La La Land – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 25, 2019November 5, 2019

Broadlind Hotel from “Over Her Dead Body”

Over Her Dead Body is hardly a horror flick. In fact, the only thing scary about it is the reviews, with one critic going so far as to opine, “A deceased bride, a depressed groom and a caterer who doubles as a psychic. Yes, it’s an unlikely love triangle, and it’s even more unlikely that you’ll like this film.” Ouch. The 2008 “ghostcom,” as Roger Ebert called it, centers around would-be-newlywed Kate (Eva Longoria), who, after getting killed in a freak accident on her wedding day, decides to spend the afterlife haunting Ashley (Lake Bell), a psychic who starts to show interest in her former fiancé, Henry (Paul Rudd). (I’m not gonna lie, that would be so be me!) I initially learned of the movie many moons ago when fellow stalker Virginie emailed me a couple of its locations including Long Beach’s Broadlind Hotel, which doubled as the apartment building where Ashley lived and was haunted by Kate. I finally sat down to give Over Her Dead Body a watch this week and was shocked to find it cute, sweet and funny – and though not of the horror genre, considering its subject matter, fully fitting of a Haunted Hollywood post.

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Built in 1928 as a boutique lodging by the Piper & Kahrs architecture team, the Italian Renaissance-style Broadlind Hotel featured 20 rooms as well as a manager’s unit at its inception.

The property’s name was derived from its location on the corner of East Broadway and Linden Avenue in Long Beach’s East Village Arts District.

Featuring handsome brickwork, terra cotta detailing, two-story arches dotting the lower levels, and carved wooden doors, the structure, dubbed “the biggest little hotel in Long Beach,” was mainly patronized by naval officers temporarily stationed at the now-defunct Long Beach Naval Complex in its early days. Amenities included a tiled bath and shower in every room and a barbershop, beauty parlor, and restaurant on the ground floor.

The basement level, now home to the Blind Donkey whiskey lounge, served as a gambling hall and watering hole during the Prohibition years.

The Broadlind eventually transitioned into an apartment facility before falling into disrepair and sitting vacant for many years. Then in 2005, it was picked up by a new owner who made plans to restore it to its original use as a boutique lodging. Those plans finally came to fruition in 2017. Today, the 20-room property, a Long Beach Historical Landmark, is marketed as a European-style “ApartHotel,” meaning it is part apartment/part hotel. Each of the units features many of the comforts of home, including a kitchenette with an oven, refrigerator and microwave, cookware, utensils, a flat-screen television with digital channels, and Wi-Fi. Laundry facilities are also on the premises, as well as a lobby balcony for guests to enjoy their morning coffee. In a unique twist, there is no front desk or on-site reception – vacationers are instead granted access to their rooms via keyless entry codes.

The Broadlind even has a penthouse suite in the tower situated at its northeast corner.

The hotel’s ground floor is currently home to a Thai restaurant and a juice bar. And don’t forget about the Blind Donkey in the basement!

Though the place looks absolutely adorable both from the outside and in its website photographs, sadly the reviews are less than stellar. Yelpers really don’t mince words about the property, with one referring to it as “whipped cream on dog sh*t” and another deeming it the “Fyre Festival of hotels.” Yikes!

It is the penthouse area that Ashley calls home in Over Her Dead Body. Oddly, we only get one establishing shot of it throughout the entire movie.

Though I didn’t take a matching photograph, that’s the penthouse in my images below.

Broadlind’s front entrance also makes a brief appearance in the film . . .

. . . as does its interior stairwell . . .

. . . and its north side, where Thai District restaurant is now located.

The interior of Ashley’s apartment only existed in a studio soundstage, though. You can see what the actual penthouse looks like here. The sole element of it that matches its onscreen counterpart is the perimeter of arched, paned windows.

The hallway leading up to Ashley’s apartment was also just a set. Production designer Cory Lorenzen incorporated elements of the Broadlind’s actual exterior, including arches, tile work and wooden doors, into the design of both, though.

The Blind Donkey has also famously cameoed onscreen. The basement lounge masked as the interior of Seb’s, the jazz club owned by Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), at the end of La La Land.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Virginie for telling me about this location!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Broadlind Hotel, aka Ashley’s apartment building from Over Her Dead Body, is located at 149 Linden Avenue in Long Beach. You can visit the property’s official website here.

January 2, 2019December 31, 2018

Grand Central Market from “Bosch”

Happy 2019, my fellow stalkers! I was originally going to write about a different locale today, one that was sadly lost in the Woolsey Fire, but decided it would be best to start the year off on a happier note. So instead I’m covering a quintessential Los Angeles spot that I have stalked countless times, but somehow never blogged about – DTLA’s Grand Central Market. The bustling food emporium/retail grocery mart is a virtual city landmark, though I only visited it for the first time while on jury duty in 2007, a full seven years after I moved to Southern California! Upon stepping inside the vibrant marketplace and poring through the rows upon rows of diverse food vendors – an activity that was recommended as part of jury orientation – I was immediately enthralled. The Grim Cheaper and I subsequently popped by countless times in the years that followed to grab a bite to eat or do some specialty grocery shopping, but it was not until spotting the place in a Season 4 episode of Bosch recently that I realized I had yet to dedicate a post to it. So here goes.

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Grand Central Market is situated on the ground floor of what is, interestingly enough, two adjacent buildings. The Homer Laughlin Building, which fronts Broadway, was designed by architect John Parkinson for Homer Laughlin, founder of the Homer Laughlin China Company, in 1897. Eight years later, Harrison Albright was commissioned to build an adjoining structure, facing Hill Street, to enlarge the property. My photos below show the secondary edifice, known as the Laughlin Annex/Lyon Building. Upscale department store Ville de Paris became the first tenant of the two building’s massive street level space, which opens to both Hill and Broadway.

I had always assumed Grand Central was a more recent addition to the Los Angeles landscape, established sometime in the 1990s or thereabouts, and was shocked to discover while researching for this post that it actually opened its doors on October 27th, 1917, just a few months after Ville de Paris relocated to a different location downtown. More than one hundred years later, the market is still a DTLA staple.

Stretching a full city block, the 30,000-square-foot emporium initially housed 90 vendors and catered to the wealthy Angelinos living just up the road in Bunker Hill, who accessed the market via Angels Flight situated right across the street. Today, the locale plays host to more than 25,000 visitors each day – area businessmen and women, tourists and locals alike, all looking for a unique bite to eat or specialty ingredient to take home.

Grand Central Market has been rehabbed a few times throughout its history – first in the 1960s, then in 1990, and then again, to the chagrin of many locals, in 2013. Regardless of the revamps, the site is doing better than ever today. In fact, Bon Appétit magazine named the entire place one of the best new restaurants of 2014! Boasting 38 stalls, the locale offers such varied fare as German currywurst, Japanese bento boxes, fresh oysters, and handmade Salvadorian pupusas. You’ll also find staples like handcrafted bread, gourmet coffees and teas, and artisanal cheeses.

Bright, vibrant and colorful, GCM serves as the heartbeat of downtown. As such, it is no surprise that the site has wound up onscreen in numerous L.A.-set productions.

In the Season 4 episode of Bosch titled “Ask the Dust,” which aired in April 2018, Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) walks through the Broadway entrance of Grand Central Market and is then shown exiting the Hill Street side on his way to Angels Flight, where the murder of a prominent lawyer has recently occurred. Only the outside of the locale is shown in the scene, though.

Back in 1974, Grand Central Market was the site of a lengthy chase and shootout in the comedy/action flick Busting.

Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) convinces Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) to track down accountant/embezzler Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin) over breakfast there at the beginning of 1988’s Midnight Run.

In 1991, Huell Howser chronicled Grand Central Market in the episode of California’s Gold titled “L.A. Adventures,” which you can watch here.

Gy. Sgt. James Dunn (Keenen Ivory Wayans) takes refuge in the emporium at the end of the 1997 thriller Most Wanted.

Seth (Nicolas Cage) and Dr. Maggie Rice (Meg Ryan) shop for produce there in the 1998 drama City of Angels.

Sam Dawson (Sean Penn) does the International House of Pancakes quiz with a random stranger – and mistakenly gets arrested for solicitation – at Grand Central Market in I Am Sam, though very little of the place can be seen in the 2001 drama.

Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) are very, very briefly shown grabbing pupusas there in the 2016 favorite La La Land.

And in 2018’s Will & Liz, Grand Central Market is the spot where titular characters Will (Nathan Wilson) and Liz (Christine Tucker) go on a date.

Though several sites claim that GCM was also featured in National Treasure, that is incorrect. The 2004 adventure flick’s market scene was actually lensed about 3,000 miles away at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, as I blogged about here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Grand Central Market, from the “Ask the Dust” episode of Bosch, is located at 317 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the emporium’s official website here.

July 10, 2017July 10, 2017

Retro Dairy Mart from “Say Anything . . . “

“That’s L.A. – they worship everything and they value nothing.” So says Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) while lamenting the closure of a historic jazz club and its subsequent transition into a samba/tapas place in La La Land. Though I did not like the movie (as mentioned previously), I have to agree with Seb on this one. Los Angeles does often show a blatant disregard for its history, regularly razing notable buildings and sites with a nonchalant swoop of its proverbial hand. One yesteryear locale that somehow not only escaped the fate of the wrecking ball, but also popped up in La La Land is the Retro Dairy Mart in Burbank. The property’s onscreen stint in the 2016 musical has been well-documented online for quite a while now, but I was completely surprised when Greg Mariotti, from Cameron Crowe’s official website The Uncool, informed me of its appearance in Say Anything . . . while the two of us were working on our round-up of the 1989 flick’s Los Angeles locales. Since the drive-through market has been featured in two such iconic productions, I figured it was worthy of its own blog post.

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Retro Dairy Mart was originally established as an Alta Dena Dairy market in 1962.

The Alta Dena Dairy company began building the mini grocery stores in 1951, providing patrons with basic sundries like eggs, milk, sugar, and butter all from a convenient drive-up window. The cash-and-carry markets, as they were referred to, became quite popular and countless outposts were constructed across Los Angeles throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s. Though not nearly as prevalent today, there were still 82 of the shops dotting the Southern California landscape as of 2006.

The Burbank site remained in operation until 2014. When it hit the market, recent retiree Patricia Franco saw an opportunity to revitalize the space, while still embracing its retro roots. And revitalize it she did! Patricia completely revamped both the property’s interior and exterior. Over a period of five months, she added a front patio, implemented a red, white and black color scheme, planted foliage, installed new countertops and black-and-white checkered flooring, and expanded the inventory. She dubbed her new shop “Retro Dairy Mart.” It really is an adorable little spot and I am not at all surprised that it turned up in La La Land. The site looked quite a bit different 27 years prior to that, though, when Cameron Crowe pegged it as a location for Say Anything . . .

Masking as a Seattle-area gas station/convenience store, Alta Dena Dairy pops up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) asks some male friends – including a young Jeremy Piven – for advice on girls. After they share some not-so-choice pieces of wisdom with him, Lloyd can’t help but question, “If you guys know so much about women, how come you’re here at, like, a Gas N Sip on a Saturday night, completely alone, drinking beers, with no women anywhere?” Their response? “By choice, man!”

In the segment, Lloyd is pacing along the market’s east side (in the area pictured below, which is now covered by an overhang), while his friends sit across from him in front of the chain link fence that separates the mart’s parking lot from that of what is now the Burning Bonzai restaurant located next door.

Lloyd’s positioning in the scene is denoted with a pink “x” in the aerial view below, while that of his friends is denoted with blue circles.

Though the market no longer resembles its Say Anything . . . self, its slanted front roofline remains unchanged.

As do the pipes and electrical equipment visible behind Lloyd’s friends on the Burning Bonzai next door.

I cannot express how cool it was to stand there, in the footsteps of Cameron Crowe, John Cusack, Jeremy Piven, and Gregory Sporleder (Hello, Coach Romano from Never Been Kissed!), 28 years after the fact, and see those pipes and wires in the exact same positioning that they were in when filming took place.

Even the ledge Lloyd’s friends sat on appears untouched, aside from a paint job.

Though Retro Dairy Mart only popped up briefly in La La Land in the scene in which Seb grabs a morning coffee, a much wider view of it was shown than in Say Anything . . . Other than the fact that the front patio area was expanded for the shoot, the site looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.

Unfortunately, the brightly-colored Californian Oranges mural seen on the wall of the Burning Bonzai building was just set decoration that was painted over after filming wrapped.

Van Beek, the jazz-club-turned-samba-tapas place that Seb laments throughout La La Land, sits directly across the street from the Retro Dairy Mart. As Sebastian explains to Mia (Emma Stone) in the movie, “I get coffee five miles out of the way just so I can be near a jazz club.” In reality, that building is the former Magnolia Theatre.

The Magnolia appears twice in La La Land – first in the scene in which Seb grabs coffee and then in a later segment in which Mia helps Seb destroy one of the bar’s signs.

Though there seem to be differing reports about its history online, from what I have gathered the Magnolia Theatre was designed by architect Clifford A. Balch in 1941. The one-screen, 797-seat venue was shuttered in 1979 when the owners lost their lease and was subsequently transformed into a recording studio named Evergreen Studios, established in part by Barbra Streisand. Though the property has since been sold and renamed numerous times, it continues to operate as a music studio. Just a few of the stars who have recorded on the premises include Frank Sinatra, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow, Justin Timberlake, Paul McCartney, Plácido Domingo, Mariah Carey, George Martin, and Stephen Sondheim.

La La Land is hardly the first production to utilize the Magnolia Theatre.

Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) helps Lona McLane (Kim Novak) with some car trouble in the parking lot of the Magnolia after catching a flick at the theatre in the 1954 noir Pushover.

In the Season 3 episode of Columbo titled “Double Exposure,” which aired in 1973, Dr. Bart Keppel (Robert Culp) perfects his use of subliminal advertising at the Magnolia. The theatre looks a bit different in Columbo than it did in Pushover due to a renovation that took place in 1963.

Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood website, I learned that the Magnolia Theatre is where Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) discovers that his wife is having an affair in the 1975 thriller Night Moves.

The Season 1 episode of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl titled “Glitter Rock,” which aired in 1976, also took place at the Magnolia, which the narrator says is located in a “seedy, run-down section of the city.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Retro Dairy Mart, aka the Gas N Sip from Say Anything . . ., is located at 4420 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The Magnolia Theatre from La La Land is located across the street at 4403 West Magnolia Boulevard.

May 26, 2017May 25, 2017

Rose Towers from “CSI: Cyber”

Spanish-style courtyard apartment complexes are my jam (as evidenced here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). One that I became especially enamored of a little over a year ago was the pink-hued building where Tristan Jenkins (fave actor Matt Lanter) lived on the Season 2 episode of CSI: Cyber titled “Corrupted Memory.” While I don’t typically watch CSI: Cyber, when I learned that ML would be guest-starring I made sure to tune in – and was not disappointed. Not only did Matt do a fabulous job portraying an agoraphobe, but my jaw dropped during one of the opening shots when cameras swooped in to reveal the colorful terraced apartment complex his character called home. I immediately pulled out my laptop to try to figure out where filming had taken place, which my instinct told me was somewhere in West Hollywood. I came up completely empty-handed, though. I even tweeted Matt to ask about the locale, to no avail. It wasn’t until early this year that I was finally able to identify the place, via a rather circuitous route.

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A couple of months ago, the Grim Cheaper and I were watching an episode of Scorpion (our latest obsession) and I spotted what I thought was the exterior of the apartment building where Mia (Emma Stone) lived in La La Land. I did a quick Google search for “La La Land apartment building” and was shocked when photos of what I immediately recognized as Tristan’s complex from CSI: Cyber were kicked back! As it turns out, Tristan and Mia’s buildings are one and the same! (Though I was wrong on the whole Scorpion thing.) I was thrilled with the discovery and added the place’s address – 1728 East 3rd Street in Long Beach – to my To-Stalk List. Well, imagine my surprise when just a few days later, my friend Nat, who lives in San Francisco (you may remember her from Wednesday’s post), texted to let me know she was heading down to the LBC. While she was hoping we could meet up during her visit, I couldn’t make it out there. But I did ask if she’d be willing to stalk Tristan’s apartment on my behalf and she happily agreed. Thank you, Nat! (For those keeping track, this is the second locale that she has stalked for me over the past few months. I’ve taken to calling her my field correspondent and the GC has suggested I get her a press pass. Winking smile )

In real life, Tristan’s apartment building from CSI: Cyber is known as Rose Towers. The complex was originally built in 1928 as El Cordova Apartments. Designed by George D. Riddle, the 20-unit Spanish Colonial Revival-style property boasts Moorish influences, wrought-iron balconies, lush landscaping, a terraced central courtyard with a tiled fountain, and arched entryways.

In 1955, El Cordova was transformed into an own-your-own apartment complex and then was transitioned once again in 1992, this time into condos.

In 2006, the homeowners association decided to re-stucco the building and, in doing so, discovered that there was also some water damage, wood rot, and minor structural issues that needed attention. The group banded together, performing much of the general contractor work themselves, to restore the property to its original glory. Their efforts, which took 4 months to complete at a cost of $150,000, earned them a preservation award from the Los Angeles Conservancy.

In “Corrupted Memory,” a woman is murdered at Rose Towers, which is said to be located at 1298 Horizon Court in Tampa, Florida, and the only witness is her agoraphobic neighbor Tristan, who is so traumatized by the event that his entire memory of it is blocked.

Quite a bit of the complex was shown in the episode.

I am fairly certain that the inside of two of the building’s actual condos were also utilized in the production. You can check out interior photos of a couple of the complex’s units here and here.

The exterior of Rose Towers was only shown once in La La Land, during the “Someone in the Crowd” musical number at the beginning of the movie. Very little of the structure was featured in the scene and none of the courtyard area, which is why I didn’t recognize it from CSI: Cyber.

While several websites report that Mia lived in Unit #16, her actual apartment exterior never appeared in the movie. Apparently, the portion of the “Someone in the Crowd” sequence shot at Rose Towers was originally supposed to be much longer -with Mia shown exiting her unit, dancing on the terrace, down the stairs, and past the fountain – but most of it wound up on the cutting room floor, leaving audiences with only a very brief view of the complex from the street.

You can watch a video put together by the Gazettes website about the filming of the “Someone in the Crowd” scene, in which host Jo Murray talks with homeowners about how the segment was shot and the cuts made, by clicking below.

The back alley behind Rose Towers was also shown briefly in a later La La Land scene in which Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) picks Mia up for a date.

Only the exterior of the complex was utilized in La La Land. Sadly, Mia’s brightly-colored apartment interior was just a studio-built set.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Rose Towers, aka the former El Cordova Apartments from the “Corrupted Memory” episode of CSI: Cyber, are located at 1728 East 3rd Street in Long Beach.

January 30, 2017February 10, 2017

Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center & Community Garden from “La La Land”

On paper, La La Land looked like my perfect movie. I love Ryan Gosling. I love Emma Stone. I love musicals. And I LOVE L.A. The film just didn’t work for me, though. I realize mine is a vastly unpopular opinion, but I found La La Land to be too long, too slow, and too melancholy. My main beef, though? For a flick that purports itself to be a love letter to Los Angeles, it certainly did not showcase many real area locations. Sure there was the Griffith Observatory – I’ll give you that one. It’s a real site – and a great one at that. (Though the planetarium featured was a set re-creation.) What about the Rialto Theatre? Yes, the Rialto is an actual movie house, but it’s closed and has been since 2010. You can’t actually see a film there. Angels Flight? That’s real and historic – but, again, shuttered. Watts Towers and Grand Central Market were utilized, but their appearances were fleeting at best. Not even all of the scenes purported to take place on the Warner Bros. backlot were actually shot there. [And no, the coffee shop where Mia (Stone) worked isn’t real, either, though its facade can be seen on the WB Studio Tour.] And while a couple of area restaurants (like the Smoke House) did make the cut, most either played fictitious eateries or were never referred to by name. So basically everything the movie showcased was fake. Southern California is chock full of vibrant, picturesque, dramatic, historic, very real sites that are accessible. Why not celebrate the city and all of its glory by featuring them? A couple of years ago, I stalked one of the few La La Land locales that is actually open to the public (though it did not play itself in the movie) – Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center & Community Garden. I was familiar with the property thanks to its appearance in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, so I recognized it immediately when it popped up onscreen. I had never gotten around to blogging about it, though, and figured what better time than now?

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Orcutt Ranch was originally established by Union Oil Company president/geologist William Warren Orcutt and his wife, Mary Logan. The couple purchased and developed a 210-acre plot of land in what is now West Hills and commissioned architect L.G. Knipe to built a large adobe-style residence on the site. The home, which they dubbed “Rancho Sombra del Roble” (Spanish for “shaded oak ranch”), was completed in 1926 and still stands today. That’s it below.

The Orcutts first used the dwelling as a vacation home before eventually retiring there.

William passed away at the residence in 1942 and Mary continued to live there until 1966, at which point she sold the ranch to the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department.

By that time, a 24-acre portion of the property, which included the house, had already been declared a Historic-Cultural Landmark.

The city dubbed the site “Orcutt Ranch” and opened the grounds to the public.

When I stalked the place in August 2014 (along with Mike, from MovieShotsLA), I was thrilled to discover how open and accessible it is.

Even the Orcutt’s historic adobe was unrestricted, though we were not able to venture inside.

Besides the adobe, a large barn, and several other buildings, the sprawling property also boasts a myriad of gardens, groves, and green expanses, each dotted with countless varieties of plants and trees including birch, wisteria, dogwood, purple lily magnolia, oak, sycamore, and eucalyptus.

Orcutt Ranch is a beautiful place to peruse nature, sit and reflect, or wander aimlessly.

It is also a popular wedding venue.

And filming location! Orcutt Ranch actually portrayed two different places in La La Land. (For those who have yet to see the movie, be forewarned, the paragraphs that follow contain spoilers.) The interior of the Orcutt adobe first masked as the inside of the Chateau Marmont bungalow where Mia was staying at the end of the film. (Why the scene wasn’t shot in an actual room at the historic hotel is anyone’s guess.) Sadly, I do not have any screen captures of that particular scene to post here, but you can see images of the room used in it here and here. Later, in La La Land’s dreamy final montage, during which Mia and Sebastian (Gosling) imagine what could have been, the adobe portrays the couple’s home. Thankfully, I do have screen grabs from that scene thanks to this YouTube video.

It was the adobe’s unique arched door that I recognized while watching La La Land.

The interior of the Orcutt residence was also used in the sequence, including the solarium (which you can see a photograph of here) . . .

. . . and the living room (which you can see a photo of here). You can check out some more images of the adobe’s interior here.

The property’s courtyard and fountain made an appearance in the scene, as well.

As did the lush grounds. (My imagery below isn’t the best because that portion of the scene was shot on a 16mm movie camera and is therefore a bit grainy.)

As I mentioned in my intro, Orcutt Ranch also appeared in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. In Season 10’s “Laying Pipe,” it masked as the supposed Ojai-area church where Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering) and Janet Sosna (Lindsay Price) took Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) and Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) to meet their minister.

Only the exterior of the ranch appeared in the episode.

The gazebo where Janet and Steve had a mini wedding rehearsal was not a set piece brought in for the shoot, but is an actual element of the property, which I was thrilled to see! It does look a bit different today, though, than in 1999 when the episode was shot.

The ranch’s gardens made an appearance in “Laying Pipe,” as well.

A couple of Orcutt Ranch’s outbuildings also masked as the Thomas family farm in the Season 1 episode of Deadtime Stories titled “Grandpa’s Monster Movies.”

One of the buildings used in the episode is pictured below.

For those who felt like I did about La La Land (or who are completely flummoxed as to why I didn’t like it), this The New Yorker review is a great read. As author Dale Robinette states, “I saw La La Land in a theatre, sitting up close to a big bright screen, and couldn’t tell whether it was filmed on location or in a studio in front of a green screen. If [director Damien] Chazelle’s intention was to celebrate, among other things, the public face of the city, he failed miserably at it.” I couldn’t agree more. Chazelle really should have taken a note from Swingers. The 1996 film brilliantly showcased a very real L.A., featuring actual area restaurants, bars and landmarks to such perfection that many still draw fans to this day, twenty years after the movie originally premiered.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Orcutt Ranch Horticultural Center & Community Garden, from La La Land, is located at 23600 Roscoe Boulevard in West Hills. The site is open daily from dusk until dawn and admission is free. You can visit the property’s official website here.