Toluca Lake – IAMNOTASTALKER

June 17, 2020June 17, 2020

Dan’s House from “Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story”

The first season of the true crime anthology series Dirty John had the feel of a really cheesy Lifetime movie. I couldn’t even get through one episode! Season 2, though, titled Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, which covers the 1989 murders of prominent San Diego attorney Dan Broderick (Christian Slater) and his mistress-turned-wife, Linda Kolkena (Rachel Keller), at the hands of his first wife, Betty (Amanda Peet), is absolutely scintillating! It doesn’t hurt that I’ve long been obsessed with the case and have read countless books and articles on the subject. I’ve, of course, been obsessively seeking out locations from the show, including the home where Dan and Betty lived during their marriage, which I blogged about here. Also on my list was the stately residence Dan bought post-separation, which Betty rammed her car into in episode one. Thankfully, it was a snap to find!

[ad]

It became obvious while watching Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story’s premiere episode, titled “No Fault,” that Dan’s house was situated on a corner.

One look at its handsome detailing . . .

. . . and sleepy, leafy surroundings, and I figured it was most likely located in Toluca Lake.

So I started searching aerial views of the area for large brick homes on a corner lot and came across the right pad at 10355 Woodbridge Street.

I headed out to see it in person shortly thereafter.

In real life, the Colonial-style home, which was built in 1967, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,973 square feet, a formal entry, multiple fireplaces including one in the master suite, a 0.28-acre lot, a pool, and a built-in BBQ.

You can check out some interior photos of it here.

The property is eerily reminiscent of Dan’s actual former home, which is located at 1041 Cypress Avenue in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood. One of my dearest friends, Kylee, happens to live nearby, so I enlisted her to stalk the residence for me. That’s it in the top photo below as compared to its television counterpart just beneath it.

The TV home is a virtual carbon copy of the real thing, right down to its white columns, dark shutters, front door framing, circular driveway, brick fence pillars, and large trees.

Once again, the Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story location managers absolutely nailed it!

Dan purchased the idyllic pad in late 1985 shortly after leaving Betty. It was not long before Linda moved in with him. They eventually married in the home’s front yard on April 22, 1989. You can see a photo of them standing by the front door on their wedding day here.

None of that has played out yet on Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story. So far we’ve only seen the house once, in “No Fault.” In the episode, Betty drives to Dan’s new residence to confront him about their La Jolla home, which he has just sold out from under her.

She gets so angry over the property’s sale that she winds up hopping into her car, kicking it into gear and ramming it straight into Dan’s front door. As she later explains to friends in the episode, “God, I loved that house. I loved it so much that when I found out it was gone I crashed my car into Dan’s new one!” Of the incident, Betty told the San Diego Reader in 1989, “I’d do it again, only I’d do it better. I was mad! He had just stolen everything from me. Up until that point, he had stolen my furniture and my kids and my dogs and my jewelry and my clothes, but I still knew I owned half that [La Jolla] house. My name was on that house, and I didn’t really understand how it could be taken from me.” Dan had her committed to the San Diego County Mental Health Hospital for three days following the attack.

When Dan’s actual former home was up for sale in 2014, a friend of the then owner spoke to ABC News and showed off the exact spot Betty damaged in the crash. The discolored brick where the façade had to be replaced is clearly apparent in the segment, which you can watch here.

You can also see remnants of the repair in the image below, which was featured in this video tour of the property.

Though Dan’s home has only so far appeared in “No Fault,” considering it is where the murders took place, it will definitely pop up in upcoming episodes.

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: Dan’s house from Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story is located at 10355 Woodbridge Street in Toluca Lake. His real life former residence can be found at 1041 Cypress Avenue in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood.

December 12, 2018June 14, 2019

“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Christmas House

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – well, as much as it can in SoCal – which means it’s time to start posting holiday locales! I’m kicking off the season with the pad that portrayed the Banks family residence in the Season 1 Yuletide-themed episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air titled “Deck the Halls.” Now you’re probably thinking, ‘But you’ve blogged about the Fresh Prince house already, years ago.’ And you’d be correct. Way back in 2008, I did write about the massive Colonial manse that regularly appeared as the home of Will (Will Smith), Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro), Uncle Philip (James Avery), Aunt Viv (Janet Hubert), Hilary (Karyn Parsons), and Ashley (Tatyana Ali) on the popular series. (Spoiler! It’s actually in Brentwood, not Bel-Air!) But . . .

[ad]

. . . as a fellow stalker named Ashley informed me in August 2013, for whatever reason a different home was utilized as the family’s pad in the “Deck the Halls” episode. Thinking it would make for a great Christmas post, I set out to find the place, which turned into quite a long and tedious affair. I started by scouring the Colonial section of every online location database, then spent hours poring over Google Aerial Views looking for any large properties with a rounded portico – all to no avail. I once even thought I saw the house pop up in the Instagram story of a friend who was attending a holiday soiree at a Colonial-style dwelling. I quickly figured out the name of the party’s hosts and searched property records to find their address, only to discover upon getting a better look at the residence via Street View that it was not, in fact, the right place. Oh, the (admittedly crazy) lengths I go to to bring filming location information to the masses! It was not until this past February (almost five years after my search began!) that an unexpected source came to my rescue.

That month, upon the (very emphatic) recommendation of Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, the Grim Cheaper and I started watching Barely Famous, VH1’s fake reality series about the lives of sisters Erin and Sara Foster, daughters of music producer David Foster (who just so happens to be the man largely credited with discovering Michael Bublé – but I digress). While viewing the pilot episode, I just about screamed as an establishing shot of Erin and Sara’s home came into view. In an instant, I knew it was the pad from “Deck the Halls.” Thank you, Pinky!

Barely Famous not only provided much more expansive views of the residence, but an address placard was also visible in several episodes. Though I couldn’t quite make out the number displayed, it was apparent that said number was five digits, which meant the property was located somewhere in the Valley. Up until that point, I had only been searching the Hollywood/Hancock Park areas and their environs, near Hollywood Center Studios (now Sunset Las Palmas Studios) where The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s first season was lensed, as sitcom location managers typically don’t veer far from the lot when choosing locales. Oops!

Knowing the place was actually in the San Fernando Valley gave me a whole new lease on the hunt! Armed with the information, I headed over to Google Maps and found the Banks’ Christmas house/Barely Famous residence fairly quickly at 10436 Kling Street in Toluca Lake.

The 2-story, 17-room American Colonial Revival-style estate is definitely fit for a king – or the Banks family, as the case may be – with 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,898 square feet of living space, a master suite with a massive walk-in closet, multiple fireplaces and built-in bookcases, a 0.42-acre yard, a pool, a spa, a putting green (!), a detached 3-car garage, and a gazebo. You can see some interior photos of the pad, which was originally built in 1941, here.

In the “Deck the Halls” episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which aired in 1990, Will laments the fact that Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil are less than traditional when it comes to decorating for Christmas. So Viv gives him free reign to adorn their mansion – and soon comes to regret that decision. The Toluca Lake pad was shown a few times in establishing shots of the Banks’ home in the episode.

The property does bear a strong resemblance to the Brentwood estate typically used on the show, as you can see below, but not so much so that eagle-eyed viewers wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

All of the interiors from the “Deck the Halls” episode were, of course, shot on a studio set.

The property was only utilized for establishing shots on Barely Famous, as well.

All interiors were filmed elsewhere – I believe at an actual house and not on a set, though I am unsure of exactly where.

The pad is also where Juanita Solis (Madison De La Garza) attends a princess-themed birthday party in the Season 5 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow,” which aired in 2008.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Ashley for asking me to track down this locale and to Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for providing the key that finally helped me find it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Banks mansion from the “Deck the Halls” episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, aka Sara and Erin’s house from Barely Famous, is located at 10436 Kling Street in Toluca Lake. The estate regularly used as the Banks home on Fresh Prince can be found at 251 North Bristol Avenue in Brentwood.

October 11, 2011September 29, 2017

Bob Hope’s Former House – A Trick-or-Treating Mecca

As I have mentioned a couple of times before on this blog, this stalker absolutely loves herself some Los Angeles Magazine – especially the ever-witty and always-informative “Ask Chris – The City Explained” write-in column, in which Associate Editor/author Chris Nichols answers Angelenos’ random questions about life in the City of Angels. This month’s column featured a letter from a Valley-area reader with a tidbit of Halloween information that I had never before heard. She wrote, “When I was a kid, we always went trick-or-treating at Bob Hope’s house in Toluca Lake, where they handed out whole candy bars. Does his widow keep up the tradition?” (Sadly, the issue hit newsstands just a few days before Dolores Hope passed away on September 19th.) Chris replied, “The Hope house has long been known for doling out the best Halloween loot, from those full-size candy bars and silver dollars to nose-shaped kazoos and Frisbees imprinted with a caricature of the funnyman, who passed away in 2003. At 102, Dolores Hope leads a pretty active life (I reached her on vacation in Europe), but after chartered buses showed up with scores of children last Halloween, Dolores decided to end the tradition at her historic estate.” Well, I thought that was just about the coolest thing I had ever heard (aside from the whole chartered buses showing up thing, of course) and as soon as I finished reading Chris’s words, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

Sadly, not much of the home, which was built in 1939 and boasts 8 bedrooms, 11 baths, 34 rooms, 14,876 square feet, and sits on over 4 acres of land, is visible from the street.

Bob and Dolores purchased the residence, which as you can see in the above aerial view is absolutely GINORMOUS, in 1940 and it was there that Bob, sadly, passed away on July 27th, 2003. Amazingly, the legendary comedian was making people laugh right up until the very end. According to this CNN interview with Bob’s grandson Zachary, when asked where he wanted to be buried while on his deathbed, Bob replied, “Surprise me.” Gotta love it!

While we were stalking the home, the GC and I ventured around to the property’s side gate on Ledge Avenue where several mourners had placed flowers in memory of Dolores. So incredibly sweet.

And I do have to say here that I think the fact that Bob and Dolores maintained such an awesome Halloween tradition for so many years is absolutely extraordinary. What an amazing couple! As Candy Waldron, one of the Hope’s longtime neighbors, said in this July 2003 Los Angeles Times article, “He could have closed his gate and ignored the holiday. But every year he’d give out hundreds of toys.” Apparently, one Halloween the couple even handed out autographed photos of Bob! Oh, how I wish I had grown up in Toluca Lake! All Hallow Steve, from the FABULOUS Halloween Addict blog (which I somehow only recently discovered), was just as fascinated as I was with the Hope’s Halloween traditions and managed to dig up a comment on the Trend Hunter website from a Toluca Lake native which said, “I always think fondly about Bob Hope around Halloween. His old estate is right by my parents’ house, and we’d go trick-or-treating there. Each year, his butler would pass out a sack filled with king-sized candy bars, one sack to each child. There would always be a Bob Hope toy too, like a mini glow-in-the-dark Frisbee with his profile and “Bob Hope 1990″ or something like that. I’ve never forgotten his generosity.” All Hallow Steve even managed to track down a photograph of one of those Frisbees (pictured above). LOVE IT!

In the Ask Chris column, Chris Nichols finished up his response about the Bob Hope house with, “Dedicated trick-or-treaters might think about taking their chances in Las Vegas, where Mayor Oscar Goodman is said to give out lucky poker chips.” Randomly enough, while vacationing at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego a few years back, the GC happened to spot Oscar Goodman sitting next to us at one of the property’s outdoor patios. And, let me tell you, I literally almost had a heart attack when the GC walked right up to him to ask for a picture! Yes, the Grim Cheaper, a man who could care less about the Alicia Silverstones, the Kyra Sedgwicks, and the Jermaine Jacksons of the world, not only recognized, but actually went up to and asked the Mayor of Las Vegas for a photograph! Oscar happily obliged and then gave him one of the aforementioned poker chips (the front and back of which is pictured above), which the Mayor apparently uses as a business card. SO COOL!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bob and Dolores Hope’s former house is located at 10346 Moorpark Street in Toluca Lake.

April 12, 2011April 11, 2011

Trish’s House from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”

Two weeks ago, on the recommendation of fellow stalker Owen, the Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down to watch the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I have no idea why we avoided seeing the flick for as long as we did, but I have to say that we both ended up absolutely loving it. It’s sweet, light-hearted, and laugh-out-loud funny. It seems that not everyone was a fan, though. A few months back, fellow stalker Lavonna, who is a major Steve Carell aficionado, told me an absolutely hilarious story about The 40-Old-Virgin that I just have to share! Apparently, and unbeknownst to her, Lavonna’s husband decided to watch the movie while he was home by himself one day. He never mentioned anything about it to Lavonna, but when their daughter Melissa went to watch the flick a few weeks later she opened up the DVD box to find a note taped inside which read, “I want that two hours of my life back! – Dad” LOL LOL LOL Love it! That so sounds like something my father would do!

Anyway, when fellow stalker Owen told me that he had tracked down the residence where Andy Stitzer’s (aka Steve Carell’s) girlfriend, Trish (aka Catherine Keener), lived in the flick – along with pretty much every other locale used in the movie – I dragged the GC right on out to stalk the place. Thank you, Owen!

Sadly, Trish’s house has become a bit run-down since the filming of The 40-Year-Old Virgin took place back in 2005. While the property was pretty adorable in the movie, the paint is now, unfortunately, faded and peeling, the front yard has become quite overgrown, and weeds are currently growing through the many cracks in the driveway. Such a shame! The residence was just sold this past November, though, so I am hoping that the new owner will give the place some much-needed TLC and restore it back to its onscreen condition.

[ad]

One VERY odd thing that I noticed after I returned home and scanned through the movie was that the home’s front door seems to have been moved since filming took place. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, in The 40-Year-Old Virgin the front door was located perpendicular to the street, facing the apartment building next door, but it has since been moved kitty-corner to where it used to be and is now situated facing the street. Very, very strange!

I think the inside of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was also used in the flick. Either that or producers modeled the set of Trish’s residence very closely to that of the home’s real life interior.

The home’s real life backyard also appeared in the flick during the montage scene which showed Andy and Trish’s first twenty dates.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Trish’s house from The 40-Year-Old Virgin is located at 4433 Cartwright Avenue in Toluca Lake.

March 25, 2011March 25, 2011

Paty’s Restaurant from “Desperate Housewives”

To continue on with this week’s restaurant theme, today I thought I would write a post about an eatery that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked back in January – the historic Paty’s Restaurant in Toluca Lake, which first opened for business just a little over a half century ago in 1960. I had become a wee bit obsessed with tracking down the restaurant a few weeks beforehand while watching the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Assassins”. At the very beginning of that episode, Mike Delfino (aka James Denton) is shown eating at a supposed Alaska-area diner whereupon he receives a phone call from Felicia Tilman (aka Harriet Sansom Harris) who accuses him of having shot his neighbor, Paul Young (aka Mark Moses). While watching the scene, I had noticed a wall displaying what looked like autographed celebrity headshots in the background behind Mike and my stalking radar immediately went on high alert because, let’s face it, any restaurant that has a wall full of celebrity headshots is undoubtedly my kind of place!

Because Desperate Housewives is filmed at Universal Studios, I had a hunch that the restaurant was most likely located in Universal City or in one of its neighboring communities. So I immediately started using Google to search for diners in different areas of the San Fernando Valley, beginning in Universal City and working my way outwards. It wasn’t very long before I came to the Toluca Lake district and, amazingly enough, when I inputted the words “diner” and “Toluca Lake” into the Google search bar, Paty’s Restaurant was the first item to pop up. And, sure enough, it was the right place – celebrity headshots and all! So I dragged the GC right on out to stalk it that very weekend. And I have to say that we were NOT disappointed. Paty’s menu is quite extensive and the food they serve up is nothing short of EXCEPTIONAL! I opted for the Southwest Chicken Salad entrée which featured an array of chicken strips – my favorite food – atop a large serving of lettuce and avocado. And, let me tell you, it was A-MA-ZING! The ranch dressing was simply out of this world, as were the chicken strips! For a stalker like myself, finding Paty’s was like a dream come true! A restaurant that not only serves comfort food, but is a celebrity hangout AND a filming location – what more could a girl ask for? Love it, love it, love it!

[ad]

As the headshots on the wall can attest to, Paty’s Restaurant has been a major celebrity hangout pretty much from the time of its inception just over five decades ago. A few of the stars who dined there in the early years include Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, all of the Brady Bunch kids, James Garner, Jane Russell(!), Ed Asner, Roy Rogers, Debbie Reynolds, and Jonathan Winters.

Most amazing of all, though – to me at least – was the fact that, according to the waitress that I spoke with, a young Michael Jackson, along with other members of his family, had once dined at the eatery during the heyday of the Jackson 5! So incredibly cool!

In more recent years, such stars as Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas, Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus, Jennie Garth, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Tisdale, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Shia LaBeouf, George Clooney, Ron Howard, Kevin Costner, Lorenzo Lamas, Leah Remini, Tim Allen, John Travolta, and George Lopez have all stopped by Paty’s to grab a bite to eat.

Our waitress also informed us that one of Paty’s regulars is George Barris, an automobile customizer who has designed numerous cars for television shows, most notably the Batmobile from the original Batman television series.

And while George did not design the DeLorean from the Back to the Future movies, he did apparently build a replica of one and often drives it to the restaurant, which is how the above photograph came to be taken.

While we were dining I noticed an autographed photograph of the cast of The Office displayed on one of Paty’s walls. When I inquired about it, one of the waitresses told me that a few episodes of the series had been filmed on location at the restaurant, but she was unsure of exactly which episodes.

Because the restaurant did not look familiar to me from the show, I called upon fellow stalker David in Spain who just recently started watching the series from the beginning. Since the show was fresh in his mind, I was hoping he might remember which episode had been filmed at Paty’s and, sure enough, he did! David emailed me back almost immediately to let me know that Paty’s was the spot where Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) sat down with Jan Levinson (aka Melora Hardin) and told her he wanted to take over management of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch in the Season 3 episode titled “The Coup”.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker David for figuring out which episode of The Office was filmed at Paty’s!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Paty’s Restaurant is located at 10001 Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.