Tag: television filming locations

Angela’s Substitute Teacher’s Apartment Building from “My So-Called Life”

Well, it appears as if I am definitely on a My So-Called Life kick as of late because once I popped in my DVD of the series’ pilot episode last week, I have literally not been able to stop watching since. The show has definitely withstood the test of time as it is still absolutely riveting to watch today, sixteen years after it originally aired, which is simply incredible to me! Anyway, while watching the Season 1 episode of the series titled “The Substitute” earlier this week, I noticed an address number of “1008” in the background behind Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes) in the scene in which she goes to the apartment building where her substitute teacher, Mr. Vic Racine (aka Roger Rees), lives to confront him about deserting his family. And while the outside of his building is never actually shown in its entirety in the episode – all that appears in the scene is a brick wall, a wooden fence, and a red door – I became rather obsessed with finding where it was located. Not because I necessarily wanted to stalk it, but because seeing that “1008” was like a challenge, a little clue being dangled in front of my eyes, tauntingly daring me to track the place down. As crazy as it may sound, for whatever reason, once I spotted that address number I was absolutely NOT going to rest until I found it!

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I had also noticed railroad tracks in the background of the scene, so I was 99.9% certain that Mr. Racine’s apartment building was located in the South Pasadena area, somewhere in the vicinity of Andie’s house from the movie Pretty in Pink. I immediately emailed my super-friendly and super-knowledgeable contact over at the South Pasadena film office to ask for her thoughts. While waiting for a response, I decided to start searching aerial views of the the streets on either side of the city’s Metro Gold Line tracks and it wasn’t long before I came to a conclusion – Mr. Racine’s “apartment” was actually the side of the popular South Pasadena eatery Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop. I emailed my contact once again to tell her my theory and to send along a set of screen caps from “The Substitute” episode and she wrote me back almost immediately saying that I was indeed correct – the scene had been shot on the side of Buster’s Coffee Shop. YAY! So, early yesterday morning I headed on over to South Pasadena to snap some pics.

And let me tell you, I just about died upon realizing that the EXACT SAME “No Trespassing” sign that had appeared in the episode was still there in real life! Seeing that sign literally gave me goose bumps, I was so excited! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! As you can see in the above photograph, the “1008” address sign was also there in real life, as well.

The area looks quite a bit different today as the majority of it has been fenced off.

But you can kind of catch a good glimpse of the spot where filming took place if you head north across the train tracks. And while it does seem like a VERY odd spot for a substitute to live, or anyone to live for that matter, it does appear that there is some sort of small apartment complex located behind the wooden fencing pictured above.

The door pictured above is actually the side entrance to Buster’s and it still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1994 when “The Substitute” episode was filmed.

The tree and telephone pole that appeared in the background behind Angela also still look very much the same.

And the electrical meters which appeared in the scene are also still there in real life.

While I was taking photographs yesterday, one of the Buster’s workers came outside and inquired as to what I was doing. When I explained that an episode of My So-Called Life had been filmed on the premises over 16 years ago, he said, “Oh yeah, I know! Wow, I haven’t thought about that in a REALLY long time!” As it turns out, he was there during the filming of “The Substitute” episode, although he doesn’t remember much of what went on. I thought it was still incredibly cool nonetheless – I mean he actually witnessed the filming of one of the most ground-breaking shows on television! Love it! The front of Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop is pictured above. The purple arrow denotes where “The Substitute” was filmed. Ironically enough, Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located just across the train tracks from Mr. Racine’s apartment and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

On a My So-Called Life side note – while watching the episode titled “The Zit” a couple of days ago, I was floored to discover that the department store where Angela and her mother, Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), shopped for make-up was none other than the former Bullocks Wilshire department store, now Southwestern Law School campus, near Downtown Los Angeles, which I blogged about back in December of 2009.

The Mother/Daughter Fashion Show scene from that same episode was also filmed at Bullock’s Wilshire, in the former department store’s Louis XVI Room.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Vic Racine’s apartment from “The Substitute” episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1008 Mission Street, directly behind Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop, in South Pasadena. Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located right across the train tracks from Buster’s at 1000 Mission Street. And the former hardware store, now Radhika restaurant, where Michael Myers stole a mask and some knives in the original Halloween is also located across the street from Buster’s at 966 Mission Street.

January 14, 2011
Madame Chocolat from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see while stalking in the Beverly Hills area two weekends ago was Madame Chocolat, the chocolate shop that was featured in the Season 1 episode of the reality series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills titled “Chocolate Louboutins”. Sadly though, because we were there on a Sunday, the place was closed and we did not get to venture inside, nor did we get to sample any of the delicious-looking chocolate.

We did spend quite a bit of time admiring the beautifully sculpted candies that were featured in the shop’s front window, though – all of which I later learned are actually fake to prevent melting, but are modeled after real designs that can be purchased inside. Then yesterday, I randomly found myself parked directly in front of the store while doing some shopping in Beverly Hills, so I decided to pop in and purchase some candy for the GC. (I am diabetic and therefore could not buy any for myself.) And, amazingly enough, Hasty Torres, the shop’s owner who appeared in The Real Housewives episode, was working the front counter! Hasty could NOT have been nicer and spent quite a bit of time speaking with me about the filming of the show and even helped me pick out some sweets that the GC would like. I so badly wanted to ask her to take a photograph with me, but I hesitated as I thought she might think I was a bit weird. Looking back, I really regret it as she was so incredibly sweet.

As it turns out, Hasty’s foray into the chocolate world reads like a Hollywood script. While working for a finance company in Century City a little over a decade ago, she became obsessed with a Food Network television show named Chocolate with Jacques Torres, in which renowned pastry chef/chocolatier Jacques Torres created various works of art out of the sweet delicacy. Hasty was so obsessed, in fact, that she wound up quitting her job and enrolling in Pasadena’s famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school with the hope of one day opening up a chocolate shop of her very own. Upon graduating a year and a half later, she got a job working for Jacques himself at one of his many chocolate stores in New York and the two ended up falling in love. Hasty’s dream was finally realized in November of 2006 when the chocolatier founded her very own shop on North Canon Drive in the heart of Beverly Hills. And just a year later, Hasty and Jacques were married at the legendary Bel Air Hotel. Such an incredible story!

When I came home with the above-pictured bag yesterday, the GC was extremely excited as he is a total chocolate fiend . . . until he saw the receipt, that is, which I had accidentally left in the bag.

I ended up purchasing four (tiny) chocolate bon bons and one chocolate-dipped Oreo cookie and my total bill was $13! But hey, it’s Beverly Hills – prices like that pretty much go with the territory. Well, the GC took one look at that receipt and said, “Can you return them?” LOL Return chocolate??? Really???? Do you see what I have to put up with here? Anyway, despite his chagrin over the cost, by 8 p.m. last night he had devoured all four of the bon bons and the cookie, as well! And while he said that he much preferred the Rocky Mountain chocolate that I had purchased him this past Christmas, I am fairly certain that had more to do with Madame Chocolat’s pricing than it did the quality of their chocolate.

His favorite item was the Café bon bon – an espresso-infused dark chocolate ganache that is shaped like a coffee cup. So cute!

In the “Chocolate Louboutins” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, housewife/restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump-Todd (whom I absolutely LOVE) visits Madame Chocolat to pick up a pair of chocolate Christian Louboutin high heels, which were made out of a whopping three pounds of white Belgian chocolate, that she has special ordered.

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The chocolate shoes, of course, also boast the signature Louboutin red soles. Love it!

During her visit, Lisa also orders a custom-made, $1,000, three-foot tall chocolate Easter bunny which she then brings to Easter brunch at fellow housewife Kyle Richard’s house in Palm Springs.

Madame Chocolat also appeared in the Season 5 episode of The Girls Next Door titled “Hot Chocolate” in which Hugh Hefner’s three then-girlfriends, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson, visit the chocolatier to have some of their, ahem, body parts recreated out of chocolate as a birthday gift for Hef.

The shop is also something of a celebrity hot spot with such stars as Wolfgang Puck, Nobu Matsuhisa, Rachel Ray, Mario Batali, Ricky Martin, JC Chasez, Robin Thicke, Ludacris, Lamar Odom, P. Diddy, Eva Longoria Parker, Kris Jenner, and Shannon Elizabeth all stopping by to satisfy their sweet tooth.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Madame Chocolat from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is located at 212 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. You can visit the store’s official website here. Madame Chocolat is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store is closed on Sundays.

January 13, 2011
The Avalon Hotel – The Former Beverly Carlton Where Marilyn Monroe Once Lived

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked while in the Beverly Hills area two weekends ago was the historic Avalon Hotel, where my girl Marilyn Monroe once lived for a period of about three years back in the 1950’s. During that time, the property was a residential motel known as the Beverly Carlton that was first opened in 1948 and was designed by legendary graphic designer Alvin Lustig. And while the hotel was actually considered to be a moderately priced accommodation for its time, besides Marilyn, such stars as Mae West, Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz often stayed there. In the 70s and 80s the hotel became rundown, underwent several remodels, and was transformed into both a retirement home and an apartment complex. In 1998, property developer Brad Korzen purchased it and enlisted his now-wife, Kelly Wearstler of KWID Designs, to give the place an extensive reboot. In doing so, Wearstler and her team researched the original design elements of the hotel, which they obtained from photographs taken by famed photographer Julius Shulman for a 1948 Forum Magazine article, and it was those original designs that ended up serving as the inspiration for the entire remodel.

The result is that the property looks VERY much the same today as it did back in the 1950’s when Marilyn lived there! Love it!

I first learned about the Avalon a few years back when Cold Case star Kathryn Morris posed for an InStyle Magazine photo shoot on the hotel grounds. I became quite obsessed with the Avalon Hotel sign pictured above, but had assumed it was a fake that had been created for the shoot. Looking back, why I never thought to Google the terms “Avalon Hotel” is absolutely beyond me, but as they say hindsight is 20/20.   Then last Christmas, I was flipping through Southwest Airline’s Spirit Magazine while on the plane ride home from visiting my grandmother in Reno, when I happened upon an article about the Avalon and noticed a picture of that same unique sign from the InStyle photographs. Well, I just about fell over upon realizing that the Avalon was in fact a real life hotel and immediately added its address to my ever-growing To-Stalk list. It wasn’t until much later, though, while doing some cyber-stalking on the internet, that I discovered that my girl Marilyn had once called the place home. So incredibly cool!



According to the super nice desk clerk that we spoke with while stalking the place, MM actually lived at the Beverly Carlton during several different periods of her life – first in 1948 and then again in 1951 through 1952, for a total of about three years time. The hotel is comprised of three different buildings – the Olympic, the Beverly, and the Canon – and the desk clerk informed us that Marilyn lived in Room 305 of the Beverly building, which is pictured above, although I have read some conflicting reports online, so I am not sure if that information is entirely accurate. What is for certain, though, is that during her tenure at the hotel, Marilyn rented a one-room studio apartment, which you “>can see a photograph of here. The starlet posed for numerous photo shoots while living on the premises – both inside of her actual studio and next to the hotel’s hour glass-shaped pool. You can see many of the photographs from those particular shoots here. I cannot tell you how cool it was to look through those pictures and see Marilyn standing in a location that still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when she posed there almost six decades ago.

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Celebrities who have been spotted at the Avalon in more recent years include Jacinda Barrett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake, Guy Pearce, Eva Longoria, William Baldwin, Selma Blair, Jonah Hill, Kate Hudson, Ryan Phillipe, Abbie Cornish, Terrance Howard, Tilda Swinton, Superbad’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Grey’s Anatomy’s Jessica Capshaw, Numb3rs’ David Krumholtz, House, M.D.’s Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer, Entourage’s Kevin Connolly, sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff, and 90210’s Shenae Grimes, Michael Steger, and Ryan Eggold.

The front desk clerk also let us know that in the Season 4 episode of I Love Lucy titled “L.A. At Last”, the Avalon stood in for the Beverly Palms Hotel where Lucy Ricardo (aka Lucille Ball), Ricky Ricardo (aka Desi Arnaz), Ethel Mertz (aka Vivian Vance), and Fred Mertz (aka William Frawley) stayed while vacationing in Los Angeles. Lucy and Ricky’s hotel room set from that episode is now on display at the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York, which I think is just about the coolest thing ever!

The Season 5 episode of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List titled “Paris is My New BFF”, in which Paris Hilton guest-starred, was filmed on location at the Avalon’s pool area.

And 90210 star Jessica Lowndes recently posed for Zooey Magazine’s October 2010 issue at the Avalon, which you can see photographs of here. You can also watch a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Avalon Hotel, aka the former Beverly Carlton Hotel where Marilyn Monroe used to live, is located at 9400 West Olympic Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Marilyn Monroe lived in the hotel’s Beverly Building, the entrance of which is located at 412 South Beverly Drive. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

January 11, 2011
The Hollywood Towne House Motel – Lumen’s Motel from “Dexter”

This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I were doing some stalking in Hollywood when we happened upon the Hollywood Towne House Motel – aka the supposed Miami-area hotel where Lumen Ann Pierce (aka Julia Stiles) lived during this past season of fave series Dexter – which in my never-to-be humble opinion was the very best season the show has yet produced. Is it just me or does the series keep getting better and better with each passing year? Julia Stiles was absolutely PHENOMENAL in her role this past season. I honestly think it was the best acting she has done thus far in her career. Loved her, loved her, loved her! Anyway, while I usually rely on Seeing Stars’ extensively detailed Dexter filming locations page to find locales from the series, I recognized Lumen’s motel immediately upon driving by it, thanks to the place’s unique (and very bright) color scheme. What was even more amazing, though, was the fact that the Grim Cheaper also recognized the place immediately upon driving by, as well! He’s learning, folks!

Even had we not recognized the place, this one most likely would have been an easy find as the real life name of the motel was used on the show. So incredibly cool!

The Hollywood Towne House Motel first showed up in the Season 5 episode of Dexter titled “Beauty and the Beast”, in the scene in which Dexter Morgan (aka Michael C. Hall) tracks down the motel Lumen was living in before she was kidnapped. The motel looks exactly the same in person as it did on the series and it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as the place definitely has a Miami vibe to it.

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The motel’s real life main office also appeared in the episode.

And it, too, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, except that in real life there is a pane of security glass which surrounds the front counter. I so desperately wanted to get a picture of myself standing in the spot where Dexter was standing in the episode, but unfortunately the office was closed when we showed up to stalk the place.

The motel was also used in the next episode of Dexter, which was titled “First Blood”, in the scene in which Dexter breaks into Lumen’s motel room and discovers that she is planning to seek revenge against her kidnappers.

In that episode Lumen was living in room number 110.

And while I originally had thought that the real interior of Room 110 was used in the filming of “First Blood”, after looking at the photographs of the motel’s actual rooms on TripAdvisor, I no longer believe that to be the case. I am guessing that the interior of Lumen’s room was a set that was built on a soundstage. (The TripAdvisor reviews of the motel are not too kind, by the way. One is titled “Should be condemned! It’s a Dump and Unsafe!!!!” LOL LOL LOL And one group of particularly enterprising guests even went so far as to make a YouTube video review/tour of the motel which is pretty incredible to watch! If you are at all grossed out by dirty hotel rooms, however, I suggest you do NOT watch it.)

Ironically enough, “Beauty and the Beast” was not the first time that Dexter was filmed on location at the Hollywood Towne House Motel. The very same spot was used in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Turning Biminese”, in the scene in which Sergeant Angel Batista (aka David Zayas) seeks out Detective Barbara Gianna (aka Kristin Dattilo), who is working undercover as a prostitute, to ask her out on a date. Real romantic setting to ask someone out on a date, I know.

While we were stalking the place, I was floored to discover that Sunset Gower Studios, the lot where Dexter is filmed, is located directly across the street from the Hollywood Towne House Motel, which explains how producers came to use it on the series.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Hollywood Town House Motel, aka Lumen’s motel from Dexter, is located at 6055 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Lumen stayed in room number 110 on the show.

January 7, 2011
The “My So-Called Life” House

Since I blogged about the house which stood in for the Chase residence in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life yesterday, I thought I would write today about the house which was used in the remaining 18 episodes of the series. I have actually blogged about this location once before, over three years ago when I first started this site (and I absolutely CANNOT believe that it has already been THREE years!), but because it has been so long I figured the property was worthy of a more in-depth re-post. So, here goes! I became obsessed with finding the Chase residence back in 2007, but unfortunately, at that time the location was not posted anywhere online and the only information I had to go on was an address number of “1110” that was visible in the background of a few episodes. I had a hunch, though, that the dwelling was most likely located in South Pasadena, as the producers of My So-Called Life had filmed another one of their series, thirtysomething, primarily in that area. So, one weekend the Grim Cheaper and I ventured up and down all of the 1100 blocks located in South Pasadena until we found the house. And, amazingly enough, it didn’t take us long at all.

As it turns out, the property is located just a few blocks south of Mission Street at 1110 Glendon Way. And I am very happy to report that even though over one and a half decades have passed since filming took place, the Chase house still looks very much the same today as it did onscreen.

The only real differences I noticed were that the exterior has since been painted a dark green color, while it was light blue on the series, and the French doors located just to the left of the front door have since been replaced by a large picture window. Otherwise though, the property is completely recognizable from the show.

The house is actually owned by the City of South Pasadena and is currently vacant, so I was able to snap some pics of the interior of the property through the front windows. As you can see, it doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to the interior of the Chase house that was shown on the series, which was, of course, a set that was modeled after the residence used in the pilot episode.

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The Chase house was also used as the childhood home of Michael Myers (aka Daeq Faerch) in Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of the horror film Halloween.

According to this website, the home’s real life living room and foyer appeared in Halloween, but the basement, bathroom, hallway, and bedroom scenes were filmed inside of a residence located at 2218 South Harvard Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The house where Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) lived on My So-Called Life is located just across the street and two properties south of the Chase home.



Amazingly enough, it still looks very much the same today as it did when filming took place over 16 years ago.

In the episode titled “Dancing in the Dark”, Angela and Jordan Catalano’s (aka Jared Leto’s) very unromantic first kiss took place in Jordan’s car which was parked just outside of Brian’s home.

And I am fairly certain that the real life interior of Brian’s house was also used in the filming of that episode.

The home located just across the street from Angela’s, which was pictured in the background of quite a few episodes, still looks pretty much exactly the same today, as well.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Chase house from all of the episodes of My So-Called Life excluding the pilot is located at 1110 Glendon Way in South Pasadena. Brian Krakow’s home is located across the street and two houses south of the Chase residence at 1115 Glendon Way.

January 6, 2011
The Chase House from the Pilot Episode of “My So-Called Life”

Ever since fellow stalker Andrew tracked down the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles from the “So-Called Angels” episode of fave show My So-Called Life, I have been itching to re-watch the entire series from beginning to end as I have not seen it in years. So, I immediately went out and purchased the most recently-released boxed set of the show and finally sat down to start watching it last night. While doing so, I became a bit obsessed with locating the house where the Chase family – Graham (aka Tom Irwin), Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), Angela (aka Claire Danes), and Danielle (aka Lisa Wilhoit) – lived, because, as an astute fellow stalker named Somerset pointed out to me a while back, it was not the same property that was used for the other 18 episodes of the show.

Unfortunately though, there was virtually nothing for me to go on for this particular stalk – no house number, no visible street signs, not even a full view of the exterior of the property. But then, all of a sudden, like a lightning bolt from the sky, I spotted a clue – a very important clue. In the scene in which Angela waits for Rickie Vasquez (aka Wilson Cruz) to pick her up to go to Let’s Bolt nightclub, I noticed that the streetlights on Angela’s street were round. And while I had seen those streetlights (pictured above) before, I had only ever seen them in one place – in one very small section of Pasadena. The trees that lined Angela’s street also looked very familiar to me and I had an inkling that they might be the very trees that are located along Pasadena’s oft-filmed Madison Avenue.

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So, I began my search for the Chase home on Madison Avenue and, using Google Street View, found the property almost immediately! YAY! And I ran right out to stalk the place first thing yesterday morning.

And while the full exterior of the house is never actually shown in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the location of the window to the right of the front door and the roof lines of the front porch match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen.

The house across the street matches up perfectly, as well.

As does the house that is located at the end of Angela’s street.

The tree that is visible in the background of the scene in which Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) and Angela are shown arguing also looks exactly the same today as it did onscreen.

And amazingly enough, the tree that Brian sits in at the end of the episode is actually there in real life and still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in March of 1993 when the pilot was filmed! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

When Angela gets dropped off by the police at the end of the episode, instead of going directly home, she and Brian walk north on Madison Avenue to the corner of Madison and Alpine Street, where Angela spots her father talking to a woman who is not her mother. That area also looks much the same today as it did during the filming.

And, according to the DVD commentary by series creator Winnie Holzman, director Scott Winant, and executive producer Marshall Hershkovitz, the interior of the property was also used in the filming of the episode. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house!

After the Grim Cheaper got off work yesterday evening, I dragged him back out to the house so that he could snap a picture of me reenacting that famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street. Oh, I cannot tell you how long I have wanted to take that picture! I was literally skipping to the car on the way there. Sigh!

On a side note – the creators of My So-Called Life, whose production company is named “The Bedford Falls Company”, threw in quite a few references to their favorite film It’s A Wonderful Life in the pilot episode of the series – including the scene in which Angela changes her clothes behind a bush a la Mary Hatch (aka Donna Reed) and a scene in which Brian wears a shirt with the number “3” on it, a la George Bailey (aka James Stewart). Love it, love it, love it!

It’s A Wonderful Life is also playing in the background of the scene in which Angela apologizes to her mother.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Chase house from the pilot episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1025 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena. The tree Brian sat in at the end of the episode is located in front of the house at 1014 South Madison Avenue. Angela spots her father talking to the mysterious woman at the southeast corner of South Madison Avenue and Alpine Street. And, finally, the famous shot of Angela and Brian standing in the middle of the street was filmed in front of 1014 and 1025 South Madison Avenue with the camera looking north on Madison towards Alpine Street. The Mr. Deeds house is located just three doors down from the MSCL pilot house at 989 South Madison Avenue. The house that was used as the Chase home in the other 18 episodes of the series is located at 1110 Glendon Way in South Pasadena.

January 5, 2011
Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa from “House, M.D.”

The third and final location that I stalked while vacationing in Lake Arrowhead this past Thanksgiving with my family and the Grim Cheaper was the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa, which was featured prominently in the Season 6 episode of House, M.D. titled “Known Unknowns”. The property, which was originally named the Arlington Lodge, was first built in 1923 by A.L. Richmond, the owner of the Arlington Hotel in Santa Barbara, and was designed by architect McNeal Swasey at a cost of $500,000. The upscale Lodge boasted numerous luxuries, including ornate drawing rooms, outdoor terraces, guest quarters with private bathrooms, and a main lobby, dubbed the “Great Hall”, which featured a 45-foot tall vaulted ceiling, a large fireplace, and a grand staircase. The resort was opened to the public on June 23, 1923 and became an immediate success. According to legend, such Hollywood luminaries as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Roy Rogers, Carole Lombard, and Gary Cooper were all frequent guests. The hotel also attracted movie crews and such films as 1952’s Just For You, which starred Jane Wyman, Natalie Wood, Bing Crosby, and Ethel Barrymore – Drew’s great-aunt, 1965’s I’ll Take Sweden, which starred Bob Hope, Tuesday Weld, and Frankie Avalon, and 1973’s made-for-TV movie A Summer Without Boys, which starred Barbara Bain and Michael Moriarty, were all filmed on location there. Sadly though, the Arlington Lodge burned to the ground in October of 1938. And while it was rebuilt shortly thereafter, the entire resort was razed in December of 1976 in order to make room for a new hotel, the Arrowhead Hilton Lodge, which opened to the public in 1982. And while Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, and Baron Hilton – Paris’ grandfather – were all in attendance for the resort’s grand opening, it doesn’t seem as if many celebrities frequent the hotel today. Currently the property, which is now known as Lake Arrowhead Resort, boasts 162 guest rooms and 11 suites, a full-service spa, a fitness room, a coffee bar, an upscale restaurant named BIN189, and a 40-foot pool.

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Sadly though, I have to say that the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is truly nothing special. Don’t get me wrong, the place is O.K., but after the website had touted its “idyllic” and “majestic” ambiance, I had expected a heck of a lot more than what was actually there. The setting is absolutely gorgeous, but truth be told, ALL of Lake Arrowhead is that beautiful.

And while the BIN189 restaurant is absolutely GORGEOUS, I cannot in any way, shape, or form recommend eating there. While we were stalking the hotel, we popped into the restaurant and were enticed by its roaring, oversized fireplace and decided to grab a drink there, but as soon as we sat down, a woman came into the eatery with her large dog (which one would think would be a health code violation, but I guess not) and the dog proceeded to bark hysterically at the top of its lungs. The dog was so terribly loud that we had to get up and leave. All of the patrons in the restaurant at the time were quite upset over the barking dog and three groups besides ours ended up walking out in the middle of their meal. You’d think at an average cost of $35 a plate, the management would have done something -like kick the freaking woman and her dog out -but because the hotel is “pet friendly”, the servers all said that there was absolutely nothing they could do. So, that was pretty much it for that place! My family literally could not get out of there fast enough and I therefore did not get to stalk very much of the resort! 🙁

In the “Known Unknowns” episode of House, M.D., in which doctors Gregory House (aka Hugh Laurie), James Wilson (aka Robert Sean Leonard), and Lisa Cuddy (aka Lisa Edelstein) attend a pharmacology and public policy conference in the Adirondacks, extensive use was made of the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.   According to a review that I read on Travelocity, the vast majority of the hotel – including the restaurant and pool – was closed off during the filming, yet the hotel management failed to inform guests of that fact when they made their reservations – which sounds pretty much right on par as to the level of customer service that we experienced while there. Anyway, filming of the episode took place in the lobby area;

down by the lake;



on the outdoor terraces;

in one of the meeting rooms;

and in BIN189, which was both the site where the big 80’s party scene was filmed;

and where the doctors ate breakfast on the last morning of their conference.

I am fairly certain that the two guest rooms shown in the episode were not actually Lake Arrowhead Resort hotel rooms, but were sets that were built on a studio soundstage, as they just don’t seem to match up to the rooms that are pictured on the hotel’s website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Even though I REALLY wouldn’t recommend stalking this particular location, Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is located at 27984 California 189 in Lake Arrowhead. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

January 4, 2011
The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles from “My So-Called Life”

Fellow stalker/My So-Called Life aficionado Andrew recently went on a mission to try to track down the church that was used in the Season 1 Christmas-themed episode of fave show My So-Called Life titled “So-Called Angels”. He had just picked up the most-recently released boxed set of the series, which came out in 2007, and was floored to discover that actor Wilson Cruz, who played Ricky Vasquez on the show, had recorded a commentary for the “So-Called Angels” episode and had described the location of the church as being on 6th Street close to Downtown Los Angeles. Even with that detailed information, though, this locale proved to be a tough one to track down. Thankfully, Andrew hit a stroke of luck, though, when he noticed that the doors of the church in the episode featured very intricate carvings. He figured those doors had to be unique and, sure enough, they were! Just type the words “carved doors”, “church”, and “Los Angeles” into Google and the very first entry that appears is for the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, located on the corner of South Commonwealth Avenue and West 6th Street, about a mile from Downtown Los Angeles, right where Wilson Cruz had said it would be. Yay! So, once Andrew told me the good news, I immediately dragged my dad right on out to stalk the place – just in time for Christmas, too!



The Gothic revival-style First Congregational Church of Los Angeles was constructed in 1932 by brothers James Edward Allison and David Clark Allison, the same architecture team that designed the Beverly Hills Post Office and UCLA’s Royce Hall. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property are absolutely gorgeous in person. In fact, I think it is safe to say that I have never seen a more beautiful place of worship in my entire life! The church is literally breathtaking – especially decked out in all of its Christmas glory!

The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles’ main sanctuary, which stretches 198 feet in length and reaches 76 feet in height, is home to the world’s largest pipe organ, features carved oak pews, and is dotted with countless stained glass windows which were designed by Judson Studios in Pasadena.

The bronze doors that Andrew noticed in the “So-Called Angels” episode were designed in 1946 by artist Albert Gilles and, unbelievably, they measure three inches thick and weigh in at a whopping one thousand pounds apiece! The doors were so heavy, in fact, that I could hardly open them when we went to leave!

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In the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life, the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles was the spot where Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes), along with the rest of the Chase family, and her friends Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall) and Ricky wind up on Christmas Eve night after a heartbreaking course of events during which Ricky gets beaten up by his father and ends up first living on the streets and then in an abandoned warehouse. I had actually forgotten how very heartbreaking the episode was until I re-watched it last week. So incredibly sad!

The area where Patty Chase (aka Bess Armstrong) found Ricky lighting candles is located just to the left of the church’s main altar, although that area looks a bit different today. There are no candles located in that particular alcove (which I was seriously bummed about as I had planned on lighting one), nor is there a visible stained glass window. The red carpet has also since been removed.

The pew where Patty and Ricky sat in the scene is located just to the left of the alcove.

The exterior of the church looks a bit different today than it did during the filming, as well. The large potted plants which flanked the front of the church in the episode are no longer there, but I have a hunch that those trees were actually props brought in specifically for the filming and were never actually there in real life.

The street lamp that was pictured at the very end of the episode is actually there in real life, though, which I thought was just about the coolest thing ever!

My So-Called Life is not the only production to have filmed at First Congregational. The church also stood in for New York’s St. Thomas Episcopal where Wilhelmina Slater (aka Vanessa Williams) almost married Bradford Meade (aka Alan Dale’s) in the Season 2 episode of Ugly Betty titled “A Nice Day for a Posh Wedding”.

First Congregational was also where the funeral for Preston Blake (aka Harve Presnell) was held in the 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds.



It was also used as the church where Mary Jane Watson (aka Kristen Dunst) almost married John Jameson (aka Daniel Gillies) in Spiderman 2.

And it stood in for New York’s Trinity Church where the climactic final scene of 2004’s National Treasure took place.

Both the opening and one of the closing scenes from 2003’s Daredevil were also filmed at the church.

The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles has also appeared in episodes of Californication, The Riches, The West Wing, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Shark, The Closer, Bones, The Practice, Cold Case, Joan of Arcadia, Six Feet Under, Jag, and The X-Files and in the movies Nancy Drew and Into the Wild. The church even has a page on its website which chronicles the many productions that have been filmed on the premises over the years (although My So-Called Life is ostensibly missing from the list). So love it!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Andrew for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, from the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life, is located at 540 South Commonwealth Avenue in Los Angeles. You can visit the church’s official website here and you can check out its extensive filming resume here.

December 23, 2010
The Smoke House Restaurant – Where Jim and Pam Held Their Rehearsal Dinner on “The Office”

This past weekend, while out doing some Christmas shopping with the Grim Cheaper, the two of us found ourselves in the Burbank area absolutely ravenous. For whatever reason, though, I could not think of a good place to eat, so the GC suggested we grab a bite at that “old Burbank restaurant across from Warner Brothers Studios”. Because my blondness was in full force that day, I had no idea what on earth he was talking about and just about died when he pulled into the parking lot of the Smoke House Restaurant – the very spot where Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) hosted the rehearsal dinner for their wedding in the Season 6 episode of fave show The Office titled “Niagara”. And although I have actually stalked this location once before and have even blogged about it, because it was long before The Office had shot there and long before I was even a fan of the show, I decided the restaurant was worthy of a repost.

The original 46-seat Smoke House restaurant first opened in 1946 at the corner of Pass and Riverside Avenues in Burbank. The eatery was a hit with the Hollywood set from the very start, with such stars as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra (who even has a steak named after him on the Smoke House menu), Judy Garland, Milton Berle, Jack Parr, James Dean, Burl Ives, Walt Disney, and Errol Flynn stopping in regularly to grab a bite to eat. Due to its promise of serving up “fine food at fair prices”, the restaurant became such a Burbank staple that its owners were quickly forced to expand. They started looking for a larger building to move into and, as fate would have it, found one in actor Danny Kaye’s recently constructed Red Coach Inn. Due to city regulations and the Up In Arms actor’s busy filming schedule, Kaye was unable to open the restaurant/night club and in 1949 he sold the never-been-used property to the owners of the Smoke House. The establishment is still located in that very building to this day.   And, six decades later, the place is still going strong. In more recent years, such stars as Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Megan Fox, Andy Garcia, Miley Cyrus, Tish Cyrus, and the entire cast of Friends (who used to stop by regularly after filming) have all been spotted dining there.



George Clooney is such a fan of the place that he named his production company “Smokehouse Pictures” in honor of the legendary restaurant. The actor also did a photo shoot at the eatery in the booth pictured above.

One look at the Smoke House interior and it’s not very hard to see why it has succeeded for over sixty years. With it’s dim lights, dark red booths, and wood-paneled walls, stepping inside the eatery definitely brings one back to a forgotten era. It’s exactly the type of place I’d imagine Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. hanging out at back in the heyday of Hollywood.

Oh, and did I mention the food? During this particular visit I ordered the restaurant’s Cobb Salad and it was easily the biggest salad I’ve ever seen in my entire life! I didn’t even get through one third of it and I was literally STARVING when we showed up at the restaurant. On our previous visit, the GC and I ordered up the eatery’s famous “World’s Greatest Garlic Bread” and I can honestly say that the restaurant wasn’t being arrogant when they conceived that name. It literally was the best garlic bread I’ve ever had in my life! Truth be told, though, all of the Smoke House food is FABULOUS, but be forewarned, their portions are ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS! The restaurant’s staff is also INCREDIBLY nice and, even though the place was pretty packed at the time, everyone I spoke with took the time to answer all of my silly questions about the filming that has taken place there over the years.

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In the “Niagara” episode of The Office, the Smoke House stood in for the supposed Niagara Falls-area restaurant where Jim and Pam held the rehearsal dinner for their wedding. The majority of that scene was filmed in the restaurant’s back room, which, luckily enough, was being set up for a private party while we were there, so I was able to snap a bunch of photographs while the room was empty!



Some filming also took place in the restaurant’s bar area.

The Smoke House’s side room was used in the scene in which Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) are shown eating breakfast the morning following the rehearsal dinner.

The Smoke House was also featured in the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Move On”, in the scene in which Susan Mayer (aka Teri Hatcher) sings a deeply personal rendition of the song “New York, New York” to her ex-husband Karl (aka Richard Burgi) while at a local karaoke bar.

The Desperate Housewives scene was filmed on the stage located in the restaurant’s bar area.

You can watch Susan’s karaoke scene by clicking above.

The eatery has also appeared in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Cold Case, and in a Season 2 episode of the reality series The Two Coreys, but I cannot for the life of me figure out which episode and it is driving me absolutely crazy! Does anyone out there know?

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Smoke House Restaurant, where Jim and Pam hosted their rehearsal dinner in the “Niagara” episode of The Office, is located at 4420 West Lakeside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

December 22, 2010
Adrianna’s New Rental from “90210”

Back in July of 2009, fellow stalker Jennie wrote to me asking for some help in tracking down a location that appeared in both the 1996 Aaron Spelling television series Kindred: The Embraced and the current reality show Celebrity Fit Club. Because I had never seen either of the shows, though, for this particular stalking venture I had to call in the team – aka Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and fellow stalker Owen – and, magically, Chas came through in record time. He somehow managed to track down a Celebrity Fit Club crew member who told him that the show was primarily filmed at a convent in Los Feliz that belonged to the Los Angeles Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I immediately added the place to my ever-growing “To Stalk” list, but, for whatever reason, never made it out to actually see it in person. So, you can imagine my surprise when I recognized the property as the mansion Adriana Tate-Duncan (aka Jessica Lowndes) rented on the recently-aired Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “Holiday Madness”. I literally just about fell out of my chair and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place that very weekend.

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From what I’ve been able to gather online, it appears that the property no longer belongs to the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but is now owned by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and is known as the Cardinal Timothy Manning House of Prayer for Priests. (Although there is a Facebook page which claims that the property is now the International Institute of Theological and Tribunal Studies and is owned by the Graduate Theological Foundation of Indiana, so I’m not really sure what the story is.) Regardless of who currently owns it, though, the structure was originally built in 1928 as a private home for Los Angeles broadcasting/automobile tycoon Earl C. Anthony, a man who not only brought major league baseball to Southern California for the first time, but who was also part of the team that invented gas stations and the car radio. The Anthony House, as it later came to be known, was designed by architect Bernard Maybeck, the same man who gave us the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Anthony had commissioned his previous abode to be built by the legendary Greene & Greene architecture firm, but once Anthony, who owned several Packard automobile dealerships at the time, caught wind of the fact that one of the Greene brothers had purchased a car made by a competing brand, he refused to work with the architects on any subsequent projects and hired Maybeck to build his Los Feliz home. LOL! Maybeck incorporated Italian Villa, French Chateau, Spanish Mediterranean, and Tudor elements into the design of the mansion and it wound up costing a whopping $500,000 to construct. At the time it was the most expensive house in Hollywood. After Anthony’s widow passed away in the early 1950s, the mansion was purchased by Sir Daniel J. Donohue and his wife, who, in 1971, bequeathed the entire property to the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who continued to own it until earlier this year.

Sadly, the 8.5-acre property is closed to the public and not much of it is visible from the street, but, as I’ve said many times before, that’s why God created aerial views! And you can see some fabulous close-up pictures of the former convent on the I.I.T.T.S. Facebook page here.



In the “Holiday Madness” episode of 90210, the former convent was used as Adrianna’s new, massively huge, $20,000-per-month rental.

Both the interior and the exterior of the property were used extensively in the episode . . .

. . . especially during Adrianna’s Christmas party scenes.



As I mentioned above, the property is also used extensively each season on the hit reality television show Celebrity Fit Club.



The Anthony House was also the site of the wine festival in the Season 4 episode of Brothers and Sisters titled “The Wine Festival”.

The property has also appeared in episodes of The A-Team, Dirty Sexy Money, Knight Rider, Dynasty, Airwolf, Falcon Crest, The Greatest American Hero, and Hart to Hart.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Adrianna’s new house from 90210, aka the former Los Angeles Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent, is located at 3431 Waverly Drive in Los Feliz.

December 20, 2010