Teen Witch – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 5, 2015September 29, 2017

The “Teen Witch” “Top That” Street Rap

There is no more iconic moment in the 1989 classic Teen Witch than the epic “Top That” street rap scene. Stalking the location where it was filmed was pretty high up on my list of things to do while I was in L.A. recently (after stalking the main house featured in the movie first, of course!), so I was floored to find the address listed on the 80s Film Locations and The Location Scout websites.

[ad]

Those who have yet to see Teen Witch (and what’s stopping you, it’s SO good), will not be familiar with the “Top That” rap off, so I highly suggest that you watch the clip below before continuing on with this post. Heck, even those who have seen Teen Witch should watch it. It’s that epic. “I’m king! And they know it! When I snap my fingers, everybody says ‘show it.’ I’m hot. And you’re not. But if you want to hang with me, I’ll give it one shot. Top that!”

In the scene, Polly (Mandy Ingber) informs her best friend, teen witch Louise Miller (Robyn Lively), that she has a crush on school clown/wannabe rapper Rhet (Noah Blake, who I just figured out played Frank “The Stank” Stanavukovic in my favorite episode of The Wonders Years, Season 5’s “Frank and Denise.”), but that she will never be hip enough to date him. Polly and Louise then randomly happen upon Rhet standing in the street rapping with two friends, causing Polly to say, “Look at how funky he is!” What’s a teen witch to do in a situation like this? Why, use her newly found magic powers to turn her BFF hip, of course, which Louise does. Polly then walks right up to Rhet and proceeds to have a legendary rap off with him.

The “Top That” scene was lensed on a tree-lined block of Virginia Avenue in Glendale. In the segment, Rhet and his friends dance in front of a car that is parked in front of the driveway of the home at 1404 Virginia Ave. As you can see in the below image as compared to the screen capture, the brick walkway of the 1404 house, as well as its windows and the windows of the neighboring property all match what appeared onscreen.

The house that Polly and Louise stop in front of to watch Rhet in the scene is located at 1400 Virginia Avenue. My photograph below was taken from the opposite angle that the camera faced in Teen Witch, but you can see that the walkway still looks very much the same today as it did 26 years ago when the movie was filmed.

Of the scene, Robyn Lively said in a 2014 BuzzFeed Entertainment interview, “I do remember that Mandy and Noah were dreading the infamous “Top That” song. They thought it was the stupidest thing ever. They hated it. In the end, they just decided to have fun with it, and, in retrospect, it’s awesome. But they were not into it, which is so funny because it turned out to be one of the most amazing and popular scenes in the whole movie.”

Had to do it!

Herbert Hoover High School, which was featured quite extensively as Louise and Polly’s high school in Teen Witch, is located just a few blocks away. We ventured by there while we were in the area, but school was getting out at the time and the place was an absolute madhouse so we didn’t stop to take any photos.

For those who missed the segment I taped about Beverly Hills, 90210 filming locations for The Daily Share on HLN yesterday, you can watch it online here.

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

Big THANK YOU to the 80s Film Locations and The Location Scout websites for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Teen Witch “Top That” street rap took place in front of the house at 1404 Virginia Avenue in Glendale. Herbert Hoover High School from the movie is located just a few blocks away at 651 Glenwood Road.

October 2, 2015September 29, 2017

Louise’s House from “Teen Witch”

It is finally that time of year again, my favorite time of year – October! And you know what that means – it is the start of my annual Haunted Hollywood postings! What better way to kick things off than with a location from the much-loved movie Teen Witch? Somehow I only just discovered the 1989 flick, which is shocking being that I am nothing if not an ‘80s child. I wound up absolutely LOVING it, though. I mean, what’s not to love? Teen Witch, which centers around teenager Louise Miller (Robyn Lively, older sister of Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively) who finds out she has magical powers on her 16th birthday, has all of the elements that make ‘80s movies so great – just the right amount of cheesiness, a love story in which the underdog lands the cute guy, epically loud clothing, and several kickin’ musical montages. It also boasts some rad (see what I did there?) locations. After finally watching it for the first time last month, I became a bit obsessed with tracking down the large colonial-style house where Louise lived and was floored to discover the address on the the 80s Film Locations website.

[ad]

Louise’s picturesque house was used extensively throughout Teen Witch.

As you can see below, though the shutters and front door have since been painted a different color and a fence has been added to the perimeter, the residence still looks very much the same today as it did in when the movie was filmed 26 years ago.

In real life, the 1921 pad boasts 3,821 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and a 0.23-acre plot of land. You can check out some interior photographs of the place from a 2011 real estate listing here. According to the description that runs along with the images, the home has appeared in several movies, though I am unsure of which movies in particular.

I was floored to discover upon looking at the real estate photographs that the interior of the property had been used in Teen Witch. As you can see in the screen capture as compared to the MLS image below, though the kitchen has since been updated, it is still laid out in the exact same way that it was in the movie.

Another view of the kitchen.

And another.

The ornate stone fireplace in Louise’s living room also matches the home’s real life fireplace.

The built-in bookcases visible in the background of the screen capture below match the family room’s actual built-ins.

And the stairs, though now lacking paint, also match what appeared onscreen.

Popular girl Randa (Lisa Fuller) lived directly across the street from Louise in the movie, though very little of her house was ever shown.

I absolutely love that the “244” address number painted on the steps leading up to Randa’s house is still in the same spot today!

Interesting tidbit about Lisa Fuller – she wound up marrying Dan Gauthier, who played her onscreen boyfriend, Brad Powell, in Teen Witch. They met during the filming of the movie, tied the knot shortly thereafter and remain married to this day. Robyn Lively talks about the couple in an interview she did with BuzzFeed Entertainment in honor of the film’s 25th anniversary last year.

Don’t forget to tune into The Daily Share on HLN today between 10 and 10:30 a.m. PST to watch the segment I recently taped about Beverly Hills, 90210 filming locations. For those who don’t get HLN, you can also watch it here.

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

Big THANK YOU to the 80s Film Locations website for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Louise’s house from Teen Witch is located at 245 South Irving Boulevard in Windsor Square. Randa’s house is located across the street at 244 South Irving Boulevard.

September 3, 2015August 27, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round from “Teen Witch”

Don’t forget to read my latest post for L.A.mag.com about the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round from Teen Witch. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

October 28, 2010September 29, 2017

The “Thriller” House

Today, in honor of Halloween, I thought I’d blog about what is arguably the most famous haunted house of all time – the Victorian-style residence that was featured in the 1983 music video “Michael Jackson’s Thriller”. Even though I’ve actually already blogged about this location once before (way back in December of 2007 when I first started my site!), because I mixed it in with a post about Halliwell Manor from Charmed which is located on the same street, I thought it was about time that the “Thriller” house was given proper recognition with its very own post. Especially since my dad recently transferred our VHS recording of “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” onto a DVD so that we could finally watch it again, being that neither of us has owned a working VCR in about five years time. I used to watch the “Making Of” special almost weekly as a child and was absolutely ENTRALLED with it. And I am very happy to report that over twenty-seven years later, the behind-the-scenes special is JUST as enthralling. 🙂 I wish the Jackson family would release it on DVD as I’d love to have a copy that wasn’t taped off of television.

In real life, the property is known as the Sanders House and it was originally built in 1887! Yes, you read that right – the residence is over 123 years old! It was commissioned by a man named Michael Sanders who ran a storage warehouse in Los Angeles at the time. The Queen Anne/Eastlake-style home boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 3,532 square feet of living space – which I was shocked to discover as the residence looks to be much smaller from the street. The property was originally a single family residence, but has since been converted into a duplex-type dwelling, and has been undergoing an extensive restoration project for the past decade. In 1971, the home was declared a cultural historic monument and the entire 1300 block of Carroll Avenue, where the “Thriller” house is located, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see some fabulous historic photographs of the “Thriller” house and its neighboring homes here. And you can read a more in-depth write-up on the history of the Sanders House on fave website Big Orange Landmarks here.

I was only at the “Thriller” house for about ten minutes yesterday and no less than three different groups of fellow stalkers showed up to take pictures of the place while I was there – and it was in the middle of the day no less! Simply amazing! I was really hoping that the “Thriller” homeowners would have decorated their abode for Halloween, but as it turns out they are not currently very thrilled about the publicity that their property’s famous history generates. According to a SUPER nice neighbor whom I spoke with while I was stalking the place yesterday, shortly after Michael Jackson passed away in June of last year, a deplorable fan stole the mailbox from the “Thriller” house and the homeowner is still pretty upset about it – especially being that the mailbox was the original one which was installed when the residence was first built over 123 years ago! I can’t even believe that a person would have the audacity to not only trespass on someone else’s property, but to then steal something from that property while doing so. It is people like that who give us harmless stalkers a bad name and it makes me madder and madder the more I think about it. Not only did that thief sour the residents on the magic of owning and living in the “Thriller” house, but they also destroyed part of a historic landmark in the process. UGH! Don’t even get me started!

The super nice neighbor also informed me that the 1300 block of Carroll Avenue is THE place to be on Halloween. One year he counted over 2,000 trick-or-treaters knocking on his front door alone! Halliwell Manor from Charmed (pictured above) is already decked out for the occasion, but the neighbor said that all of the houses on the block – not just the famous ones – typically have lines of about twenty to thirty people standing out in front of them all night long. Amazing! I would SO love to stalk the neighborhood on Halloween, but I already have plans to spend the holiday in Santa Barbara this year. Ah well, there’s always next year.

Only the exterior of the “Thriller” house was used in the filming of the music video.

All of the interior scenes were shot on a soundstage somewhere in Los Angeles.

You can watch the video “Michael Jackson’s Thriller” by clicking above.

The “Thriller” house was also used as the residence of Finn (aka Reynaldo Rosales) in the Season 4 episode of Charmed titled “Size Matters’”.

ScreenShot5934

And fellow stalker Angela from Florida alerted me to the fact that the dwelling was also used as the residence of Madam Serena (aka Zelda Rubinstein) in the 1989 movie Teen Witch. It is quite ironic that the house belonged to a woman named Serena in the flick, as the star of Teen Witch was none other than Robin Lively – real life sister of Blake Lively, who plays the famous Serena van der Woodsen on TV’s Gossip Girl.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house from “Michael Jackson’s Thriller” is located at 1345 Carroll Avenue in the Angelino Heights section of Los Angeles, just a few miles north of Downtown. The Halliwell sisters’ house from Charmed is located two doors east of the “Thriller” house at 1329 Carroll Avenue. And Holly’s Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 1347 Kellam Avenue. If you stalk any of these locations, please, please do not trespass and, for God’s sake, do NOT steal, touch, or destroy ANYTHING while there!