Quite a few months back, I challenged Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to find the house the Ashe family moved into in the Season 2 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Ashes to Ashes”. In the episode, the African-American family moves in to a home just down the street from the Walshes, causing quite a stir in their normally quiet neighborhood. The patriarch of the family is none other the “Poppa of Poppa’s Popcorn”, which just so happens to be Brenda’s favorite popcorn brand. 🙂 Vivica A. Fox, in one of her very first roles, plays the Ashe Family daughter, Charise, in the episode.
Mike found the house pretty much immediately, thanks to the address number shown on the Ashe family’s next door neighbor’s home in the scene when Charise’s boyfriend, Devo, gets arrested by the Beverly Hills Security Patrol (pictured above). Five digit address numbers are usually found in Encino, so Mike started his search there. And, sure enough, that’s exactly where the house was located! So, this weekend I just had to drag my boyfriend out to stalk it!
The exterior of the Encino house shows up several times in the “Ashes to Ashes” episode, most prominently as the location where Brandon and Charise get into a minor car accident. The interior of the home was also featured numerous times. And while the house may be located in Encino, it does look like it could have been found in the Walsh neighborhood, so it’s easy to see why producers chose to use it. It’s also less than four miles away from the Van Nuys studio where 90210 was filmed, which must have made it the easy choice for filming.
I am happy to report that the Poppa’s Popcorn house looks exactly the same today as it did when the “Ashes to Ashes” episode first aired back in 1991. The trees out front have grown quite a bit since then, of course, but otherwise the house looks pretty much the same. I will say that the home is HUGE in person, though, even bigger than it seemed on 90210. When I first drove by, it felt like the house just kept going and going and going. Needless to say, it was very exciting for me to finally be stalking the Poppa’s Popcorn house. In fact, when we first drove up to it I was immediately transported back to high school and I could almost picture Brandon backing his classic yellow mustang out of Charise’s driveway. 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: The Poppa’s Popcorn House is located at 15912 Woodvale Road in Encino.