TV homes – Page 3 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 23, 2010July 22, 2010

Michael Scott’s Condo from “The Office”

I am very sad to report that early last week I finally watched the Season 6 finale of The Office and am at this time all caught up on new episodes of the show. I am not quite sure what to do with myself now and am seriously considering watching the entire series over again, even though it’s only been about three weeks since I began watching it the first time. What can I say – I am absolutely obsessed! Unlike me, though, my fiancé was extremely happy when I finished watching the series because as he said, “Yes, it’s a great show, but not when you are playing it on a 24-hour loop in our apartment.” He was on so much Office-overload, in fact, that he had actually taken to watching random movies on his laptop computer every night while I commandeered our TV. Poor guy. Anyway, because there are no new episodes for me to watch, in order to satisfy my Office fix I spent this past weekend dragging my fiancé all over the Valley to stalk a bunch of locations from the show, the first one being the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania- area condominium where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) lives. I found Michael’s residence thanks, once again, to fellow stalker Owen who was able to track the place down via a lucky Google search. Thank you, Owen!

While watching the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Dream Team”, Owen noticed the above-pictured “Exit on Laura Lane” sign displayed on a fence near the front of Michael’s house and figured it might just be an actual sign posted near the actual property. He then simply used Google to search for a Laura Lane in Los Angeles and it wasn’t long before he stumbled upon one located in Reseda and, sure enough, just around the corner from it was Michael’s condo. YAY!

Before stalking the place, Owen had warned me that Michael Scott’s condo was located inside of a gated community and that it was most likely not visible to the public. I am very happy to report, though, that Michael’s particular unit is the second house in from Wyandotte Street, which is a public road, and that it actually can be seen from the street! YAY!

Sadly, Michael’s front door, which appears quite often on the series, is not visible, though.

But, I was able to spy the front door of a different unit while I was there and I am very happy to report that it looks JUST LIKE Michael’s front door. 🙂

Michael first purchased the condo in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “Office Olympics”. It is while he is buying the residence that he gives this sage piece of advice to the audience: “There’s a basic principle in real estate that you should never be the best-looking person in the development. It’s just sort of common sense because, if you are, then you’ve got no place to go but down.” LOL

In that same episode, when Michael first points out his new condo to Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) he mistakenly shows him the wrong unit, which is located directly across the street from the one which he has actually purchased.

The condo has been featured in several episodes of The Office over the course of the series’ six-year run, including the Season 4 episode titled “Dinner Party”, in which Michael invites all of the office couples over to his house for dinner.

And, as you can see from these photographs of another residence in the same development, the real-life interior of the home was actually used in the filming of that episode.

Michael’s condo was also featured in the Season 5 episode titled “Dream Team”, as well.

My favorite part about this location is that if you look at it via Bing Maps, you can see several production trucks, star trailers, and craft services tents set up, which means that they were actually filming an episode of The Office when the aerial images were taken!! SO DARN COOL!

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On a side note – I recently got a Brazilian Blowout treatment done to my hair and I have to say it was the BEST DECISION I EVER MADE! While I’ve never had particularly difficult or unruly hair, it is very thick and very curly and because I’ve been growing it out recently for the wedding, it has become rather time-consuming to style. My mom told me about the Brazilian Blowout treatment a few weeks ago after she heard it supposedly shortens the time it takes to straighten one’s hair. I was leery to try it as not only is it very expensive, but I was afraid it might fry my locks. I finally bit the bullet, though, last Wednesday, and, let me tell you, I am SO GLAD I DID! It is no exaggeration to say that the treatment has been life-changing! While it used to take me 90 minutes to blow-dry my hair straight, it now takes me 20! NO JOKE! And I no longer need to use any sort of product to style it – that’s right, no balm, no cream, no gel! If you have been trying to decide whether or not to try the Brazilian Blowout, I honestly cannot recommend it enough! I’ve gone from being so frustrated with my hair that I was ready to shave it all off ala Britney Spears to being a wash-and-go type of gal. LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael Scott’s condo from The Office is located at 7303 Bonnie Place in Reseda. The condo which Michael mistakenly thinks is his in the “Office Olympics” episode is located at 7302 Bonnie Place. Both residences are located within a gated community, so please be respectful and do not trespass.

July 12, 2010July 22, 2010

David Wallace’s House from “The Office”

Fellow stalker Owen and I recently set out upon a mission to try to track down the Colonial-style residence belonging to David Wallace in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “Branch Closing”. This proved to be a rather difficult find for us, though, being that we had virtually nothing to go on – no house number or street sign was visible in the background of the episode and neither Owen nor I had any idea of which city the house might be located in. We figured that unless we were able to get ahold of a crew member and gather some inside information, we would never be able to track the place down. That is until last week, when I stumbled upon this fabulous filming locations database, which, lo and behold, had photographs of the exact property which we were looking for! And not only did the database state that the house was located in Pasadena, but it also gave us an address number – 1485. YAY! I immediately emailed the link to Owen and the two of us set about using Google Maps to search every 1400 block in the Pasadena area. Three minutes later I got a text from Owen with the address. And while he says that this one was a team effort, my hat is definitely off to him because there is absolutely NO WAY I ever would have found the place as quickly as he did. So, THANK YOU, OWEN! 🙂

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In the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) come up with a plan to save the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company’s Scranton branch by driving to New York to make a personal face-to-face plea to CFO David Wallace (aka Andy Buckley) at his home, the address of which Dwight has stolen off of the company Christmas card list. Because Wallace is not at home when they show up to confront him “Michael Moore-style”, they are forced to wait outside on the sidewalk all day and into the night with only a bottle of Gatorade to sustain them. And while Dwight and Michael never end up getting the chance to confront Wallace in the episode, the Scranton Branch does eventually get spared from closure.

I am VERY happy to report that the Wallace residence looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. In fact, the only difference I noticed was that the bronze eagle that was affixed to the round portico above the front door in the episode was not there in real life. Otherwise, though, the house looks exactly as it did on the show. Love it!

As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, producers even went so far as to have the house’s real life “San Marino Security” sign covered over with a “Mount Vernon Security” sign for the filming, which is so darn cool!

And, of course, I just had to sit in the spot where Dwight and Michael were sitting at the end of the episode. 🙂

On a side note – for whatever reason, in the episode of The Office titled “Cocktails”, which aired during the very same season as the “Branch Closing” episode, a similar-looking, but obviously very different, home stood in for the Wallace residence. Have no fear, though, Owen also found that property, so I will be stalking it soon!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: David Wallace’s house from the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office is located at 1485 Lomita Drive in Pasadena.

July 8, 2010July 7, 2010

On the Set of “Mad Men”

This past Tuesday, I received an email from one of my fellow stalkers alerting me to the fact that the hit AMC television series Mad Men was going to be shooting on location in Pasadena the following day at Don and Betty Draper’s house, which I blogged about last June. And even though I don’t really watch the show, I just had to venture out to stalk the set – with my camera in hand, of course! 🙂 Unfortunately though, not a whole lot was going on while I was there and the filming only lasted a few short hours. The scene being shot was a very short little driving scene involving actor Jon Hamm, who plays advertising executive Don Draper on the show. And sadly, the crew, while nice, made it very clear that they did NOT want photographs being taken of anything – the set, the filming, the actors, etc., etc., etc. And while I was in no way going to let that stop me ;), the only pictures I could take were on the down low, so I didn’t get very many good ones. I did manage to snap the above photograph of Jon as he was leaving the set after shooting had wrapped, though, and let me tell you, I was completely floored about that! 🙂

Jon seemed super friendly and waved to me and another stalker who I was hanging out with from his van as he was being driven away from the set. I so would have LOVED to have gotten a photograph with him, but unfortunately he was shuttled away from the premises rather quickly as he was due in Downtown L.A., where more Mad Men filming was taking place.

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After Jon Hamm was driven away, I stuck around for a bit to watch the crew members strike the set, a process which I find incredibly interesting. I always love to see what aspects of a property are changed for a filming and which are left the same. One altered aspect of the Draper house that I knew about prior to my set visit yesterday was the color of their front door. As you can see in the above photograph, which I took when I stalked the property last June, in real life the home’s front door is painted blue.

But on the show, the Draper’s front door is painted a bright red color, and, let me tell you, when I set out to stalk the set yesterday, I was most excited over the prospect of seeing that red door in person – even more so than I was about the prospect of seeing Jon Hamm. 😉 And I was even more excited when I was able to snap the above photograph of it! YAY! I found out from a crew member that the home’s real life front door is actually painted red each and every time they film at the property! I had mistakenly assumed that set dressers had a special door that they installed during each filming, but in reality, someone is actually brought in the day before shooting to paint the real life door red and then, after shooting wraps, he or she paints it back to its original blue color . . . every single time they film! Isn’t that incredible? I mean, I realize doors are expensive and all, but it seems to me that it would be a whole lot more cost effective and a whole lot more timely to simply switch out the real door for a red one. Not to mention the fact that there now must be over a dozen layers of paint on that door! I swear, I’ll never understand Hollywood sometimes!

Set dressers also install a fake light post (which you can see laying on the ground in the above photograph) each time filming takes place, which was incredible to see. They actually dig up a part of the home’s front lawn in order to bury the base of the light each and every time they film! With all the filming that takes place at the property that poor lawn probably never has time to grow back! They also bring in a slew of potted plants (which you can also see in the above photograph) which are placed on the front porch for each filming.

The coolest thing for me to see, though, was the fake street sign that was put up for the scene. The signs above which read “Shady Lane” and “Bullet Park Road” normally spell out “El Molino Avenue” and “Arden Road”. So darn cool! According to one of the crew members I talked to, the fake sign was so realistic that it caused a bit of confusion for a passerby who was driving around, trying unsuccessfully to find Arden Road. LOL

Set dressers also covered up the above-pictured stop sign with a fake 50’s style stop sign, but unfortunately I didn’t get a photograph of it. In fact, I didn’t even notice it was a fake sign until one of the set dressers removed it after filming had wrapped. I SO wish I had gotten a picture of it! UGH! I am SO blonde sometimes.

Ironically enough, my fiancé and I were watching the 1995 movie Outbreak a couple of weeks ago and I was floored to discover that the house belonging to Robby Keough (aka Rene Russo) in the flick was none other than the Mad Men house! So cool! You can see some great interior photographs of the home here. And, according to one of the crew members I talked to, some Mad Men filming does actually take place inside of the home.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Don and Betty Draper’s house from Mad Men is located at 675 Arden Road in Pasadena.

February 19, 2010February 18, 2010

David Silver’s Grandparents’ House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One Beverly Hills, 90210 location that I have been dying to find pretty much ever since the episode it was featured in aired over 18 years ago is the house where David Silver’s grandparents’ lived in the Season One episode entitled “Palm Springs Weekend” (aka “A Fling in Palm Springs”). For those who don’t know 90210 like the back of their hand like I do, in the episode Kelly, Donna, Brenda, and the gang head out to Palm Springs for Presidents’ Day Weekend and, because of an oversight on Steve’s part, wind up having to spend the entire three days at David Silvers’ grandparents’ house. And while I was absolutely certain that the home used in the episode wasn’t located in Palm Springs, unfortunately, I had no idea of where it actually could be found. My gut was telling me that it might be located in or around Encino and I actually spent quite a bit of time searching in that area. It was actually this location that I was looking for when I stumbled upon the mansion where April Rhodes was caught squatting in “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of fave show Glee, but I digress. Anyway after spending countless hours searching the Valley for David Silver’s grandparents’ house, fellow stalker Chas got some insider information that the residence could actually be found in . . . Malibu of all places! I swear, Malibu would have been the absolute LAST spot on earth I would have looked for this house as, in my opinion at least, it just doesn’t really look like a Malibu-type residence. Anyway, once Chas had me divert my search to the ‘Bu :), I found the home almost immediately. YAY. So, this past Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took the day off and the two of us headed out to Malibu to do some long overdue “Palm Springs” stalking.

And let me tell you, I literally started screaming the moment we drove up to the house when I realized that – over eighteen years later – the place still looked EXACTLY – and I do mean EXACTLY – the same as it did when it appeared on 90210. The only differences I noticed were that the trees in the front yard have since been changed, as have the front doors which are now made out of glass. Other than those two minor details, though, the place still looks very much like Henry and Adele Silver’s house. 🙂 I cannot tell you how cool it was to finally be seeing this location in person and to be reliving the countless memories that being there brought back – memories of Dylan playing charades with Brenda in the living room, memories of David Silver’s random hookup with a girl named Tuesday whom he met at a gas station, and memories of Donna’s black daisy dress with the matching black daisy headband. LOL God, I miss that show!

As you can see in the above photograph, David Silver’s grandparents’ house is, sadly, gated, so Mike and I couldn’t venture in farther to get a better view. 🙁

But he did manage to snap a few close-up pictures through the fence for me.

Silly as it may sound, Mike and I were most excited to see the little curved brick half-wall located in the middle of the home’s front lawn, as that same brick wall was also visible on 90210. I almost couldn’t believe it was still there after all these years.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also featured in the episode. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

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The backyard and pool area appeared quite a few times in the episode, too.

Sadly, though, that area is not at all visible from the street. But that’s why God created aerial images, right? 😉 And, as you can see, the pool still looks very much the same as it did on the show.

Even Henry and Adele’s little hidden hot tub oasis is actually there in real life. LOVE IT! While we were stalking the place, Mike and I were hoping beyond hope that the owner would come outside so we could ask them all sorts of questions about the filming and maybe even get a peek at their backyard, but sadly it was not to be. 🙁

On a side note – My good friend and fellow stalker Chas has finally started up his own filming locations website. The website is called ItsFilmedThere.com and it focuses on locations in both the Los Angeles and the Chicago areas. And, let me tell you, while his L.A. posts are great, it is the Chicago locations that have me absolutely fascinated. Before coming into contact with Chas I had NO idea whatsoever that so many movies were filmed in the Windy City. The first time I learned about Chas’ huge library of Chicago area locations was one night back in December during one of my father’s many hospital visits. My dad had been taken to the emergency room and because only my mom was allowed to stay with him, my fiancé and I were stuck in the waiting room for hours, bored out of our minds. Until I logged onto Facebook via my cell phone, that is, and started looking through all of Chas’ Facebook photos. And, let me tell you, I just about died looking at his Chicago movie pictures. My fiancé and I were literally mesmerized for hours looking at those photos – which is saying a lot being that the Grim Cheaper doesn’t normally care about movie locations – and ever since that night I’ve been absolutely itching to visit the Windy City. Chicago honeymoon, anyone? 🙂 So, when Chas decided to start his own site last month I begged him to publish all of his Chicago photographs for stalkers such as myself – who had no idea the Windy City was such a treasure trove of locations – to enjoy. You can check out his site here – www.itsfilmedthere.com. 🙂

A big THANK YOU to Chas for helping me find this location. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: David Silver’s Grandparents’ house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 6636 Portshead Road in Malibu.

February 8, 2010February 5, 2010

April’s House from “Glee”

As I have mentioned countless times before, I am absolutely, irrevocably, one hundred percent obsessed with the television show Glee. So obsessed that I’ve been watching my “Road to Sectionals” DVDs over and over and over again to bide my time until the series returns from its absurdly long hiatus on April 13th – which still seems like such a far off date. I honestly don’t know how I am supposed to wait another 65 days before getting my Glee fix. Why, oh, why are you holding out on us Fox? But I digress. As you’ve probably ascertained by now, I literally cannot get enough of the show! So, imagine my absolute – pardon the pun – glee when I stumbled upon the house where April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenowith) was caught squatting in the Season One, Volume 1 episode entitled “The Rhodes Not Taken”. I happened to be doing be some cyberstalking of the Encino area at the time – looking for a Beverly Hills, 90210 location, no less – and randomly happened upon the Glee house. And, let me tell you, I just about died from excitement! And, since my fiancé and I were already in the area last weekend enjoying our little “staycation” at the Westlake Village Inn, I just had to drag him out to stalk the place. YAY!

In “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode, Will Schuester (aka cutie Matthew Morrison) decides to reenlist former Glee club star April Rhodes at William McKinley High School so that she can join his glee team and lead them to glory at the upcoming sectionals competition. He tracks down April, whom he hasn’t spoken with in years, via a Google search and ends up sending her an instant message asking if she remembers him from their high school days. She immediately responds with an address where he should meet her along with an instruction to bring buffalo wings. LOL

That address is 35 Bontempo Road in Lima, Ohio and producers even went so far as to put a fake address placard on the front of the house for the filming. As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, though, the fake address sign is an exact match to the home’s real one. 🙂 In reality, of course, April’s home is not located on Bontempo Road in Ohio, but about 2,000 miles west on White Oak Avenue in Encino. I swear, it’s a good thing I accidentally stumbled upon this location, otherwise I never would have found it in a million years! When I first watched “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode, actually, I had wrongly assumed the property was located in Pasadena, so my search would have been way off!

While Will is visiting with April inside the home, a real estate agent barges in and informs him that April is a squatter who been residing in foreclosed-upon, bank-owned properties as of late. And, as you can see in these photographs from a 2007 real estate listing, the home’s real life interior and real life furniture were used for the filming of that scene. So cool!

After being booted out of the house, Will and April – and her box of wine LOL – then head outside and have a conversation on the sidewalk, whereupon he convinces her to return to high school to finally graduate – and to join glee, of course.

While stalking the house, I just had to take a picture while sitting in the same spot where Will and April were sitting in that scene. 🙂 I guess my memory was a little off on this one, though, as I wound up taking the picture about four feet too far to the left. Whoopsie!

In reality, April’s house is a 6 bedroom, 7 bathroom dwelling, which was built in 2001 and measures a whopping 7,280 square feet. It boasts maid’s quarters, a central vacuum system, a second family room located upstairs, Viking appliances, and a 400 square foot back patio with a built-in BBQ, fire pit, fireplace, and a large pool and spa. It looks like a pretty plush pad – no wonder April was squatting there. 😉

On a Matthew Morrison side note – I just recently re-watched the Sex and the City episode from Season Two that he guested on back in June of 1999. The episode was entitled “They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?” and Matthew played a very young busboy who waits on Carrie in the final scene. His sole line in the episode is “Waiting for someone?” The spot was Matthew’s first ever television appearance and he was so very young in it and oh so darn cute. 🙂 Sigh!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house where April Rhodes’ was caught squatting in “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee is located at 4777 White Oak Avenue in Encino.

February 3, 2010February 3, 2010

The Walsh Family’s Minnesota House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One Beverly Hills, 90210 location that both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have long wanted to stalk was the Walsh Family’s former Minnesota residence which briefly appeared in the Season Four episode entitled “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye”. Sadly, though, because no address number or background information which would point us to the home’s location were visible in the episode, we had no idea where to even begin looking. So, this past week I called upon the usual suspects, fellow stalkers Owen and Chas, to help us track down the residence. And sure enough, they did! Chas ended up getting into contact with a former 90210 crew member who remembered that the home was located somewhere in Altadena, in the very same vicinity as Casa Walsh. So, Owen got to cyberstalking aerial views of the area and, voila, fairly quickly found the home! YAY! As it turns out, the “Minnesota” house is located a mere two blocks away from Casa Walsh, so it looks like when the Walsh’s moved, they didn’t go very far. 😉 And, let me tell you, once Owen gave me the address, I immediately hopped into my car and dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place! As fate would have it, when we pulled up to the house, the owner – an incredibly nice woman named Judy – just happened to be standing outside, so I of course had to strike up a conversation with her. 🙂

Judy truly could not have been nicer and did not find it at all weird that I was stalking her home. 😉 She even shared some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes information with us, the most exciting of which was the fact that not only did her home appear in the “So Long, Farewell” episode of 90210, but also in the opening credits of the Season One episode entitled “The Green Room” – which you can watch here. In the credits, the house is featured in one brief scene in which a mailman is shown picking up the Walsh’s forwarded mail from their snow covered former home in Minnesota. For some reason, though, that particular segment appeared only in “The Green Room” episode’s opening credits and never again. It’s too bad, too, because I think it would have been a really cute way to start off each show. Judy told us that it was about 105 degrees in Altadena on the day that scene was filmed and that the producers were having a hard time keeping the “snow” – which in reality was just a soap suds mixture – from evaporating in the heat.

In the “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye” episode, Brenda returns to Minneapolis for the first time since her family’s move to Beverly Hills in order to begin her Freshman Year at the University of Minnesota. Before school starts, Cindy takes Brenda to see their former home and she knocks on the front door, hoping to take a peek at her old bedroom, but unfortunately no one is home. Is it while standing in the front yard of her former home, though, that Brenda first starts to have doubts about attending college in Minnesota. Those doubts soon turn into all out misgivings and in the following episode she leaves Minnesota and heads back to Beverly Hills to attend CU with Brandon, Kelly, and the rest of the gang. 🙂

In the scene, Brenda mentions that as kids she and Brandon used to play on a tire swing that their father had hung from a tree in their former home’s front yard. So, I was absolutely floored when I noticed that the house had a swing hanging from a tree in the front yard in real life, too, as you can see in the above photograph. So cool!

Judy also told us that for the past eight years her family has hosted a huge – and I do mean HUGE – annual Halloween spectacular in their front yard, consisting of a 40 foot maze, creepy clowns, life-size animatronics, monsters with chainsaws, and screenings of horror movies, along with numerous other tricks and treats to both terrorize and delight. Judy’s a woman after my own heart, I swear, as Halloween has always been my very favorite holiday. 🙂 The “Haunted Yard”, as it has come to be known, attracted some 3,500 spectators this past year, including the Los Angeles Clippers Cheerleading Team who led the entire crowd in a spontaneous rendition of Michael Jackson’s zombie dance from Thriller. Which begs the question, HOW IN THE HECK DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS???? I mean, I would have absolutely DIED to have seen that!!!! And it was all happening just a few miles from where I live! Oh, how I wish I had been there. 🙁 Ugh. Maybe I can convince the Clippers to do a repeat performance next Halloween! 😉 You can read more about the annual “Haunted Yard” on fave website AltadenaBlog here.

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A big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, and Chas for finding this house. This one was definitely a group effort! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh Family’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1640 Braeburn Road in Altadena.

January 27, 2010January 27, 2010

Dylan’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Still licking our wounds this past weekend after finding out that the Walsh Family garage had recently been dismantled, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to head over to Dylan McKay’s house to do some more Beverly Hills, 90210 stalking. And, as fate would have it, the real life owner of Dylan’s home, an INCREDIBLY nice woman named Mary, just happened to be outside doing some gardening work when we arrived! So, we got to talking to her and found out quite a bit of behind-the-scenes information, the most fascinating of which was the fact that throughout the show’s entire second season, all of the scenes which took place at Dylan’s residence were actually filmed inside of Mary’s house and not on a soundstage! And, let me tell you, I just about died when I heard that! Interestingly enough, though, Mary’s house was not used for the exterior establishing shots of Dylan’s house until early in the show’s third season!

The house used as the exterior of Dylan’s abode during the show’s second season is pictured above. And, ironically enough, it’s also the very same house that was used as Andrea’s residence in the Season One episode of 90210 entitled “Spring Dance”. LOL The location manager’s wires must have gotten crossed somewhere along the line while dealing with this residence! 😉

The interior of Mary’s house first appeared early on in the series’ second season in an episode entitled “Necessity is a Mother” (pictured above). According to Mary, whenever filming would take place at her home, producers would use her actual furniture in all of the scenes. She said she and her husband owned a pink couch at the time and producers would cover it up with Indian-style blankets during the filming, as you can see in the above screen captures. So, that finally answers the question of how Dylan McKay’s blanket-happy decorating style came to be. 😉

The exterior of Mary’s house (pictured above) didn’t show up until a full year after the “Necessity is a Mother” episode aired. Its first appearance was in the premiere episode of the Third Season, which was entitled “Misery Loves Company”. I guess producers didn’t figure viewers would notice that Dylan’s house changed mysteriously mid-series, but they really should have accounted for all of us stalkers out there. 😉

According to Mary, the interiors of her house were used throughout the filming of the entire second season and into the beginning of third, at which time producers ended up building an exact replica of the structure on a studio soundstage.

They even rebuilt the home’s front porch and side patio area (pictured above), complete with a replica red Webber BBQ, just like the one Mary and her husband owned at the time! So cool! You can watch a clip which features an extensive view of Dylan’s house from the Season 3 episode entitled “A Song of Myself” here.

Mary also told us that a scene from the Season Four episode entitled “Twenty Years Ago Today” was also filmed inside of her house. In the scene, Dylan is shown taking a shower, just as Brandon pulls up to pick up a picture frame he had purchased for his parents’ twentieth wedding anniversary. Because Dylan can’t hear him knocking, Brandon ends up breaking the glass on the back door and entering the house. Dylan hears the glass break, grabs his gun, and almost shoots him. Ah, dontcha just love 90210 drama? Mary said that for the filming of Brandon’s breaking-and-entering scene, a fake back door – complete with break-away glass – was built and that she got to keep the door after the filming was completed! She still has the door in her garage! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it, but I think it is so incredibly cool that she still has it after all these years.

She also told us that her real life bathroom was used for the scene in which Dylan is showering in that episode, which means that Luke Perry actually stood in her shower! Sigh! Mary also said that Shannen Doherty was her favorite out of all of the actors on the show. YAY! Go Team Brenda! See, I knew Shannen had to be nice! 🙂

Because Mary’s front door is glass, you can easily see inside of the house when standing on the front porch. And, let me tell you, I was ABSOLUTELY DYING looking at the interior because it looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did on 90210. But while Mary told us that we could take all the pictures we wanted of the house’s exterior and the front porch area, she asked us not to take any photos of the interior through the glass. 🙁 Apparently fans are apt to do that and she’s not too keen on it. And even though it killed me not to, I had to respect her wishes. 🙁 Ugh, such a bummer as I would have LOVED to have posted photographs of the inside here. But you can see some great interior photos of the house from before Mary owned it here and a photograph that someone did actually take through her front door here.

The house’s front porch area, which showed up countless times on 90210, is absolutely HUGE and Mike and I just had to take pictures of every single angle of it! 🙂

The house is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and extremely unique, in person. It’s appearance from the street is actually quite deceiving, though, as it seems to be rather small and quaint. . .

. . . when in reality it is absolutely huge and stretches the length of an entire block. When you walk by, the place literally seems to just keep going and going and going.

Mary’s house was also used as Jesse Bradford’s residence in the super cute 2002 movie Clockstoppers.

Besides its cinematic significance, the house also has quite a bit of historical significance, as well. The dwelling is known as the “Parsons House” in architectural circles and it was originally built in 1910 by Arthur and Alfred Heineman, former Greene & Greene Brother’s’ apprentices. Amazingly enough, the house wasn’t always located in Altadena, though. It was originally built on East California Boulevard in Pasadena, four miles away from its current location. In 1980, a condominium development company purchased the land where the Parsons House used to stand and slated the area for demolition. The developer ended up giving the home to the Pasadena Heritage Society, who later sold the entire structure for one dollar to a man named Phil Elkins. Elkins hired architect Tim Anderson to restore the Parsons House and then purchased a vacant lot in Altadena, where he would eventually move the structure. In order to do so, though, the home had to be cut into three separate pieces, using a chain saw, no less! But the house survived the cut and the four mile journey to Altadena and two years later the entire property was completely restored. Anderson says, “We probably could have built a reproduction of the house for less than what it cost to restore. Had we all been less enthusiastic and naive about this project, the house would not have been saved.” You can read an entire history of the house on Tim Anderson’s website here.

Only the home’s chimney and front porch area had to be rebuilt from scratch, but they were made in exact replication of the originals. Ironically enough, George McDavitt, the stoneworker who did all of the masonry work on the new porch – and who also did the stone work on Bob Dylan’s Malibu house – actually showed up one day at Mary’s front door with his teenaged daughter. It turns out that his daughter was a huge 90210 fan and she didn’t believe that her father had actually built a part of Dylan McKay’s house, so he wanted to show her his name, which he had engraved in one of the rocks (pictured above). So cool!

I honestly cannot tell you how exciting it was to be able to see Dylan’s house in such an up-close-and-personal way and to talk to Mary about her amazing home and the historic filming that took place there almost two decades ago. It was truly a dream come true! 🙂

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On a side note – My good friend Kristin, who owns my very favorite restaurant POP Champagne and Dessert Bar in Pasadena, will be appearing on KTLA tomorrow morning at around 9:45 in honor of dineLA’s Restaurant Week. If you live in the Los Angeles area be sure to tune in for the segment. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dylan’s house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1605 East Altadena Drive, at the corner of Altadena Drive and Porter Avenue, in Altadena.

January 26, 2010January 26, 2010

The Casa Walsh Garage – A Distant Memory

Like Mike, from MovieShotsLA said yesterday, it’s officially the end of an era. While the two of us were out doing some Pasadena area stalking on Sunday, we made our regular pilgrimage to the Walsh House from Beverly Hills, 90210 and saw a very sad sight, indeed. In fact, Mike was so out of sorts over the whole thing that he almost crashed the car upon viewing it. Not kidding! Apparently, just last week, Jack, the real life owner of Casa Walsh, tore down the Walsh garage – the hallowed spot where Brandon and Jim’s famous basketball hoop used to hang. 🙁 Mike and I actually knew this was coming, as Jack had mentioned he had plans to install a new garage on the property last December during our interior tour of the home, but it was still sad to see nonetheless. I am not a person that handles change very well anyway, and being that my parents just last week decided to sell the house we’ve lived in ever since moving to Southern California a decade ago, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of it lately. Granted I moved out of that house a year and a half ago, but that’s entirely beside the point. 😉 So, when I saw that my beloved 90210 house had also been altered, it was almost too much to bear. And while Jack says that some change can actually be for the better, I’ll take the status quo over something new any day. 🙂

Pictured above is what’s currently left of the Walsh garage. I told Jack he should seriously consider selling pieces of the rubble on eBay, like the pieces of the Berlin Wall that were sold back in the 90s, but I don’t think he took me seriously. 😉

And here is the empty footprint where the Walsh garage – and basketball hoop – used to stand.

Pictured above is the garage area as it appeared in December of 2008.

And what it looks like today. So sad. See what I mean? It truly is the end of an era!

Jack also removed the little patio area that used to be located just outside of the Walsh’s backdoor – an area which the producers of 90210 had built especially for the filming of the show. 🙁

Pictured above is what that patio area used to look like.

Our visit to the Walsh house wasn’t an entirely sad event, though. As always, Jack regaled us with some fabulous tales from the days when the show was filmed on his property. And, let me tell you, I just cannot get enough of those stories! I could literally listen to Jack talk all day long! Which Mike and I pretty much did – we were there for close to two hours! Not kidding! Jack has to be one of THE nicest guys on the planet, I swear! One story he told us had us absolutely cracking up. Apparently, a few months back, a fan from Belgium came to the house and asked to see the inside. Jack’s wife was hesitant about doing so, but the girl was very persistent, so she eventually showed her the area just inside the front door. Well, the girl took one look at the inside and completely burst into tears. Apparently, she thought the show was actually filmed inside of the real life house and expected it to look exactly the same in person as it does on TV and she became terribly upset when that was not the case. If only she had read my blog before stalking the house, she would have been saved some heartache. 😉 One interesting little tidbit of information that Jack shared with us that I found fascinating was that there were actually three houses being considered for the Walsh residence once the series got picked up by Fox. The three residences were Jack’s house, which ended up being chosen, Jack’s neighbor’s house directly to the east (pictured above) . . .

. . . and the house located across the street (pictured above). I think they made the right choice, don’t you think? How different the show would have been – at least to me – if one of the other houses had been chosen. The house across the street from Jack’s was eventually used as both the residence of Melissa, aka 90210’s Baby Mama, in the Season One episode entitled “One Man and a Baby” and the backyard area was used as Tiffany Morgan’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Every Dream Has Its Price”, both of which I blogged about here.

Ironically enough, Jack also told us that the very same backyard also stood in for Steve Sander’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Higher Education”.

Another little bit of 90210 trivia that Jack clued us into was the fact that the front yard of the house located directly west of Jack’s masqueraded as the backyard of Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s home in the Season 10 episode entitled “The Easter Bunny”.

In the episode, Steve and Janet erroneously believe that her parent’s dog, whom they are pet-sitting at the time, killed their neighbor’s pet rabbit, so the two of them concoct a plan to replace it with a new rabbit. Because Jack’s neighbor’s house doesn’t have a backyard with much open space, producers dressed the front yard area – just to the west of the home’s front door – and added a fence and a gate to make it appear as if it was really the home’s backyard. So interesting!

One thing I noticed while in Jack’s backyard was that the Walsh house actually has two small upstairs balconies, not just one as I had previously believed. I recognized the smaller of the two balconies from the Season One episode entitled “Isn’t It Romantic” the last time I stalked the house. And this time, I immediately recognized the other balcony from the Season One episode entitled “Seventeen Year Itch”, which I had randomly watched the night beforehand. 🙂 In the episode, Cindy Walsh is shown pining over her former fling Glen Evans while standing out on the balcony looking up at the stars. And while the balcony looks a bit different today than it did when it appeared on 90210 – a cement awning has since been added – it was still very cool to see it in person nonetheless. 🙂

And another little bit of trivia – according to Jack, the exterior light located just to the left of the balcony door is the very light that used to be located on his front porch during the 90210 years. It was purchased by producers to match the light located on the front porch set that had been built at the studio.

The highlight of the day, though, had to be when – are you sitting down for this????? – Mike asked Jack if the two of us could each possibly have one of the roof tiles from his former garage. Jack thought we were incredibly silly to want such a thing, but he happily obliged. Thank goodness we stalked the place before all of the rubble had been removed! And, to top it all off, he even signed the tiles for us! Can you believe it????? I was absolutely DYING! I mean now I can actually say that I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!! I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!!!!!!!! How incredibly cool is that??? I was literally pinching myself the whole drive home and I almost still can’t believe it happened!!!!! 🙂 So, I guess what Jack said is actually true – some change can be for the better, because had he not dismantled his garage, we never would have been given a part of it. And while I, of course, would prefer that the Walsh garage was still standing, being given a real piece of the show isn’t such a bad consolation. 🙂 And I will of course take photographs and report back to my fellow stalkers once the new Walsh garage has been completed – it’s going to look totally different, by the way – but according to Jack, that won’t be for about six months.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Casa Walsh is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena. Please keep in mind that this is a private residence and please do not disturb the owners. It was a fluke that Mike and I were lucky enough to have been given a tour of the home, but this is not a regular occurrence. I’d hate to have people bothering Jack for tours due to the fact that I put this information on the internet, so please be respectful of his privacy. 🙂 The two houses which producers also considered using as the Walsh house can be found at 1689 and 1690 East Altadena Drive. 1690 East Altadena was also used as 90210’s Baby Mama’s house and its backyard was used as both Steve Sander’s backyard and Marianne Moore’s backyard during Season One. The house which stood in for Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s house in “The Easter Bunny” episode can be found at 1665 East Altadena Drive.

January 25, 2010January 25, 2010

Sarah Silverman’s Apartment Building from “The Sarah Silverman Program”

A few months back, I got an email from a fellow stalker named Kate who wanted to know if I could track down the apartment building where Sarah Silverman lives on The Sarah Silverman Program. Kate had heard on one of the show’s DVD commentaries that the building was located somewhere in Hollywood in close proximity to Paramount Studios, where the series is taped. Because I had never watched an episode of The Sarah Silverman Program – although I did see one being filmed 🙂 – for this particular stalking venture I had to call for reinforcements – i.e. fellow stalker Owen. 🙂 Like the blonde that I am, though, in the email I originally sent him asking for his help, I accidentally told him that the building was located near Universal Studios, instead of Paramount! Oops!!! Brain blips like that are quite common for me, I’m afraid, and they drive me – and those around me – crazy! Anyway, Owen spent quite a bit of time searching in the Universal Studios area (I still feel bad about that!), until I realized my mistake and informed him. Well, it wasn’t 20 minutes later that he emailed me back with an address! Yes, he is the master! Seems he found the building by looking at aerial views of various neighborhoods surrounding the Paramount Lot. He first set some parameters for himself of areas to check, searched all the houses within those boundaries, but had no luck. Then he opened up the parameters a bit to the south and almost immediately found the apartment. THANK YOU, Owen! 🙂

On The Sarah Silverman Program, Sarah, along with her friends Brian Spukowski (aka Brian Posehn) and Steve Myron (aka Steve Agee), live in a Mediterranean style building supposedly located in Valley Village. In reality, though, the building, which I am happy to report looks EXACTLY the same in person as it does on the show, is located in the heart of Hollywood.

One inconsistency that I did notice, though, is that on the show, Sarah’s building has an interior hallway, as you can see in the above screen captures. But from how it appears in real life, I am fairly certain that interior hallway doesn’t actually exist. In reality, it seems that the building contains four individual apartment units, each of which can be reached via the four front doors facing the street, thus negating any need for an indoor hallway.

The above photograph is the view looking north from the front of The Sarah Silverman Program apartment building. The big white structure located behind the large hedge is Paramount Studios, so that DVD commentary wasn’t lying – the apartment is indeed located in VERY close proximity to the lot where filming takes place! 🙂

On a side note – I finally sat down to watch a few episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program before writing this post and I have to say that I wasn’t really impressed. It’s kind of an odd program. It can funny at times, but for the most part, it’s just . . . well . . . very, very odd. That’s the best word I can find to describe it. Needless to say, I most likely won’t be watching it again. And I’m actually pretty bummed I spent $4 buying the episodes on iTunes. I could have bought a cup of Starbucks coffee with that $4 – something which I am fairly certain I would have enjoyed a whole lot more than the show! 😉

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location. 🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Sarah Silverman’s apartment building from The Sarah Silverman Program is located at 607 North Irving Boulevard in Hollywood, just one block south of Paramount Studios.

January 12, 2010January 11, 2010

Dexter and Rita’s House from “Dexter”

This past weekend, I dragged my fiancé out to Long Beach – or as Snoop Dogg calls it “The LBC” – to do some stalking. My original plan was to book a room at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa – the spot currently standing in for the Beverly Hills Beach Club on 90210 – and spend the whole weekend down in the South Bay, but being that I could not find a room for under $270, the Grim Cheaper was having none of that. 🙁 So, I had to settle for spending only a single day in Long Beach, which actually worked out just fine as I managed to cram quite a bit of stalking into that 12 hour period. 🙂 And the first location I stalked? Dexter and Rita Morgan’s new home from the fourth season of fave television series, Dexter.

In the premiere episode of Season 4, which was entitled “Living The Dream”, Dexter (aka Michael C. Hall) and Rita (aka Julie Benz) move into a new home together after tying the knot in the previous season’s finale. Ironically enough, though, until making screen captures for this post earlier today, I had never actually seen their new house onscreen. Because my fiancé and I only just recently became Dexter fans, we have yet to see any of the series’ fourth season episodes. In fact, we are just now beginning to dive into Season 3. But even though we have yet to see the episodes in which the new home appears, I was still absolutely dying to stalk the place as I have a (very) small personal connection to it. As it turns out, some good friends of mine who live in the Long Beach area happen to know the people who live directly across the street from the new Morgan residence, in the home pictured above which was actually featured very briefly in Dexter’s Season 4 opener. So cool!!! Because my friends know my penchant for filming locations, as soon as they learned this information they passed it on to me, but sadly this was long after the filming of Season 4 had already wrapped. I so wish I had found out about this location earlier in the year, as I would have LOVED to have stalked the place and seen Michael C. Hall in person. I do love me some MCH! 🙂 Anyway, since we were in the area on Saturday, I just had to drag my fiancé out to stalk the home.

And I am very happy to report that the Dexter house looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen in Season 4. Even the address plaque and the mailbox are the same! In fact, the only difference I noticed, besides the fact that the house appears a bit more pinkish onscreen, is the front gate. On Dexter, the house’s front gate is made of polished wood, while in real life it is constructed of wrought iron. The Dexter house is extremely cute in person and it’s not very hard to see why producers chose it to stand in for the Miami area residence of the series’ main star – the place definitely gives off a Florida vibe.

I did notice something quite interesting while stalking the place, though. At first glance it would appear that Dexter’s home is a typical single-family residence, but while there I noticed that the curb out front had two address numbers – 3319 and 3321 – painted on it, as you can see in the above photograph.

So, when I got home I did some cyber-stalking and, thanks to Zillow, discovered that the property is actually a multi-family dwelling with one house located in the front and a second house situated out back. You can see both houses in the above aerial images. The front house, which is the one shown on Dexter, was built in 1922 and is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath dwelling measuring 2,219 square feet.

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Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that this same house is used on Dexter next season, as well, and that I’ll be able to make it out there to watch the show being taped live!!! How incredibly cool would that be? 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dexter and Rita’s new house from Season 4 of Dexter is located at 3319 East 1st Street in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach.