The Mystery of the “Melissa & Joey” House

Melissa & Joey House (8 of 9)

In February, I received a challenge from a fellow stalker named Jill who wanted to know about the home belonging to Melissa Burke (Melissa Joan Hart) on the ABC Family sitcom Melissa & Joey.  The residence looked familiar to her and she was fairly certain that it had been used previously in another series.  She was not alone in that belief.  One quick Google search of “Melissa & Joey house, same as” led me to several message boards in which commenters queried about where they had seen the property before.  I had never actually watched an episode of Melissa & Joey, but was immediately intrigued, so I streamed the show on Netflix.  The Burke residence did not look at all familiar, though.  Thus began the mystery of the Melissa & Joey house.  And y’all know how much I love myself a good mystery!  Fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, did manage to track the dwelling down shortly after Jill posted her challenge and while I ran right out to stalk it, I have yet to figure out why the place looks so familiar to so many viewers.

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Several of the message boards I came across featured commenters asking if the Melissa & Joey house was the same property used in Reba, Step by Step or Boy Meets World.  As you can see in the collage pictured below, though, the Melissa & Joey residence bears virtually no resemblance to the Reba or Boy Meets World house.  And while it does look similar to the Step by Step house, they are clearly not one and the same.

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To me, the Melissa & Joey house is reminiscent of both the Mama’s Family and Old School homes, but, again, is obviously not either one.

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So I will put it out there to my fellow stalkers.  Do any of you recognize the home from another production?

Melissa & Joey House (5 of 9)

Melissa & Joey is set in Toledo, Ohio, but the Burke residence can actually be found in Hancock Park.  Of the property, series’ executive producer Boy Young said, “Her house is a house here in Los Angeles that we selected because it’s architecturally believable from Toledo.  Our production designer basically surveyed architectural styles of Toledo and tried to find something here in L.A. that resembled that.”

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In real life, the picturesque, two-story dwelling, which was originally built in 1914, features four bedrooms, three baths, 3,005 square feet of interior space, and a 0.22-acre plot of land.  It last sold in April 2008 for $1.795 million.

Melissa & Joey House (2 of 9)

Melissa & Joey House (9 of 9)

Several message board commenters also stated their beliefs that the interior set – which exists inside of a soundstage at CBS Studio Center in Studio City – was recycled from another series, as well, although it does not look at all familiar to me.  So I will once again put it out there to my fellow stalkers – does anyone recognize the interior of the Melissa & Joey house from another production?

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On a side-note – I am BEYOND excited to announce that I wrote a small article about the Double Indemnity house for the April 2014 issue of Los Angeles magazine, which is on newsstands now.ScreenShot538That’s me buying out the Palm Desert Barnes & Noble of every copy of the magazine that they had on Saturday.

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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.

Big THANK YOU to Jill for challenging me to find this location and to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for tracking it down!  Smile

Melissa & Joey House (1 of 9)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Melissa & Joey house is located at 102 North Norton Avenue in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.

The 3rd Annual “Get Lucky for Lupus” Celebrity Poker Tournament

Kellie Martin from "Life Goes On"

Last Wednesday evening, my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, invited me to do a little stalking of the 3rd Annual “Get Lucky for Lupus” Celebrity Poker Tournament, which benefited Lupus LA, the West Coast division of the S.L.E. Lupus Foundation.  Well, once I head the word “lupus”, I knew that I had to attend as I had a pretty strong feeling that one of my very favorite actresses, Kellie Martin, would be there.  Kellie’s younger sister, Heather, tragically passed away from lupus in 1998 at the tender age of 19 and the actress has been a very vocal advocate for research on the disease ever since.  (You can read an article that Kellie wrote about her sister’s battle with lupus for the September 1999 issue of Jane Magazine here.)  And, sure enough, about ten minutes after the Grim Cheaper and I arrived on the scene, who should walk up but Kellie!  And, let me tell you, I just about had a heart attack I was so excited to meet her! Life Goes On was one of my very favorite television shows growing up, so seeing Becca Thacher in person was almost most than I could bear.  Kellie was very sweet and happily posed for a picture with me, but seemed truly surprised that anyone had recognized her, which shocked me!

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Melissa Joan Hart

Next to arrive was Melissa Joan Hart, from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch fame, whom I had been dying to get a picture with for over a decade!

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When I moved to Los Angeles way back in early 2000, one of the first things I did was register for background work at Central Casting. The same day that I registered, I was fortunate enough to get hired as an extra in the Season 4 episode of Just Shoot Me titled “Fast Times at Finchmont High”.  As it turned out, the scenes I was in were with special guest star Melissa Joan Hart in which I played one of her cheerleader friends.  That’s me in the above screen captures – in the first capture, I am standing to the right of Melissa and in the second, I am standing in between Melissa and the other cheerleader.  Melissa could not have been sweeter to me or more professional to work with even after I accidentally gave her a flat tire (i.e. stepped on the back of her shoe, causing it to come off) while we were filming!  I am a huge klutz by nature and the director, who as it turns out was Steven Levitan (the creator of Modern Family whom I just met two weeks ago at a pre-Emmy party), had asked me to stay as close to Melissa as possible while walking down the hall.  Well, I stayed so close to her that I ended up stepping on the back of her shoe and pulling it off.  She did not miss a beat, though, and kept right on shooting.  I was highly embarrassed over the whole thing, but Melissa was a complete and total sweetheart and, when I apologized to her afterwards, she said, “Oh my gosh, don’t worry about it at all!”  All in all, I could not have asked for a better first Hollywood experience and it was largely due to the kindness of Melissa.

Me on “Just Shoot Me”! 🙂

You can watch the clip of me on Just Shoot Me by clicking above.

James Denton from "Desperate Housewives"

Other celebrities who attended the “Get Lucky for Lupus” Celebrity Poker Tournament (and who were ALL so nice and laid back) included James Denton, from Desperate Housewives;

Aaron Hill from "Greek"

Aaron Hill, from Greek;

Verne Troyer

Verne Troyer;

Roger Cross from "24"

Roger R. Cross, from 24;

Jason Alexander

George Costanza himself, Jason Alexander, who was so incredibly friendly and nice it was almost unbelievable;

Jamie Gold - poker player, producer, owner of Buzznation

Jamie Gold, the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event champion;

Ryan Cabrera

singer Ryan Cabrera;

Camryn Manheim

Camryn Manheim – SUCH a sweetheart and absolutely GORGEOUS in person;

Michael Trucco from "Battlestar Galactica"

Michael Trucco, from Battlestar Galactica;

Ben Lyons from "E!"

Ben Lyons, from E!’s The Daily 10;

Poker Player Tiffany Michelle

poker player Tiffany Michelle;

Josh Altman from "Million Dollar Listing"

Josh Altman, from Million Dollar Listing;

Karina Smirnoff

Karina Smirnoff, from Dancing with the Stars;

Slash from Guns N Roses

Slash, from Guns N’ Roses, who really did not want to pose for a photo, but was somehow magically talked into it by Miss Pinky Lovejoy;

Derek Mears aka Jason Voorhees from "Friday the 13th"

and Derek Mears, who played Jason Voorhees in the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th.

Derek Mears aka "Jason Voorhees" from "Friday the 13th"

Derek was so nice that he actually took two pictures with me as he was not sure he looked “scary enough” in the first.  Love it!

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I also ran into Jermaine Jackson this past Saturday afternoon and he was SUPER nice and happily agreed to pose for a photo with me.  So, factoring in the Emmys, I guess you could say that it was a pretty INCREDIBLE week for this particular stalker.  Smile And I have no idea how I am going to write my Emmy post at this point in time, by the way, as it is looking to be a pretty daunting undertaking.  I think I am going to have to break it up into several different columns, as it will just be FAR too long otherwise.  But I do promise to write it soon.  Smile

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for inviting me to this event.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can find out more about lupus and lupus research by visiting the official Lupus LA website here.