails done just down the street from the Pharmacy and we happened to drive by on the very day that filming took place. Well, of course, I took one look at those white trucks out front and immediately made my mom pull the car over so that I could ask what was being filmed.   Sadly, though, we had arrived too late, as filming had already wrapped for the day and the production crew was just finishing its clean up. 🙁 So, unfortunately, I never got to see Adam Sandler or Winona Ryder!!!! Such a bummer!   But I did ask the employees on duty about the stars and they said that both Adam and Winona were very nice and that Adam had actually stopped to pose for photographs and sign autographs for every single person who asked him. SO COOL! Oh, how I wish I had been there!!!!

Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I actually stopped by the Pharmacy a few weeks ago to grab a bite to eat.  Whenever we spend a stalking day together, we, of course, always try to eat lunch at a restaurant that is also a filming location. 🙂 Anyway, I am happy to report that Fair Oaks Pharmacy serves up some GREAT food! I highly recommend stalking it – and ordering one of their homemade cherry cokes! 🙂 Besides being a real Pharmacy and a restaurant, the shop also sells a wide arrangment of tchotckes, including greeting cards, jewelry, retro memorabilia, vintage candy, make-up, home decor, and gifts. During the holiday season, the owners really go all out with their decorations. If you’re in the area in October, November or December, I highly recommend stopping by. 🙂 It’s worth a trip for the decorations alone!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain, aka the Mr. Deeds soda fountain, is located at 1526 Mission Street in South Pasadena. They are open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sundays from 10 am to 7 pm. You can visit their website here.

August 17, 2009
The “Mr. Deeds” House

One location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has being dying to stalk for ages now is Winona Ryder’s red-doored childhood home from the 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds. Mike had asked for my help in tracking down this location a couple of months ago, but, for some reason, even our two heads working together couldn’t seem to find it.  So, this past week, I enlisted the help of fellow stalkers Chas and Owen, and, incredibly, it wasn’t more than a couple of hours later that I got a text from Chas saying he had found the house! 🙂   I’m telling you, there’s nothing he can’t find!!! Thank you, Chas!

Even though in the movie Winona says that she grew up in the fictional town of Westchestertonfieldville, Iowa, Mike and I were fairly certain that her childhood home was located somewhere in the Pasadena area. And, sure enough, we were right!! 🙂 So, of course, once I had the address I immediately ran right out to stalk it. And I am happy to report that, aside from a pretty big difference in paint color, the house is still very recognizable from the film. The home is absolutely adorable in person and it’s not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as Winona’s idyllic, small town childhood home.

The Mr. Deeds house only shows up in one very brief scene in the movie.  In the scene, Adam Sandler takes Winona, who is posing as school nurse Pam Dawson, to what he thinks is her former childhood home in what he thinks is her former hometown. Pam had described her childhood home in Westchestertonfieldville as being “a big Victorian right off Main Street, with blue shutters and a big red door and a tire swing in the front yard.”   Adam spots the house pictured above and – even though it doesn’t look at all Victorian to me LOL – assumes it is the one she had described.

Adam then proceeds to knock on the home’s red door and tells the three children who currently live there that Winona grew up in their house.   Shocked, one of the kids says “My daddy built this house with his bare hands six years ago” to which Winona replies “Well, your daddy is a liar!” LOL LOL LOL   Sadly, in real life the front door of the home is blue, not red, but I am guessing that the entire home was most likely repainted for the filming and then changed back to its original coloring after the production wrapped.   If I was the homewoner, I so would have left the filming paint on the house, as I think it looked a lot prettier in the movie than it does now. 🙂

The filmmakers actually “cheated” quite a bit in the filming of this scene.   When Adam and Winona first walk down her former street, they are supposedly walking on the sidewalk across the street from her childhood home. In actuality, though, they are walking in front of the home located directly next door to the Mr. Deeds house. While stalking the place, I immediately recognized the wooden fence pictured above, which actually surrounds the neighbor’s property. LOL

Making matters even more complicated is the fact that the home Adam and Winona stop in front of in the scene, which supposedly stands directly across from the Mr. Deeds house, is actually located about three houses down and across the street.    Confused yet? So was I! 😉

Pictured above is the home that is actually located across the street from the Mr. Deeds house. I guess it didn’t have the look the producers were going for in the scene, but wow, it sure seems like a lot of trouble to go to to film one very brief scene that barely took up thirty seconds of the movie. LOL

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mr. Deeds house is located at 989 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena. The house that is supposedly located across the street from the Mr. Deeds house can be found at 1026 South Madison. The home with the wooden fence that Adam and Winona walk in front of is located at 999 South Madison.

August 14, 2009
The “Never Been Kissed” Prom

A couple of weeks ago, thanks to fellow stalker Chas, I was able to stalk the location of South Glen South High School’s prom from the 1999 movie Never Been Kissed.   Chas and I both knew that the prom interiors had been filmed at the Ebell of Los Angeles – a women’s educational and philanthropic club which has a long and storied film history and which I promise to blog about in the near future – but the exterior scenes had actually been filmed at another location entirely. It was that exterior location that I asked Chas to find during my Never Been Kissed stalking kick a few weeks back. Ironically, he told me that it was the one location from the movie that he didn’t think he would be able to track down. Well, I guess he just doesn’t realize how good he really is because a few hours later he emailed me back with an address and, sure enough, it was the spot!!   YAY!

Ironically enough, the exterior Never Been Kissed prom location can actually be found just a block and a half away from the Ebell.    Why the two different locations you ask? Well, my best guess is that producers wanted to shoot Drew and the gang’s entrance to the dance at a building with a large drop-off area, which the Ebell unfortunately doesn’t have.  So, when they found a suitable building located just two short blocks away, they decided to film the entrance scene there instead. Just another example of the magic of Hollywood at work! 🙂

For some odd reason I could not find much information about the Never Been Kissed prom location online, even though it looks like it could be some sort of historic structure.   I’m actually very surprised that it is not on the National Register of Historic Places, as it is a truly beautiful place. The only information I was able to discover is that the Mediterranean style building, which used to be a private residence, was converted to commercial office space in 1981. While it is currently vacant, in the past the building housed the Metropolitan Talent Agency and, most recently, a wedding coordination company named the Ahn Gallery.   You can see interior photographs of the building on its leasing website here.

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!   🙂

Stalk It: The Never Been Kissed prom site is located at 4526 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Note – if you search this location using Google Maps, the building will not show up. You have to move about a block to the West to see it. 🙂 The Ebell of Los Angeles, where the interior prom scenes were filmed, is located just down the street at 743 South Lucerne Boulevard. Unfortunately, both properties are currently closed to the public.

August 12, 2009
The “Step by Step” House

One location fellow stalker Owen has been on the lookout for for quite some time now is the house where the Lambert Family lived in the 1990’s television sitcom Step by Step. Because of the house’s Crafstman style architecture, Owen was pretty convinced that it was located somewhere in South Pasadena, a city which is known for its Crafstman style homes. Well, back in June while doing some research for my blog, I was fortunate enough to meet a SUPER NICE woman who works in the South Pasadena film office, so I emailed her to ask if she might know the location of the house. The woman, who can usually name South Pasadena film locations right off the top of her head – SO LOVE IT! – didn’t happen to know anything about this particular location, but I did get an email from her a couple of hours later telling me that she had found the house!   YAY!

While doing some preliminary stalking, Owen had been able to discern that the address number of the house was “201”. So, my SP film contact started playing around with different 201 address numbers in Google Maps until she landed upon the Step by Step house! In reality, the address number turned out to be “2011”, not “201”, but somehow my contact was able to find it anyway!   See, I told you she was super nice! 🙂 Most film location people won’t even give me the time of day, let alone spending a couple of hours of their time looking for a house for me! Love it!!!!

So this past Saturday, with the address in hand, Mike from MovieShotsLA and I went out to stalk the Step by Step house.   We actually had some amazing stalking karma that day, because not only did we get let into the Father of the Bride backyard and inside the 13 Going On 30 house (those posts will be written soon, I promise!), but we also got to speak with the owner of the Step by Step house who just happened to be standing on his front porch when we pulled up. He said NO ONE ever recognizes the house and was absolutely AMAZED that we had. LOL Apparently he didn’t know who he was dealing with. His grandmother owned the house at the time the show was filmed and he told us that no filming actually took place inside the house, nor does the inside look anything like the set that was built for the show. He also said that he never got to meet the actors as they were never a part of the filming that took place at the house.   He was SUPER nice, though, and told us to take all the pictures we wanted. 🙂 And I am happy to report that the house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Step by Step premiered over 18 years ago! Unbelievable!

Ironically enough, part of the Step by Step opening credits was also filmed in South Pasadena, just around the corner from the house.   In the very beginning of the credits the family’s Ford Explorer is seen passing by a sign reading “Port Washington, Wisconson, Population 9,336”. Well, that scene was filmed a good 2,000 miles away from Port Washington on a street named Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena! You can watch the Step by Step opening credits here.

The building shown in the credits is actually South Pasadena’s oldest commercial building. It currently houses the South Pasadena Historical Museum and the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, but way back in 1887 the building was the site of the city’s grocery store.

A little bit of television trivia for you – the remainder of the Step by Step opening credits were filmed at SixFlag’s Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia. Producers digitally added water over Magic Moutain’s real life parking lot to make it appear as if the roller coaster the family rides on was overlooking the beach.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Step by Step house is located at 2011 Fletcher Avenue in South Pasadena. The beginning of the series’ opening credits was filmed in front of the Meridian Iron Works Museum, which is located at 913 Meridian Avenue, also in South Pasadena.

August 11, 2009
The Walsh House – Circa August 2009

UPDATE 2/18/10 – The Casa Walsh garage has been torn down in the months since I wrote this post. You can see pictures of the rubble here. And to see the inside of the real Walsh house, click here.

My fiance tried to talk me out of writing this post today, but it just seemed to be too important of an item for me to ignore. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, last week, while giving a stalking tour of Pasadena to my good friend Kerry and her husband Jim, I drove by the Walsh House from fave TV show Beverly Hills, 90210 and almost had a full blown panic attack right there in my car! While cruising down Altadena Drive, I, Lindsay Blake, almost passed right by my favorite stalking location of all time without even recognizing it!!!!! I actually turned to Kerry at one point and said, “Wait a minute! Where’s the 90210 house???” What I didn’t realize at that time was that some pretty major changes had been made to the exterior of the house rendering it almost unrecognizable to me. OK, OK, maybe I’m being slighty melodramatic here, but, let me tell you, the whole experience was pretty JARRING.  I mean, not only had a large hedge been removed from the Walsh’s driveway, but their entire house had been PAINTED PINK!   Oh, Jack, say it ain’t so!

Ironically enough, when I showed my fiance photographs of the newly painted 90210 house, he said “What are you talking about?? It looks exactly the same as it always did! You CANNOT write a post about that!” LOL LOL LOL It’s amazing to me how two people can have such differing views of the same exact thing. To me, the difference in the house’s appearance was absolutely STAGGERING, yet my fiance didn’t even notice it! Men! LOL I also showed the photos to my mom, though, who said “THAT’S what you’re so upset about? From the way you were talking, I thought they had painted the house black or something!” LOL OK, OK, I will concede that the paint color isn’t that different, but I guess because the 90210 house is so cemented in my memory, any change in its appearance, no matter how minor, is going to seem huge.   And, to be fair, the paint color doesn’t show up well in pictures. In person, the house is PINK! Anyway, against my fiance’s better judgement, I just had to write a post today about the house and how it looks post-paint.

Also altering the appearance of the house was the removal of the large hedge which used to stand along the West side of the Walsh’s driveway.  As you can see in the two screen captures pictured above, the hedge used to run the length of the driveway, separating the Walsh property from that of their neighbor’s.

But, as you can see in the above photographs, that hedge has been completely removed, which only adds to the difference in the home’s appearance, especially if you approach it from the West.

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At least the garage still looks pretty much the same as it always did – minus Brandon’s basketball hoop, of course. Last November, when Mike and I met Jack, the owner of the house, he told us that he was in the process of remodeling his garage and we both got looks of absolute HORROR on our faces! Jack laughed and said “What? Is it a crime to change the Walsh garage or something?”   To which both Mike and I replied with a resounding “YES!” LOL Obviously Jack didn’t heed our words of wisdown, though! SUCH A BUMMER!

I guess it’s really true what they say – the only constant is change. But this is one filming location I was convinced would stay as fixed in real life as it is in my memory. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena, CA.

August 7, 2009
Paul Rudd’s House From “I Love You, Man”

One location I have been trying to find for quite some time now is the Mid-Century Modern style abode where Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones lived in fave romantic comedy I Love You, Man.   I was dying to stalk the house not only because of its incredibly unique architecture, but also because I was such a big fan of the movie. It’s hilarious! Well, I happened to mention my quest in an email to fellow stalker Owen last week and it wasn’t ten minutes later that he had emailed me back with an address! Sure enough, it was the right  house!   YAY! So, of course, I ran right out to stalk it! 🙂

Ironically enough, the I Love You, Man house is exactly where the movie purports it to be – in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. Not only that, but the scenes where Paul Rudd drives to and from his home in the movie were really filmed along the actual streets one would take to get there in real life.  On my way to stalk the house yesterday, I was amazed to realize that I was actually passing by some of the very same buildings that Paul drove by in the movie, which was shocking to me as most driving scenes in movies are not filmed anywhere near the places where the characters are supposedly leaving from or heading to. LOL

I am very happy to report that the I Love You, Man house looks exactly the same in person as it did in the movie. And I absolutely loved seeing it! The house is extremely unique in its appearance and even though, as I have mentioned many times before on this blog, the modernist style isn’t really my thing, I truly love this house! I am not at all surprised that producers chose to use it as the home of a young, fairly successful Los Angeles real estate agent and his fiance.

My favorite part of the house has to be the dual staircases leading up to the front door. I just love the juxtaposition of the rounded and straight stairway, which you can sort of see in the above photograph. So cool and, as I said before, just so unique!

Ironically enough, the man who lives across the street from the I Love You, Man house pulled up while I was stalking the place. I was really hoping I’d get the chance to talk to him and ask him all sorts of questions about the filming, but instead he gave me a look like I was absolutely out of mind for taking photographs of a random house in L.A. and immediately went inside his home. LOL I so should have left a note on his door saying “You obviously don’t realize this, so I really feel it is my duty to tell you –  you live right ACROSS THE STREET from the I Love You, Man house!”   LOL Sheesh, some people!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The I Love You, Man house is located at 3959 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz, just around the corner from John Marshall High School, aka the Girls Just Want To Have Fun high school.

August 5, 2009
Watching the Filming of The Mentalist!

Last week, while out and about stalking in Pasadena, I just happened to run across a large production crew filming underneath the Colorado Street Bridge, so, of course, I just had to pull my car over to ask what was being filmed. 🙂 Well, when I found out the filming was for my new favorite TV show The Mentalist,I just about flipped my lid with excitement!!! And I was even more excited when one of the crew members told me that I was welcome to hang out onsite for as long as I wanted to watch all of the action that was taking place! YAY!

The Mentalist was being filmed in a little wooded clearing in the Lower Arroyo section of Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco Canyon. To stay out of the way of the cast and crew, I parked myself on a walking trail located just above the clearing, which turned out to be the PERFECT spot to watch the filming, but, unfortunately, did not offer me the best vantage point from which to take photos.  🙁 So, please accept my apology for the less than stellar pics.  🙁

When I first walked up to watch the filming, none of the actors were yet on set.   So, I just had to ask one of the crew members if cutie Simon Baker would be filming that day and I just about spazzed out right there on the spot when he told me yes! LOL As I’ve mentioned before, I absolutely LOVE me some Simon Baker!!! 🙂 Then, literally, the next thing I knew, out walked the ENTIRE Mentalist cast and, let me tell you, I just about died!!!!!   On site besides SB were actors Robin Tunney, Tim Kang, Amanda Righetti, and Owain Yeoman. When I watched The Mentalist being filmed this past March, only actor Tim Kang was in attendance, so, as you can imagine, I was SUPER excited to see them all this time around.



I am very happy to report that Simon Baker is JUST as cute in person as he appears to be on TV. 🙂 And, let me tell you, I just about fainted when I saw that he was wearing his cute little Patrick Jane vest and carrying that ubiquitous stick of his for the filming!!!!!  SO CUTE!!!! The highlight of the day for me came during a break from the filming, when SB looked up at me, waved, and said “Hello!” Sigh!   I could have died a happy girl right there on the spot!!!! 🙂 SB seemed very sweet and very friendly in person, but unfortunately I never got close enough to him to ask him to pose for a picture with me. 🙁 Such a bummer!

The actor who I thought looked most different in person was Owain Yeoman, who plays Detective Wayne Rigsby on The Mentalist. While Owain is just okay-looking on the show, let me tell you, in person he is downright dreamy!!! 🙂 I was shocked! Owain is much taller and much thinner than he appears to be on TV and actually looks quite a bit like Josh Duhamel. And you all know how I love me some Josh Duhamel! 🙂

The scene I watched being filmed involved (what I am assuming was) the murder investigation of a woman who had been pushed off of a Sacramento area bridge. And while the above picture shows the actors filming around a mannequin, for most of the takes there was a real woman lying on the ground playing the murder victim.

The filming of The Mentalist was an absolutely HUGE production!!! On site were hundreds of crew members, numerous filming trucks, a myriad of props, and a large machine on wheels which provided shade for the area being filmed (pictured above). It was pretty incredible to see!!! At one point I looked down at my watch to check on the time and was SHOCKED to see that three hours had passed since I’d first arrived on the set! LOL   Like they say, time flies when you’re having fun!  After the scene I was watching had been wrapped, one of the crew members was nice enough to invite me to watch more filming later that afternoon on top of the Colorado Street Bridge, but unfortunately, because that was a closed set, I couldn’t take any pictures while there. It was EXTREMELY cool to see, though!

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The spot where The Mentalist was filmed is actually a very popular filming location that has also been featured in NCIS, The Shield, and JAG.   Ironically, it’s also the same spot where I watched The Closer being filmed last October.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mentalist was filmed underneath the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena, just off North Arroyo Boulevard. Filming also took place on the Colorado Street Bridge. Look for the episode to air in about six to eight weeks.

August 4, 2009
Jeff Malene’s House From Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Got a call from fellow stalker Chas last week, who told me that he had finally received his Girls Just Want To Have Fun Netflix rental in the mail. Chas was calling me up to ask if I wanted any other locations from the movie found – besides SJP’s ubiquitous apartment building, of course. I believe my exact answer to his question was “Um, yeah, ALL OF THEM!” LOL So, this past week Chas set about locating every single GJWTHF filming location. And I am happy to report that he came through – big time! One location that I was absolutely DYING to stalk was the small house belonging to siblings Jeff and Maggie Malene (aka Lee Montgomery and Shannen Doherty) in the movie. I did not have high hopes for this location, though, as I was convinced that it had been torn down in the twenty-four years since GJWTHF had been filmed. Thankfully, Chas proved that theory wrong, though, when he located the house just outside of South Pasadena on Friday. YAY!

So, I, of course, immediately ran right out to stalk it! 🙂 And I am EXTREMELY happy to report that aside from the paint color and a new porch railing, the GJWTHF house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1985 when the movie was filmed! 🙂 I was absolutely STUNNED that all these years later the house would still be so recognizable. So cool! I do have to say, though, that Jeff Malene’s house is actually a lot bigger in person than I imagined it would be. For some reason, onscreen it appeared to be much smaller than it actually is. Standing there on Friday, looking at this small, relatively nondescript home, I couldn’t help but think to myself ‘How in the HECK did Chas find this location amidst the millions of other homes in L.A.?’ It’s incredible – just incredible!

Amazingly enough, even Jeff’s neighbor’s house still looks very much the same today as how it appeared in the movie. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, although the two downstairs windows have changed a bit, the upstairs window still looks exactly the same.

Jeff’s house shows up several times throughout Girls Just Want To Have Fun, most notably the front yard area where Jeff practices doing flips to impress SJP.

The garage area where Jonathan Silverman and Lee Montgomery play basketball in the beginning of the movie also looks exactly the same, but unfortunately, thanks to a fence standing in my way, I couldn’t get a good picture of it. 🙁

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I highly recommend stalking the GJWTHF house to all fans of the ’80s flick! I can’t tell you how cool it was to be seeing that house in person all these years later!

As always, a big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jeff Malene’s house from Girls Just Want To Have Fun is located at 6511 Pollard Street in Los Angeles, just off of Avenue 64.

August 3, 2009
The Zeta House from House Bunny

Last week, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, I was able to stalk the Zeta House from the 2008 movie House Bunny. Owen actually found this location without ever even having seen the film, which takes some pretty major stalking skills, I tell you!!!! He happened to notice the house while watching a House Bunny preview and, because of its unique and distinct look, set about on a mission to locate it. Which he did in record time! And even though I didn’t particularly like House Bunny all that much, once Owen told me where the house was located, I just HAD to stalk it. 🙂 I do have to say, though, that I did absolutely LOVE Anna Faris in the movie. I laugh out loud EVERY TIME I hear her do that scary-deep-voice-to-remember-a-name thing. LOL LOL LOL

The House Bunny house is absolutely GINORMOUS in person, much larger than it appears onscreen. It’s so huge that pictures don’t even really do it justice, in fact! It’s easily one of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen in my life!!!! Other than its size, though, I am happy to report that the House Bunny house looks exactly the same in person as it did in the movie. 🙂

Well, until the girls painted it blue towards the middle of the film, that is.

And, of course, in real life there is no ZETA sign. 🙂

The house shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably as the location where Anna Faris does her absolutely HILARIOUS Marilyn-Monroe-over-the-subway-grate impersonation! LOL LOL LOL

I highly recommend stalking the House Bunny house. The home itself is just so unique and distinct, that even if you didn’t like the movie it’s still worth the trip. 🙂 The house is also located on a pretty amazing street that is chock full of HUMONGOUS Craftsman style homes. Walking around the neighborhood it’s easy to forget that you are just one small block away from the hustle and bustle of the 10 Freeway.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Zeta House from House Bunny is located at 2151 West 20th Street in Los Angeles.

July 31, 2009
The Dickie Roberts House

Today is my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry’s birthday! The two of us are actually heading down to Disneyland in a bit, where Kerry has secured a reservation for a little birthday celebration at the park’s exclusive Club 33 members-only restaurant and, let me tell you, I could not be more excited!! I’ve been trying to get into that place for YEARS!! But I’ll save that story for a future post.  🙂 Anyway, for the past few months, Kerry has been begging me to find the blue clapboard residence featured in the 2003 movie Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Unfortunately, though, not only had I never seen the movie, but I also had no idea where the home might be located. So, the other day when fellow stalker Chas happened to mention that he knew the location of the Dickie Roberts house, I just about died!!! I immediately told Kerry, who also just about died. 🙂 So, Kerry, this one’s for you!

Once Chas had given me the address of the Dickie Roberts house, I just HAD to watch the movie, and I am happy to report that I LOVED it.    I even found myself tearing up at the end, causing my fiance to look over at me and say “Are you actually crying over Dickie Roberts???” LOL LOL LOL What can I say, it’s a very touching movie! 🙂 Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star is the story of a thirty-something washed up actor, played by David Spade, who pays a family to let him move into their home with them in the hopes of recreating his lost childhood so that he may become a better adult and, in turn, a better actor. The home, which belongs to the Finney family in the film, is supposedly located at 741 Mockingbird Lane in an idyllic neighborhood somewhere in the Los Angeles area. Once I visited the house in person, it wasn’t too hard to see why producers chose to use it as Dickie’s perfect childhood home. While I was there a woman was out walking her dog, children were riding their bikes in their front yards, a couple was jogging down the street together, and every time any of them passed each other they would call out “Hi Mrs. So and So! How are you this morning?” It was literally like a scene out of a movie! I felt like I had somehow stumbled onto the set of The Truman Show or something! LOL It’s just as idyllic of a street in real life as it was portrayed to be in the movie.   Love it!

I am also very happy to report that the Dickie Roberts house looks pretty much EXACTLY the same in person as it did in the movie.   According to IMDB, the real life owners of the home liked David Spade’s backyard treehouse from the movie so much, that after filming wrapped they elected to keep it!  I was SO looking forward to seeing that treehouse in person, but, alas, it is not visible from the street. 🙁

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The Dickie Roberts house shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably in the hilarious scene when Dickie is introduced to the wonder that is a Slip ‘n Slide!   A little bit of movie trivia for you – Wham-O, Inc., the company that manufactures the Slip ‘n Slide toy, actually sued Paramount Pictures for using their product in the movie without permission. LOL The things people get upset about, I swear!   🙂

Happy birthday to Kerry and a big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Dickie Roberts house is located at 741 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena.

July 29, 2009