South Pasadena – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 17, 2020July 17, 2020

The “Zathura” House

It is no secret that the San Gabriel Valley is chock full of gorgeous Craftsman homes. Never have I come across a neighborhood more saturated, though, than Oaklawn, the tiny enclave in South Pasadena that I blogged about on Wednesday. The 0.2-mile curved street, made up of 27 stunning houses, features some of the prettiest Arts and Crafts properties I have seen, including the one at 216 Oaklawn Avenue, which portrayed the residence of the Browning family in Zathura: A Space Adventure. My friend/fellow stalker Owen alerted me to the home last December, saying it was basically a main character in the 2005 family film and would make for a good post. I had never seen the movie at the time, but one look at the screen caps included in his email and I knew I had to stalk the place! I finally made it out there a couple of weeks ago in what amounted to a stalking twofer as Mary’s residence from Why Women Kill is right next door. Just a few days later, my mom and I sat down to watch Zathura. Owen was right. Though the movie is just OK (it’s basically a mediocre version of Jumanji set in space), the house is undeniably the star and definitely worthy of a post.

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There seems to be quite a bit of confusion floating around online regarding the residence’s provenance as well as its amenities.

From what I have been able to gather, though, the Craftsman boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,805 square feet, wood detailing throughout, a fireplace, an upgraded kitchen, French doors, a pool, a hot tub, and a 0.45-acre lot.

Per some documents on the City of South Pasadena website, 216 Oaklawn was a speculative home constructed for builder G. W. Stimson in 1908 at a cost of $6,800. Known as the F.N. Finney Residence, the property is said to have been designed by prolific architects Charles and Henry Greene. Other sources, though, assert that the home is known as Villa Dora and that it was built in 1912 by architect G. Lawrence Stimson.

Regardless of its history, there’s no debating the pad is architecturally incredible!

It is not hard to see how it got chosen to appear in Zathura. The house belongs on the screen!

Even the driveway is picturesque!

And the tree out front? Come on!

In Zathura: A Space Adventure, two young brothers, Danny (Jonah Bobo) and Walter Browning (Josh Hutcherson), discover a retro board game packed away in their basement while being babysat by their inattentive older sister, Lisa (Kristen Stewart). They, of course, start to play the game, which immediately rips their house from the ground, sending it into outer space where they have to battle various otherworldly adversaries. The actual exterior of the Oaklawn home is only shown twice, in the movie’s opening and closing scenes.

The residence in the Chris Van Allsburg book on which the film is based is much more traditional in style, as you can see here. But for the movie, producers zeroed in on using a Craftsman to keep the story visibly compelling. The production notes state, “Since Zathura: A Space Adventure takes place in one location, the house had to be as visually interesting and integral to the film as any of the characters. This was a major challenge for [production designer J. Michael] Riva who worked closely with the filmmakers to select just the right style and look for the house. After much discussion, they decided to go with a classic California Craftsman-style home. ‘We didn’t want the audience to feel trapped in a house for the whole movie,’ says [director Jon] Favreau. ‘So we decided to make it as interesting to look at as we could, something so spectacular than when it comes apart in the course of the film, you really feel like it’s a tragedy that this beautifully restored Craftsman-style house is being destroyed.’” They certainly succeeded to that end. My heart broke a little each time a piece of the residence was damaged.

An exacting scale model was constructed for the scenes in which the Browning residence is shown floating through space.

You can see images of the model on the Hooked on Houses website.

The miniature is also featured on the movie’s poster.

Josh Hutcherson and Jonah Bobo in Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

The interior of the Browning residence was nothing more than a studio-built set – an exquisite and elaborate studio-built set – which becomes quite obvious as it gets destroyed into virtual oblivion throughout the film. The actual inside of the Oaklawn house is much smaller and much less Craftsman-y than its big-screen counterpart, as you can see in these interior images.

Of the set, the production notes state, “The filmmakers also wanted the house to stand out against the coldness of deep space and the metallic materials used for the spaceship. The Craftsman style lent itself perfectly to that end and Riva was also able to fashion a welcoming interior. ‘The idea was to create a hospitable environment, using warm tones and colors with lots of wood,’ explains Riva, ‘in direct counterpoint to the coldness of space — a womb-like environment that the characters could all survive in. As that got destroyed, like an island being swallowed up by the high tide, the world they inhabited became smaller and smaller, as if the life-giving sustenance of the house, which protects them from oblivion, was diminishing. We just loved the contrast in the colors to suggest that.’” Riva did a spectacular job! The set was so intricate, it truly had the look and feel of a real home, which is exactly what Favreau was going for. He says, “I came up through independent film, where you’re usually shooting on location. I hate when it looks like you shot on a set instead of on location.” So realistic was the set, in fact, that until the destruction began, I was convinced filming had taken place inside the Oaklawn property.

Inspiration for the set came from some real residences. Favreau explains, “We really wanted the house to feel like something, and feel old, and like it had some character. All the details were chosen from different famous houses, even the fireplace and the fixtures.” Well I, of course, read those words and got right to identifying exactly which pads in particular inspired the design. It was not too hard to pin things down. The production team looked no further than two of Pasadena’s most famous Craftsmans – the Gamble House and the Blacker Estate, both of which I am very familiar with. The Brownings’ two fireplaces were modeled after one at the Gamble House. You can see an image of it here.

The front door was likely inspired by that of the Gamble House, as well, though it was built on a much smaller scale.

And the staircase is a copy of one at the Blacker Estate, which you can see here.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend/fellow stalker Owen for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Browning residence from Zathura: A Space Adventure is located at 216 Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena. Mary’s house from Why Women Kill can be found right next door at 224 Oaklawn Avenue.

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July 15, 2020July 16, 2020

Mary’s House from “Why Women Kill”

Today marks the third time I’m blogging about Why Women Kill, which is a bit surprising considering I’ve barely watched any of the 2019 CBS All Access series. But while scanning through episode 6, “Practically Lethal in Every Way,” making screen captures for my recent post on Bistro Garden, the image of a massive Craftsman home came into view, and my heart was set aflutter! I stared in awe at the home, which belongs to Mary (Analeigh Tipton) and her abusive husband, Ralph Vlasin (Scott Porter), on the 1963 portion of the show, and decided to track down it right then and there. Thanks to its Arts and Crafts architecture, I had a feeling the pad was located in the Pasadena area, though I had never come across anything quite like it in all my years living there. I did a Google search for “Why Women Kill,” “filming,” and “Pasadena,” which garnered no fruitful results. Firm in my assertion that the house was in Crown City and knowing that productions sometimes shorten or abbreviate longer titles, I did a second search for “WWK,” “filming,” and “Pasadena,” and, sure enough, an article came up which stated that in June 2019 the series spent two days shooting on the 200 and 400 blocks of Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena. I headed right on over to the 200 block via Street View, dropped down the little yellow man, and there was Mary’s Craftsman at 224 Oaklawn!

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I had never visited the street before and, in fact, only first heard about it last December thanks to my friend/fellow stalker Owen who emailed to alert me to another of its famous Craftsmans – 216 Oaklawn, aka the Browning residence from Zathura: A Space Adventure. (I’ll be covering that property in a later post.) The enclave, which consists of a small 0.2-mile curved stretch of road with a smattering of about thirty dwellings at South Pasadena’s northern edge, was established in 1904. Oaklawn was the brainchild of the South Pasadena Realty and Investment Company and Henry and Charles Greene, the prolific architects responsible for the vast majority of the area’s landmark Craftsmans. The brothers designed the layout of the street, which was initially centered around a large oak tree that no longer stands (hence the name), as well as a reinforced concrete footbridge leading to Fair Oaks Avenue (where residents could access local streetcars) and a waiting station. Lots were sold undeveloped. The subdivision was referred to in early advertisements as “Suburb de Luxe” and the homes eventually built there certainly lived up to the hype! I was flabbergasted wandering the neighborhood, gawking at the massive, architecturally stunning properties surrounding me. From Craftsman homes to Tudors to mid-century manses, each one is more spectacular than the last! Two that caught my eye during my visit are pictured below.

As Owen pointed out to me last December, Oaklawn also boasts a striking entrance feature. He wrote, “When making screenshots, I noticed something in the background that I couldn’t ID. I was like, ‘What the hell are boulders doing on a residential street?!’ I went to Google’s street view to check it out, and I came across something interesting and unusual that I had never known about. You may be well aware of it, of course, but at the end of Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena, near the Zathura house, are rustic portals on each side of the street. These picturesque portals, which look like something straight out of a lifestyle magazine, were also designed by Greene and Greene.” I had not been aware of the portals – as I said, I had never even heard of the street before! – but was intrigued and had to take a look while stalking the neighborhood.

The elaborate stone structures, initially designed to frame the central oak, were constructed long before any homes lined the street and, per the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, “served as advertisements to the undeveloped lots.”

Today, they welcome visitors to the picturesque idyll.

Despite their substantial influence on Oaklawn, there’s no concrete evidence that Greene and Greene designed any of the enclave’s homes (though one resident speculates the street boasts as many as four properties that can be attributed to the brothers). The majority of the lots were sold off in 1907 to various builders, including G.W. Stimson. His son, architect G. Lawrence Stimson, is credited with designing many of the houses, including Mary’s from Why Women Kill.

In real life, the 1910 home features 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,930 square feet, a dining room with a cast aluminum ceiling, a carriage house designed by Frederick L. Roehrig, a fireplace with Grueby Faience Company tile, intricate Craftsman detailing, hardwood flooring, built-ins galore, a butler’s pantry, a 0.45-acre lot, and a backyard pond.

You can check out interior photos of the massive abode here.

The property pops up numerous times on Why Women Kill, first in the scene in which Beth Ann Stanton (Ginnifer Goodwin) introduces herself to Mary and Ralph, her new neighbors, in episode 6, “Practically Lethal in Every Way.” The residence is said to be situated across the street from Beth Ann’s supposed Pasadena estate, so it is rather ironic that neither property is actually in Crown City. Mary’s pad is, of course, in South Pas and Beth Ann’s, the mansion at the center of the series’ storyline, is a good 15 miles away at 113 Fremont Place in Hancock Park.

Mary’s house goes on to appear in the episodes “I Was Just Wondering What Makes Dames Like You So Deadly” and “Kill Me as if It Were the Last Time.”

The home is just as incredible in person as it is onscreen.

The interior, namely the living room with the Grueby tile fireplace, is also featured on the show, as you can see in the screen capture below as compared to the MLS image from 2012, when the pad was last on the market.

On Why Women Kill, Mary’s staircase (which is visible just beyond the front door) is very Craftsman in style with a natural wood finish, but, per the listing photos, at the time it was on the market it was painted white.

I am not sure if the new owners changed the coloring back to the original wood or if the show’s production team did, but either way, it was a good move! The natural wood is so much more appropriate to the architecture of the home, not to mention infinitely prettier.

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: Mary’s house from Why Women Kill is located at 224 Oaklawn Avenue in South Pasadena. The home from Zathura: A Space Adventure can be found right next door at 216 Oaklawn.

June 1, 2020May 30, 2020

The “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper” House

Considering the number of people who share this crazy hobby and the length of time we’ve all been at it, you’d think most ‘90s-era sitcom houses would have been found by now. So I was shocked to receive an email in mid-May from fellow stalker Chris (who tracked down the site of Michelle’s downhill derby from Full House, as well as Mary-Kate and Ashley’s home and Chateau Emanuel from The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley) asking if I knew the location of the supposed Oakland residence where Mark Cooper (Mark Curry) and his roommates lived on the popular TGIF series Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper. I didn’t but told him I’d be happy to assist in tracking it down. Well, it turns out Chris didn’t need my help! With no address number to guide him and no idea if the house was in Northern California, where the show was set, or Southern, where it was lensed, he somehow managed to ID it in record time! Just four days later, he wrote me back with its location – 514 El Centro Street in South Pasadena! So I headed right on over there while doing some socially-distant stalking shortly thereafter.

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In real life, the charming 1904 pad boasts 1,665 square feet (though it looks much larger from the street), 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 0.18-acre lot, and a large detached garage.

Though the City of South Pasadena Inventory of Historic Resources notes the place as being “Early Craftsman,” I consider it more Victorian in style.

Either way, it’s gorgeous.

The stained glass windows give the property a definite Bay Area feel, so it is no surprise that it wound up on Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper – especially considering Warner Bros. Studio, where the series was lensed, is just a short distance away.

Fate really stepped in during Chris’ hunt for the locale. As he explained the search to me, “I managed to find it by chance and in a very roundabout way. I had actually watched an episode of Smart Guy last night (as I’ve currently run out of Mr. Cooper episodes) and noticed how their house and driveway was slightly similar to Mr. Cooper’s and wondered whether it was perhaps in the same area, especially as producer Danny Kallis was connected to both shows. I then managed to find the original stock footage of the Smart Guy house and on one of the shots, I could see the numbers ‘521’. I then looked up a postal/parcel map of Los Angeles, typed in ‘521’ and worked my way through each address on Google Maps. The idea was that if I could find the Smart Guy house then maybe Mr. Cooper’s would be nearby. When I came to 521 El Centro Street on the list, I don’t know what it was, but there was something about the area that resembled Mr. Cooper’s neighborhood (possibly the little front walls and similar front steps). I also knew his house was on a wide road and so out of curiosity, I clicked on the Street View image of it. I then turned the camera to the right and as I did so, I spotted a house in the distance that looked like Mr. Cooper’s. I then went up the street a bit and to my amazement, found it at 514. Ironically, I never did find the Smart Guy house which I was hoping would lead me to it, yet still got the result I was hoping for regardless. It was also ironic that Mr. Cooper’s house turned out to be a 500 number too and had I not been searching for a 521 number, I probably wouldn’t have found it.” Hats off to you, Chris, for a job well done!

The property first popped up in Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper’s second episode (no house was featured in the pilot) and then went on to appear in establishing shots throughout the series’ five-season run.

The pad was almost always shown from an eastern-facing angle but, as you can see below, that viewpoint looks a bit different today thanks to a leafy tree growing in the front yard that largely hampers its visibility from the street.

Otherwise though, little of the Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper house has changed since its television stint 28 years ago!

Only the exterior of the residence was utilized on the show. Interiors were filmed on a set built inside Stage 9 at Warner Bros.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chris for finding 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: Mark’s house from Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper is located at 514 El Centro Street in South Pasadena.

March 27, 2020March 25, 2020

Mia’s House from “Little Fires Everywhere”

Reese Witherspoon certainly is the darling of streaming TV! First Big Little Lies (that’s HBO, but still), then The Morning Show, then Truth Be Told (which she executive-produced) and now Little Fires Everywhere. The latter, which is currently airing on Hulu, is an adaptation of Celest Ng’s 2017 book of the same name. Centering around two very different families living in the upscale town of Shaker Heights, Ohio (where Ng grew up), the series had me hooked from episode 1. I only grew more obsessed when I learned that filming took place in L.A.! The opulent home where Elena Richardson (Witherspoon) lives is a locale I was familiar with and recognized on sight – it’s the Tate mansion from Soap at 511 South Muirfield Road in Hancock Park. But the charming duplex Elena rents to Mia Warren (Kerry Washington) in episode 1, “Spark,” said to be on Windsor Avenue, is a spot I had never seen before. So I promptly began hunting it down.

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An address number of 2008 was clearly visible next to the front door of the adorable property in several scenes. And thanks to an Architectural Digest article I came across, I knew that Mia’s rental was somewhere in Pasadena. I had an inkling it was actually in South Pasadena, which is often confused with Pasadena proper, so I began my hunt there. The first result kicked back when I searched “2008,” “Street” and “South Pasadena” was a listing for a home at 2008 Fremont Street, which Google Street View showed me was not the right spot. So I started popping the little yellow man over to the adjacent 2800 blocks and found Mia’s pad just 3 blocks over at 2008 La France Avenue. Being that I had no plans to head to L.A. at any point (stay home, people!), I enlisted my friend Anne, of The Drewseum, who lives in the area, to stalk the place (at an appropriate social distance, of course) on my behalf, which she did the very next day! Thank you, Anne!

In real life, Mia’s rental is a single-family home, not a duplex as depicted on Little Fires Everywhere. The reason that producers chose a house to portray the multi-family dwelling was actually derived straight from the script. As Elena explains to Mia upon first showing her the property, “Every house on Windsor has two families in it, even though it appears to only have one. It was actually designed that way to avoid any stigma of renting instead of owning.” On Little Fires Everywhere, Mia and her daughter, Pearl (Lexi Underwood), are said to live in the top unit.

Only the exterior of the house was used in the production.

The inside of Mia’s rental was a set. As production designer Jessica Kender told Architectural Digest, “Mia is more transient, and her house has a warm feel as they travel only with their clothes and her art supplies. The character found furnishings at the thrift shop and turned the sunroom into her art studio. She found natural objects like branches [and] feathers, and hung a fishnet from floor to ceiling and her artwork on the painted accent walls.” Kerry Washington also apparently had a hand in the design of Mia’s place. Kender furthers, “Kerry did not want a lot of furniture in the bedroom as it would feel too permanent. Her character’s space was a bed on the floor, a side table, and artwork above the bed. She didn’t even want incidental chairs to show that [her character] was staying.”

Originally built in 1923, the 2-story traditional-style home boasts 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 2,160 square feet, a fireplace, and a 0.17-acre lot.

The pad has curb appeal for days, so it is not at all hard to see how it wound up on a drama set in the idyllic community of Shaker Heights.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Anne, of The Drewseum, for stalking this location on my behalf and taking the fabulous pictures that appear in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mia’s rental from Little Fires Everywhere is located at 2008 La France Avenue in South Pasadena. The Simpson house from She’s Out of Control is one block north at 1960 La France.

December 20, 2019December 20, 2019

The Tire House from “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday”

Today’s locale is becoming quite the prolific film star! I’ve blogged about the residence at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena previously – twice, in fact. It first came on my radar thanks to its appearance in the 2008 comedy Bedtime Stories, as I chronicled here. Then, in 2015, I noticed it pop up in the pilot episode of the short-lived Fox series Grandfathered and dedicated another post to the place. Pretty thorough coverage, I know. But when I learned that it also cameoed in not one, but two Christmas-themed productions recently, I decided that yet another write-up was in order!

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The picturesque English Revival holds a pretty special place in my heart. I have it to thank for meeting and becoming friends with fellow stalker Owen. Way back on May 20th, 2009, I received an email from him asking for some assistance in tracking down the home belonging to Wendy (Courteney Cox) in Bedtime Stories. That email kicked off the first of many location hunts the two of us have embarked upon. Owen’s comment on my initial post about the place was quite prophetic. He wrote, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Did I say ‘Louis’? I mean ‘Lindsay.’” Oh, how right he was! The two of us became fast friends and remain so today, more than a decade later! The house has fared pretty well, too, cameo-wise.

As mentioned above, it was also featured in the Grandfathered pilot in which it portrayed the home of Jimmy Martino’s (John Stamos) ex, Sara (Paget Brewster). It only appeared in the one episode, though. Once the series got picked up, filming of Sara’s house scenes shifted to a different pad at 12660 Kling Street in Studio City.

Then, last week, while writing my post on the residence where Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) lived in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, I scanned through the 1988 sequel Big Top Pee-wee and the 2016 Netflix film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday to see if the same property was utilized in either. It wasn’t, but I was thrilled to see the Bedtime Stories house in the latter! Though it only popped up briefly, I recognized it immediately as the spot where Pee-wee released a tire from a trailer as part of his extensive morning routine at the beginning of the flick.

Coming full circle, a few days before that discovery, I received a text from Owen informing me that he had attempted to write a comment on my original Bedtime Stories house post, but that my site wasn’t allowing it. (That’s an ongoing issue with old posts that the Grim Cheaper is trying to fix.) Because I knew he had been binging Christmas movies, I figured he was likely wanting to apprise me of the home’s Pee-wee’s Big Holiday cameo. But once the GC finally got comments on the post up and running, I was shocked that Owen was actually clueing me in on a different Yuletide-themed appearance! He wrote, “When I think of this house, I think of you, because our friendship had its genesis in the search for this location. For that reason, I thought I’d let you know that the house recently updated its filming location curriculum vitae, if you will. I saw it pop up again on the “Christmas Spirit” episode of 9-1-1, which aired on Dec. 2. They give the address as 2749 Elmer Ave. in North Hollywood in the episode . . . and then proceed to allow the ‘800’ house number near the front door to be visible five minutes later. You have to do better than that to fool a stalker!” Yeah, especially when it comes to such a well-known locale! In the “Christmas Spirit” episode, the pad is where a mom (Chrystee Pharris) collapses and 9-1-1 operator Maddie Kendall (Jennifer Love Hewitt) talks her young son, Leo (Seth Carr), through performing CPR until the paramedics arrive.

The residence is so idyllic and charming, it is not at all hard to see how it wound up onscreen in so many productions. Built in 1925, the pad has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,165 square feet, a 0.23-acre lot, and a detached garage. It last sold in January 2004 for $652,500, but Zillow puts its worth at $1,555,821 today! So not only does the property have the ability to foster friendships, but it’s lucrative to boot!

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

Big THANK YOU to Owen for asking me to find this house back in 2009, informing me of its recent 9-1-1 appearance, and, most of all, ten years of friendship.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The “tire house” from Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is located at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena.

December 11, 2019December 10, 2019

Pee-wee’s House from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

The internet lit up this week with news that actor Paul Reubens is embarking upon a 20-city 35th Anniversary Tour celebrating Pee-wee’s Big Adventure starting next February. Coincidentally, the house where Reubens’ titular character, Pee-wee Herman, lived in the 1985 comedy has long been on my list of To-Blog Christmas locales. And no, I haven’t completely lost it – I am well aware that the film is in no way holiday-related. But a few years ago, my friend Lavonna suggested I include the abode in my Yuletide postings since it is completely decked out with all sorts of seasonal décor in the movie, including multi-colored lights strung along the roofline, Santa in his sleigh with all eight reindeer perched atop the rafters, a light-up Frosty the Snowman in the backyard, and another large Santa positioned along the picket fence. I ran out to stalk the place shortly after Lavonna’s suggestion (way back in 2014!), but somehow never got around to writing about it. Then when I heard about the tour yesterday, I figured it was the perfect spot to kick off my holiday postings for 2019! So here goes!

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Like so many famous movie houses, Pee-wee’s pad is located on a leafy street in South Pasadena. In person, the dwelling is much plainer than it appeared onscreen, for obvious reasons.

Even without all of Pee-wee’s eccentric accoutrements and yard art, though, and despite the passage of almost 35 years, the place is still incredibly recognizable!

Pee-wee’s rickety detached garage, located at the end of his driveway, remains completely unchanged from its cameo, aside from a missing sconce. And I was thrilled that a white picket fence still lines the property, even though it is slightly different today, boasting a curvature that its movie counterpart did not. The mailbox, though much less colorful than what appeared onscreen, remains in the exact same positioning along the fence, as well!

The residence’s actual backyard also appears briefly in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, though again with a myriad of embellishments.

The Herman pad’s chaotically whimsical interior was, obviously, just a set. While I was unable to track down any photos showing what the inside of the home actually looks like, I can pretty much guarantee there is no fireman’s pole to be found!

In real life, the property, which was built in 1922, boasts 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,298 square feet of living space, a fireplace, and 0.15 acres of land.

Incredibly, per Redfin, the house, which was not used for any of the Pee-wee Herman sequels, last sold on September 13th, 1974 for $15,500! The website measures its current value at $1,005,925! Not a bad ROI!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Lavonna for suggesting I stalk this locale and include it in my Christmas postings!

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: Pee-wee Herman’s house from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is located at 1848 Oxley Street in South Pasadena. Many famous movie locations can be found on Oxley, including Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) home from Halloween at 1115 Oxley, the Cooper residence from Forever Young at 1724 Oxley, and South Pasadena Public Library from Say Anything . . . at 1100 Oxley. Kaldi Coffee and Tea, another frequent film star, is right around the corner from the library at 1019 El Centro Street.

May 24, 2019May 24, 2019

Lorraine’s House from “Back to the Future”

Back to the Future fans are undoubtedly looking at the photo above thinking, ‘That’s not Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) house!’ But the Craftsman I am standing in front of, located at 1705 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena, did actually serve as her 1955 pad in the movie. Before the die hards get all up in arms, I am well aware that it’s not the property widely recognized as her teenage home, which is just a few doors down at 1727 Bushnell. As I just discovered, though, the Baines’ residence was actually a mash-up of two different dwellings situated within a few hundred feet of each other. Let me explain. For years now, my friend Owen, from When Write Is Wrong, has been begging me to blog about sites from BTTF, his all-time favorite movie. Because its locations have been copiously chronicled both online and in books for decades, I’ve avoided the subject. As longtime readers know, I don’t like to write about places that have been covered elsewhere (especially feverishly so) unless I have something new to say. Well folks, I finally have something new to say! Owen’s birthday was a couple of weeks back, so I consider this post a belated present to him! HBD, friend!

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Many moons ago, one of my dad’s Los Angeles doctors mentioned during an appointment that he lived in “the Back to the Future house.” My ears immediately perked up (obvs!) and when I pressed for more details, he explained that he owned Lorraine’s 1955 pad and then said, “It’s bizarre to watch the movie and see Michael J. Fox sitting in my dining room.” I had long been aware of 1727 Bushnell’s (that’s it below) cameo as Lorraine’s home in the film and, assuming it had been used for both interiors and exteriors, figured that was the spot he was referring to and did not think much further on the subject (though I was thisclose to inviting myself over for a tour).

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. Shortly before Owen’s birthday, I toyed with the idea of writing about the place. My first move was to check if my dad’s doctor still lived on the premises, in the hopes that he might send me some interior photos. In looking at property records, though, I was shocked to see that not only did he not reside at 1727 Bushnell anymore, but that he never had! His former house, which was sold in 2017, is three doors up the street at 1705 Bushnell (it’s pictured below). Thoroughly confused, I almost brushed the whole thing off as misinformation. But then a lightbulb went off in my head – what if 1705 had been used for interiors? Thankfully, MLS pictures from the 2017 sale are still widely available online so my newfound hunch was easily verifiable. I could hardly hold my fingers steady as I slipped in my Back to the Future DVD and just about hyperventilated when I saw that I was correct! While 1727 Bushnell appeared as the exterior of Lorraine’s house, interior filming took place just up the street at 1705! As far as I can tell, this information has never been reported elsewhere, which has me giddy with excitement – for Owen, for myself, and for the leagues of BTTF fans out there!

But first, let’s get back to 1727 Bushnell. Not much of the 1909 Craftsman’s exterior is actually shown in Back to the Future. We really only catch a glimpse of the second floor windows when George McFly (Crispin Glover) tries to peep on Lorraine in an early scene.

As you can see, thanks to a completely new color scheme, the home looks quite a bit different today.

We do get a full view of the property’s exterior in a different Michael J. Fox movie, though! Interestingly enough, 1727 Bushnell also served as the Howard family residence in the 1985 comedy Teen Wolf.

In a Q&A Fox shot for Back to the Future’s Special Edition DVD, he even mentions encountering the movie’s location scouts while shooting Teen Wolf on the premises.

I am unsure if the actual inside of 1727 Bushnell was used in Teen Wolf, but I think it might have been.

If so, considering the decidedly 60s/70s look of the place, it goes a long way toward explaining why Back to the Future producers headed elsewhere to stage the inside of Lorraine’s 1955 home. And they found exactly what they were looking for right up the street.

As you can see in the screen shot as compared to the MLS image below, the inside of 1705 Bushnell is classic, timeless, and simple in design – perfect for a storyline set in the 1950s. (You can check out another matching shot of the home’s front entry area here.)

As you can also see in the screen captures below as compared to images here and here, not much of the property has changed in the years since Back to the Future was filmed (though it appears that producers did cover over the dining room’s stained glass window for the shoot – either that or the window was a later addition).

Along with the front entry and dining room, areas of 1705 visible in Back to the Future include the living room (you can check out an additional matching image of it here and a close-up view of the fireplace, which has been altered a bit but is still recognizable, here);

and the stairs . . .

. . . which you can see additional imagery of here.

I believe that Lorraine’s bedroom was just a set, though, and not one of 1705’s actual rooms.

In real life, 1705 Bushnell, which was built in 1912, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,772 square feet of living space, formal living and dining rooms, hardwood flooring, wainscoting, a fireplace, stained glass windows, an eat-in kitchen, a den, a partially-finished basement, an upstairs laundry room, a 0.18-acre lot, a pool, a built-in BBQ, and a detached garage that has been converted into a family room/pool house. You can check out some more interior photos of the place here and here.

How incredible – and thrilling – it is that new location information can still be unearthed from a decades-old movie, one that has been feverishly studied and documented ad nauseam over the years, no less! Imagine all of the other filming sites just waiting to be discovered! The possibilities are endlessly exciting! The future of stalking is bright, my friends!

A (belated) happy birthday to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog.

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 home used for exterior shots of Lorraine Baines’ 1955 residence in Back to the Future is located at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Interiors were filmed just up the road at 1705 Bushnell. George McFly’s 1955 pad from the film can be found next door at 1711 Bushnell. And Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) property from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809 Bushnell. Several other famous, but non-BTTF-related houses are on the same street including Hope and Michael Steadman’s residence from thirtysomething at 1710 Bushnell; the Hopper family home as well as Joan’s pad from Ghost Dad at 1621 and 1615, respectively, and the Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School at 1803.

November 5, 2018November 4, 2018

Catherine Willows’ House from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”

I’ll never forget the first time I saw CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. It was back in 2003 and my parents had come home from a random stop at the video store (remember those?) with a DVD of the series’ inaugural season in hand. I had not heard of the show at the time and decided to give the pilot a watch with them. I was immediately transfixed, as were my parents. We proceeded to binge all 23 episodes (the old-fashioned way!) in pretty much one sitting and then ran right back out to the video store to grab Season 2. I continued to be an avid viewer of the procedural (as well as the spin-offs CSI: Miami and CSI: NY) for years. Then somehow it fell off my radar. Nonetheless, I was thrilled to receive an email this past August from a fellow stalker named Sacha who wanted to know if I had any intel on the house belonging to Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) in the series’ twelfth season. I headed over to Hulu to take a look at the residence Sacha was searching for and recognized it immediately. It’s a place I’ve not only stalked, but blogged about before! As it turns out, Catherine’s pad is none other than South Pasadena’s Cox House, which portrayed Oliver Trask’s (Taylor Handley) Palm Springs dwelling on The O.C. Because the property has since gone on to appear in an episode of Ray Donovan, I figured it was due for another write-up.

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The Cox House, named for original owner Paul Cox, was designed by local Pasadena architect John Galbraith in 1959.

The Mid-Century Modern masterpiece is also known as the “Tree House” thanks to the large conifer that grows right through the roof of its entryway.

The one-story pad, which boasts Miesian Modernist and Southern California Regional Modernist elements, features 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,032 square feet of living space, glass and stone walls, a massive tile fireplace, hardwood flooring, a 0.46-acre lot, multiple patios, a pool, and a hot tub.

The property last sold in December 2000 for $641,000.

You can check out some interior photos of it here.

While undeniably striking and cinematic, I am surprised the place wound up on CSI, which is set in Las Vegas, being that it doesn’t really have a Sin City vibe. A different home was actually utilized as Catherine’s in Season 5’s “Weeping Willows” (it’s at 17145 Nanette Street in Granada Hills) and it, too, had a decidedly Mid-Century Modern-style, though, so what do I know?

The Cox House first popped up on CSI in Season 12’s “Zippered,” which aired in 2011. Only the interior of the residence was shown in the episode, in the scene in which Catherine meets up with her old friend Laura Gabriel (Annabeth Gish).

The pad was subsequently featured in the next episode of CSI titled “Ms. Willows Regrets.” In the episode, Catherine returns home from visiting a crime scene and winds up ambushed herself. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior of the property were featured prominently in the episode.

The Cox House appeared again in the following episode of CSI titled “Willows in the Wind,” in which the team investigates Catherine’s attack.

As I mentioned earlier, the home was also featured on The O.C. In Season 1’s “The Links,” which aired in 2004, Oliver invites Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), and the rest of the Harbor School gang for a weekend visit to his parents’ Palm Springs pad, said to be located “right on PGA West.” Now the Cox House portraying a Palm Springs property I can certainly buy. The residence definitely bears that desert look.

While the home’s actual interior appeared in the episode (as well as some of the actual furniture) . . .

. . . the two bedrooms shown were just sets built at Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios (now MBS Media Campus), where the series was lensed.

Not surprisingly, the Cox House also popped up as a Palm Springs residence on Ray Donovan. In Season 1’s “Black Cadillac,” which aired in 2013, Mickey Donovan (Jon Voight), Bunchy Donovan (Dash Mihok), and Daryll (Pooch Hall) visit Daryll’s mother, Claudette (Sheryl Lee Ralph), at her supposed desert home. Upon arriving, Mickey proclaims, “What the f*ck kinda architecture is this?” It’s called Mid-Century Modern, Mickey! Mid-Century Modern at its finest!

The interior of the residence also appeared in the episode.

That built-in firewood holder is the stuff of dreams!

The Cox House’s backyard was featured in “Black Cadillac,” as well.

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: Catherine Willows’ house from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is located at 534 Arroyo Drive in South Pasadena.

August 17, 2018August 16, 2018

Hope and Michael’s House from “thirtysomething”

I think Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick are two of the greatest television producers ever to walk the face of the earth. Oddly though, while I am obsessed with both My So-Called Life and Relativity (as evidenced here and here), I was never a fan of thirtysomething, one of their earliest forays into the small screen. The 1987 series’ failure to resonate was likely due to its focus on parenting – the subject matter was just a little too adult being that I was ten when the show debuted. I did stalk the large Craftsman home belonging to Hope Murdoch Steadman (Mel Harris) and her husband, Michael (Ken Olin), on it upon first moving to Southern California almost twenty years ago, though. I never got around to blogging about the place, but while recently listening to My So-Called Podcast (a My So-Called Life re-cap show hosted by the creators of fave podcast True Crime Obsessed), I started thinking about the property and figured not only was it high time I dedicate a post to it, but to also give the series it starred on another chance.

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Open up any Pinterest board of famous houses and the Steadman residence will inevitably be pictured. The pad is also documented in pretty much every single Hollywood tour book ever written, is talked about regularly in the comments sections of filming location blogs (especially over at Hooked on Houses), and will definitely go down in the annals of history as one of the best-loved TV homes. Oddly though, the exterior of the dwelling was rarely featured on thirtysomething. I scanned through dozens upon dozens of episodes to make screen captures for this post and only came across a few instances of it being shown. I guess Herskovitz and Zwick weren’t big fans of establishing shots in their early days.

Said to be at 1700 Bryn Mawr Avenue in Philadelphia on the series, the home can actually be found at 1710 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena.

As chronicled in a 1997 People magazine article titled “That’s My House!”, homeowners Dennis and Donna Potts were first approached about the use of their residence on the series via a location scout who knocked on their door in the summer of 1987. The couple wound up being paid $1,500 for each day of filming that occurred on the premises during the show’s four-year run. I would consider that a heck of lot of money today, but back in the late ‘80s? Dang! According to People, production designer Brandy Alexander keyed in on the property because of its age, saying “We wanted an older house so we could have the characters do renovations.”

The home was utilized solely for exterior sequences on thirtysomething. The interior of the Steadman residence was nothing more than a set (a roofless one, at that) built inside of a soundstage at CBS Studio Center (then called CBS/MTM Studios) in Studio City. Per a 1996 New York Times article, the set was based upon the real life interior of two different Pasadena-area Craftsmen – one of which, I came to discover, is definitely the Bushnell house. As you can see in this image of the property’s built-in buffet, it matches what was shown onscreen perfectly.

The dining room is also a pretty direct match, as you can see in this photo as compared to the screen capture below. You can check out some additional images of the actual inside of the Bushnell house here.

Interestingly, audiences considered the set a bit too upper-crust for the middle-class Steadmans, which proved to be an ongoing source of consternation for thirtysomething producers. As author Elisabeth Bumiller states in the New York Times article from 1996, “Even though the creators let the set deteriorate, making the house look dirtier and more lived in, few people bought it.” Herskovitz extrapolates, “No matter what we did, people thought it was a rich, expensive house.” Considering the property’s wood detailing and plethora of built-ins and the fact that Zillow currently pegs its value at $2.23 million, I’m going to have to side with the fans on this one.

In real life, the 1902 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,760 square feet, a fireplace, stained glass windows, original detailing, a detached garage, a covered patio, 0.17 acres of land, and a garden.

The same property also appeared in the 1990 comedy Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael as the residence of Denton (Jeff Daniels) and Barbara Webb (Joan McMurtrey).

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: Hope and Michael Steadman’s house from thirtysomething is located at 1710 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Elliot (Timothy Busfield) and Nancy Weston’s (Patricia Wettig) pad from the series is one street over at 1700 Fletcher Avenue. Countless other famous homes are located on Bushnell. The Hopper residence from Ghost Dad is at 1621 Bushnell. Joan’s dwelling from the movie is next door at 1615. The Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School is at 1803 Bushnell. The property located at 1727 Bushnell played both Scott Howard’s (Michael J. Fox) house in Teen Wolf and Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) 1955 home in Back to the Future. George McFly’s (Crispin Glover) 1955 residence from Back to the Future can be found at 1711 Bushnell, while Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809.

June 8, 2018June 7, 2018

The “Splitting Up Together” House

Being that four of my favorite shows were recently cancelled, I have been on the lookout for alternative series to watch. So when a fellow stalker named Catherine contacted me last week to ask if I had any intel on the location of the house from ABC’s new comedy Splitting Up Together, I welcomed the opportunity to sit through a few episodes. Not only did I end up really enjoying it – the sitcom is funny, warm, witty, and engaging – but I also managed to quickly track down the pad where the main characters – Lena (Jenna Fischer) and Martin (Oliver Hudson) and their children, Mae (Olivia Keville), Mason (Van Crosby) and Milo (Sander Thomas) – live. As both Catherine and I had surmised, the residence is in the San Gabriel Valley. I happened to be in the area just a few days after pinpointing it, so I, of course, ran right out to stalk the place.

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Based upon the Danish show Bedre skilt end aldrig (which translates to “better divorced than never”), Splitting Up Together centers around a divorcing couple – Lena and Martin – who, because they are upside-down on the mortgage of their large Craftsman-style dwelling, choose to remain living together, switching off parenting and household responsibilities week-to-week with the on-duty parent living in the main residence and the off-duty one shacking up in the detached garage. And yes, without giving too much away, the storyline does heavily lean toward an eventual reconciliation between the two.

While watching the series’ pilot, I noticed that an address number of “1947” was visible on a beam above the front porch of Lena and Martin’s picturesque home. Working on both my and Catherine’s hunch that the residence was located either in Altadena, Pasadena or South Pasadena, I began running Google searches for “1947” and “street” along with each of the three cities’ names. I hit pay dirt during the South Pasadena leg of the hunt thanks to a realtor.com listing for a house at 1947 Oak Street, which was the first result kicked back. A quick look at that address via Street View showed me it was the right spot.

Per Zillow, the 1916 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,455 square feet of living space, hardwood flooring throughout, a 0.47-acre lot, a pool, a hot tub, a wet bar, a detached 2-car garage, and a 600-square-foot pool house with a full kitchen and a 3/4 bath.

The 2-story dwelling, which was remodeled in 2014, is utilized regularly in establishing shots on Splitting Up Together.

The pad also pops up in the series’ opening credits.

Not much on location filming takes place on the premises, though. While the property’s actual interior was utilized in the pilot, once the show got picked up, a replica of that interior was built on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank for all subsequent episodes.

You can see screen captures of the home’s real life interior from the pilot episode versus the set re-creation in the collages above and below.

The South Pasadena pad’s actual backyard also made an appearance in the Splitting Up Together pilot.

As was the case with the residence’s interior, once the show was picked up, a set based upon the backyard was built on a soundstage.

Same goes for the garage – though I believe that the South Pasadena home’s pool house was actually utilized for exterior shots of Lena and Martin’s garage in the pilot (pictured below).

Whatever the case may be, once Splitting Up Together got picked up, a set re-creation of either the pool house or garage was constructed on a soundstage for all subsequent filming. That re-creation is pictured below.

A scene from the show’s Season One finale, titled “Heat Wave,” in which Lena and Martin send their kids off to summer camp, was also shot on location in front of the house.

I believe that the home’s real life backyard was likely utilized in the “Pina Colada Party” scene from that same episode, as well.

Because the property is so picturesque, I figured it had to have been featured in other productions at some point – and I was right.

Thanks to the Movie Locations and More website, I learned that Donna Keppel (Brittany Snow) lived in the very same house at the beginning of the 2008 horror flick Prom Night. The exterior of the residence was only shown briefly, though, and at the time was painted a different color.

A Street View image from September 2011, showing the house with that darker hue, is pictured below. It is amazing how much the lighter color changes the appearance of the place.

The residence’s interior made a brief appearance in Prom Night, as well.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Catherine for asking me to find this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lena and Martin’s house from Splitting Up Together is located at 1947 Oak Street in South Pasadena.