The Cohen Mansion from “The O.C.”

The Cohen House from The O.C. (48 of 69)

Fire has ravaged far too many landmarks as of late – Paramount Ranch, Casey’s home from Scream 2, and now, Notre Dame Cathedral!  The latter, at least, fared better than the Malibu estate that portrayed the Cohen residence on fave show The O.C., which was completely destroyed by the Woolsey Fire last November.  I was alerted to the sad loss by a fellow stalker named Steve and was shocked at the news, especially considering I was fortunate enough to visit the home several years back thanks to a very lucky twist of fate – one that I can still hardly believe occurred.  While eating lunch with the Grim Cheaper and my friend Erika (you may remember her from this post) at the Malibu Country Mart in September 2011, I happened to bring up my love for the Fox series.  The friendly couple at the adjacent table overheard and broke into our conversation to inform us that they owned the Cohen house!  Absolutely flabbergasted, I peppered them with questions and then the unimaginable happened – after chatting for a bit, they asked if we wanted to come over to see the pad in person!  I don’t even think I answered in the affirmative before making a Lindsay-shaped hole in the door on my way out to the car.  Winking smile The rest of our afternoon was like a dream, which made the recent loss of the property all the more heartbreaking.  Though I detailed the experience in a 2015 column for Los Angeles magazine, since the locale is no longer, I figured an update was due.

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The Cohen residence is actually a mash-up of two different dwellings, both situated in a small gated community of four properties off the Pacific Coast Highway.  Most recognizable is the large two-story home at 6205 Ocean Breeze Drive which appeared in exterior and establishing shots.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (4 of 10)

Only the front of the 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 6,376-square-foot manse appeared on the series.  [I absolutely love that there was a Range Rover just like Sandy’s (Peter Gallagher) parked in the driveway when we visited!]

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (2 of 10)

A one-story home three doors down at 6210 Ocean Breeze Drive was utilized in The O.C.’s pilot for the interior and backyard scenes.  Once the show got picked up, a set modeled after that residence was constructed at Manhattan Beach Studios (now MBS Media Campus).  Why the two different locales, you ask?  Producers loved the look of the inside and backyard of 6210, but ultimately wanted the Cohen family to reside in a two-level home.  So they featured the front of 6205 and the interior and rear of 6210.  It is the 6210 house that we were invited to tour.  That’s it below.

The Cohen House from The O.C. (65 of 69)

The Cohen House from The O.C. (64 of 69)

The inaugural episode made significant use of the opulent pad.  For me, the most recognizable spot was the kitchen.  (That’s Erika pictured with me below.  We are just a little bit thrilled to be standing in the famous Cohen kitchen!)

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (23 of 23)

Stepping into it felt like walking right into my TV screen.  I half expected Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) to come waltzing out to grab his morning cereal.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (14 of 69)

Because the set re-creation of the kitchen (which was used in all episodes following the pilot) was such a near replica to that of the actual home, being there was both incredible and surreal.  As our new friends pointed out to us, a few portions of the kitchen were changed when the set was built.  One of the main alterations was the tilework behind the stove.  At the actual residence, there was a large painted piece on the wall behind the range, which was visible in the pilot.  (I hate that the past tense is now required when speaking about the house.  I still can’t believe it is gone.)

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (16 of 69)

For the set, that painted piece was swapped out with a more simple backsplash.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (21 of 69)

The color of the island countertop was changed, as well, and the sink situated there moved to the opposite side.  The Cohens were also given a stainless steel dishwasher.  Other than those elements, though, it was a pretty spot-on re-creation.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (11 of 23)

The nook off the kitchen, which became the Cohens’ main dining spot in later episodes, also appeared in the pilot.  Producers even chose to leave the owners’ real life hutch and decor intact for the shoot!

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (47 of 69)

When the set (top image below) was built, that area was changed fairly significantly – but more on that in a minute.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (12 of 69)

The family room at the real house was situated off of the kitchen.  It was there that Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) played video games with Ryan in the pilot.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (50 of 69)

For the set, though, the family room was moved adjacent to the kitchen nook, creating one big, long, open space.  And the fireplace was also done away with.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (20 of 69)

Seeing the nook closed off in real life was utterly jarring!

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (19 of 69)

The residence’s formal living room, which was connected to the family room in real life, was also re-created in another spot on set – just off the Cohens’ kitchen.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (5 of 23)

One of the home’s bedrooms was utilized as Seth’s room in the pilot, as well.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (57 of 69)

It, too, was then re-created on the studio set.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (58 of 69)

Even the pad’s main hallway was re-built in exacting detail!

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (8 of 69)

Amazingly (and as most O.C. fans already know), the most famous element of the Cohen home, the pool house, was never an actual part of the property.  It was constructed, fully-functional (meaning both the interior and exterior could be used for filming), in the yard of 6210 for the pilot and then was disassembled and subsequently rebuilt as part of the set when the series got picked up.  There I am in the photo below standing at the edge of where it was situated in the inaugural episode.  “Utterly jarring” is, again, the only way I can describe how odd the backyard looked without it.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (20 of 23)

The pool and spa of 6210 were also re-created on set . . .

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (24 of 69)

. . . as was the rest of the backyard . . .

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (37 of 69)

. . . including the BBQ island.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (36 of 69)

The Cohens’ backyard was actually quite a bit smaller than the real one.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (26 of 69)

And, because the soundstage floor could not be dug into to install the pool on set, it was actually built above ground.  Hence the steps leading up to it on the show.  In actuality, the home’s backyard was all one level.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (41 of 69)

Other than those alterations, though, it was such a dutiful re-creation that standing in the backyard of 6210 felt like being in an episode of the show.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (29 of 69)

I was pinching myself the entire time!

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (38 of 69)

Tragically, all that is left of the house now is the backyard and pool, as you can see in the aerial view below which Steve got from an insurance website that provided real-time imagery of areas ravaged by the Woolsey Fire.  (That website is no longer active, so I can’t link to it.)

The home used for front shots of the Cohen pad, fortunately, still stands, as does the property where Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) lived on the series, which is located next door at 6201 Ocean Breeze Drive.

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The Cohen House from The O.C. (69 of 69)

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Steve for letting me know about this home’s sad fate.

The Cohen House from The O.C. (1 of 69)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The exterior of the Cohen mansion from The O.C. can be found at 6205 Ocean Breeze Drive in Malibu.  The home used for interiors and backyard scenes in the pilot was just down the street at 6210 Ocean Breeze, but was, sadly, destroyed in the Woolsey Fire.  Marissa Cooper’s house is on the same block at 6201 Ocean Breeze.

Oliver’s Palm Springs House from “The O.C.”

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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Grim Cheaper and I have just recently started watching fave series The O.C. over again from the beginning and one location that popped up during the first season that I have been absolutely dying to find and stalk was the supposed-Palm-Springs-area house that belonged to troublemaker Oliver Trask (Taylor Handley) in the episode titled “The Links”.  So imagine my surprise when fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, randomly emailed me last week, after seeing my post on Café-Club Fais Do-Do (which stood in for a Tijuana nightclub in one of The O.C.’s early episodes), to let me know that he had tracked down a few of the show’s more elusive locales, one of which was Oliver’s Palm Springs residence!  I kid you not!  As you can imagine, I was absolutely bowled over by this information and, as I told Geoff, would have run out to stalk the place right then and there had it not been pouring at the time.  When the rain finally did subside the following morning, I, of course, rushed right on over to the house to finally stalk it.  Yay!

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In “The Links” episode of The O.C., Oliver invites the Newport gang – Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), Luke Ward (Chris Carmack), Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson), and Anna Stern (Samaire Armstrong) – to spend the weekend with him at his parents’ mid-century-modern-style home in Palm Springs, which he states is located “right on PGA West”.  And while Geoff originally thought that the property was in Huntington Beach, near the Seacliff Country Club where the group played golf in the episode, he came up completely empty-handed after searching the area.  Then, a few months later, while trying to track down a different locale in South Pasadena, he spotted a house on Arroyo Drive that looked vaguely familiar.  He was unsure of where he had seen the residence before, but made a note of the address.  It was not until a couple of weeks afterwards that he happened to re-watch “The Links” episode of The O.C. and realized that the house that had looked so familiar was Oliver’s.  Nicely done, Geoff!

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In real life, the 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 3,032-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1959 and sits on almost half an acre of land, is pretty darn spectacular!  In fact, the main reason that I wanted to stalk the property so badly, besides the fact that it appeared on The O.C. of course, was that I had fallen in love with its mid-century-style architecture pretty much as soon as it had appeared on my TV screen.  And I am very happy to report that, in person, the place did not disappoint.

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As you can see above, the residence most definitely does look like a Palm-Springs-area home, so it is not very hard to see why producers chose to use it in “The Links” episode.

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The real-life interior of the property, and even some of the real-life furniture – both of which you can see photographs of here – were also used in the episode.

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I am fairly certain, though, that the bedrooms where Ryan, Marissa, Seth, and Anna stayed were just sets that were built inside of a soundstage at Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach where the series was lensed, as they do not seem to match the real-life interior of the house.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Oliver’s Palm Springs house from “The Links” episode of The O.C. is located at 534 Arroyo Drive in South Pasadena.

Café-Club Fais Do-Do from “Crossroads”

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One location that I blogged about way back in March of 2009 and had been dying to re-stalk ever since – in order to snap some interior pictures – was Café-Club Fais Do-Do, the supposed New-Orleans-area karaoke bar that appeared in the 2002 movie Crossroads.  (For those who did not catch my original post on the place, in the Spring of 2001 I was an extra in Crossroads and spent a full three days filming at the Fais Do-Do – a magical experience that I will never forget.)  Because the club is typically only open at night for concerts and events, though, and because the Grim Cheaper has a major aversion to paying any sort of a cover charge, since the filming I had never been able to get back inside.   Until last Wednesday afternoon, that is, when I tagged along with fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, on a scouting expedition.  A couple of months back, Mike actually joined the Location Managers Guild of America under the title of Apprentice and, when I heard that he was in the process of building his portfolio, I immediately (and a bit selfishly) suggested that he visit Café-Club Fais Do-Do – with me accompanying him, of course.  Don’t get me wrong – the place is incredibly unique and visually stimulating and I knew that he would not only shoot some incredible photographs of it, but that it would also be a highly useful locale to have in his scouting arsenal.  But mostly, I just really wanted to stalk it myself.  Winking smile

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The Art Deco building which currently houses Café-Club Fais Do-Do was originally constructed in 1930 and is actually comprised of two separate sections – The Club (pictured above) and The Ballroom.  In its original incarnation, The Club was a branch of the First Citizens Savings Bank and Trust, which explains the structure’s uniquely rich and ornate interior.  Sometime in the 1960s, the bank was converted into a jazz bar/underground club, but thankfully most of its architecturally and historically significant detailing was kept intact.  During its years as a jazz club, such musicians as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, BB King, Pearl Bailey, John Coltrane, and Billy Preston were all said to have hung out there.

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The Ballroom (pictured above) was originally constructed as the single-screen Variety Movie Theatre and was where the filming of Crossroads took place.  I am unsure of when exactly the Variety ceased showing movies, but in 1990 the entire building was purchased by a new owner who, while still keeping the two distinct areas separate, decided to turn the venues into a nightclub and bar which collectively would be known as Café-Club Fais Do-Do – “Fais Do-Do” meaning “nighty-night” in French.  And while this post on the Lon’s Place blog states that The Club area was sold to a new owner in 2010, according the film liaison that we spoke with, the same person who bought the building back in 1990 still owns it to this day.

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While we were stalking the Fais Do-Do, I was extremely sad to discover that the huge two-story bar that used to be located in the center of The Ballroom and on which I had sat in Crossroads had since been removed.  To me, that bar, which had a dance floor on top of it, was the coolest, most unique aspect of the entire club and I cannot believe the owner did away with it!  So incredibly sad.

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In Crossroads, Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom was used for the interior of Club Bayou, where Lucy Wagner (Britney Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning) competed in a karaoke contest in order to win money to fix their car which had just broken down.

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That’s me in the blue pants standing next to Ben (Anson Mount) in the above screen capture.  Smile

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The Fais Do-Do dressing room, which you can see a photograph of here, was featured in the scene in which Kit, Mimi and Lucy get ready to go onstage.  Sadly, a film crew was using that area at the time that we were stalking the club so we were unable to take any pictures of it.

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The GC and I recently started watching fave show The O.C. again from the beginning and, let me tell you, I just about fell off my chair when I spotted Café-Club Fais Do-Do pop up in a Season 1 episode.  In “The Escape”, the Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom stood in for “Boom Boom”, the supposed-Tijuana-area club where Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) caught Luke Ward (Chris Carmack) cheating on her.

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And, while scanning through “The Escape” to make screen captures for this post, I was shocked to discover that the little bar where Marissa almost overdosed on pain pills later in the episode was none other than the Fais Do-Do’s Club!  The Club was remodeled in 2010 (as you can see in these photograph on the Lon’s Place blog) and looks a bit different now, but, amazingly enough, the actual bar where Marissa sat still looks exactly the same today as it did when the episode was filmed back in 2003!

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After reading my original post on the Fais Do-Do back in 2009, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, figured out that The Ballroom also stood in for Delloser Hall, the reggae club where Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) got stoned after inadvertently eating a pot-laced cake, in fave movie Never Been Kissed.

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In the extremely odd 2006 film The Gymnast, the Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom was used extensively as the place where Jane Hawkins (Dreya Weber) and Serena (Addie Yungmee) learned aerial fabric acrobatics.

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In the flick, you can clearly see the club’s former bar . . .

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. . . as well as the dance floor above it.

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Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s dressing room also appeared in The Gymnast.

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And in one scene, a business card featuring the club’s actual address, fax number, and website was even shown.  So incredibly cool!

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Fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, also let me know that the Fais Do-Do had appeared in the Season 2 episode of Arrested Development titled “Queen for a Day”.  In the episode, the exterior . . .

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. . . as well as The Ballroom stood in for The Queen Mary, the bar that Tobias Funke (David Cross) purchased.

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The Club was also used in that episode as the restaurant where Byron “Buster” Bluth (Tony Hale) took his new girlfriend, Starla (Mo Collins), out for a milkshake.

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And the dressing room stood in for the Hot Cop stripper club, from which Lindsay Bluth Funke (Portia de Rossi) hired strippers to scare her husband into selling The Queen Mary.

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Back in February of 2011, while doing research for my post on The Little Door restaurant, I discovered that Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Club room was used in the Season 2 episode of Entourage titled “The Abyss”, in the scene in which the boys – Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) –  gather together to watch Saigon perform.

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I was shocked to discover (thanks to the Ron’s Place blog) that in 1994’s Reality Bites, The Club stood in for the bar where “Hey, That’s My Bike!”, Troy Dyer’s (Ethan Hawke’s) band, regularly played.  The room was heavily dressed for the filming, though, and is almost unrecognizable in the movie.

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The Fais Do-Do Club was also featured in the Jane’s Addiction video for “Underground”.

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As was the dressing room area.

Jane’s Addiction “Underground” Music Video–Filmed at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles

You can watch the “Underground” video by clicking above.

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The Club also appeared in the Destiny’s Child “No, No No, Part 1” music video.

Destiny’s Child–”No, No, No Part 1” Music Video Filmed at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles

You can watch the “No, No, No, Part 1” video by clicking above.

This Is 40, the yet-to-be released sequel to 2007’s Knocked Up, also did some filming in Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom in 2011.  And while the Ron’s Place blog stated that The Big Lebowski and American Gangster were also filmed at the Fais Do-Do, I scanned through both movies while doing research for this post and did not spot the place anywhere.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Café-Club Fais Do-Do, from Crossroads, is located at 5253 and 5257 West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles.  You can visit the club’s official website here.

The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel from “90210”

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Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stopped by a couple of weeks ago while doing some stalking in the South Bay was the Manhattan Beach Marriott, which stood in for the supposed-Beverly-Hills-area hotel where the West Beverly High Senior Prom was held in the Season 3 episode of fave show 90210 titled “The Prom Before the Storm”.  I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who was kind enough to put together an entire 90210-themed South Bay stalking list for me as soon as he found out that I was heading down that way.  Sadly, due to some major traffic that the GC and I encountered on our way down there (darn you, 405!), we were not able to spend as much time in the area as I had hoped and only managed to hit up a couple of locations, one of which was the prom hotel.  Ironically enough, not only had the GC and I actually stayed at the Manhattan Beach Marriott a few years back, but thanks to its appearance in an early episode of The O.C., I had even blogged about it.  So the fact that I did not recognize it when it appeared in “The Prom Before the Storm” episode is highly embarrassing!  I mean, what kind of a stalker am I???  Winking smile

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Only the exterior of the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was featured in the episode, in the scene in which Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and the rest of the West Beverly High gang arrive at their Senior Prom.  As you can see in the screen capture located on the bottom right above, producers put up curtains to block the interior of the hotel in the scene as it did not match up with the interior set that they had created at Manhattan Beach Studios where the series is lensed.

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That set, which was centered around Silver’s (aka Jessica Stroup’s) half-baked Cirque du Soleil prom theme, is pictured above.

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I am very happy to report that the hotel looks exactly the same in person as it did in the episode.  Ironically enough, the Manhattan Beach Marriott is eerily similar in appearance to the Universal Sheraton, where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling) and the rest of the original West Bev gang attended the spring dance in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 aptly titled “Spring Dance”.

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The exterior staircase located just east of the hotel’s front entrance also made an appearance in the episode as the spot where Ivy Sullivan (aka Gillian Zinser) caught her then-boyfriend, now-husband Raj Kher (aka Manish Dayal) drinking.

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As I mentioned above, the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was also featured in the Season 1 episode of The O.C. titled “The Debut”.  In the episode, the interior of the hotel masqueraded as the interior of Newport Beach’s Pelican Hill Country Club where the dance rehearsals for Marissa Cooper (aka Mischa Barton) and Summer Roberts’s (aka Rachel Bilson’s) Debutante Ball were held.

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Both the hotel’s Grand Lobby, which as you can see above has changed its color scheme drastically since the episode was filmed;

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and the Manhattan Ballroom, which was unfortunately closed when we showed up to stalk the place but which you can see photographs of here, were featured in the episode.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

90210 Prom Marriott stairwell

Stalk It: The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel, from “The Prom Before the Storm” episode of 90210, is located at 1400 Parkview Avenue in Manhattan Beach.  The hotel’s main entrance and the exterior stairwell, which is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view and is located just east of the main entrance, appeared in the episode.  In “The Debut” episode of The O.C., the hotel’s front lobby and Manhattan Ballroom were featured.  You can visit the Manhattan Beach Marriott’s official website here.

The HMS Bounty Bar and Restaurant from “Mad Men”

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Another stalking stop on the Grim Cheaper’s Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt around Los Angeles that we embarked upon this past February was the historic Koreatown eatery known as the HMS Bounty Bar and Restaurant.  And while I had known about the watering hole’s vast history and longtime celebrity clientele before we dined there, up until this past Friday afternoon I had no idea whatsoever that the place was also a filming location.  I first read about the bar, which was founded over six decades ago in 1948, in the book Peaceful Places: Los Angeles, 110 Tranquil Sites in the City of Angels and Neighboring Communities and, because the GC loves all things historic, I knew it would be right up his alley.  And it was!  But imagine my surprise when, while doing some research on the Quality Café last Friday afternoon, I came across a blurb on fave website LA Time Machines which stated that the nautically-themed restaurant had been used in the Season 1 episode of Mad Men titled “Indian Summer”.  So incredibly cool!

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The HMS Bounty was originally founded in 1948 on the bottom floor of the Gaylord Hotel and was known at the time as the “Gay Room”.  Both the hotel and the restaurant were named in honor of legendary land developer and longtime socialist Henry Gaylord Wilshire, for whom Los Angeles’ famed Wilshire Boulevard was also named.  The Gay Room became extremely popular with the Hollywood elite and the political luminaries of the day and just a few of the legends who were regulars there included British statesman Winston Churchill, actor Jack Webb, radio commentator Walter Winchell, and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. 

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The watering hole even features plaques above many of its booths which cite the names of the legends who once sat there.   The GC and I happened to dine at the favorite booth of Wilbur Clark, the restaurateur who founded the famed Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn in Las Vegas (pictured above).  Since its inception in 1948, the Gay Room has changed hands several times and has been known as the Gaylord Dining Room, the Secret Harbor, and the Golden Anchor.  In 1962, it opened as the HMS Bounty Bar and Restaurant and it has remained so to this day.  Amazingly enough, even with the numerous changes of ownership, the eatery’s interior remains largely the same as it was when it was first founded over six decades ago. 

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And, as you can see in the above photographs, the place is still going strong!  It was absolutely jam-packed while we were there and the bar area was strictly standing-room-only.  Thanks to the dimly lit interior, the restaurant still attracts stars to this day.  In recent months, both Chloe Sevigny and The O.C.’s Adam Brody have been spotted there.  And the “wake” for the famed Ambassador Hotel, which used to stand directly across the street from the Gaylord, was held at the Bounty on February 2, 2006 and was hosted by none other than actress Diane Keaton.

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The bathrooms for the HMS Bounty are located in the lobby area of the historic Gaylord Hotel, which means that if you are dining at the restaurant, you can catch a glimpse of the former hotel’s beautiful interior.  The 14-story building, which is now made up of apartment units, was designed by J.B. Lilly and P.B. Fletcher in 1924 and, at the time, was Los Angeles’ tallest structure.

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There are several memorabilia items from the hotel’s heyday on display in the lobby area, including antique room keys, an old coffee shop menu, and the guest register (pictured above).

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In the “Indian Summer” episode of Mad Men, the HMS Bounty stood in for the supposed Manhattan-area La Trombetta seafood restaurant where Peggy Olson (aka Elisabeth Moss) suffered through a horrible blind date with truck driver Carl Winter (aka Aaron Hill).

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That scene was filmed in the HMS Bounty’s back room, which I unfortunately only took one photograph of.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The HMS Bounty Restaurant from the “Indian Summer” episode of Mad Men is located at 3357 Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown, just west of Downtown Los Angeles.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

Clown Dog Restaurant from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

UPDATE – I just drove by this location last week and was shocked to discover that the entire thing had been completely torn down.  The only part of it left standing is the All American Burger sign pictured below.  🙁  A Chipotle restaurant is currently being built in its place. So incredibly sad!  I will leave this post up, though, for those stalkers who are interested in seeing photographs of how it used to look.

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A few weeks ago, I dragged my boyfriend out to Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to stalk a restaurant named All American Burger – a location which has been on my list of places to stalk ever since fellow stalker Owen informed me that it stood in for the Clown Dog diner where Bryan (aka Josh Charles) worked in fave movie Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.  In a random twist of fate, Owen happened upon this information during his search for the main house used in Don’t Tell Mom  back in September.  While trying to track down that location, Owen came across an interview with actor Keith Coogan, who played Christina Applegate’s younger brother Kenny in the flick, who had this to say, “The film was shot entirely in Southern California. Mostly in the San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita/Antelope Valley areas. The house is really close to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Some locations were in the heart of Hollywood, like the roof of the Holiday Inn, and the Clown Dog is actually an ‘All American Burger’ located on Sunset Blvd. Some scenes were shot in Santa Monica and Malibu, as well as some interiors which were filmed in Simi Valley/Sherman Oaks.”   (Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find the source of that interview online, otherwise I would post a link to it here.)  An actor who not only remembers where scenes from his movies were filmed, but actually references them in an interview???  SO LOVE IT!!!!!  Thank you, Keith!!!  So, once I heard where Clown Dog was located, I immediately added the address to my long “to stalk” list and finally made it out there to see the place in person just a few weeks back.  YAY!

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And, let me tell you, this was one stalk that was DEFINITELY worth the wait.  As fate would have it, the owner of the restaurant, an INCREDIBLY nice man named Lang, was working behind the counter when we arrived.  Of course, the first words out of my mouth were, “Was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead filmed here?”  Lang laughed and told me that yes, indeed, the movie had been filmed on the premises.  I then asked him if everyone who came in inquired about the very same thing, to which he replied “You’re only the second person in the twenty-plus years I’ve worked here who has ever asked me that!”  LOL  It’s nice to know I’m unique!   Lang seemed truly amused at my excitement over stalking his restaurant and really could NOT have been nicer about it.  Not only did he tell  me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted . . .

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. . . BUT HE ALSO LET ME DON ONE ONE OF THE ALL AMERICAN BURGER UNIFORMS AND STEP BEHIND THE COUNTER TO POSE FOR A PIC!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!

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I also so love it that the real All American Burger hat is almost exactly the same as the Clown Dog hat that Christina Applegate wore in the movie!  🙂

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Because my fiancé and I were both starving at the time, we just had to grab a bite to eat during our stalk.  And, let me tell you, we were not disappointed!  While All American Burger is by no means fancy, their food is simply A-MA-ZING!  The menu features your typical all-American fare, such as burgers, hot dogs, and French fries, all of which happen to be right up my alley.  🙂  My fiancé and I ended up splitting a cheeseburger and fries – both of which were excellent!  And the Grim Cheaper was very excited about the fact that the entire meal cost us $4!   Even more exciting to him, though, had to be the restaurant’s working pinball machine, which he played quite a few games on.  So cool!  (Please pardon the above picture, I was in a goofy mood that day.  🙂 )

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All American Burger pops up twice in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.  It first shows up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Sue Ellen (aka Swell), gets a job working behind the counter of the fast food restaurant. 

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Fed up with Mr. Egg, her perennially happy boss, Swell quits her new job after only one day of work, but not before making a romantic connection with fellow Clown Dog employee Bryan.

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The restaurant next shows up towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which Swell, upset over her recent fight with Bryan, drives by Clown Dog and sadly watches him working through the window. 

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I am very happy to report that although over 18 years have passed since Don’t Tell Mom was filmed, All American Burger still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen.  Missing in real life, of course, is the circus themed decor that was used to dress the restaurant during the filming.  Besides Don’t Tell Mom, All American Burger has also been featured in a recent episode of Southland and in an album cover for one of musician Howie Day’s CD’s.  And because the restaurant is something of a Hollywood institution, celebs have been known to stop in there from time to time, including The O.C.’s Adam Brody, who is a regular.  🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: All American Burger, aka Clown Dog from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Sandy and Kirsten’s Berkeley House from “The O.C.”

dscn0350.jpg Thought I’d do a post tonight on another Craftsman style house – one that was featured on the series finale of The O.C. On the last show of the series, after the Cohen home is destroyed in an earthquake, Seth and Ryan hatch a scheme to buy their parents back the Berkeley house they spent the early years of their marriage in. The Berkeley house cannot really be found in Berkeley, though – it is actually located in South Pasadena, just a few blocks from the 13 Going On 30 houses.

I found this location thanks to my fave OC Stalking Guide and ran right out to stalk it this weekend. The house is very pretty in person, and is a great example of Craftsman style architecture. Although the house was only featured in one episode of The O.C., it played a pretty significant role and was shown many times throughout the finale. If you walk south past the house, you can even see partially into the backyard where Summer and Seth got married. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! : )

Stalk It: The “Berkeley House” is located at 1617 Marengo Avenue in South Pasadena. It is just a few blocks south of the Fair Oaks exit off the 110 Freeway. After stalking be sure to stop into Fair Oaks Pharmacy at nearby 1526 Mission Street for a homemade cherry coke. They make the best! Fair Oaks Pharmacy played the role of the soda fountain in Winona Ryder’s hometown in the movie Mr. Deeds.