TV Locations – Page 6 – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 18, 2011May 17, 2011

Meredith’s House from “The Office”

Another location from the Season 7 episode of The Office titled “Michael’s Last Dundies” that fellow stalker Owen tracked down recently was the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area dwelling belonging to the series’ resident alcoholic/hussy/all-around slob Meredith Palmer (aka Kate Flannery), which just so happened to be the locale that I was most interested in stalking! Owen had spotted an address number of “14142” on the roof above Meredith’s porch while watching the episode and figured that the property had to be located in close proximity to Toby’s house, which I blogged about yesterday. And he was right! He ended up finding the place just two and a half blocks west of Toby’s abode. So, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over to stalk the place, just a few minutes after visiting Toby’s house, two weekends ago.

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In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and new manager-in-training Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell) drop by Meredith’s house at six o’clock in the morning while out delivering the Dundie Award nomination certificates. Upon first approaching the dilapidated property, Michael says, “I’ve never seen this place in the daylight!”, to which Deangelo replies, “This reminds me of Katrina!” LOL LOL LOL

When they arrive at Meredith’s front door, they find it not only unlocked, but ajar.

A few seconds later, Meredith comes meandering up the driveway, shoes in hand, and exclaims, “I’m so busted! Walk of shame!” She then invites Michael and Deangelo inside for breakfast, saying, “I have Vienna sausages and I have . . . napkins.” LOL When Deangelo announces, “I’m not going in there!”, Michael shuts the door quietly and the two sneak off the property. It should come as no surprise to regular viewers of the series that Meredith goes on to win the “Best Mom” Dundie award later that night. LOL

Before arriving at Meredith’s house, I had no idea what on earth to expect as I was not sure if the property had been dressed to appear run-down onscreen or if it actually looked that way in real life. Well, as you can see in the above photographs, amazingly enough, the house looks just as bad in person as it did onscreen, if not worse! When I emailed the above-pictured photographs to fellow stalker/Office aficionado Lavonna, she immediately wrote back asking, “So the house just looks like that????? I thought it had been decorated for the filming!!!!” LOL The Office location scouts must have been beyond ELATED upon discovering the residence and realizing that they would not have to change ANYTHING prior to filming. As Chelsea Handler would say, “Nailed it!”

While there, I, of course, just had to reenact Meredith’s walk of shame by posing with my shoes in my hand. Winking smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Meredith’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 14142 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to the location. Toby’s house from that same episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 5752 Calhoun Avenue, also in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location. Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location.

May 17, 2011May 16, 2011

Toby’s House from “The Office”

The night of April 28th, 2011 was one of the saddest nights I have experienced as of late due to the fact that it marked Steve Carell’s final appearance on fave show The Office. In the days leading up to the airing of his last episode, which was titled “Goodbye, Michael”, I had a fairly large pit in my stomach as I felt like I was gearing up to say goodbye to a good friend, which, in a way, I guess I was. Michael Scott is one of my all-time favorite characters in television history and the fact that he will no longer be visiting my living room each and every Thursday night is seriously depressing. I felt the exact same way when Sex and the City went off the air in February of 2004, but I digress. Anyway, even though I was absolutely dreading it, I was hoping that Michael’s last episode would be a spectacular one, but I have to say that I wound up being sorely disappointed. I felt that both Michael Scott and Steve Carell deserved a much bigger, much more sentimental send-off than what they actually received. I did, however, absolutely LOVE the episode titled “Michael’s Last Dundies”, which aired the week prior to “Goodbye, Michael”, in which the Dunder Mifflin team gathered together to attend the annual Dundie Awards. I thought the episode was a much more appropriate farewell for a man who meant so much to so many people during the past seven years that The Office has been on the air. So when fellow stalker Owen told me that he had tracked down almost all of the locations featured in it – including the house belonging to Michael’s nemesis, Toby Flenderson (aka Paul Lieberstein) – I just about died of excitement and ran right out to stalk them all that very weekend.

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In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott and Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell), Dunder Mifflin’s new Scranton Branch manager-in-training, venture out to all of the Dunder Mifflin employees’ houses – at six in the morning, no less! – to deliver the much-coveted Dundie Award Nominations. After waking up Jim Halpert (aka cutie John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), and seriously angering the series’ resident grouch Stanley Hudson (aka Leslie David Baker), Michael and Deangelo head to Toby’s house. When they arrive, instead of ringing the doorbell and presenting the human resources director with a nomination certificate, Michael yells out, “Toby, you suck!” and then proceeds to throw eggs at his front porch, which causes Deangelo to ask, “Is this an employee of ours?” LOL LOL LOL

During the episode, Owen had spotted an address number of “5752” on the wall of Toby’s house and figured the property had to be located somewhere in close proximity to Jim and Pam’s residence in Van Nuys. And, sure enough, he was right! He ended up finding Toby’s house just a few blocks southwest of Jim and Pam’s.

Sadly, the real life owner of Toby’s house recently installed a rather large fence around the perimeter of the property, which not only completely changed the look of the place, but also made it quite difficult to take pictures. So I must say that this was one stalk that ended up being quite disappointing. I did get to talk to the owner of the property while I was there, though, and he truly could NOT have been nicer and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of the episode. He informed me that it took about two hours to film the segment, which ended up lasting about ten seconds onscreen.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Toby Flenderson’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 5752 Calhoun Avenue in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location. Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys. Here is a map link to that location.

May 13, 2011May 12, 2011

Marco Salazar’s Pretend House from “90210”

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, located directly across the street from the house belonging to Marla Templeton (aka Sally Kellerman) on fave show 90210 is the mansion where Marco Salazar (aka Freddie Smith) pretended to live in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Women On The Verge”. So after stalking Marla’s home this past Saturday afternoon, the Grim Cheaper and I walked right on over to Marco’s faux abode to snap a few pics of the place. I found this location, yet again, thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who somehow managed to track the residence down long before the “Woman On The Verge” episode even aired. How did he do that, you ask? Well, this past March, one of the directors of 90210, whom Geoff follows on Twitter (@90210director), tweeted a photograph of the mansion while he was doing some editing of the show. Geoff took one look at that photograph and immediately set about trying to find the place. And find it, he did – that very day. Being that the picture that @90210director tweeted showed an extremely limited view of the property, I was absolutely SHOCKED when Geoff emailed me to let me know that he had found it. Especially considering that he found it in Bel Air, which is the absolute LAST place on earth that I ever would have thought to look. Due to the mansion’s newer-looking construction, I would have assumed that it was located somewhere in the Encino area, so my hat is DEFINITELY off to Geoff on this one!

Marco’s faux residence is actually not just a filming location, but a former celebrity home as well. According to my good friend E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, the property was where legendary singer Peggy Lee, of “Fever” and “Why Don’t You Do Right” fame, lived during her later years and was also where the crooner sadly passed away on January 21, 2002 after suffering from a heart attack.

Sadly though, as you can see in the above aerial view, the property has been extensively remodeled in recent years and no longer looks the same as it did when Peggy Lee lived there. In real life, the Tuscan-style mansion, which was originally built in 1969, boasts 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, and a whopping 6,052 square feet of living space.

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The property first popped up towards the beginning of the “Woman On The Verge” episode of 90210, in the scene in which Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan) picks up his new boyfriend, Marco, whom he believes lives on the premises, for a date.

Later on in the episode, Teddy returns to the mansion in order to confront Marco after discovering that he has been lying to him about his whereabouts. It is then that Teddy meets the home’s actual owner and learns that Marco does not, in fact, live there at all, but that his mother is employed at the property as a housekeeper. Can you say drama?!?

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Marco Salazar’s pretend house from 90210 is located at 11404 Bellagio Road in Bel Air. Here is a link to the property’s location on Bing Maps. (Special thanks to fellow stalker John, from the Bay Area, who suggested that I include a map link in all of my posts, which I will be doing from this point forward. Smile ) Marla Templeton’s house from 90210 is located just across the street from Marco’s at 542 Bellagio Terrace. Here is a map link to that location.

May 12, 2011May 12, 2011

Marla Templeton’s House from “90210”

Last week, fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, emailed me to let me know that he had just tracked down the home where actress Marla Templeton (aka Sally Kellerman, who is best known for playing the role of Major Margaret “Hot Lips” O’Houlihan in the 1970 movie MASH) lived in the Season 3 episodes of fave show 90210 titled “Nerdy Little Secrets” and “Women On The Verge”. Marla’s house had such a fabulous sense of charm and almost seemed to be a character in and of itself in the episodes that I fell in love with the place pretty much upon site and was absolutely dying to know of its real-life location. So you can imagine my excitement when I read Geoff’s email and discovered that he had somehow managed to track it down. Geoff had actually first tracked down the home where Marco Salazar (aka Freddie Smith), the new love interest of Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan), had pretended to live in the “Woman on the Verge” episode – a location which I will be blogging about tomorrow – and, as fate would have it, while looking at aerial views of the place, happened to spot Marla’s abode located directly across the street. Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place this past weekend.

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Sadly, as you can see in the above photographs, Marla’s house is located at the end of a very long, very secluded driveway and not much of the property is visible from the street. But, as I’ve said before, that is why God created real estate listings! The mid-century-modern-style residence, which was built in 1964 and boasts 3 bedrooms, 5 baths, 3,998 square feet of living space, an elevated dining room, an outdoor bar complete with flat screen TV, wood-beamed ceilings, a large pool, and amazing views of the city of L.A., was recently listed for sale for a cool $5,995,000. You can check out the listing, which has some fabulous close-up and interior photographs of the property, here.

In the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “Nerdy Little Secrets”, Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), who is looking for a way to make some money before heading off to college, applies for a job as a personal assistant to a glamorous elderly woman named Marla Templeton. Marla is a bit of a hoarder and she winds up hiring Annie – at $1,000 a week! – to organize and catalog the many items that she has collected over the years. Annie later finds out that Marla was, at one time, an extremely famous actress and the two women end up bonding over their shared love of old Hollywood.

Both the interior and the exterior of Marla’s house were used quite extensively in the episode.

And the property’s A-MA-ZING backyard also made an appearance.

The dwelling then popped up again in the following week’s episode of 90210 titled “Women On The Verge”, in which Annie not only finds out that Marla is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, but that she is also planning on committing suicide in the very near future.

Both the interior and the exterior of the property were featured in “Women On The Verge”, which, while depressing, was one of my favorite episodes of the entire season. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, I thought Shenae Grimes did some of her best acting to date in the episode, especially in the very last scene. Sigh! Love her! But I digress. Anyway 90210 costume designer Kime Buzzelli, whom I follow on Twitter (@kbuzzy), recently tweeted a photograph that she took of the living room area of the home while it was dressed for the filming of the show, which you can check out here. So incredibly cool!

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Marla Templeton’s house, from the “Nerdy Little Secrets” and “Women On The Verge” episodes of 90210, is located at 542 Bellagio Terrace in Bel Air.

May 11, 2011May 11, 2011

Laverne & Shirley’s Apartment Building

Back in August of last year, fellow stalker Don emailed me to inquire if I knew the location of the supposed Burbank-area apartment building where best friends Laverne DeFazio (aka Penny Marshall) and Shirley Feeney (aka Cindy Williams) lived during the final three seasons of the hit 1970’s television series Laverne & Shirley. Sadly, because I had never really watched the show, I had no idea where the apartment building might be located. As fate would have it, though, I was scheduled to take a tour of Paramount Studios the day after receiving Don’s email and, because Paramount had produced the show, I thought one of the studio tour guides might know of the apartment’s location. Well, let me tell you, I spoke to anyone and everyone I could that day, but not a one of ‘em knew anything about the apartment building. Not only that, but they all told me they had never before been asked about that particular location! How that is possible, I’ll never know. Anyway, I gave Don the sad news after I got home from my tour and figured that would most likely be the end of the quest. So imagine my surprise when I awoke last Tuesday morning to find an email in my inbox from Don with the news that he had found the building! Yay! So I dragged the GC right on out to stalk the place this past Saturday morning.

In the first episode of the series’ Sixth Season, which was titled “Not Quite New York”, Laverne & Shirley, seeking a fresh start after losing their bottle-capping jobs at Shotz Brewery, leave their hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and head to Southern California. At the very beginning of the episode, the girls are shown moving into a typical 1970’s-style apartment building that was supposedly located at 113 1/2 Laurel Vista Drive in Burbank.

The apartment building was then shown regularly each week in both establishing shots and during the opening credits of each show.

I am EXTREMELY happy to report that the building still looks very much the same today as it did three full decades ago when the series was originally filmed. So incredibly cool! There are two trees which now block the view of the home from the street, but, other than that, remarkably little has changed over the years. Love it, love it, love it!

Even the apartment building next door still looks very much the same as it did on the series! Smile

Laverne & Shirley–Burbank Apartment Building Clip

You can watch the opening credits of the Sixth Season of Laverne & Shirley, in which the apartment complex is featured, by clicking above.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The “Burbank” apartment building from the last three seasons of Laverne & Shirley is located at 419/421 North Sierra Bonita Avenue in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. Google Maps and the GPS in my car both recognize this location as being in West Hollywood, though, so keep that in mind when printing out a map of the building or inputting its address into a navigation system.

May 6, 2011May 5, 2011

Double A Cafe from “Charmed”

Another Charmed location that fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, told me about prior to the Grim Cheaper’s and my recent stalking trip to the Heritage Valley two weekends ago was the service station/mini-mart where the Charmed Ones – sisters Prue (aka Shannen Doherty), Piper (aka Holly Marie Combs), and Phoebe Halliwell (aka Alyssa Milano) – stopped for gas in the Season 2 episode of the series titled “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans”. That property is actually no longer a service station, but is, of all things, a full service restaurant named the Double A Café and it is located on the corner of Santa Clara Street and Central Avenue in the tiny city of Fillmore, just off of Highway 126. Chas found this location thanks to a very helpful Charmed crewmember he had managed to track down and, even though at the time I had yet to watch the “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode, because my girl Shannen Doherty had once been there, I just had to stalk the place.

In the episode, the Charmed Ones stop for gas at the Double A Café while on their way to visit their evil Aunt Gail (aka Anne Haney) in the fictional Northern-California town of Santa Costa. While Piper fills the car with gas, Phoebe asks a couple of older gentleman for directions to her aunt’s mansion. (Filming of the mansion scenes took place at the Newhall Mansion in Piru which I blogged about last week.)

Later on in the episode, the girls return to the gas station while chasing after Cryto, the Demon of Vanity [aka Cameron Bancroft, who also played Donna Martin’s (aka Tori Spelling’s) All-star-quarterback boyfriend Joe Bradley on Beverly Hills, 90210], whereupon they find that the older gentlemen Phoebe had previously asked for directions have since been transformed into young men.

At the time of the filming, the Double A Café was an actual service station/mini-mart named Gasoline Alley. I could not find much information about the history of the place online, but at some point the property was converted from a gas station into a restaurant, as odd as that may sound. Subsequently, in October of 2011, a professional chef and Fillmore native named Dustin Anderson opened up an upscale eatery in the space which he named the Double A Café. And, amazingly enough, even with the vast transformation, the property still looks very much the same today as it did back when Charmed was filmed!

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A few other parts of Fillmore were also featured in the “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode of Charmed. The establishing shot of the supposed-Santa-Costa-downtown-area which was shown just before the Halliwell sisters pulled into the service station was actually a view of Downtown Fillmore’s Central Avenue. The shot was taken from the intersection of Sespe and Central Avenues and the camera was facing south, looking towards Santa Clara Street.

The spot where the girls hid from Cryto, the Demon of Vanity was the alcove area of the historic Fillmore Town Theatre, which has sadly since closed.

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While scanning through the 2002 movie Enough to make screen captures for last week’s post on the Piru Creek Bridge, I spotted the Double A Café space standing in for the supposed-Northern-Michigan-area roadside diner where Slim Hiller (aka Jennifer Lopez) and her daughter, Gracie (aka Tessa Allen), stopped for a bite to eat while on the run from Slim’s ex-husband, Mitch (aka Bill Campbell).

And while not much of the interior of the café was shown in Enough, I immediately recognized Fillmore City Hall, which is located directly across the street from the restaurant, through the window where Slim and Gracie sat in the scene. As you can see in this photograph, the real life view from the window of the Double A Café perfectly matches the view that was shown in the movie.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location! Smile You can check out Chas’ ultra-detailed Charmed filming locations page, which covers Seasons 1 through 6, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Double A Café, from the “How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode of Charmed, is located at 501 Santa Clara Street in Fillmore. You can visit the restaurant’s Facebook page here. The Fillmore Town Theatre, where the Charmed Ones hid in the episode, is located at 338 Central Avenue in Fillmore. And the shot of the downtown area that appeared at the beginning of the scene was taken at the intersection of Sespe and Central Avenues in Fillmore.

May 2, 2011April 29, 2011

The Newhall Mansion from “Charmed”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I visited two Saturdays ago while doing some stalking in the Heritage Valley area was the Newhall Mansion, formerly the Piru Mansion, which fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, had told me about a few weeks prior. The Newhall Mansion has appeared in countless productions over the years, most notably the Season 2 episode of Charmed titled “How To Make a Quilt Out of Americans” and Chas figured that because my girl Shannen Doherty had once been there, I might be interested in stalking the place. Oh, how right he was!

The Newhall Mansion was originally built in 1889 by David C. Cook, the founder of the town of Piru. Cook, a wealthy religious book publisher who hailed from Elgin, Illinois, first came to Piru in 1887 after becoming afflicted with a debilitating coughing illness. Doctors suggested that he move to a more temperate climate to ease his lungs and he found that climate in Piru. He purchased 12,000 acres of unincorporated land in the Santa Clara River Valley and in 1887 he built the Colonial-Revival-style property pictured above. That residence is now a bed and breakfast known as the Heritage Valley Inn and it made a brief appearance in 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie.

In 1889, Cook commissioned a new home to be built, this one in the Queen-Anne-style, on a parcel of land located just a few blocks up the road from his first home. Although it is not known for sure, it is largely believed that the architectural firm of Joseph and Cather Newsom designed the 12,000-square-foot abode. Cook wanted his new home to be a “second Garden of Eden” and had the grounds surrounding the mansion planted with only those fruits and plants mentioned in the Bible, including dates, pomegranates, figs, apricots, olives, and grapes. Although it was considered to be grand for its day, the original mansion had no electricity, running water, or even bathrooms! Occupants had to use a three-hole outhouse located on a walking path a few yards up the road from the home whenever nature called! Yikes! In 1968, the property was purchased by Scott and Ruth Newhall, owners of The Newhall Signal newspaper. Soon after the couple inherited some money and in 1981 decided to use it to renovate their historic home, but sadly tragedy struck. In February of that year, one of the workers who had been hired to paint the property made the unfortunate decision of using a blowtorch to burn off the home’s numerous layers of old paint. The 92-year-old structure immediately caught fire and burned to the ground. Thanks to a solid insurance policy, the Newhalls were able to rebuild the gutted residence and, using old photographs and workers who had maintained the property over the years as guides, they reconstructed the mansion in the exact form in which it was originally built. In 2003, the home was sold to another member of the Newhall family, David Newhall Hill, who spent the next 6 years renovating and updating it, adding state-of-the-art heating and air conditioning, a security system, and a fire safety system consisting of on-site emergency water tanks and built-in rooftop rain birds. Today, the 4-story home, which sits on over 10 acres of land, boasts 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and – count ‘em! – 8 fireplaces and is currently for sale for a cool $2.7 million. According to the real estate listing, the property generates over $65,000 a year in film and rental income, so it almost pays for itself!

The GC and I randomly caught a great glimpse of the back side of the property while stalking the trailer park from Burlesque, which I blogged about last Thursday.

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In the “How To Make a Quilt Out of Americans” episode of Charmed, the Newhall Mansion stood in for the home of Gail (aka Anne Haney), the evil aunt of the Charmed Ones – Prue (aka Shannen Doherty), Piper (aka Holly Marie Combs), and Phoebe (aka Alyssa Milano).

In the Season 6 episode of The X-Files titled “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”, the Newhall Mansion was used extensively as the haunted house belonging to Maurice (aka Edward Asner) and Lydia (aka Lily Tomlin) in which Fox Mulder (aka David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (aka Gillian Anderson) get trapped one dark and stormy Christmas Eve night. Scanning through the episode to make screen captures for today’s post I was reminded of what a great show The X-Files was! Man, I used to love it – and its star, Mr. David Duchovny. Until he went to rehab for sex addiction, that is! Sad smile

In the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Of Ghosts and Angels”, the Newhall Mansion stood in for the haunted home belonging to Tiffany Welles’ (aka Shelley Hack’s) childhood friend, Erica Burke (aka Robin Mattson).

The mansion also supposedly appeared in two episodes of the original Melrose Place– the Season 7 episodes titled “Lethal Wedding 4” and “When Cheerleaders Attack”. It was apparently used as the wedding location of Dr. Peter Burns (aka Jack Wagner) and Eve Cleary (aka Rena Sofer), but because I have never seen those episodes and because Season 7 is not yet available on DVD, I was not able to verify that. According to the official Newhall Mansion website, the property has also appeared in episodes of Monk, Murder, She Wrote, The Incredible Hulk, Payne, Ping!, and Reno 911.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Newhall Mansion from Charmed is located at 829 North Park Street in Piru. You can visit the mansion’s official website here. Tours of the property are offered the first weekend of each month. You can catch a glimpse of the back side of the mansion from Warring Canyon Road, just north of Center Street, near the trailer park from Burlesque, which I blogged about last Thursday.

April 26, 2011April 25, 2011

Dwight’s Bar from “Burlesque”

One Burlesque filming location that I had been trying to track down for what seems like forever now was Dwight’s Bar, which was featured in the movie’s opening scene as the supposed small-town, Iowa-area watering hole where Ali (aka Christina Aguilera) worked. Even though the bar only appeared in one very brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it establishing shot, I was absolutely obsessed with stalking the place. For whatever reason, though, I just could not seem to find it. Then, like magic, just a couple of weeks ago fellow stalker Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, added the location to his Burlesque filming locations page and I just about died of excitement. The place was, of course, immediately added to the top of my To-Stalk list and I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there this past weekend.

As it turns out, Dwight’s Bar is actually a vacant storefront located in Piru, California, a small town (according to Wikipedia its population was only 1,196 as of a 2000 census!) situated about 50 miles north of Los Angeles in the Santa Clara River Valley. Piru (pronounced Pie-Roo) was originally founded in 1887 by a wealthy religious book publisher named David C. Cook. Thanks to its Anytown, U.S.A.-look and proximity to L.A., Piru is an oft-used filming locale and has appeared in hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the years, including Melrose Place, Charmed, Murder, She Wrote, Desert Fury, A Star is Born, Enough, The Dukes of Hazzard, The California Kid, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Torque, Van Helsing, Happy, Texas, Reno 911!, and Race to Witch Mountain. Piru’s historic downtown area, which consists of a tiny, one-and-a-half-block stretch of small brick buildings and which is the area of town most often seen onscreen, was reconstructed after being largely destroyed during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Since that time, many of the downtown storefronts have remained vacant, which only adds to the appeal of the place for location scouts as the area can be dressed to fit any sort of production.

Which was exactly what happened with Burlesque. For the opening scene of the movie, Downtown Piru was dressed to look like a small farming town in rural Iowa where Ali lives. And even though its appearance onscreen was brief, I cannot tell you how cool it was to see this location in person!

Amazingly enough, according to the DVD commentary with Burlesque director/writer Steve Antin, the interior of Dwight’s Bar, where Ali sang “Something’s Got A Hold On Me”, was actually a set created inside of a soundstage at Sony Studios in Culver City and was not built inside of the vacant Piru storefront as I had originally believed.

Because I had spent so many hours searching for Dwight’s Bar, I immediately recognized the place when it popped up recently in the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Farewell Letter”, in the scene in which Gaby (aka Eva Longoria) and Carlos Solis (aka Ricardo Chavira) return to Gaby’s hometown of Las Colinas, Texas. In the episode, the two pull up in a taxi directly in front of the storefront that was used in Burlesque.

Later on in that same episode, Gaby and Carlos venture out to a restaurant where Gaby is fawned over as the local girl who made good.

In real life, that restaurant is known as the Railway Café and it has appeared in quite a few movies over the years, including 1984’s Rhinestone.

The actual interior of the Railway Café also appeared in the episode.

Sadly though, the place was closed when we showed up to stalk it, so I was only able to snap a few pictures of the interior through the front windows.

The Railway Café can also be seen in the background of Alicia Keys’ “Un-thinkable (I’m Ready)” music video, which starred cutie actor Chad Michael Murray.

Un-thinkable (I’m Ready) video–Piru

You can watch that video by clicking above.

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And, thanks to the Seeing Stars website, I learned that just across the street from Dwight’s Bar is Poncho’s Place, the eatery which stood in for the supposed Bon Temps, Louisiana-area Crawdad’s Family Style Restaurant where Sam Merlotte (aka Sam Trammell) took Sookie Stackhouse (aka Anna Paquin) for a slice of pie in the Season 1 episode of True Blood titled “Sparks Fly Out”.

And even though I have never seen even one episode of True Blood, since we were right there I just had to stalk it.

The real life interior of Poncho’s Place also appeared in the episode.

Although, as you can see in the above photographs, it was decorated rather differently for the filming.

Big THANK YOU to Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Dwight’s Bar from Burlesque is located at 3951 East Center Street in Piru. Poncho’s Place, aka Crawdad’s Restaurant from the “Sparks Fly Out” episode of True Blood, is located just across the street at 3944 Center Street in Piru. And the Railway Café from the “Farewell Letter” episode of Desperate Housewives is located half a block down the road at 3989 Center Street in Piru.

April 25, 2011April 25, 2011

Crumbs Bake Shop from “90210”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see while doing some stalking in Beverly Hills two weekends ago was Crumbs Bake Shop, the popular cupcakery which appeared in the Season 2 episode of fave show 90210 titled “What’s Past is Prologue”. Crumbs has been a veritable institution in the Beverly Hills area for quite some time now and, being that I do love me some cupcakes, I am absolutely shocked that it took me this long to finally stalk the place, especially since it appeared on 90210 well over a year ago. As I have said before, though, there are just too many places to stalk and not enough hours in the day to do so! Thankfully, Crumbs was well worth the wait!

The original Crumbs Bake Shop first opened on New York’s Upper West Side in March of 2003 and was founded by former lawyer Mia Bauer and her entrepreneur husband Jason. Mia, who grew up on a farm in Israel, first started making coconut-flavored cupcakes for her family and friends when she was just a young child in the second grade. When she made a batch for Jason, her then boyfriend, one day in 2002, an idea was born. Mia left her law career behind shortly thereafter and, along with Jason, opened up her first cupcakery. It became an instant success and the couple now owns over 35 stores in six different states, including one in Washington, D.C. Today each shop offers over fifty different flavors of cupcakes daily, each of them made by hand. Sadly, because photographs are not allowed inside of the store, I had to settle for snapping a few pics of the exterior only.

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The GC and I opted to try one of Crumb’s espresso-flavored cupcakes and, let me tell you, it was A-MA-ZING! I am pretty picky about my cupcakes and I have to say that Crumbs serves up some fabulous ones! Loved, loved, loved them! Because the GC is a big fan of Howard Stern, he really wanted to try the Artie Lange cupcake, which was created by Artie on the air during an episode of The Howard Stern Show back in 2008 and consists of a vanilla cupcake filled with chocolate cream cheese, topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting, dipped in chocolate fondant, and then sprinkled with chocolate and vanilla sprinkles. We thought it might just be a wee bit too rich, though. Winking smile Artie Lange is hardly Crumbs’ only celebrity fan. Brooklyn Dekker, Andrea Bowen, Alyssa Milano, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Jason Alexander (the actor from Seinfeld, not Britney Spears’ ex), Tori Spelling, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Katy Perry, Russell Brand, Chace Crawford, Justin Timberlake, Lauren Conrad, and my girl Jen Aniston have all been known to sample the sweet treats. In March of 2009, Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise stopped into the Beverly Hills Crumbs to get their cupcake on. And in September of 2008, Crumbs unveiled a limited-edition Cosmo-flavored cupcake especially for the DVD release party for Sex and the City: The Movie. Love it, love it, love it!

In the “What’s Past is Prologue” episode of 90210, Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord), and Erin Silver (aka Jessica Stroup) meet up at Crumbs to discuss Silver’s relationship with Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan).

It is while they are enjoying their cupcakes that Annie notices her ex-boyfriend, Jasper Herman (aka Zachary Ray Sherman), sitting at a nearby table and finally realizes that he is stalking her.

Ironically enough, just around the corner from Crumbs Bake Shop is a Vietnamese restaurant named 9021Pho, which I think is just about one of the funniest names for a restaurant that I have ever heard! The place cracks me up every single time I drive by it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Crumbs Bake Shop, from the “What’s Past is Prologue” episode of 90210, is located at 9465 Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills. You can visit the official Crumbs’ website here. 9021Pho is located just around the corner from Crumbs at 490 North Beverly Boulevard in Beverly Hills. You can visit the official 9021Pho website here.

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011

Skylight Books from “Joan of Arcadia”

Another Los Feliz location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago was Skylight Books, the bookstore where Joan Girardi (aka Amber Tamblyn) worked on the 2003 television series Joan of Arcadia. In a very synchronicitous twist of fate, the GC and I had visited Skylight Books way back in October of last year, just a few minutes before grabbing dinner at the nearby Dresden Restaurant from Swingers. We both fell in love with the bookstore immediately, but, because I had never seen an episode of Joan of Arcadia, I had no idea whatsoever that the place was a filming location. Then, randomly enough, the very next day I met up with fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website who was in town visiting from Indiana, and he happened to mention that he was taking his mom to Skylight Books later that afternoon because Joan of Arcadia was one of her very favorite shows. Well, let me tell you, I just about died upon finding out that information and immediately added the store to my “To Re-Stalk” list and dragged the GC back there two Saturdays ago after eating lunch at Fred 62.

In the pilot episode of Joan of Arcadia, God (who in this particular instance was played by Kris Lemche) instructs Joan to get a part-time job at Skylight Bookstore – the store’s actual name was used in the series – for reasons he does not specify. She continued to work there throughout the series’ short two-season run.

Both the interior and the exterior of the store were used regularly on the show.

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Interestingly enough, according to this fantastic article about the filming of Joan of Arcadia, all of the bookstore scenes during the first season of the series were filmed on location at the actual Skylight Books. Production designer Bill Eigenbrodt says he chose the store due to its “distinct visual personality”. And let me just say that, with its high, peaked ceilings, numerous skylights, concrete flooring, large trees, exposed ducts, brick walls, and extensive use of wood décor, the store definitely does have a unique look. Ironically enough, while Joan of Arcadia is set in the fictional town of Arcadia, Maryland on the East Coast, to me Skylight Books has more of a Pacific Northwest feel to it. But, then again, what do I know. Winking smile

For the second season of the series, producers had a replica of the store built on a soundstage and they changed things around quite a bit, making the shop slightly larger, dropping the ceilings, adding more brick walls, and infusing the decor with a bit of a Craftsman style.

Skylight Books, which was originally founded in 1996, is a VERY cool bookstore and I can’t recommend stalking it enough! Apparently it has been used quite often in filming, but the SUPER nice clerk that I spoke with was unsure of which other productions had been lensed there. He did mention that some location scouts from Glee had been there that very week, so the shop might just be showing up on the show in the near future!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Skylight Books from Joan of Arcadia is located at 1818 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. You can visit the store’s official website here.