Ian Ziering – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 28, 2014March 27, 2014

The Donna Martin Graduates Protest Site

As big of a Beverly Hills, 90210 fan as I am, it will probably come as a shock to learn that up until recently I had yet to stalk the spot where one of the show’s most iconic moments was filmed – Burbank City Hall, aka the Donna Martin Graduates protest site from the Season 3 episode titled “Something in the Air.” So, since I was in the area recently stalking The Wonder Years houses (you can read those posts here and here), I decided that it was about time that I amended that fact.

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Burbank City Hall, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed by architects William Allen and W. George Lutzi. Construction on the Moderne/Art Deco-style building began in 1941 and lasted until 1943. The final cost of the project was $409,000.

The building’s most impressive feature is its tower, which stands at 77 feet.

The lobby area, which I, unfortunately, did not get to see, boasts twenty different kinds of marble, bass relief sculptures and a grand staircase. The building also houses two large murals painted by Hugo Ballin. In a 1996 Daily News article about the structure, Councilman Ted McConkey is quoted as saying, “Anyone walking into City Hall would recognize that it’s something unique. It’s special because of the period in which it was built, because of the way it’s been maintained and because of all the murals at City Hall. We get an inordinate number of requests to use City Hall from film companies.” Love it! You can check out a fabulous photograph of the lobby here.

In “Something in the Air,” Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) stages a Senior Class walk-out during final exams to protest the fact that Donna Martin (Tori Spelling), after showing up drunk to the prom, is not being allowed to graduate with her class. (The Juniors also participate in the walk-out, in order to protest the dress code that the school board has implemented for the upcoming school year.) The protestors – chanting the now legendary line “Donna Martin graduates!” – wind up at the steps of Burbank City Hall, which (I think) is supposed to be masquerading as the West Beverly Hills School District in the episode.

This guy had a little trouble with his “No scapegoats” sign. Winking smile

During the rally, Mrs. Teasley (Denise Dowse) warns the students that they are all in danger of being flunked, which only serves to rile them up further. With Brandon leading the charge, they head inside the building and into the school board meeting.

Once inside, Brandon, of course, makes a speech in Donna’s defense. That speech never ceases to crack me up. He says, “Donna Martin is the kind of girl that goes out of her way for people. That’s why all these people here are going out of their way for her.” Like, huh? Did I miss something in all of my avid 90210 watching? When did Donna ever go out of her way for anyone, let alone the entire Junior and Senior class? It all ends well, though, as the board members wind up being moved by Brandon’s speech and vote to allow Donna to graduate. Donna Martin graduates, indeed!

“Something in the Air” was not the first Beverly Hills, 90210 episode to be lensed at Burbank City Hall. Although the exterior of Beverly Hills City Hall was used as an establishing shot . . .

. . . the interior of Burbank City Hall was where Jim Walsh (James Eckhouse) and Brandon attended a meeting about the Highpoint Center project in the Season 2 episode titled “The Pit and the Pendulum.”

Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood website, I learned that Burbank City Hall stood in for a police station in the 1954 film Pushover.

In the Season 3 episode of The Rockford Files titled “Crack Back,” which aired in 1977, Burbank City Hall masqueraded as the courthouse where Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) defended a professional football player who was on trial for murder.

In 1980’s American Gigolo, Burbank City Hall was where Julian (Richard Gere) was accosted by the press after being arrested. Very little of the building is visible in the scene, though.

The building masqueraded as a courthouse once again in the 1993 made-for-TV movie A Place to Be Loved (aka Shattered Family).

The interior of Burbank City Hall stood in for the U.S. Naval Headquarters at Pearl Harbor in the ending scene of the 1995 movie Crimson Tide.

For the exterior of the U.S. Naval Headquarters, a different building was used – Memorial Hall at Chapman University in the City of Orange.

The IMDB website states that Burbank City Hall was also utilized in the 1961 film The Choppers, the Season 2 episode of Police Woman titled “Generation of Evil,” the Season 2 episode of S.W.A.T. titled “Courthouse,” and the Season 1 episode of Matt Houston titled “The Showgirl Murders,” but, unfortunately, I could not find copies of any of those productions to verify that information.

On a Donna Martin Graduates side-note – Even though we don’t have kids, during the holidays the GC and I participate in a bit of Elf on the Shelf fun by trading off hiding our elf (named Max) every night for each other. This year, Max decided to hold a walk-out – with some nutcrackers, a couple of Santas, and my 90210 dolls – in honor of my favorite television show. While I thought it was genius, the GC did not share in my enthusiasm. Winking smile

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Donna Martin Graduates protest from the “Something in the Air” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 was filmed at Burbank City Hall, which is located at 275 East Olive Avenue in Burbank.

January 28, 2014January 27, 2014

The Infamous Ray Pruit Stairs

Since moving to the desert last January (I cannot believe it has been a year!), I have wanted to revisit Rancho Las Palmas, the sprawling Rancho Mirage resort where Ray Pruit (Jamie Walters) pushed girlfriend Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) down a flight of stairs in the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “P.S. I Love You: Part II.” I originally stalked and blogged about the location back in September 2008, but, because the hotel has 120 sets of identical stairs, at the time I was unsure of which set had appeared in the episode. Thankfully, the resort’s sales manager saw my post and left a comment, informing me of exactly where the scene had been shot. And while it took me over five years to get back out there to re-stalk the place, once I did, I could NOT have been more excited!

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Rancho Las Palmas is massive. The 240-acre resort boasts a 27-hole championship golf course, four eateries, a spa, 50,000-square-feet of event/meeting space, and three pools – one of which is Splashtopia, a two-acre water feature made complete with a 425-foot lazy river, two 100-foot water slides, a man-made sand beach, a Jacuzzi, and a café. Guests also have access to 25 tennis courts at the Palm Springs tennis center located in the Rancho Las Palmas Country Club, which is adjacent to the hotel.

Rancho Las Palmas has quite an interesting history. The property was originally the site of the Desert Air Hotel & Resort, a 320-acre compound that was founded by architect H.L. Gogerty in 1946. The resort consisted of an airstrip for private planes, World War II army barracks that pilots and travelers could rent for the night, and a bar and a pool that were added in 1951. You can see a picture of what the property looked like at that time here. Luminaries like Edgar Bergen, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Robert Taylor flocked to the place and The Bob Cummings Show was even filmed onsite for a time. The resort was sadly shuttered in 1976 and then demolished a year later to make way for a new Marriott hotel. According to the Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields website, one former Desert Air patron had this to say of the new lodging, “I visited the site several years ago – nothing left, except that the main fairway of the golf course seems to be aligned with the old northwest/southeast runway, and there’s a Desert Air Drive in the condos by the hotel. Very ritzy, very posh, but it will never have the understated chill-out class of the old place, with guest cottages made from recycled WW2 barracks huts. I think the difference speaks volumes about the way this country has changed.” I have to admit, it would have been pretty darn cool to vacation in authentic World War II barracks.

At the time that 90210 was filmed, the hotel was known as Marriott’s Rancho Las Palmas. After being taken over by KLM in 2006, the site underwent a massive renovation and the “Marriott” dropped from its name. Today, the property is operated by Omni Hotels & Resorts.

In “P.S. I Love You: Part I” and “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” Rancho Las Palmas was where Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering), Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) and the rest of the C.U. gang attended a national KEG/ALPHA convention. Several areas of the resort were shown in the episodes, including the front entrance;

the Azure Adult Pool (where Ray had a fit over Donna’s choice of swimwear);

and, of course, the infamous stairs that Ray pushed Donna down.

The stair scene was shot on the northwest side of Building #5.

In real life, the stairwell leads up to Room 520.

You can watch the stair scene by clicking below. I love when Valerie says, “Ray, go get the hotel doctor! Go!” LOL Hotel doctor??? How about, “Let’s get her to a hospital,” Val!

And you know I just had to do it!

While re-watching the “P.S. I Love You” episodes (big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for loaning me his Season 5 DVDs), I was shocked to see that the interior scenes had not been filmed inside Rancho Las Palmas (the Rancho lobby is pictured below), but at another location that I was familiar with – Hyatt Westlake Plaza in Westlake Village, which also appeared as a Coachella Valley-resort in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend.” I stalked Hyatt Westlake Plaza in February 2010 (you can read that post here) and recognized it immediately when it popped up in “P.S. I Love You.” I guess the Hyatt was 90210’s go-to Palm Springs hotel stand-in.

The first thing that clued me in to the fact that Hyatt Westlake Plaza had been used in “P.S. I Love You: Part I” and “Part II” was the large fountain that was seen in the center of the lobby in the episodes. That same fountain is pictured below in a 2010 photograph that I took of the Hyatt lobby. While no longer tiled, the shape of the Hyatt fountain is an exact match to the shape of the 90210 fountain.

The general layout of the Hyatt lobby also matches the lobby that appeared on 90210. Sadly, the Hyatt was remodeled sometime after the episodes were filmed, so the décor and flooring look quite a bit different today.

In “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” Brandon is shown walking through the Hyatt lobby, past a side table. That same side table (as well as the lamps on it and the painting behind it) is a direct match to a side table that Brenda Walsh (my girl Shannen Doherty) walked by in “Palm Springs Weekend.” Love it!

The recessed hotel room doors and positioning of the room signage that appeared in the “P.S. I Love You” episodes also match those of Hyatt Westlake Plaza.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The “P.S. I Love You” episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 were filmed at Rancho Las Palmas, which is located at 41000 Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage. You can visit the resort’s official website here. Ray Pruit’s infamous stairs can be found on the south side of the property, just off Avenue Las Palmas, in Building #5, which is denoted with a pink arrow below. The stairs are on the north side of the building and lead up to Room 520. The pool that appeared in the episode is the Azure Adult Pool, which is located just outside of the hotel’s main lobby and is denoted with a blue arrow below. The interior scenes from the “P.S. I Love You” episodes were shot at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza, which is located at 880 South Westlake Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

June 30, 2011June 29, 2011

The Jennifer Grant “Good Stuff” Book Signing

Back on Thursday, May 26th (I told you I am way behind in my reporting! Winking smile ), Vroman’s Bookstore welcomed Jennifer Grant for a signing and discussion of her new book Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant which chronicles the actress’ experiences being raised by one of the most iconic movie stars of all time. And while most of the people attending the event were fans of Jennifer’s famous father, I have been a long-time fan of Jennifer herself, ever since she appeared as Steve Sander’s (aka Ian Ziering’s) longtime girlfriend Celeste Lundy during Seasons 3 and 4 of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210.

Jennifer also made an appearance as Nina Bookbinder, the girl Chandler Bing (aka Matthew Perry) couldn’t fire, in the Season 1 episode of Friends titled “The One With Two Parts: Part I”. But I digress.

Because I have never actually seen a Cary Grant movie, before attending the reading I did not have much interest in reading Good Stuff. My only reason for going to the event was to meet and, of course, get a photograph with Jennifer. But, let me tell you, all of that changed as soon as I started looking through the memoir. As I have mentioned before, I am just slightly anal, so I arrived at the signing about 3 hours early. Well, not only did those three hours ensure me a front row seat, but they also gave me time to peruse through the book and I was immediately mesmerized. Cary Grant was not only an amazing man, but an amazing father! He retired in 1966, the same year that Jennifer was born, so that he could devote all of his time to being a dad. Because Jennifer’s mother, Dyan Cannon (whom the actress is the spitting image of!), was at the height of her career at the time and often on location filming movies for months on end, most of Jennifer’s childhood was spent with her father. And Cary wanted to document his only child’s early years as best he could. Not only did he save and catalogue ever single letter ever exchanged between the two and every single photograph ever taken of them, but he also made hundreds upon hundreds of audio recordings of their time together, many of which are transcribed in the book. Sweetest of all, though, was the fact that, on the mornings when Jennifer was not staying with him, Cary would wait along the sidewalk of her bus route just to wave to her as her bus passed by on the way to school.

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The event began right on time and I just about died when I caught my first glimpse of Jennifer as she looks almost exactly the same today as she did eighteen years ago when she was on 90210. Jennifer started out the evening by reading a few passages from her book and I have to say that she is a fabulous writer and a fabulous speaker. Her voice has an almost lyrical quality to it and I was absolutely mesmerized listening to her. I was completely shocked, though, when she adopted a British accent to read her father’s words! Prior to that evening, I was unaware that Cary Grant was British!

Jennifer then opened up the session to questions from the audience and, even though A LOT were asked, for once they were actually well-crafted. I should explain here, to those who do not regularly attend book signings and television screenings, that people at these events usually ask the most asinine questions imaginable and it absolutely drives me mad! If you have the chance to ask a question of an actor, author, or director, make it a good one, people! And, for the love of God, do NOT ask the celebrity to get you a role in a movie or TV show! And yes, that has been asked at almost EVERY SINGLE EVENT I have ever attended! Most of the questions asked of Jennifer, though, were about what it was like to grow up with such a famous father. In answer to those questions, Jennifer told numerous anecdotes and, as amazing as it may sound, it seems she had a very normal childhood. The two often squabbled about Jennifer’s choice in music and boys, they took frequent outings to the Fox Hills Mall – one of Cary’s favorite haunts – and played regular family games of Trivial Pursuit. She said she never viewed Cary as a celebrity, but, while she knew he was special and certainly different than her friends’ fathers, to her he was always just “Dad”.

When it came time for the signing portion of the reading, the Vroman’s coordinator asked Jennifer if she would be willing to take posed photographs with those in attendance, to which the actress gave a puzzled look and said, “Of course I will!”, as if she could not figure out why anyone wouldn’t take a picture with their fans. LOVE IT!

When it was my turn to meet Jennifer, I told her what a huge fan I had been of Beverly Hills, 90210 and she said that the show was actually the very first acting job she had ever had and was one of the best experiences of her life. She told me that all of the actors were extremely nice and welcoming and that she looks back on that time with incredible fondness. She took quite a bit of time to chat with me and I even got to tell her about my experiences as an extra in the final episode of the series and that the 90210 theme song was still the ringtone on my cell phone. Smile Jennifer was so abundantly sweet and warm, it was almost unbelievable.

As I was leaving Vroman’s, I opened the book to read what Jennifer had signed and almost died over her inscription. It reads, “To Lindsay, Thank you for watching 90210 – your smile is infectious. Jennifer Grant” OMG nicest inscription EVER! Especially considering that so many celebrities will not even personalize books at their signings! Meeting Jennifer was such an incredible experience and I love her even more now than I did before! And while I have not started to officially read Good Stuff yet, it is the next book on my “To Read” list and after I do so, I will most definitely be stalking the many locations mentioned in it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: You can purchase a copy of Jennifer Grant’s book, Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant, here. Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit the store’s official website here. And you can check out Vroman’s upcoming author events here.

January 25, 2011January 24, 2011

Donna Martin’s House from the B.Y.O.B. Episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for just about as long as I can remember now is the mansion where Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling) lived in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “B.Y.O.B”. For whatever reason, though, I could just NOT seem to track the place down. Over the past few months I had managed to contact a few of the crew members who had worked on the episode and even a few of the actors who had appeared in it, all of whom told me that they did not recognize the screen capture of the house that I had sent them and that the property where filming took place was located somewhere in the Valley. One of the crew members also told me that he was 99.9% certain that the establishing shot of the mansion which appeared in the episode had been a stock photograph and that no actual filming had taken place there. This news pained me to hear as, because stock photographs are most often purchased from stock location libraries, it meant that the chances of tracking the place down were slim to none. So, imagine my surprise last Friday when I received a tweet from Geoff, from the 90210locations website, informing me that he had somehow managed to find the mansion! Let me tell you, I just about died of excitement and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place the very next day! Thank you, Geoff!!

Sadly, while I am VERY happy to report that the mansion still looks almost EXACTLY the same today as it did when it appeared on Beverly Hills, 90210 over two decades ago, the property is gated and is not very visible from the street. Sad smile The house, which was originally built in 1926, is definitely beautiful, though, and absolutely GINORMOUS! In real life, it boasts 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and 8,260 square feet of living space.

As fate would have it, when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, went to stalk the home later that very same day, the gate happened to be open and he was able to take the above photograph which matches the screen capture from the “B.Y.O.B.” episode perfectly! So incredibly cool!

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The mansion pictured above was actually only used as Donna’s residence in the “B.Y.O.B.” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. In later episodes, two different properties stood in for her home – one located at 18515 Wells Drive in Encino, which I blogged about back in November of 2008, and another located at 1060 Brooklawn Drive in Bel Air, which in real life is owned by Barron Hilton, Paris’ grandfather, and which was also used as the Colby mansion on the television series The Colbys. In the “B.Y.O.B” episode, Donna throws a massive party at the mansion while her parents are out of town, during which Steve Sanders (aka Ian Ziering) spikes Brandon Walsh’s (aka Jason Priestley’s) drink – aka his “mucho ‘mahvelous’ mango margarita”.

As I mentioned above though, all of the actual filming of “B.Y.O.B.” took place at a different residence (pictured above), which, according to all of the crew members and actors that I spoke with, is located somewhere in the Valley, most likely Encino.

While I was scanning through the “B.Y.O.B” episode to make screen captures for today’s post, I noticed something a bit coincidental. In the scene in which Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty) spots her brother Brandon standing in Donna’s backyard, a green awning-type structure is visible in the background.

Well, as it just so happens, there is a very similar looking – and very similarly situated – green awning-type structure in the backyard of the home located at 18515 Wells Drive in Encino, the very same dwelling which stood in for the Martin residence during the later years of the show. The brick patio flooring of the Wells Drive home also matches that of the home from “B.Y.O.B”. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the property used as Donna’s house in the “B.Y.O.B.” episode from Season 1 was the very same property which ended up being used as her home nine years later during Seasons 9 and 10? Without more close-up images of the backyard, it is impossible to tell either way, but nevertheless I found the whole thing very interesting!

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from 90210Locations, for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for snapping the incredible photograph of it which appears in this post! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Donna Martin’s house from the first season of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 2405 Glendower Avenue in Los Feliz.

January 21, 2011January 20, 2011

David’s Bungalow from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

This past Tuesday night, Geoff, from the 90210locations website, asked for my help in tracking down the blue and white bungalow where Carly Reynolds (aka Hilary Swank) – and in later years David Silver (aka Brian Austin Green), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), and Noah Hunter (aka Vincent Young) – lived during Season 8 of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. Now as I have mentioned a few times before on this site, I stopped watching 90210 after Season 4 when my girl Shannen Doherty left the series, but Geoff sent me a screen capture of the bungalow in the hopes that I could track the place down anyway. Randomly enough, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had just loaned me several of his DVDs of the older seasons of the show with the instruction that I should start watching the series over again from the beginning. One of the seasons he loaned me just happened to be Season 8, so after I received Geoff’s email, I immediately popped in the first DVD and started scanning through it looking for clues to the location of Carly’s bungalow. And, thanks to a little help from Mike, I was able to find the place almost immediately.

Mike clued me into the fact that every shot of the bungalow shown on the series seemed to have been taken at an odd, sideways angle. And scanning through the Season 8 episodes, I realized that I could literally not find one single establishing shot that had been taken of the house head on.

That paired with the fact that the home seemed to be situated at an angle perpendicular to that of its front gate led Mike to believe that the property did not actually face the street.

He had also noticed that in both the episodes “Pride and Prejudice” and “Toil and Trouble” there was a house that looked like a mirror image of Carly’s located in very close proximity and directly across the street from it. All of these little “clues” added together led him to believe that Carly’s residence was not actually a house at all, but what is commonly referred to in Los Angeles as a “bungalow court” apartment complex. So, armed with that information from Mike and after scanning through quite a few Season 8 episodes of the show, I immediately starting searching through Google for addresses of different bungalow court apartments. And thankfully quite a few came up, almost all of which were in the Hollywood area. I then looked at all of those addresses using Bing aerial views. Because Carly’s house had a very unique roofline I thought it would be fairly easy to spot from above and, thankfully, it was! One of the addresses that had come up on Google was for a bungalow court located at 1554 North Serrano Avenue. And while that complex wasn’t where Carly lived on 90210, I did notice that there were quite a few other bungalow courts located on that very same street. And, magically, one was Carly’s! YAY! So, I immediately dragged my dad out to stalk the place yesterday afternoon.

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Carly and David’s bungalow court apartment complex is actually something of a historic property and was designed by architect A.B. Crist in 1919. It is a SUPER cute and picturesque little grouping of homes and it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it on Beverly Hills, 90210.

Unfortunately, there is a large tree that is now situated in front of Carly’s bungalow which considerably blocks the view of it from the street.

But the bungalow located directly across from it is very visible and, as you can see in the above photographs, looks exactly like Carly and David’s home. Like Geoff said to me after I told him I had found the place, I guess I am going to have to start watching all of the later seasons of the show now. Smile

On a side note – I just wanted to let all of my fellow stalkers know that Bing Maps has recently added a “Streetside” feature to its site and it is A-MA-ZING! In fact, I think it is safe to say that I am absolutely in love with it! The imaging is one hundred times better than that of Google Street View, not to mention one hundred times faster. If you are trying to track a location down, I honestly cannot recommend using it enough!

Big THANK YO U to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: David Silver’s bungalow – aka Carly Reynold’s bungalow – from the later seasons of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1547 North Serrano Avenue in Hollywood.

November 3, 2010November 2, 2010

The Gas Station from the “Palm Springs Weekend” Episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like forever now is the gas station where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth), Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling), Steve Sanders (aka Ian Ziering) and David Silver (aka Brian Austin Green) fueled up their cars in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend” (aka “A Fling in Palm Springs”). Because “Palm Springs Weekend” was one of my all-time favorite episodes of the entire series, and was also coincidentally the very first episode of the show that I ever saw, it holds an extremely special place in my heart and I was absolutely dying to stalk all of the locations featured in it. And while I had found most of the other “Palm Springs Weekend” filming sites a while back, for whatever reason, try as I might, I just couldn’t seem to track that gas station down. So, I recently enlisted the help of fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who contacted one of the show’s former crewmembers, who happened to remember that the gas station was located on Thousand Oaks Boulevard just a few blocks west of Hampshire Road in Thousand Oaks. As soon as Chas gave me that detailed information, I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Valley to look for the place. Amazingly enough, though, even with the crew member’s detailed directions, I just could not seem to find it. So, after returning home I emailed fellow stalker Owen and asked if he might be able to lend a hand. Magically, Owen found the gas station almost immediately! As it turns out, the GC and I had relegated our search to too small of an area and had only stalked the short stretch of Thousand Oaks Boulevard located immediately to the west of Hampshire Road. Had we ventured just one more block west, though, we would have found the station right there on the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Live Oak Street. UGH! So, this past weekend, while on our way to Santa Barbara, I made the GC take a little detour off the 101 so that I could finally, finally stalk the “Palm Springs Weekend” gas station!

In the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode, which originally aired almost twenty years ago on February 21, 1991, Brenda and the gang stop by the gas station while on their way to Palm Springs, where they are all spending President’s Day weekend. Quite a lengthy scene takes place at the station, at one point during which Steve informs David that if he wants to hang out with him and pick up girls he needs to “at least attempt to be cool”, to which David says, “Oh, OK, so you think I should, like, hold off and give ‘em, like, a Johnny Depp-type attitude thing?” That line absolutely amazes me every time I hear it being that it still holds true to this day, almost two full decades later, as Johnny Depp is still considered the epitome of cool in Hollywood! Talk about a star having staying power!

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Today, the 90210 gas station, which at the time of the filming was operated by Shell Gas Company, is now an auto repair shop named Steve’s Automotive. I had the pleasure of speaking with Steve, the super-nice owner, while I was stalking the place and he was pretty excited to learn that his shop had once appeared on the iconic series. He also informed me that it had been used a few times in car commercials in more recent years.

Amazingly enough, even though the property has since changed ownership and is no longer a gas station, it still looks much the same today as it did nineteen years ago when filming took place. I was most excited to see that the bathroom area, where David met Tuesday (aka Shana Furlow), was still there and that it still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in the episode! So incredibly cool!!!!

And, of course, I just had to take a picture in the spot where Kelly had parked her car in the episode. 🙂

Big THANK YOU to both Chas from It’sFilmedThere and fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Steve’s Automotive, aka the gas station from the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 2658 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. The bathroom where David met Tuesday, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view, can be found just to the left of and around the corner from the front of the auto shop. The area where Kelly was parked is located under the carport, directly in front of the entrance to the office portion of Steve’s Automotive and is denoted with a blue “X” in the above aerial image.

March 16, 2010June 16, 2011

Marix Tex Mex Cafe – Jennifer Aniston’s Favorite Restaurant

Two weeks ago, while out doing some Oscar Weekend stalking, I dragged my fiancé to Marix Tex Mex Cafe in West Hollywood, a restaurant which has long been one of my girl Jen Aniston’s favorite places to dine. And while Jen has always been pretty vocal about her love of Mexican food and margaritas, I had never actually heard of the eatery until last year when a woman in one of my acting classes mentioned that she had spotted the actress there on numerous occasions. Well, let me tell you, I just about died upon hearing that! For whatever reason, though, I had yet to stalk the restaurant. So, when I realized that my fiancé and I were in the West Hollywood vicinity this past Oscar Weekend, I begged him to make a little lunchtime pit stop at the Tex Mex hot spot. It should come as no surprise that the Grim Cheaper was not AT ALL keen on the idea of grabbing a bite to eat at a place frequented by a famous actress, as he thought the prices would be outrageously expensive. I am happy to report, though, that Marix was EXTREMELY reasonable and that even the Grim Cheaper enjoyed himself while there! 🙂

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Marix is an absolutely ADORABLE little restaurant tucked away off of Santa Monica Boulevard on a tree-lined side street in uber-hip West Hollywood. The eatery is small, casual, and intimate and it’s not at all hard to see why Jen frequents the place. Not to mention the fact that it serves up some fabulous food! Like FABULOUS! The chicken fajitas were A-MA-ZING, as were the tortilla chips and fresh salsa. I literally gorged myself while there. The Marix staff also could NOT have been more friendly and I am happy to report that the place lacks any of the pretentiousness that is usually prevalent in L.A. area restaurants. I literally cannot say enough good things about the place and wish I lived closer so that I could frequent it more often.

Marix Tex Mex Cafe has actually been a long time favorite of Jen’s and was even mentioned way back in December of 2001 in this People Magazine article about the star. According to my friend from acting class, Jen can usually be spotted on the restaurant’s SUPER CUTE front patio which is pictured above. I hear Jen doesn’t frequent the place as much as she used to, though, thanks to the paparazzi who discovered the celebrity hot spot a few years ago and have been a constant presence ever since. Other stars who have dined at the eatery include Jessica Simpson and her BFF/hair stylist Ken Paves, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and their daughter Coco, Kate Hudson, Oliver Hudson, Ian Ziering, Brad Pitt, Angie Everhart, Dexter’s Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter, Ron Livingston, Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale, Pamela Anderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Wanda Sykes, The Biggest Loser’s Bob Harper, and Wilson Cruz of My So-Called Life fame.

And while we didn’t run into Jen while dining there, we did spot former Bachelorette contestant Jerry Ferris at the table directly in front of us. I noticed Jerry pretty much immediately upon sitting down, but, while I knew he was famous, neither my fiancé nor I could place who he was. I asked our waitress if she recognized him and she in turn asked the other servers on duty, but no one seemed to have any idea whether or not he was even famous. Am I the only person who watched Season Three of The Bachelorette???? LOL Anyway, by that time I was going absolutely crazy because I KNEW I recognized Jerry, but could not for the life of me figure out from where. Then all of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks – sitting in front of me was the man who had stolen America’s heart (or at least mine) on Jen Schefft’s season of The Bachelorette. I had absolutely LOVED Jerry on the series and was actually lucky enough to have met him shortly after his reality TV stint ended just about five years ago. Well, as soon as I figured out it was him, I told my fiancé I wanted to ask for a photograph, but that I felt bad since he was eating at the time, to which the Grim Cheaper said, “You ALREADY have a photograph with the guy (pictured above) – please do NOT bother him again.” LOL Sadly, I listened to the GC and did not go up to Jerry (HMPH!), but I really regret doing so as he had been a TOTAL sweetheart to me when I met him back in 2005. Ah well! Maybe I’ll run into Jerry during my next Marix stalk. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Marix Tex Mex Cafe is located at 1108 North Flores Street in West Hollywood. They also have a second location which can be found at 118 Entrada Drive in Santa Monica. You can visit the Marix website here.

February 19, 2010February 18, 2010

David Silver’s Grandparents’ House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One Beverly Hills, 90210 location that I have been dying to find pretty much ever since the episode it was featured in aired over 18 years ago is the house where David Silver’s grandparents’ lived in the Season One episode entitled “Palm Springs Weekend” (aka “A Fling in Palm Springs”). For those who don’t know 90210 like the back of their hand like I do, in the episode Kelly, Donna, Brenda, and the gang head out to Palm Springs for Presidents’ Day Weekend and, because of an oversight on Steve’s part, wind up having to spend the entire three days at David Silvers’ grandparents’ house. And while I was absolutely certain that the home used in the episode wasn’t located in Palm Springs, unfortunately, I had no idea of where it actually could be found. My gut was telling me that it might be located in or around Encino and I actually spent quite a bit of time searching in that area. It was actually this location that I was looking for when I stumbled upon the mansion where April Rhodes was caught squatting in “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of fave show Glee, but I digress. Anyway after spending countless hours searching the Valley for David Silver’s grandparents’ house, fellow stalker Chas got some insider information that the residence could actually be found in . . . Malibu of all places! I swear, Malibu would have been the absolute LAST spot on earth I would have looked for this house as, in my opinion at least, it just doesn’t really look like a Malibu-type residence. Anyway, once Chas had me divert my search to the ‘Bu :), I found the home almost immediately. YAY. So, this past Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took the day off and the two of us headed out to Malibu to do some long overdue “Palm Springs” stalking.

And let me tell you, I literally started screaming the moment we drove up to the house when I realized that – over eighteen years later – the place still looked EXACTLY – and I do mean EXACTLY – the same as it did when it appeared on 90210. The only differences I noticed were that the trees in the front yard have since been changed, as have the front doors which are now made out of glass. Other than those two minor details, though, the place still looks very much like Henry and Adele Silver’s house. 🙂 I cannot tell you how cool it was to finally be seeing this location in person and to be reliving the countless memories that being there brought back – memories of Dylan playing charades with Brenda in the living room, memories of David Silver’s random hookup with a girl named Tuesday whom he met at a gas station, and memories of Donna’s black daisy dress with the matching black daisy headband. LOL God, I miss that show!

As you can see in the above photograph, David Silver’s grandparents’ house is, sadly, gated, so Mike and I couldn’t venture in farther to get a better view. 🙁

But he did manage to snap a few close-up pictures through the fence for me.

Silly as it may sound, Mike and I were most excited to see the little curved brick half-wall located in the middle of the home’s front lawn, as that same brick wall was also visible on 90210. I almost couldn’t believe it was still there after all these years.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also featured in the episode. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

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The backyard and pool area appeared quite a few times in the episode, too.

Sadly, though, that area is not at all visible from the street. But that’s why God created aerial images, right? 😉 And, as you can see, the pool still looks very much the same as it did on the show.

Even Henry and Adele’s little hidden hot tub oasis is actually there in real life. LOVE IT! While we were stalking the place, Mike and I were hoping beyond hope that the owner would come outside so we could ask them all sorts of questions about the filming and maybe even get a peek at their backyard, but sadly it was not to be. 🙁

On a side note – My good friend and fellow stalker Chas has finally started up his own filming locations website. The website is called ItsFilmedThere.com and it focuses on locations in both the Los Angeles and the Chicago areas. And, let me tell you, while his L.A. posts are great, it is the Chicago locations that have me absolutely fascinated. Before coming into contact with Chas I had NO idea whatsoever that so many movies were filmed in the Windy City. The first time I learned about Chas’ huge library of Chicago area locations was one night back in December during one of my father’s many hospital visits. My dad had been taken to the emergency room and because only my mom was allowed to stay with him, my fiancé and I were stuck in the waiting room for hours, bored out of our minds. Until I logged onto Facebook via my cell phone, that is, and started looking through all of Chas’ Facebook photos. And, let me tell you, I just about died looking at his Chicago movie pictures. My fiancé and I were literally mesmerized for hours looking at those photos – which is saying a lot being that the Grim Cheaper doesn’t normally care about movie locations – and ever since that night I’ve been absolutely itching to visit the Windy City. Chicago honeymoon, anyone? 🙂 So, when Chas decided to start his own site last month I begged him to publish all of his Chicago photographs for stalkers such as myself – who had no idea the Windy City was such a treasure trove of locations – to enjoy. You can check out his site here – www.itsfilmedthere.com. 🙂

A big THANK YOU to Chas for helping me find this location. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: David Silver’s Grandparents’ house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 6636 Portshead Road in Malibu.

January 26, 2010January 26, 2010

The Casa Walsh Garage – A Distant Memory

Like Mike, from MovieShotsLA said yesterday, it’s officially the end of an era. While the two of us were out doing some Pasadena area stalking on Sunday, we made our regular pilgrimage to the Walsh House from Beverly Hills, 90210 and saw a very sad sight, indeed. In fact, Mike was so out of sorts over the whole thing that he almost crashed the car upon viewing it. Not kidding! Apparently, just last week, Jack, the real life owner of Casa Walsh, tore down the Walsh garage – the hallowed spot where Brandon and Jim’s famous basketball hoop used to hang. 🙁 Mike and I actually knew this was coming, as Jack had mentioned he had plans to install a new garage on the property last December during our interior tour of the home, but it was still sad to see nonetheless. I am not a person that handles change very well anyway, and being that my parents just last week decided to sell the house we’ve lived in ever since moving to Southern California a decade ago, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of it lately. Granted I moved out of that house a year and a half ago, but that’s entirely beside the point. 😉 So, when I saw that my beloved 90210 house had also been altered, it was almost too much to bear. And while Jack says that some change can actually be for the better, I’ll take the status quo over something new any day. 🙂

Pictured above is what’s currently left of the Walsh garage. I told Jack he should seriously consider selling pieces of the rubble on eBay, like the pieces of the Berlin Wall that were sold back in the 90s, but I don’t think he took me seriously. 😉

And here is the empty footprint where the Walsh garage – and basketball hoop – used to stand.

Pictured above is the garage area as it appeared in December of 2008.

And what it looks like today. So sad. See what I mean? It truly is the end of an era!

Jack also removed the little patio area that used to be located just outside of the Walsh’s backdoor – an area which the producers of 90210 had built especially for the filming of the show. 🙁

Pictured above is what that patio area used to look like.

Our visit to the Walsh house wasn’t an entirely sad event, though. As always, Jack regaled us with some fabulous tales from the days when the show was filmed on his property. And, let me tell you, I just cannot get enough of those stories! I could literally listen to Jack talk all day long! Which Mike and I pretty much did – we were there for close to two hours! Not kidding! Jack has to be one of THE nicest guys on the planet, I swear! One story he told us had us absolutely cracking up. Apparently, a few months back, a fan from Belgium came to the house and asked to see the inside. Jack’s wife was hesitant about doing so, but the girl was very persistent, so she eventually showed her the area just inside the front door. Well, the girl took one look at the inside and completely burst into tears. Apparently, she thought the show was actually filmed inside of the real life house and expected it to look exactly the same in person as it does on TV and she became terribly upset when that was not the case. If only she had read my blog before stalking the house, she would have been saved some heartache. 😉 One interesting little tidbit of information that Jack shared with us that I found fascinating was that there were actually three houses being considered for the Walsh residence once the series got picked up by Fox. The three residences were Jack’s house, which ended up being chosen, Jack’s neighbor’s house directly to the east (pictured above) . . .

. . . and the house located across the street (pictured above). I think they made the right choice, don’t you think? How different the show would have been – at least to me – if one of the other houses had been chosen. The house across the street from Jack’s was eventually used as both the residence of Melissa, aka 90210’s Baby Mama, in the Season One episode entitled “One Man and a Baby” and the backyard area was used as Tiffany Morgan’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Every Dream Has Its Price”, both of which I blogged about here.

Ironically enough, Jack also told us that the very same backyard also stood in for Steve Sander’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Higher Education”.

Another little bit of 90210 trivia that Jack clued us into was the fact that the front yard of the house located directly west of Jack’s masqueraded as the backyard of Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s home in the Season 10 episode entitled “The Easter Bunny”.

In the episode, Steve and Janet erroneously believe that her parent’s dog, whom they are pet-sitting at the time, killed their neighbor’s pet rabbit, so the two of them concoct a plan to replace it with a new rabbit. Because Jack’s neighbor’s house doesn’t have a backyard with much open space, producers dressed the front yard area – just to the west of the home’s front door – and added a fence and a gate to make it appear as if it was really the home’s backyard. So interesting!

One thing I noticed while in Jack’s backyard was that the Walsh house actually has two small upstairs balconies, not just one as I had previously believed. I recognized the smaller of the two balconies from the Season One episode entitled “Isn’t It Romantic” the last time I stalked the house. And this time, I immediately recognized the other balcony from the Season One episode entitled “Seventeen Year Itch”, which I had randomly watched the night beforehand. 🙂 In the episode, Cindy Walsh is shown pining over her former fling Glen Evans while standing out on the balcony looking up at the stars. And while the balcony looks a bit different today than it did when it appeared on 90210 – a cement awning has since been added – it was still very cool to see it in person nonetheless. 🙂

And another little bit of trivia – according to Jack, the exterior light located just to the left of the balcony door is the very light that used to be located on his front porch during the 90210 years. It was purchased by producers to match the light located on the front porch set that had been built at the studio.

The highlight of the day, though, had to be when – are you sitting down for this????? – Mike asked Jack if the two of us could each possibly have one of the roof tiles from his former garage. Jack thought we were incredibly silly to want such a thing, but he happily obliged. Thank goodness we stalked the place before all of the rubble had been removed! And, to top it all off, he even signed the tiles for us! Can you believe it????? I was absolutely DYING! I mean now I can actually say that I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!! I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!!!!!!!! How incredibly cool is that??? I was literally pinching myself the whole drive home and I almost still can’t believe it happened!!!!! 🙂 So, I guess what Jack said is actually true – some change can be for the better, because had he not dismantled his garage, we never would have been given a part of it. And while I, of course, would prefer that the Walsh garage was still standing, being given a real piece of the show isn’t such a bad consolation. 🙂 And I will of course take photographs and report back to my fellow stalkers once the new Walsh garage has been completed – it’s going to look totally different, by the way – but according to Jack, that won’t be for about six months.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Casa Walsh is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena. Please keep in mind that this is a private residence and please do not disturb the owners. It was a fluke that Mike and I were lucky enough to have been given a tour of the home, but this is not a regular occurrence. I’d hate to have people bothering Jack for tours due to the fact that I put this information on the internet, so please be respectful of his privacy. 🙂 The two houses which producers also considered using as the Walsh house can be found at 1689 and 1690 East Altadena Drive. 1690 East Altadena was also used as 90210’s Baby Mama’s house and its backyard was used as both Steve Sander’s backyard and Marianne Moore’s backyard during Season One. The house which stood in for Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s house in “The Easter Bunny” episode can be found at 1665 East Altadena Drive.