Pretty Little Liars – IAMNOTASTALKER

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019

The John Ferraro Building

I was recently interviewed for an exciting new project (more details to come) and in my talks with producers beforehand was asked if I had any ideas about where the interview could take place. They were hoping to meet up at a filming location that I felt best represented the spirt of L.A. I didn’t hesitate in my answer – the John Ferraro Building. The strikingly gorgeous structure is not only an onscreen stalwart and an icon of Los Angeles architecture, but it uniquely serves as both a notable part of the city skyline and one of the best places to view it. I have covered the place countless times on my site – in a 2010 post, on My Must-Stalk List, in the “See” section of my 2015 Guide to L.A., to name a few – as well as for other entities, including my article on the Top 10 Science Fiction Locations for Discover Los Angeles and a blurb about must-see locales for the September 2018 issue of Los Angeles magazine. My love for the John Ferraro Building is prolific. While walking the perimeter of the property prior to my interview last week, I realized that in all my chronicling of it, I had yet to do a deep dive into its vast filming history, so I thought it only appropriate to amend that.

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Designed in 1965 by A.C. Martin & Associates, the Modernist/Corporate International-style structure was “green” before being green was even a thing. Built to house the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the architecture firm innovatively incorporated both elements into the design in the most unique way.

The building, which features concrete slabs cantilevered between towering glass walls, boasts specially-built ceilings on each of its 17 floors that absorb heat from the lighting system, helping to keep the property warm during cooler temperatures (yes, L.A. does get some of those) and at night.

As for water, the dramatic structure sits atop a 625 x 350-foot moat-like reflecting pool containing 2-million gallons of the stuff, portions of which are pumped through the HVAC system to cool the interior, essentially carrying 1/3 of the entire air conditioning load.

The pool and its eight fountains also make for some incredible views, the likes of which can’t be found anywhere else in the city.

I mean, come on!

I challenge you to find a prettier spot in all of L.A.

Last one, I promise.

Originally known as the DWP’s General Office Building (GOB), the property was renamed the John Ferraro Building in 2000 in honor of L.A.’s longest-serving city councilman.

The distinctive 287-foot-tall site is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #1022.

Most of my photos in this post come from past visits to the LADWP. While we were there last week, the site was undergoing some sort of maintenance and the typically stunning reflecting pool was dry and the plentiful fountains shut off, as you can see below.

Despite this fact, the building was still dazzling to look at.

Considering LADWP’s beauty, it is no surprise that the place is a frequent film star. What is surprising is all of the misinformation about its various cameos floating around online. But more on that in a bit.

Robert Neville (Charlton Heston) jogs around the building in the 1971 Sci-Fi classic The Omega Man.

Jerry Landers (John Denver) gets interviewed by God (George Burns) at the LADWP, which is said to be located at 1600 Hope Street, in the 1977 comedy Oh, God!, though not much of the building is shown in the scene.

The property portrays a courthouse, where the two young winners of a traffic safety essay contest are interviewed – and mistakenly kidnapped – in the Season 3 episode of CHiPs titled “Kidnap,” which aired in 1980.

Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) explains to Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) what a Terminator is in the building’s parking garage in 1984’s The Terminator. It is the rear side of the parking lot, on 1st Street, that Reese drives in and out of in the scene.

In the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “All Things,” which aired in 2000, the John Ferraro Building masks as the exterior of Washington National Hospital, where Dana Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) former professor is being treated.

John Hancock (Will Smith) holds a news conference at the LADWP to announce that he is heading to prison in the 2008 action flick Hancock.

The site appeared regularly as FBI Headquarters on the short-lived television series FlashForward, which debuted in 2009.

During the first season of Pretty Little Liars, which started airing in 2010, Hannah Marin (Ashley Benson) gets a job at her ex-boyfriend’s mother’s dental office, shown in establishing shots to be located at the LADWP, in order to work off the damage she caused by crashing his car.

That same year, the site popped up very briefly as the exterior of a CIA building in the Season 3 episode of Chuck titled “Chuck Versus the Subway.”

Also in 2010, the LADWP served as a dream world in Inception. It is in the building’s reflecting pool that Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), conceived reconstructions of homes from their past, which were, of course, just CGI creations.

The interior of the property also appears briefly in the film. As Cobb leads Ariadne (Ellen Page) inside, he says, “We both wanted to live in a house, but we loved this type of building. In the real world, we’d have to choose, but not here.” He then takes her upstairs to his “residence,” which is supposedly located a short elevator ride away, but can actually be found about ten miles north at 215 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.

Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) randomly run in to each other at a farmers’ market taking place at the LADWP in the 2011 romcom No Strings Attached.

In 2012, Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King) told Terrell (Michael Jace) that she was expecting his baby at the John Ferraro Building in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Thursday.”

The locale pops up briefly in some establishing imagery of what is supposedly the Department of Justice in 2016’s The Nice Guys.

Melinda’s (Punam Patel) “fountain unveiling” in the Season 2 episode of Adam Ruins Everything titled “Adam Ruins the Future,” which aired in 2017, takes place at the LADWP.

In The Rookie, which began airing in 2018, the LADWP portrays the Los Angeles Police Department’s Mid-Wilshire Station.

Now that we’ve covered a plethora of the productions that LADWP has been in, let’s debunk some of that erroneous info I mentioned earlier. There is so much of it swirling around the internet that writing this post felt more like a disproving of the false reporting of the building’s film history than a chronicling of its many appearances.

Though several websites claim that the LADWP masked as Washington, D.C.’s Bureau of Internal Revenue at the beginning of 1964’s What a Way to Go!, that is incorrect. Filming actually took place at the Gateway West Building, once located at 1801 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. The structure was demolished in 2015 as part of the Westfield Century City expansion, but you can see what it formerly looked like here.

LADWP wasn’t a courthouse in the Season 6 episode of Adam-12 titled “Clinic on 18th Street,” which aired in 1974, either. That building is actually the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center located just a few blocks away at 210 West Temple Street.

Nor did it portray the 14th Street Precinct in the 1980s television series Cagney & Lacey as has been reported. The confusion on this one is semi-understandable, though, being that filming took place at another downtown L.A. DWP site – the Central District Facility located at 1350 South Wall Street. Sadly, the exact building utilized has since been torn down, though.

It has also been reported that the John Ferraro Building played the Tacoma Police Department in the 1989 comedy Three Fugitives. That location, though, is actually the very same former Central District Facility building from Cagney & Lacey.

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: The John Ferraro Building, aka the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, is located at 111 North Hope Street in downtown L.A. The facility’s lobby is open to the pubic each weekday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

June 19, 2017June 16, 2017

My Latest Mike the Fanboy Article – About the “Pretty Little Liars”: Made Here Exhibit

I am finally back from my surprise whirlwind vacation! As it turns out, my best friends flew in from Switzerland for 9 days to spend my 40th with me, along with my parents and the Grim Cheaper. Though we were originally supposed to spend our time on Coronado Island in San Diego, thanks to a VRBO debacle, we had a last minute change in plans and wound up renting a fabulous house in Palm Springs. It was honestly the most magical birthday ever.

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As fate would have it, the morning after our friends left, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood held a press event for the lot’s new Pretty Little Liars: Made Here exhibit. My good friend Mike the Fanboy was asked to attend the event and he kindly passed the opportunity on to me. Since I was in L.A. anyway (our friends left out of LAX), the timing was perfect. You can read my article about the exhibit on Mike’s site here.

February 17, 2016February 17, 2016

Non-Warner Bros. Studio Locations of “Pretty Little Liars”

I have covered Pretty Little Liars locations ad nauseam on my blog, as well as on the other sites that I write for. As I’ve mentioned in all of the posts, the series is lensed pretty much in its entirety at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank (you can check out an extensive guide to the WB locations used on the show here and here) and it is a rare occasion that filming of any kind takes place off the lot. Over the years, I have compiled a list of the few non-studio locales utilized on the series and thought it would be fun to chronicle them in a single post. So here you have it, all of the PLL locations that cannot be found at the WB (excluding the Vancouver sites from the pilot episode, which I covered here, here, here, here and here).

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1. Dr. Ackard’s Office – In the Season 1 episode titled “Reality Bites Me,” Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson) begins assisting at the dental office of Dr. Ackard (Paula Cale) as a way to work off the damage she caused by crashing Dr. Ackard’s son’s car. The site that masked as the dental office on the series is actually one of my favorite buildings in all of Los Angeles, one that I have mentioned many times on this blog – the John Ferraro Building, aka the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power located at 111 North Hope Street in downtown L.A. The structure, which I chronicled in a 2010 post, is only used in establishing shots on Pretty Little Liars. The interior of Dr. Ackard’s actual office – as well as the neighboring office of Jenna Marshall’s (Tammin Sursok) psychologist, which Hanna broke into – is a set built inside of a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio.

2. Rosewood Greens Country Club – In that same episode, Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) and her father play a “friendly” game of doubles tennis against one of Spencer’s dad’s clients at Rosewood Greens Country Club, said to be located in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, where the series is set. Filming of the club scenes actually took place at the Toluca Lake Country Club, which is located pretty much right next door to Warner Bros. Studio at 6711 Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank. Sadly, the property is closed to the public, so as of yet, I have not been able to stalk it.

3. Ian’s Burial – Ian Thomas (Ryan Merriman) is laid to rest at Rosewood’s local cemetery in the Season 2 episode titled “The Devil You Know.” The burial scene was actually lensed, though, at the oft-filmed Mountain View Cemetery located at 2400 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena. Countless productions have been filmed at Mountain View and while I covered the place in an October 2010 post, come October I will be doing a redux as I have since discovered numerous other credits that I need to add to its extensive filming resume.

4. A Is Unmasked – In Pretty Little Liars Season 2 finale, which was titled “UnmAsked,” the Liars learn the true identity of A and confront her while on a dark and twisty Rosewood road. Thanks to a helpful crew member, I learned that the scene was shot on Mount Hollywood Drive inside of Griffith Park. Unfortunately though, due to the lack of light and the fact that very little of the surrounding area was shown, I have yet to pinpoint the exact spot where the climactic sequence took place.

In that same episode, Jenna secretly rendezvoused with A at a turnout also located on Mount Hollywood Drive.

5. Fitzgerald Theatre – In Pretty Little Liars’ Season 5 premiere, titled “EscApe from New York,” Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) and the girls hide out from A at the Fitzgerald Theatre in New York City. In reality, filming took place about 2,800 miles outside of Manhattan at downtown Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theatre, which is located at 842 South Broadway. I covered this locale in a post for L.A. magazine here. Sadly, I have only ever stalked the exterior of the Orpheum, but am hoping to catch a glimpse of its interior at some point by either seeing a show there or by embarking upon a Los Angeles Conservancy Broadway Historic Theatre and Commercial District Walking Tour.

6. The Rosewood Courthouse – In the Season 5 episodes titled “The Melody Lingers On” and “I’m a Good Girl, I Am,” a standing court set at Riverfront Stages, located at 13100 Telfair Avenue in Sylmar, stood in for the Rosewood courtroom where Alison’s trial for the murder of Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) was held. You can check out some photographs of that courtroom set here. I can’t currently find much information about the facility online, so I am guessing that it might have closed recently. Its sister studio, located at 3061 Treadwell Street in Glassell Park, is still in operation, though. You can see the website for that property here.

7. Hollis College – Although several different areas of Warner Bros. Studio have been used to represent Hollis College over the years, in the Season 5 episode titled “Pretty Isn’t the Point,” production made the short trek over to Warner Bros. Ranch to shoot some campus scenes. I recently wrote about the Ranch, which is located about a mile northeast of Warner Bros. Studio at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank, for the Mike the Fanboy website. You can check out that post here. In “Pretty Isn’t the Point,” Spencer grabs coffee with Johnny Raymond (Will Bradley) at what is supposed to be Hollis. The scene was actually lensed, though, in front of the Ranch’s row of picturesque townhouses. Those same townhomes famously appeared each week in the background of the Friends opening credits.

On a fashion side-note – Spencer’s outfit in that scene is one of my favorites of the entire series. So simple, so classy, and oh so cute!

8. Art Gallery – Later in “Pretty Isn’t the Point,” while walking near Hollis, Spencer and Johnny discover that their graffitied artwork has been stolen and is now for sale in a local gallery. That scene was shot just a few feet away from where the two had coffee earlier in the episode, at one of the Ranch’s townhome façades.

A close-up view of that townhouse is pictured below. It is easily one of the most picturesque structures at Warner Bros. Ranch.

9. Gas Station – Later in that same episode, Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) arrests Johnny for breaking into the art gallery while at a nearby gas station. That gas station is also located at Warner Bros. Ranch, just a bit southeast of the townhome façades, and should look familiar to The Middle fans – it is used regularly as Ehlert Motors on the ABC series.

10. Aunt Carol’s House – In Season 6’s “Don’t Look Now,” Jason DiLaurentis (Drew Van Acker) and the Liars discover the gravesite of Charles DiLaurentis while visiting Jason’s aunt’s house. That clapboard residence is another Warner Bros. Ranch location and is best known as being the Walton family home from The Waltons.

11. Rosewood Community Pool – The Ranch’s large swimming pool also made an appearance as the Rosewood Community Pool, where Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) took Sara Harvey (Dre Davis) swimming in that same episode.

12. Welby State Psychiatric Hospital – In a bonus scene that aired during the Season 6 special titled “Five Years Forward,” Alison and Jason visit Charlotte DiLaurentis (Vanessa Ray) at the Welby State Psychiatric Hospital. One of Pasadena’s most famous properties, the Tournament House at 391 South Orange Grove Boulevard, was used in the establishing shot of the institution in the episode. I wrote about the oft-filmed locale in a recent Los Angeles magazine post.

I do not believe that any actual filming took place at the Tournament House, though. I am fairly certain that all of the scene’s on-location shooting was done at Warner Bros. Studio.

One non-studio locale that I have been unable to track down is the Speed Demon Express exterior that was featured in Season 2’s “The Devil You Know.” Though an address number of 4680 or 4690 is visible above the storefront’s doors, try as I might, I have not been able to find the place. If it looks familiar to anyone, please let me know.

Interestingly, by the time that Season 2’s “If These Dolls Could Talk” was filmed, a different exterior was chosen to stand in for Speed Demon Express. That exterior is located on Warner Bros. Studio’s Midwest Business Street and, in an ironic twist, is the very same exterior that is used regularly as The Brew on the series. It was altered significantly prior to being transformed into The Brew, though, and is hardly recognizable from its appearance as Speed Demon Express. Prior to the remodel, the same façade also masked as Sophie’s Music on Gilmore Girls. You can check out what it looked like at the time on Chas’ It’s Filmed There website. Big thank you to Chas for helping me to ID this one.

If anyone can think of any other instances in which filming took place off the lot, please let me know. 🙂

And on a Pretty Little Liars side-note – my mom and I had the pleasure of meeting Troian Bellisario this past weekend and I can honestly say that she is one of the nicest celebrities I have ever encountered! A complete and total doll! I love her even more now than I did before! Troian is currently starring in a play called The Last Match in San Diego. I’ve heard that it is excellent and am hoping to head back down there to catch it in the coming weeks. If I do, I will definitely review it here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

January 18, 2016February 16, 2016

The “Pretty Little Liars” Church

Before we get started, I have a couple of announcements. Some changes will be coming to the blog in 2016. The biggest change will be a major site redesign, which the Grim Cheaper is currently working on and which I could NOT be more excited about. You’ll notice I’ve altered my screen captures a bit in today’s post, which is part of the revamp. My editor at Los Angeles magazine also recently started a new position and until someone is hired to replace her full time, things are a bit up in the air with my Scene it Before column. Regardless of what happens with that, I will be scaling my IAMNOTASTALKER postings down to three days a week (most of the time, anyway), so that I can free up some time to write for other websites (and for my own sanity – throughout most of 2015, I found myself working every weekday plus Sundays, which is no way to operate). One of my new ventures is a monthly column for one of my good friend’s blogs (more info on that to come), which I am thrilled about. So yeah, changes are a-coming. But hopefully my fellow stalkers will embrace them. I have a feeling big things are on the horizon for 2016. And now, on with the post! The winter premiere of Pretty Little Liars, titled “Of Late I Think of Rosewood,” aired last Tuesday night and I have to say it was surprisingly enjoyable. I am really digging the five-year time jump and all of the mysteries that come with it. Well done, PLL! You’ve sucked me right back in, which I wasn’t sure was possible considering the debacle of the whole Big A reveal in August. In honor of the show’s promising return, I am here yet again with yet another Vancouver locale from the pilot episode – Ryerson United Church, which my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry was nice enough to stalk for me during a recent weekend trip to Canada.

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Ryerson United Church was featured at the very end of the Pretty Little Liars pilot. In the episode, it stood in for the Rosewood, Pennsylvania parish where Alison DiLaurentis’ (Sasha Pieterse) funeral was held.

Most notably, it was while standing outside of the church after the funeral that the Liars received their first ever ominous group text message, which read, “I’m still here, bitches. And I know everything. -A”

Being that I had nothing to go on with this one – no visible street signs or address numbers – I thought the church would be tough to track down, but it was a surprisingly easy find. I simply did a Google Images search using the terms “church” and “Vancouver” and, voila, in the fourth row of results, there was a photo of the place I was looking for! Clicking on said photo led me to a page about Ryerson United Church on the Wedding Mappers website.

The actual inside of Ryerson United also appeared in the Pretty Little Liars pilot. You can check out some photographs of the interior here.

Though, as I mentioned in this post, the supposed church stairs shown in the funeral scene are not located at Ryerson United, but in the Vancouver home that masked as Ali’s in the episode.

It is interesting to be blogging about this particular location now, after having watched “Of Late I Think of Rosewood,” being that the episode so closely paralleled the pilot, especially the funeral scene.

Side note – I absolutely loved the line in the premiere in which Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn), when talking about Radley Sanitarium’s transformation into the boutique hotel “The Radley,” said, “Well, people get do-overs, why shouldn’t buildings?” I couldn’t agree more, Caleb! Oh, how I wish people would stop tearing down old and historic structures! I’m looking at you, owners of the Clueless party house!

When Pretty Little Liars got picked up, production moved from Vancouver to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank and the series began to make use of a structure located on the Midwest Street backlot as Rosewood’s local church. The façade has gone on to appear in countless episodes, including the funeral scene in “Of Late I Think of Rosewood.”

The Midwest Street church is a practical set and its interior also regularly appears on the show, as was the case with “Of Late I Think of Rosewood.”

Back to Ryerson United Church in Vancouver. Pretty Little Liars is hardly the first production to make use of the site. Most notably, the church was the main location featured in the 1983 TV movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

The interior of Ryerson United was also utilized in the production.

In the Season 2 episode of The Flash titled “Legends of Today,” Ryerson United Church masked as St. Marks in Central City, where Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) went to track down a consecrated staff.

The exterior shown in the episode was that of a different church, though.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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: Ryerson United Church, aka the church from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars, is located at 2195 West 45th Avenue in Vancouver.

January 14, 2016February 16, 2016

Spencer’s House and Barn from “Pretty Little Liars”

Though all of the homes featured on Pretty Little Liars are pretty darn amazing design-wise, my personal favorite, hands-down, is the farm-like residence where Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) and her family live. So when I began tracking down the locales used in the pilot, which was shot in Vancouver, Spencer’s pad was at the top of my list of places to find. And find it, I did. While not much of the dwelling is visible from the street, sadly, I still had my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry drop by to snap some pics of it for me during a recent weekend trip to Canada.

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Spencer’s house played a pivotal role in the Pretty Little Liars pilot. Not only was the home shown repeatedly throughout the episode (though never in a full exterior shot) . . .

. . . but the Hastings’ family’s large barn was the site of the Liars’ slumber party, from which Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) mysteriously disappeared.

The real life interior of the residence, including the kitchen . . .

. . . and one of the bedrooms, was also used in the filming.

I spent so many hours searching for Spencer’s house that I honestly no longer remember the exact story of how I ended up finding it. What I do remember is scouring Google and Bing aerial views for Vancouver neighborhoods with large plots of land and eventually coming across the Southlands area. While perusing that region, I spotted a large home with a barn in the backyard and, voila, it matched what appeared on PLL.

Spencer’s house sits on an absolutely massive corner plot of land. So massive, in fact, that it has two addresses – 3275 Celtic Avenue and 7376 Blenheim Street.

As I mentioned, very little of the main house can be seen from the street due to the fact that it is surrounded by a huge wall of foliage.

But there is good news! Spencer’s barn is located on the Blenheim Street side of the property and it is visible from the road, though the area that can be seen is not the area that appeared on Pretty Little Liars. In the pilot, the only portion of the barn shown was the eastern portion, while the western side is the side that is visible from the street. Sadly, that side of the barn is not really recognizable, but as you can see below the barn doors are a direct match to what was shown onscreen.

According to the book Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide, the Blenheim Street side of the property is a commercial horse facility known as Golden Oaks Stables.

Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up by ABC Family (now Freeform) and filming moved to Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, a house on Midwest Street was tapped to stand in for the Hastings’ residence. That façade should look familiar to Gilmore Girls fans as it was formerly used as Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) home on the popular series.

Producers also had a re-creation of the Vancouver barn constructed in front of the Hastings’ home once the series got picked up.

Fun fact – all of the residences on Midwest Street are built with multiple facades so that they can mask as different properties depending on which way the camera is angled. The front of Spencer’s house is actually the back side of the dwelling that serves as Mona Vanderwaal’s (Janel Parrish) home on the series.

Interestingly, while the Vancouver house is no longer used for filming, it still pops up occasionally in establishing shots.

The interior of the Hastings’ residence was also re-created on a soundstage once production moved to Warner Bros. Though the re-creation is not an exact match to the Vancouver home, it is fairly close.

I am absolutely in love with the sitting area located just off of the family’s kitchen. I am so ready for a fireplace in my life! I’ll take that settee, too, while I’m at it.

Spencer’s bedroom set is also pretty fabulous. Actually, I should say “was” pretty fabulous. Sadly, it was dismantled last year when filming of the five-year time jump commenced.

Spencer’s room was my favorite out of all the girls (with Aria’s running a close second). I especially loved the metal “S” sign that hung on her wall.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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: Spencer’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 3275 Celtic Avenue/7376 Blenheim Street in Vancouver. The barn is situated on the Blenheim Street portion of the property. The mansion featured in the 2011 Disney Channel movie Geek Charming is located next door at 3233 Celtic Avenue.

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016

The Ultimate “Pretty Little Liars” Guide to Warner Bros. Studio

Be sure to check out my latest post for Discover Los Angeles, The Ultimate Pretty Little Liars Guide to Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood Part One and Part Two. It is a continuation of my February 2015 article, which covered locales from the series’ first two seasons. I had so much fun putting this one together – and even had a very apropos “A” moment while doing so! I hope my fellow stalkers enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

January 11, 2016April 12, 2020

Lord Byng Secondary School from “Pretty Little Liars”

I hope y’all aren’t sick of Pretty Little Liars locations yet, because I still have a few more up my sleeve, as well as a huge soon-to-be published article on the subject for Discover Los Angeles. Today’s locale is Vancouver’s Lord Byng Secondary School, which stood in for Rosewood High School in the pilot episode. For those who have not read my other PLL articles (which you can do here, here, here, and here) and are unfamiliar with the production of the show, I’ll give you the skinny. While the series is lensed almost in its entirety at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, the pilot was shot in Vancouver. I recently became a bit obsessed with tracking down locations from the inaugural episode and found the school featured in it thanks to the Pretty Little Liars Wikia page. My good friend/fellow stalker Kerry was nice enough to stalk it for me during a recent trip to Canada. Thank you, Kerry!

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The stately Lord Byng Secondary School was originally constructed in 1925 and was named after The Lord Byng of Vimy, who, at the time, was the Governor General of Canada. You can see a photograph of what the site looked like when it was first constructed here.

The property has been expanded several times over the years. You can see some photos of those additions being built here.

Lord Byng popped up a few times in the Pretty Little Liars pilot and establishing shots of it still appear on the series from time to time.

The real life interior of the school was also used in a few scenes.

Once the show got picked up, production moved to the Sunshine State, more specifically to Warner Bros. Studio. Outside of an occasional establishing shot of Lord Byng, a brick-faced façade located in the Midwest Street portion of the lot has since been used to mask as Rosewood High. Surprisingly, that structure (pictured in the second photograph below) bears quite a resemblance to Lord Byng Secondary School. I say “surprisingly” because the façade was not constructed for Pretty Little Liars, but has been a lot staple since it was built the ‘50s. The Dukes of Hazzard fans should recognize the place as the infamous Hazzard County Courthouse.

As I mentioned in my post about Aria Montgomery’s (Lucy Hale) house, the parts of Mike Montgomery (Cody Allen Christian) and Byron Montgomery (Chad Lowe) were re-cast after the Pretty Little Liars pilot was shot, which required many scenes to be re-shot. A few of those scenes took place at Rosewood High and the re-shoots made use of the Warner Bros. façade. Those scenes included the segment in which Aria dropped Mike off at lacrosse practice . . .

. . . and close-up shots from the scene in which Byron dropped Aria and Mike off at school on the first day of classes.

Lord Byng is an oft-used filming location. In fact, it has appeared in so many productions that it would be impossible for me to chronicle them all here, but I’ll list a few. In 1986’s The Boy Who Could Fly, LBSS was where Milly (Lucy Deakins) attended high school.

Lord Byng has appeared in no less than five episodes of 21 Jump Street, including Season 2’s “After School Special,” which aired in 1987. For that episode the rear side of Lord Byng was utilized. You can read about more of the episodes filmed there on the 80sFilmLocations site.

LBSS was where Nicole Walker (Reese Witherspoon) went to high school in the 1996 thriller Fear.

In 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the school was where Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) and Scott Summers (Tim Pocock) had a showdown.

And in the Season 1 episode of Emily Owens, M.D. titled “Emily . . . and the Outbreak,” which aired in 2012, Lord Byng masked as Robert M. Johnson High School, where Emily Owens (Mamie Gummer) taught a sex education class.

Kerry also let me know that the site is currently portraying Erie Harbor School on the new Apple TV+ series Home Before Dark.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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: Lord Byng Secondary School, aka Rosewood High School from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars, is located at 3939 West 16th Avenue in Vancouver.

January 8, 2016January 16, 2016

Aria’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – stalking begets stalking! One of the Vancouver locations I was most interested in finding from the Pretty Little Liars pilot was the gorgeous Craftsman-style house where doe-eyed beauty Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) lived. There was virtually nothing to go on, though – no address number, no street signs, no clues visible in the background. So I put that hunt on the back burner and instead set my sights on tracking down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain home from the episode. As fate would have it, finding it led me right to Aria’s house!

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While scanning through the pilot during my search, I almost fell out of my chair when I noticed that Aria’s house was actually visible in the background across the street from the DiLaurentis/St. Germain residence in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) walked Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson) home from school.

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, thanks to a visible address number, I was able to track down the DiLaurentis/St. Germain house in just a few minutes. And sure enough, when I looked across the street using Google Street View, there was Aria’s pad! Because I don’t have any trips to Vancouver planned in the coming year, my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, was nice enough to stalk the place for me during a recent (rainy) visit to Canada. Thank you, Kerry!

Sadly, Aria’s house looks a bit different today than it did when the pilot was shot back in December 2009. As you can see below, besides a color change from yellow and red to gray and white, most of the windows have been swapped out for new ones, and the roofline of the second story above the porch has been altered.

You can see some of the work being done in old Google Street View images from May 2015.

But if you toggle Street View back to May 2014, the home appears exactly as it did onscreen. Oh, how I wish I had gotten to see it before the alterations were made.

In real life, the residence boasts 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 5,000 square feet of living space.

Sadly, Aria’s awesome front porch swing is nowhere to be found.

Typically when shooting a pilot, the interior of a house will be utilized. Then if the series is picked up, that interior will be re-created on a soundstage for all future filming. That was not the case with this particular location. The segments that took place inside of Aria’s home in the pilot were not shot in Canada at all, actually, but at a practical house set on Midwest Street at Warner Bros. Studio. I did not realize that factoid until making screen captures for this post. In the scene in which Aria talked to her father, Byron (Chad Lowe), while standing in the family’s entry, the green doorway of a residence across the street was visible in the background. I knew that doorway belonged to a studio house immediately upon seeing it, did some further research, and discovered it was part of a façade that is, sadly, no longer standing.

The house once stood at the southern end of Midwest Street, but was dismantled in 2014 – along with the façade of Toby Cavanaugh’s (Keegan Allen) house – to make way for the studio’s newly-unveiled Stage 48: Script to Screen exhibit. You can see some faraway photographs I took of the structure while on a tour of the WB a few years back below.

Once I figured out the location of the green-doored façade, I was able to discern that the Montgomery house interior scenes from the pilot were shot inside of the home pictured below, which is also located on the southern edge of Midwest Street. Why were those segments shot at the WB lot and not on location in Vancouver like the rest of the pilot, you ask? Well, I looked into it and learned that the roles of both Byron and Aria’s brother, Mike (Cody Allen Christian), were recast after the pilot had been filmed, so any scenes involving them had to be re-shot. The vast majority of those scenes took place inside of the Montgomery home.

Interestingly, during one of my most recent visits to the WB back in June, I asked our tour guide for help in tracking down a couple of PLL locations that I knew were on the backlot, but that I couldn’t seem to find. He did not end up having time to show me the locales during the tour, so after it ended he took me and my friends on a private tour of the studio (it was amazing!), during which he pointed out the house below and informed us that it was used for exterior shots of Aria’s residence. As you can see, the bottom portion of the façade is painted to match the original coloring of the Vancouver home.

I can only recall one time when the façade exterior appeared on the series (though I am sure there are other instances). In the Season 6 episode titled “Don’t Look Now,” a very tight shot of the home was shown in the scene in which Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) dug through Aria’s trash, looking for her anti-anxiety medication.

All of the homes on Midwest Street are designed in such a way that their various sides can appear as different properties. The actual “front” of the structure that is used as Aria’s house is pictured below. The area that appears onscreen in Pretty Little Liars can be found on this residence’s southern side.

Our tour guide had also informed us that the interior of the home contained the set of Aria’s living room. And while sheet-covered furniture and props were visible through the front window of the house (as you can see below), which points toward a set being located there, I did not put a whole lot of credence into his assertion. Because the interior of Aria’s house is utilized with such regularly, I figured the sets were most likely situated on a soundstage and not inside of the Midwest Street dwelling. But now it appears that his information was correct.

Though I do still believe that some of the Montgomery home interiors exist inside of a soundstage (most notably, the set for Aria’s bedroom), it does seem that at least a portion of them were constructed inside of the Midwest Street façade.

UPDATE – I just came across the website of Pretty Little Liar’s production designer Rachel Kamerman and a caption on her portfolio page confirms what our tour guide told us. As you can see below, according to Rachel, the interior of the Montgomery house is a permanent set built on the W.B. backlot and not inside of a soundstage.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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: Aria’s house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1990 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver. The DiLaurentis home from the episode is located across the street at 1995 West 19th Avenue.

January 6, 2016January 13, 2016

Ali’s House from “Pretty Little Liars”

Pretty Little Liars will be returning to the small screen on January 12th and I could NOT be more excited! Though I found the recent mid-season finale to be absolutely ridiculous, not to mention a total let-down (this was SO me and my mom while viewing it), to the point that I thought I might never watch again, I now find myself thrilled that new episodes are only a few days away! As detailed in my February 2015 post titled “The Pretty Little Liars Guide to Warner Bros. Studio,” the ABC Family (soon to be re-named Freeform) series is shot pretty much in its entirety on the WB lot in Burbank. The pilot, though, was lensed in Vancouver and last year I managed to track down most of the locales that appeared in the episode. (There is one that remains unfound and a real thorn in my side, but more on that later.) My good friend/fellow stalker Kerry lives in the Pacific Northwest and recently took a weekend trip up to Vancouver. I asked if she wouldn’t mind stalking some PLL locations for me while she was in town and stalk them she did! Every single one! Thank you, Kerry! So I figured what better time to blog about them than in the days leading up to the premiere – and what better locale to start with than the DiLaurentis family house, which played such a pivotal role in the pilot.

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For those not in the know, the pilot of Pretty Little Liars centers around the disappearance of a teenage girl named Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse). The mysterious details of her disappearance, which took place a year prior, are revealed in flashbacks. In the episode, it is said that the DiLaurentis family, distraught over losing Ali, has chosen to sell their large Victorian-style residence and a new family is shown moving in.

The home was actually the first locale I tracked down from the episode. It was a snap to find thanks to its unique architecture and a “1995” number placard that I spotted above the front door in the scene in which Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) welcomes the new girl, Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), to the neighborhood. Address number in hand, I did a Google search for “1995,” “Victorian house,” and “Vancouver,” and the first link to pop up was a real estate listing for a residence located at 1995 West 19th Avenue. Sure enough, the images featured in the listing were a perfect match to Ali’s house. Wahoo!

The massive dwelling, which was originally built in the 1920s, is just as stunning in real life as it appeared onscreen (as least as evidenced by Kerry’s photos). In actuality, though, the property is not a single-family home, but a multi-unit dwelling.

The residence appears a couple of times in the pilot, most notably in the scene in which (spoiler alert!) Ali’s body is discovered buried in the side yard.

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the episode. Not only was one of the home’s bedrooms used as Maya’s bedroom . . .

. . . but, in an odd twist, the dwelling’s ornate wood-paneled stairwell masked as a back area of the church where Ali’s funeral was held. It is on those stairs that Ezra Fitzgerald (Ian Harding) and Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) share a passionate kiss. You can check out some photographs of the stairway here.

Once Pretty Little Liars got picked up, production moved from Vancouver to California and the DiLaurentis house was “re-created” in the Jungle area of the Warner Bros. Studio backlot. I say “re-created” because the façade that was constructed looks absolutely nothing like the house that appeared in the pilot.

Aside from a large set of entry steps, the two homes don’t resemble each other in the slightest, as you can see below.

As for the location I mentioned earlier that remains a thorn in my side? I cannot for the life of me seem to track down the interior of Hollis Bar & Grill, where Aria and Ezra met for the first time.

My buddy Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, did manage to locate the building used in the establishing shot. The exterior of Hollis Bar & Grill is actually that of Ashland City Hall, located at 20 East Main Street in Ashland, Oregon. The image shown in the scene was likely stock footage, as no actual filming took place in the Beaver State. The interior, though, remains a mystery. If any of my fellow stalkers are familiar with the Vancouver area, please take a look at the above images and let me know if you can identify the watering hole pictured in them.

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location for me!

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: The DiLaurentis house from the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars is located at 1995 West 19th Avenue in Vancouver.

February 25, 2015January 13, 2016

The “Pretty Little Liars” Guide to Warner Bros. Studio

My name is Lindsay Blake and I am a Pretty Little Liars addict. I started watching the ABC Family series on Netflix while the Grim Cheaper was away on a weeklong business trip last year and it was not long before I was utterly and totally hooked. I’m no longer ashamed to admit it, either. PLL is a great show. There is good news and bad news about its filming locations, though. The bad news first. Production hardly ever – and I mean like ever – leaves the studio. In the five years the show has been on the air, the cast and crew has left the lot about eight times. Not joking. The good news is that the series is lensed at Warner Bros. Studio and many of its locales can be viewed via the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour, which I have taken so many times now I’ve lost count. So for the other fans out there, I thought I would put together a Pretty Little Liars guide to the lot.

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Pretty Little Liars is set in the fictional town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. The pilot episode was shot in Vancouver, but once the series got picked up, production moved to L.A. Though the show has made use of pretty much every square inch of the Warner Bros. backlot, I will only be covering the main locations that have appeared onscreen during the first two and a half seasons, as that is the point I am up to in the series. An aerial view of Warner Bros. Studio with coordinating numbers denoting each PLL locale is pictured below.

And below is a studio map featuring those same coordinating numbers.

1. The Marin House – Used repeatedly throughout the series, the house where Hannah Marin (Ashley Benson) lives is a large Colonial-style estate located at the southern end of Warner Village. It is denoted as building 187 on the Warner Bros. Studio map. Only the exterior is used on the series. As is the case with all of the Liar’s residences, the interior of Hannah’s house is a set located inside of a soundstage. In real life, the inside of the structure serves as a production office.

2. The Fields House – The residence where Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) lives also pops up regularly on Pretty Little Liars. It is the northernmost house located on Midwest Street. The same home was also used as Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica Geller’s (Courteney Cox) parents’ house on Friends. It is a practical set, meaning both the interior and exterior can be utilized for filming. While the inside was used on Friends (Season 2’s “The One with the Prom Video”), it does not appear on PLL.

3. The DiLaurentis House – This abode has had quite a few different residents throughout the series. Formerly occupied by Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) and then Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), it is currently where Jason DiLaurentis (major cutie Drew Van Acker) lives. The structure is actually just a façade located on the shores of the Jungle and, as you can see in the photograph below, not even a full one at that. Yes, it is missing a roof, which is actually apparent sometimes onscreen.

4. The Hastings House – The façade that serves as the stately home where Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario, daughter of NCIS creator Donald P. Bellisario) lives is actually the rear side of the residence located next door to Emily’s house on Midwest Street. The same façade was used as Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) house on Gilmore Girls.

5. Spencer’s Barn – The barn that Spencer painstakingly redecorated and that her sister, Melissa (Torrey DeVitto), then promptly moved into is located directly across from the Hastings residence, in what is actually the front yard of the property.

6. The Hastings Gate – The large gated entrance to Spencer’s estate is not a permanent façade – it is a piece that is set up in the Jungle, across from the DiLaurentis house, when needed. Because it is only put into place during an actual shoot, you will not catch a glimpse of it while on the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour. A photograph of the Jungle in its normal state, without Spencer’s gate, is pictured below.

7. Toby and Jenna’s House – The house where step-siblings Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) and Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok) live is located on Midwest Street, two doors down from Emily’s house.

8. Rosewood High School – The Liar’s high school is located on Midwest Street, near where it intersects with French Street. The structure appears regularly on the series, but, again, only the exterior is utilized. The hallways and classrooms are sets located inside of a soundstage.

9. Rosewood City Hall – City Hall is located adjacent to Rosewood High School.

10. Apple Rose Grille – The restaurant where the girls regularly hang out is located on the corner of Midwest Street and French Street. The same spot masked as Luke’s Diner on Gilmore Girls.

The structure is a practical set and its interior is also used in the series.

11. Rosewood’s Local Church – The Midwest Street church, located across the road from Emily’s house, has appeared countless times on the series. It was where Ian Thomas (Ryan Merriman) tried to kill Spencer in Season 1’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” where Ian’s funeral was held in Season 2’s “The Devil You Know,” and where Hannah tried to sabotage her dad’s wedding in Season 2’s “Over My Dead Body,” just to name a few of its appearances.

12. Anne Sullivan’s Office – Throughout Season 2, the Liars regularly visited therapist Anne Sullivan (Annabeth Gish) at her office, which was situated on Midwest Street across from the northern side of the church.

The same façade also masked as the Hastings & Reibman Law Firm, Veronica Hastings’ (Lesley Fera) law office, in the Season 3 episode titled “The Kahn Game.”

13. Ezra Fitz’s Apartment Building – The exterior of the apartment building where Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) lives is located in between French Street and Embassy Courtyard, across from New York Park. The edifice was featured in Season 1’s “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again . . .” and is denoted as Building 60 on the studio map.

14. Philadelphia City Museum – The Warner Bros. Courthouse masked as the Philadelphia City Museum, the site of Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) and Ezra’s first real date, in “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again . . .” The Courthouse, which was featured regularly on the 1966 Batman television series, is located at the western end of Embassy Courtyard and is denoted as Building 61 on the studio map.

As you can see below, Ezra’s apartment and the Courthouse are actually located next door to each other.

15. Noel Kahn’s Cabin/Lost Woods Resort – In the Season 1 episode of Pretty Little Liars titled “To Kill a Mocking Girl,” the Liars attend a party thrown at a cabin belonging to Noel Kahn’s (Brant Daugherty) parents. The building used in the episode is located in the Jungle and is known as the Practical House.

The very same structure was also featured several times as the Lost Woods Resort on Pretty Little Liars. (It popped up regularly as Merlotte’s Bar & Grill on HBO’s True Blood, as well.)

For whatever reason, a different structure was used as the Kahn family cabin during Season 3 of Pretty Little Liars. I am unsure of what building was utilized as the cabin during that time, but my best guess is that it was the rear side of the Jungle’s Practical House, in the area denoted with a pink arrow below.

16. Emily and Maya’s Lakeside Hangout/The Greenhouse – In Season 3’s “Stolen Kisses,” Emily takes Nate St. Germain (Sterling Sulieman) to visit a lakeside cabin where she and Maya formerly hung out. The Jungle’s Shore-Side Cabin, located opposite the DiLaurentis house, was used as their hangout in the episode. The same structure also served as Ira’s Roadside Diner in Million Dollar Baby and Lyle Sussman’s (Scott Michael Morgan) hunting cabin on Dexter.

The rear of the Shore-Side Cabin is actually a greenhouse and it was there that the Liars often set up clandestine meetings during the beginning of Season 2. My buddy Mike the Fanboy recently had the opportunity to tour the interior of the Cabin and was nice enough to share a photograph he took of it with me.

17. Radley Sanitarium – The large building located on Embassy Courtyard served as the mental institution where Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) was held for the majority of Season 3.

18. The Haunted House – In Season 2’s amazing Halloween-themed episode,which was titled “The First Secret,” Alison was attacked in Rosewood’s local abandoned house. That residence is located on Midwest Street, directly across from Emily’s home, and was also used as the dwelling where the Seavers lived on the 1985 series Growing Pains.

19. Vail’s Doll Hospital – The creepy Brookhaven doll store that the Liars visited in both Season 2’s “Father Knows Best” and “If These Dolls Could Talk” (scariest episode ever!) is located in the middle of French Street.

20. The Brew – During Season 3, the girls start hanging out at a coffee house known as The Brew. Emily also later gets a waitressing job there. The façade that serves as the exterior of The Brew is located off of Midwest Street, just down the road from Rosewood City Hall.

21. The Local Rosewood Motel – A building that houses production offices located in the northeast portion of Warner Bros. Studio was used as a local motel in many Season 1 episodes, including “Can you Hear Me Now,” “The New Normal” and “A Person of Interest.” It is denoted as Building 139 on the studio map.

22. Melissa’s Philadelphia Apartment – The apartment that the Liars raided in Season 3’s “Birds of a Feather” can be found on Brownstone Street, which is located just a little off of the map I created.

The façade’s location is denoted in the aerial view pictured below.

At this point you are most likely wondering why I have yet to mention Aria’s house. The exterior of the Montgomery residence was actually only shown once, in the Pretty Little Liars pilot, and is therefore located somewhere in Vancouver, not at Warner Bros. Studio. I am unsure of why a replica exterior was not used for subsequent episodes, but, for whatever reason, one never has been – at least during Seasons 1 through 3.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Warner Bros. Studio is located at 3400 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can find out more information about the VIP Studio Tour here.