William McKinley High School

November 1, 2010October 29, 2010

Helen Bernstein High School – The New William McKinley High from “Glee”

A little birdie recently told me that fave show Glee was no longer filming on location at Juan Cabrillo High School in Long Beach – a locale which I blogged about back in January of this year – and that producers had found a new school to stand in for the fictional William McKinley High, one that is located a bit closer to Paramount Studios where the series is lensed. So, I immediately started digging around the internet to find out exactly which school was now being used and fairly quickly came across this YouTube video which an anonymous person had taken of the cast while they were filming the Season 2 episode of the show titled “Audition”. In the comments section, the video’s author explained that the segment had been taped at Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood. So, I immediately put the location high up on my “To Stalk” list and after embarking on the Paramount Tour with fellow stalker Lavonna and her friends Beth, Debbie, and Connie, who were in town visiting from Ohio a few weeks back, we all set out to stalk the new William McKinley High.

Helen Bernstein High School, which was named after the former president of the Los Angeles teachers’ union who passed away in 1997, just recently opened in the fall of 2008. The school was constructed by the award-winning Chicago-based architecture firm of Perkins+Will in order to help ease the overcrowding at both John Marshall High School in Los Feliz and Hollywood High School in Hollywood. The four-story school, which boasts 2,000 students, sits on 12. 4 acres of land, and measures a whopping 238,492 square feet of learning space, is easily one of the largest educational institutions that I’ve ever come across in my entire life! The place is absolutely massive, and in an interesting historical note, was built on the former site of Fox Television Center/KTTV Studios, where such iconic shows as Saved by the Bell, Maude, One Day at a Time, Diff’rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, In Living Color, The Jeffersons and the pilot episode of Family Ties were filmed. The studio, which later changed its name to Metromedia Square, was sold to the the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2000 and just three years later it was demolished entirely to make way for the new high school. You can read more about the construction of Helen Bernstein High here.

The area of the school that is most prominently featured on Glee is the main quad, which was the site of the New Directions’ rousing performance of “Empire State of Mind” in the “Audition” episode and the spot that I most wanted to stalk. And even though we had waited until 4 p.m. to visit Helen Bernstein, after school was already over for the day, I wasn’t sure how amenable the staff would be to letting us onto the property. When we explained that we were HUGE Glee fans, though, and that Lavonna and her friends were in town visiting all the way from Ohio, one of the super nice office administrators agreed to bring us over to the quad area and then allowed us to take all of the photographs of the place that we wanted! 🙂 YAY!

In the “Empire State of Mind” scene, the Glee kids put on a lunchtime show in order to try to entice their fellow McKinley High students to join New Directions. And I have to say that the performance has to be one of my all-time favorites of the entire series, most likely because I absolutely love that song. In fact, I think I like the Glee kids’ version of it even more than I do the original! “In Neeeeew Yoooooooork . . . “

You can watch the FABULOUS “Empire State of Mind” scene by clicking above.

While we were stalking the quad, Lavonna, Beth, and I got to act out our own little mini-versions of the scene, which I was absolutely floored about.

And I, of course, just had to take a picture in the spot where Rachel Berry (aka Lea Michele) was sitting at the very end of the scene, although, as it turns out, I ended up sitting just a bit too far to the left. Ironically enough, while we were snapping photographs, we spotted some Glee crew members who were onsite setting up for some filming which was going to be taking place the following day. They did not seem all that friendly, though, so I did not attempt to talk to any of them.

All of the William McKinley High School gym scenes – even those filmed during Season 1 – take place at Helen Bernstein, as well.

As do the cafeteria scenes, but unfortunately we were not able to stalk those two areas while we were there. You can see some fabulous interior photographs of the school here, though.

And, according to the YouTube video commenters, the scene in which Finn Hudson (aka Cory Monteith ) sang “Hello, I Love You” in the Season 1 episode titled “Hell-O” was also filmed at Helen Bernstein High School.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Helen Bernstein High School, aka the new William McKinley High School from Glee, is located at 1309 North Wilton Place in Hollywood. Please remember that Helen Bernstein is a working high school and is not actually open to the public. If you would like to visit it, I recommend doing so on off hours when children are not present and always, always get permission from a staff member in the main office before entering the school grounds. The area where the Glee kids sung “Empire State of Mind” is the main quad, which is located just due east of the school’s entrance and is denoted with the pink arrows in the above aerial view.

October 11, 2010October 11, 2010

My Picture on “SNL” and Hanging Out With Michael Vartan!

This past Saturday was an incredibly lucky and, as my best friend later described, celebrity-fueled day for me. My family, the Grim Cheaper, and I had headed down to San Diego for the weekend to do some relaxing after the stress of my parent’s recent move. While we were walking around Coronado Island on Saturday morning I got an email from a photo licensing coordinator over at NBC Universal who wanted to know if I would grant him permission to use one of my stalking photographs of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School, aka William McKinley High School from Glee, on that evening’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which was being hosted by actress Jane Lynch. Well, let me tell you, I just about had a heart attack right then and there and immediately granted permission for the above photograph to be featured on the show. The coordinator told me he wouldn’t know for sure whether the pic would actually be used or not until Saturday Night Live aired that evening, so I called up my best friend Kylee (who lives in San Diego) and asked her to come over to our hotel, the Coronado Island Marriot Resort, so that we could all watch the show and celebrate together.

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Because my dad wasn’t feeling well, Kylee, the Grim Cheaper, and I ended up heading over to the hotel’s Tides Lounge to watch the show and grab some celebratory cocktails, which turned out to be a very lucky move because not long after we got there, Kylee looked to her left and said, “Isn’t that Jennifer Garner’s ex-boyfriend sitting over there?” I turned my head to catch a quick glimpse and, sure enough, there was cutie actor Michael Vartan sitting at a table just a few feet away from us! I have no idea how in the heck I didn’t notice him, but I do have to admit that Kylee is an absolute master at spotting celebrities in public – dare I say it, even better than me. Kylee is actually the one who spotted actress Julianne Moore while the two of us were in line at Magnolia Bakery in New York a few years back, but I digress. Anyway, I, of course, just HAD to go up to Michael and ask for a picture and, let me tell you, the guy could NOT have been nicer! When I apologized to him for interrupting his evening out with friends, he told me not to worry about it “at all”. And when I told him that I absolutely loved the movie Never Been Kissed, he said, “Oh, that’s back when I was young!” LOL A few hours later, as Michael was leaving the bar he passed by our table and made it a point to say good-bye to all of us. SO INCREDIBLY NICE! Sigh!

But my luck didn’t stop there! Right after snapping my photograph with Michael, I received an email from the SNL photo coordinator who informed me that my photograph was indeed used on the show that night! A celebrity sighting AND one of my pictures appearing on national TV all in the same day?? It was almost too much for me to bear! So, at around 11:30 p.m., I asked the Tide’s bartender to put the TV on Channel 4 so that we could watch SNL, and sure enough, just a few minutes later my picture appeared on the screen! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! The sketch which featured my pic centered around the SNL character Gilly (aka Kristin Wiig) joining the McKinley High Glee club and wreaking her usual havoc in the process. After gluing a crown to Kurt’s head, shooting Finn with a bow and arrow, and pushing Artie and his wheelchair offstage, she brings in a bomb and blows up the school, which is the point when my photograph was featured.

You can watch the Saturday Night Live Glee sketch which features my photograph by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Coronado Island Marriott Resort is located at 2000 Second Street on Coronado Island in San Diego. We met Michael Vartan in the hotel’s Tides Lounge. You can visit the resort’s website here.

January 13, 2010February 5, 2010

William McKinley High School from “Glee”

My Hollywood obsession as of late is the new Fox musical dramedy Glee. Actually, stating that I am obsessed with the series is a rather gross understatement. To say it’s more of an all-out, withdrawal-symptom inducing addiction would be closer to the truth. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been this enamored of a show since, dare I say it, high school when Beverly Hills, 90210 was on the air. Let’s face it – I am ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT, HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE with Glee! In fact, the “Sectionals” episode was so fabulous that I watched it three times in a row (not kidding!), mostly because of the big “My Life Would Suck Without You” grand finale number, which was just about the cutest thing ever – especially the kiss at the end! 🙂 To illustrate just how smitten I am with the show (and its leading man Matthew Morrison – sigh!), I’d like to share the following little anecdote with you. This past Friday, my dad had a minor surgery in the West L.A. area and, being the nice daughter that I am, I volunteered to drive him to and from the hospital. Well, I guess it’s true what they say about no good deed going unpunished because I later found out that Glee would be filming on location on Larchmont Boulevard that very same day. Of all the bum luck! 🙁 Anyway, my dad’s surgery went off without a hitch and while leaving the hospital I realized that Larchmont Boulevard was (sort of) on our way home. So – and I can’t even believe I’m about to cop to this in a public forum – I just HAD to stop by. I mean, don’t I owe at least that much to you, dear readers? 😉 So, yes, while my dad was drugged out of his mind on anesthetic, sleeping in the passenger seat of my car right next to me, trying to recover from surgery, I drove over to Larchmont Boulevard to stalk the Glee set. Unfortunately, because they were filming inside of a store, I couldn’t see a whole lot via a simple drive-by. And while deciding if I should park my car – with my dad inside – to venture closer to where they were filming, my conscience got the best of me and I turned around and drove on home. So sad! 🙁 Ironically enough, though, my mom, who is also a big “Gleek” and who knew about the filming, called me up about five minutes later to ask if I had stopped by the set. When I told her that I just couldn’t do it because I was worried about my dad, she said, “Why?? He’ll never know the difference!” LOL LOL LOL As the author of the I Am A TV Junkie blog said recently of his own Glee addiction, “It’s becoming a little ridiculous. I may have to join a support group.” Well, if you find one, TV Junkie, please sign me up, as well! 🙂 Until that time, though, I figure if you can’t beat ‘em, stalk ‘em! So, this weekend I headed down to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, which stands in for William McKinley High School on Glee.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School is featured extensively on Glee. In fact, according to this article, filming takes place there on a very regular basis. The areas of the school which appear in the series include the football field, track, and bleachers, which were unfortunately completely locked up at the time;

the staff parking lot area, which is located directly in front of the gym;

and the outdoor stairwell located just to the left of the gym. (Please excuse the above photographs – the position of the sun was making it very difficult to take pictures that day.)

The Cabrillo High School location that I most wanted to stalk was the arched-over outdoor hallway where Emma and Will shared a brief chat in the episode entitled “Showmance”. Ironically enough, that outdoor hallway can be found at the top of that very same staircase located to the left of the gym, but unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after I got home and re-watched the episode. 🙁

While stalking Cabrillo, I was lucky enough to run into two teachers who could NOT have been nicer and even went so far as to point out all the areas of the school used on Glee. Both teachers I spoke with were quite amused over my excitement at seeing the Glee locales in person, especially since one of the them had yet to ever even watch the show! I tried to explain to him that not watching a series that regularly films at his workplace is tantamount to sacrilege in my eyes, but I don’t think he much cared. 🙂 Most of the filming of Glee is relegated to the one small section of Cabrillo High’s 64-acre campus (and no, that’s not a typo, the school actually measures a whopping 64 acres!) pictured above. The football field, staff parking lot, and gym, which are all located near the school’s main entrance just off of West Willard Street, are denoted with pink circles in the above aerial image.

A more close-up view of the staff parking lot is pictured above.

According to the teachers I spoke with, several interior areas of the school, which I unfortunately could not stalk, are also used on Glee, including the cafeteria;

and the auditorium. You can see interior photographs of the school here.

From what I understand, though, McKinley High’s gym is actually located on the campus of another school altogether – Helen Bernstein High School in Los Angeles.

And a little bit of Glee trivia for you – according to one of the teachers I spoke with, Cabrillo High’s real life steel drum band was featured in the series’ pilot episode in the scene pictured above. So cool! 🙂

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Besides regular episodic filming, a photo shoot with the cast of Glee was also recently held at the school, which you can watch a behind-the-scenes video of here. Cabrillo High School has also been featured in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, an episode of the television series Bones, and both Cheaper by the Dozen movies.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School, aka William McKinley High School from Glee, is located at 2001 Santa Fe Avenue in Long Beach. Please remember that even though Cabrillo is a “public” school, it is still considered private property. Take good care not to trespass, especially when students are present. If you do want to visit the school, I suggest doing so on a Saturday or Sunday, and always ask permission from a faculty member before gaining access to the property.