Culver City – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 24, 2015November 23, 2015

Westfield Culver City from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”

Some filming locations are maddeningly elusive. One that remained a thorn in my side for ages was the mall where Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Lynne Stone (Helen Hunt) shopped in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which, for those who haven’t been paying attention over the years, is one of my all-time favorite movies. Thanks to some help from my friends Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Michael, of The Brady Bunch’s Golden Spoon fame, I was finally able to stalk the place this past August. As it turns out, the Girls Just Want to Have Fun Mall is none other than Westfield Culver City, aka the former Fox Hills Mall. The road to finding it was quite a long one, though.

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Westfield Culver City was originally established as the Fox Hills Mall in 1975. The complex, which was designed by the Gruen Associates architecture firm, was Los Angeles’ first tri-level indoor shopping center. The site has undergone several name changes and remodels over the years and currently looks a bit different than it did during the Girls Just Want to Have Fun days, though some recognizable elements still exist. Besides its many appearances on the silver screen, the mall boasts another claim to fame – it was at Fox Hills that Gary Coleman famously worked as a security guard in the ‘90s.

In Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Janey and Lynne are shown hanging out in what is a supposed Chicago-area shopping mall. While there, they happen upon the DTV cast doing an autograph signing;

they act goofy by riding an escalator the wrong way;

and they run into Maggie Malene (Shannen Doherty) and Drew Boreman (Jonathan Silverman), who is getting fitted for a tux.

Maggie happens to mention that Drew is renting the tux for Natalie Sands’ (Holly Gagnier) debutante ball which is taking place later that evening. (I blogged about the ball scene location here.) Since Janey and Lynne are seeking revenge on Natalie for numerous past wrongs, they decide to steal Drew’s invitation and make copies of it at the mall’s Big Red Q Quickprint Centers, which they then proceed to pass out to various miscreants on Melrose Avenue.

Back in April, I sent some screen captures of the Girls Just Want to Have Fun mall scene to Owen to see if the complex looked familiar to him. It didn’t, but he kindly decided to help with my quest. He scoured Google images of Los Angeles-area shopping centers and while looking at photos of Westfield Culver City, spotted some elements that matched what appeared in my screen grabs, most notably the escalators. He then did a search to see if anything had been filmed at the mall during the same time period as GJWTHF and saw on Chas’ It’sFilmedThere site that The Boys Next Door had been shot on the premises the very same year! In one of the screen caps featured on Chas’ site (pictured below), he noticed the same diagonal red-striped flooring that was visible in GJWTHF and was pretty sure he had nailed the right spot. As always, we wanted further proof, though. (The huge red staircase visible in the screen capture below was a focal point of Fox Hills’ original design. The shiny glass-and-steel structure rose from the mall’s bottom level to the top. Sadly, it was removed during Westfield’s latest remodel in 2009.)

At around that same time, Michael had tracked down a mall that appeared in an episode of The Brady Bunch. He mentioned his hunt to me and how he had utilized a Shopping Mall Directory from the ‘70s that he found in his local library during his search. While watching the GJWTHF scene, I had identified the signage of three stores in the background – Advance Cutlery, Contempo Casuals and Thom McAn. I asked Michael if he wouldn’t mind looking at an ‘80s version of the directory to see which L.A.-area malls housed those three stores. A couple of days later, he came back to me with an answer – Fox Hills was the only mall with a listing for all three! Eureka! (Though Big Red Q Quickprint Centers is, in fact, a real company, Michael could not find a listing for one at any L.A. mall, so we believe that its appearance in GJWTHF was a matter of product placement.)

Not only did Michael search the directory for me, though, but he also went above and beyond in further determining that Fox Hills was the correct spot. Because The Boys Next Door was lensed the same year as Girls Just Want to Have Fun, he thought a viewing of it might provide further ratification. And it did! Michael rented the flick via Amazon and was able to confirm with 100% certainty that Fox Hills was indeed the GJWTHF mall. At the end of The Boys Next Door, Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield) and Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen) are chased into Fox Hills by the police. During the chase, they pass by a Gingiss store. Anyone who lived through the ‘80s and ‘90s is familiar with Gingiss. Growing up, it was THE place to rent tuxes come prom season. It has since been sold to May Department Stores and is no longer a mall staple, though. Michael recognized the Gingiss storefront from The Boys Next Door as being the same formalwear shop featured in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. As he explained, “The weird floor stripe runs into the shop in the same part of the entrance as GJWHF. The store carpet is the same color, and there’s a similar riser in the window. And, there’s even the same(!) bright red tuxedo jacket in the corner of the window and metal light on the other corner of the riser.”

Michael then did a Google search for “Gingiss Formalwear” and came across the company’s logo and made another connection. As he said, “You’ll recognize their stylized ‘I’ from the back wall in GJWHF.” You can check out an old image of a Gingiss store in Florida here in which that same large man-shaped-like-an-I placard is visible on the back wall.

As if that wasn’t enough, Michael kept digging and found further proof! In another email, he stated, ”Since that just about confirms it, it’s probably not necessary to point out the other similarities: the structural poles, shiny metal mirror-like paneling all over the mall (as seen in the first few seconds of the GJWHF clip). And I think you might even be able to see a little bit of the huge red staircase in the GJWHF clip as they’re running into the Quickprint.”

Because I desperately wanted a photo in front of the escalators that SJP and Helen Hunt rode in the movie, Michael did some further investigating. Like I said, he went above and beyond! While watching The Boys Next Door, he was able to determine that a Round Table Pizza . . .

. . . and Regal Shoes were located near Gingiss. More on them in a minute.

Through my own investigations, I discovered that the movie Nightmares had also done some filming at Fox Hills. The 1983 flick is actually an anthology of four different horror stories. The segment shot at Fox Hills is named “Bishop of Battle” and stars Emilio Estevez as video game-obsessed teen J.J. Cooney.

Most of “Bishop of Battle” takes place at the SEGA Center (later renamed Time-Out), an actual arcade that used to be located inside of Fox Hills Mall. Though Nightmares is not available to stream online or for purchase anywhere, segments of it pop up on YouTube regularly. While they are taken down almost just as quickly as they appear, Michael was able to watch several clips of it and piece together where the arcade was formerly located.

Thanks to its diagonal layout and proximity to a ramp leading to a parking area, Michael determined that the storefront now houses Fast Fix Jewelry and Watch Repairs.

Fast Fix is located on the mall’s second level, next door to JCPenny.

I am unsure if the interior of the Nightmares arcade was a set or if scenes were actually filmed inside of the SEGA Center.

In some other (much less clear) Nightmares clips, Michael spotted the same area from GJWHF pop up. He then compared the layout of storefronts shown in Nightmares to a current map of Westfield Culver City and was able to figure out not only where the escalator from GJWTHF is, but also the Gingiss store! As he pointed out in an email, “It looks like Regal Shoes was on a corner.”

He explained further, “It’s hard to say looking at the current-day mall map because it’s hard to visualize the escalator placement, but it seems like Gingiss may have been down near JCPenney. With Regal Shoes being where Zales Jewelers is now (with the distinctive corner), and Gingiss where Love D is. And Qdoba having been Round Table Pizza. You’ll probably be able to figure things out better in person, but at least it’s something to start with.” As it turned out, it was not just something to start with, but was actually spot on!

The Gingiss storefront from Girls Just Want to Have Fun does indeed currently house Love D.

The shop sells affordable shoes, handbags and other accessories.

I honestly could NOT have been more excited to be there!

In The Boys Next Door, a back corridor entrance was visible just to the right of Gingiss. That entrance, now closed off with a door, is still there to this day! You can just barely see it on the very right-hand side of my photo below.

And, as Michael pointed out, the chain of round ceiling lights visible in the corridor outside of Gingiss in GJWTHF are a direct match to the lights that are there now.

The escalators from GJWTHF are located just outside of Love D and lead up to the second level entrance to JCPenney.

I tried to get a matching shot of the escalators from the angle that appeared in the movie, but the kiosk that is now situated outside of Love D blocked my view.

As you can see, though, the shape of the bottom of the escalators and the raised circular markings that run down the center connector match what appeared onscreen.

While it appears that some sort of sunken sitting area was situated behind the escalators in 1985, that is no longer the case.

Today, there is now an indoor playground in that area.

As I mentioned above, Fox Hills/Westfield Culver City has appeared onscreen countless times over the years. In 1977, Carrie Fisher did a promotional interview for Star Wars at the SEGA Center, though very little of the arcade was shown.

You can watch a clip of the interview by clicking below.

Fox Hills was also featured in a fabulously cheesy 1978 commercial for Kinney Shoes starring Ken Berry.

You can watch that ad by clicking below.

In 1983, Fox Hills popped up in the Season 1 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “The ACM Kid” as the mall where Mrs. Amanda King (Kate Jackson) takes Aleksei Kalnikov (Meeno Peluce).

Though Aleksei plays in an arcade in the episode, that arcade does not appear to be the SEGA Center. I have a hunch that Fox Hills was used in establishing shots in “The ACM Kid,” but that all actual filming took place on a set.

Thanks to the 80s Film Locations site, I learned that the 1986 movie Thrashin’ was shot in the Fox Hills parking garage.

The round ramp that the kids skate down in the flick is located in the south east section of the mall property, just southwest of where Fox Hills Drive intersects with Hannum Avenue.

In 1991’s Point Break, the Ex-Presidents lead Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) and Pappas (Gary Busey) on a car chase through the Fox Hills parking lot.

In the scene, the cars enter the mall property via Slauson Avenue, just east of where it intersects with Sepulveda Boulevard.

In the Season 2 episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia titled “Charlie Gets Crippled,” Westfield Culver City is where Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton) pretend to have polio.

As you can see below, at the time that the episode was shot in 2006, the diagonal brickwork flooring that was visible in Girls Just Want to Have Fun was still intact.

The final scene of the 2007 comedy Superbad was also lensed at Westfield Culver City.

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) meet up with Becca (Martha MacIsaac) and Jules (Emma Stone) on the mall’s second floor, in front of the escalators near Foreign Exchange and AT&T Spring Mobile.

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

Big, HUGE THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Michael for tracking down this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Westfield Culver City, aka the former Fox Hills Mall from Girls Just Want to Have Fun, is located at 6000 Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City. You can visit the mall’s official website here.

September 22, 2014September 21, 2014

The Culver City Hobbit Houses

I have a major affinity for unique architecture. So when I came across this CurbedLA article about the Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments, a grouping of Storybook-style structures in Culver City colloquially known as the “Hobbit houses,” I just about foamed at the mouth. The complex looks like something straight out of a Disney cartoon and it was not long before I was rushing out to see it with my own two eyes.

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The Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments compound consists of three buildings – a main house and two cottages that contain seven individual apartment units. The dwellings were constructed between 1946 and 1970 by Lawrence Joseph, a former Walt Disney Co. artist and Lockheed aircraft designer. Lawrence first designed the main residence (pictured below), which he lived in with his wife, Martha.

He then built the two additional apartment cottages.

Joseph incorporated two of his main hobbies, carpentry and sailing, into the design of the structures. While the exterior boasts hand-carved wooden detailing, the interiors were made to look like that of a ship, with galley kitchens, built-in furniture, and latches and pulls used as doorknobs. You can check out some photographs of the whimsical interior of one of the apartment units here.

The property’s detailing is downright incredible. I fell in love with the lamp pictured below.

And check out the spider-web design of the main residence’s front door.

In 1996, the complex was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #624.

Though not a filming location (at least not that I am aware of), the Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments do boast a celebrity connection. Tony Award-winning actress Gwen Verdon called one of the apartment units home for a time, as did Nick Nolte, Paula Prentiss and Richard Benjamin. And in a more nefarious twist, Joseph Amsler, one of the kidnappers of Frank Sinatra Jr., lived on the premises during the time of the abduction. It was inside of one of the apartments that the FBI wound up tracking down a majority of the $240,000 in ransom money that Ol’ Blue Eyes had paid for the return of his son. You can read more about the kidnapping here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Lawrence and Martha Joseph Residence and Apartments, aka the Hobbit Houses, are located at 3819 Dunn Drive in Culver City.

July 21, 2014July 21, 2014

Scranton Business Park from the First Season of “The Office”

A fellow stalker named Scott recently challenged me to track down the building that was used as both the interior and exterior of Scranton Business Park during the inaugural season of The Office. I was perplexed at his query as I had no idea that two different Dunder Mifflin locations had been utilized during the show’s run. While I knew that interior filming had originally taken place inside of a real office space and that a set modeled after it had later been built inside of a soundstage, I always assumed that said office was at Chandler Valley Center Studios (which I blogged about here) on Saticoy Street in Van Nuys. I was wrong.

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Upon receiving the challenge, I did a Google search for “The Office filming locations Season 1” and came across a Yahoo! Answers query from an inquiring mind named Nickvet419 who had the very same question that Scott did. Nickvet419 had provided some screen captures (pictured below) and, sure enough, the building shown was NOT Chandler Valley Center Studios. Upon further searching, I dug up a 2006 TV Guide blog post written by Jenna Fischer (aka Pam Beesly) in which she stated that the series’ first season – both interiors and exteriors – had been filmed at a real office building in Culver City. I immediately forwarded the screen captures and Jenna’s post to fellow stalker/Office aficionado Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and asked if he had ever done any research on the locale. His response? “Nope, I’ve never tried to track down that location. In fact, I have zero recollection of that. Are you telling me that the Saticoy Street building we’re all familiar with wasn’t used for exterior scenes during the entire Season 1 run? I don’t remember that at all. My memory sucks, but I figured I would have remembered if outdoor scenes suddenly changed from an unidentified building to the Saticoy spot. All the outdoor scenes I can picture are of Saticoy. Weird.” You’re telling me! How in the heck did I not recognize the fact that two different Dunder Mifflins had appeared on the show? Thankfully, Owen quickly tracked down the Culver City locale and I ran out to stalk it this past weekend.

In real life, the original exterior of Scranton Business Park was actually Stage 1 and 2 of the Century Studio Corporation, which has since gone out of business due to runaway production. The building housed both soundstages and second floor office space when it was in operation. You can see photographs of some of the company’s soundstages (there were nine of them in total) here.

For a time, Stage 1 and 2 were being offered for sale, but the property now appears to have been taken off the market. Several set pieces and backdrops are still located onsite, though, as you can see below. I am guessing that the location went into foreclosure at some point and is currently in a holding pattern, waiting to be sold by the bank.

Sadly, the exterior of the property was altered in recent years, as you can see in the Google Street View image below (and LoopNet listing photo here) as compared to my current photograph. While there used to be eight windows running across the second floor of the building, there are now only six.

The door to the loading dock located directly beneath the missing windows has also been made taller, which means that a portion of the second floor office space has been removed. I was absolutely heartbroken upon discovering the change because it is that removed area that I believe was used on The Office.

As you can see below, the building is divided into two sections, each with a soundstage and second-floor office space, separated by a green-gated entrance. The northern portion comprises Stage 1, while the southern portion comprises Stage 2.

After spending a ridiculous amount of time comparing the blurred views of buildings visible in the background of some Season 1 episodes to Google Street View images of buildings located across the street from Stage 1 and 2, I became convinced that it was the second floor of Stage 1 (the northern section) that was used as the interior of Dunder Mifflin. (I know, I know – I have way too much time on my hands!) The discovery was particularly distressing as I was hoping that the office space that appeared on the series was still intact – and that I could possibly tour it someday. But that does not appear to be the case.

Stage 1’s offices were only utilized for the first season of The Office (a total of six episodes), but because the set built for the remainder of the filming was almost an exact replica, the space would have been completely recognizable.

What a thrill it would have been to see it in person!

Of the set, Jenna Fischer stated in her blog post, “In Season 1 of The Office, we shot on location at a real office building, on the second floor of some old offices in Culver City, California. For Season 2, we moved to a soundstage, where they re-created the original office location down to the smallest detail. (Except that they made Michael’s office a little larger. It was hard to fit the camera crew into the old office to do his interview segments.) Why move at all? The No. 1 reason: Now we can control the weather and the amount of light that comes through the windows. When they were real windows facing the real outside, it was tricky! If you watch the DVD of Season 1, I bet you can see some subtle differences between our old location and our new stage. The craziest thing was that for the first few weeks in our new location we would forget we were on a soundstage and get confused trying to leave. The actual exit doors were all different. Just imagine if someone rebuilt the interior of your house on a soundstage. So when you walked out your “front door,” instead of seeing the outside you were still inside a giant warehouse with lights and equipment. It felt like we were on The Truman Show!”

Pictured below are screen captures of Michael Scott’s (Steve Carell) office, the set version of which was made slightly larger than the real life version, as Jenna mentioned.

The change is barely noticeable, though.

The Dunder Mifflin warehouse, where the gang played basketball in the Season 1 episode titled “Basketball,” was actually the soundstage on the bottom floor of Stage 2. This was easily discernible thanks to the adjacent brick wall that was visible in the episode.

According to DVD commentary provided by B.J. Novak (aka Ryan Howard), during Season 1 the production team transformed the soundstage located directly below the real life offices used for interior filming into a makeshift production office. I am guessing that is why the Stage 2 soundstage was employed as the warehouse in “Basketball” – because the Stage 1 soundstage was already being utilized as production space.

I was thrilled to discover that the little green-gated alcove located in between Stage 1 and 2 had appeared in some of the first season’s deleted scenes. At least that area is still intact. Now if only I could get in there to see it!

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Scranton Business Park from the first season of The Office is located at 3322 La Cienega Place in Culver City. Chandler Valley Center Studios, the building used during Seasons 2-9 of The Office, can be found at 13927 Saticoy Street in Van Nuys.

March 14, 2011March 13, 2011

Rickie’s Alley from the “So-Called Angels” Episode of “My So-Called Life”

As I have mentioned quite a few times in recent months, I just finished re-watching fave television series My So-Called Life from the beginning. And I have to say that when I came to the final episode, it was a very bittersweet moment for me as it brought up all of the same sad emotions I experienced back in 1995 when the show was first cancelled. Sigh. The only bright spot in coming to the end of my re-watching of the series was the fact that I could then begin to watch the countless special features on the My So-Called Life: The Complete Series DVDs, including – count ‘em! – seven full-length commentaries of six different episodes. And those commentaries did NOT disappoint. There were two commentaries included on the Christmas-themed “So-Called Angels” episode – one with series creator Winnie Holzman and actor Wilson Cruz and a second with the episode’s director Scott Winant. Thankfully, both Wilson and Scott dished the dirt on a few of the episode’s locations – most notably the alley featured in the opening scene, which I ran right out to stalk early last week.

In the opening scene of “So-Called Angels”, Rickie Vasquez (aka Wilson Cruz) is shown beaten and bloody, struggling to stand near the end of a snow-covered brick alley.

The camera then pans over to Angel (aka special guest star, singer Juliana Hatfield) who is sitting on the sidewalk out in front of the alley. According to Scott Winant, a snow machine had to be brought in for the filming of the scene and, at the time, the weather outside was a whopping eighty degrees despite the fact that the episode was filmed in late October.

Later on in the episode, Patty Chase (aka Bess Armstrong) follows Angel down that exact same alley while looking for her daughter, Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes), who has gone missing.

Wilson Cruz mentioned in his commentary of the episode that the alley was located on Bagley Avenue in Culver City, just down the street from Sony Pictures Studios, so I immediately started searching aerial views of Bagley to see if I could find it. As it turns out, though, Bagley is a residential street made up almost entirely of private homes – until it reaches Venice Boulevard, that is, where it turns into Main Street, a short one-block-long road with commercial businesses located on either side of it. And, sure enough, right in the middle of Main Street was Rickie’s alley! And while the shops located on either side of it (a pizza restaurant named LaRocco’s Pizzeria and a storefront that is currently vacant) have changed slightly over the years, the alley is still very recognizable from the episode. Love it!

I just about died when I saw that the yellow fire hydrant which was visible in the background behind Juliana Hatfield in the opening scene was STILL there almost two full decades later! So incredibly cool!

Scott Winant also mentioned in his commentary that the grocery store where Jordan Catalano (aka Jared Leto) ran into Rickie and offered him a ride was located right through the alley. Sadly though, that grocery store is no longer.

A SUPER nice neighborhood business owner, who gave me all sorts of scoop on filming in the area, informed me that the former Balian Market was converted into a renal dialysis center a few years back.

Thankfully though, the shop-owner also informed me that very little had been done to alter the exterior of the grocery store building since the dialysis center purchased it. Yay! The area which appeared in the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life was the former market’s back entrance, the doors of which have since been changed.

But, as you can see in the above photographs and screen captures, everything else matches up perfectly, including the cut-out decor elements of the cement wall located next to the door and the iron beams which hold up the awning.

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The buildings which appear in the background behind Jordan’s car in the scene also look very much the same today as they did when filming took place over seventeen years ago.

The super nice business owner also informed me that Rickie’s alley appeared in episodes of the television series Boomtown and Bones and in the yet-to-released music video for Kim Kardashian’s new single featuring Kayne West.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Rickie’s alley, from the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life, can be found directly north of LaRocco’s Pizzeria, which is located at 3819 Main Street in Culver City. The former Balian’s Market, the grocery store where Jordan ran into Rickie, can be found just through the alley at 9432 Venice Boulevard in Culver City. My So-Called Life was filmed in the market’s back entrance area, which is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view. Jordan’s car was parked in the spot that is marked with a pink “X”.

December 11, 2009January 2, 2011

Courteney Cox’s House from “Cougar Town”

While on the West Side of L.A. doing some stalking this past weekend, I dragged my fiancé out to see a few of the houses featured on one of my favorite new shows of the fall season, Cougar Town. Now I know I’ve used the word “favorite” to describe more than one new show recently, but in all honesty there are just SO many fabulous series on TV right now that I almost need two TiVo’s to keep up with them all! Between my new must-sees like Glee, Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Flash Forward, and my old staples of 90210, The Big Bang Theory, Chelsea Lately, and Gossip Girl, my television viewing schedule is completely FULL!! Anyway, for those who have yet to watch, Cougar Town is an absolutely HILARIOUS show, thanks mostly to the characters of Grayson Ellis and Bobby Cobb, played by Josh Hopkins and Brian Van Holt, respectively. If you’re not watching it yet, you really must tune in! So, when I found the address of Jules Cobb’s (aka Courteney Cox’s) house on the series, thanks to fave website Seeing Stars, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place!

On Cougar Town, Jules lives in a red-roofed house at the end of a cul-de-sac in the fictional Sarasota County, Florida suburb of Gulf Haven. In reality, though, her house and cul-de-sac (pictured above) are not located anywhere near the Sunshine State, but right here in Los Angeles. Well, in Culver City, to be exact, just around the corner from Sony Pictures Studios. The neighborhood where Cougar Town is filmed actually reminds me a lot of a video game I used to play as a kid named “Paperboy”. In the game, the player, acting as a paperboy, must deliver daily newspapers to a neighborhood full of homes that look exactly alike – there are maybe five different house styles that are repeated over and over again on each street. And that’s pretty much what the Cougar Town neighborhood looks like. It is a labyrinth of countless cul-de-sacs containing very similar-looking red-roofed homes. In fact, the streets are so similar looking in Jules’ neighborhood that my fiancé and I actually got lost while there. LOL

The Cougar Town cul-de-sac is featured weekly in each episode’s set-up shots and in the numerous scenes which are filmed on-location in the neighborhood. In fact, filming takes place there so often that my fiancé was absolutely convinced that the entire cul-de-sac was a set that had been built inside of a studio soundstage somewhere in Hollywood. It wasn’t until we drove up to the actual houses and he saw them with his own two eyes that he believed they were real! LOL And I am very happy to report that Jules’ house looks exactly the same in person as it does on the show!

In fact, the only difference I noticed was her front door, which on the show is a single glass door, but in real life is a double wooden door. My guess is that producers put a false front with a fake glass door over the porch area during filming.

The house where Jules’ cutie neighbor, Grayson, lives also looks exactly the same in person as it does onscreen. YAY!

Eillie Torres (aka Christa Miller) and her husband Andy (Ian Gomez) live just down the street from Jules and Grayson, but unfortunately I didn’t snap a pic of their particular house because at the time I wasn’t sure exactly which one it was. 🙁 Oh well, it looks as if I’ll just have to go back and re-stalk the place someday. 🙂

On Cougar Town, Jules’ backyard and pool area have also been featured numerous times.

But, as you can see in the above aerial image, the real life house does not have a pool. So, I am guessing that the scenes in Jules’ backyard were either filmed at a nearby house that has a pool or on a studio soundstage where a backyard set was built for the filming.

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On a side note – Last week, while on an intense hunt for the circle necklace Kristin Cavallari recently sported in the episode of The Hills entitled “Can’t Always Get What You Want”, I came across a fab website named Seen On that I wanted to share with all of my fellow stalkers. The website, which details where to purchase clothing and jewelry worn on popular television shows and movies and by your favorite celebrities, is simply A-MA-ZING! I literally can’t get enough of it! And I figured that if my readers were interested in stalking locations that appear onscreen, they’d also likely be interested in stalking clothing that has appeared onscreen. 😉 So, check it out!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Courteney Cox’s house from Cougar Town is located at 4033 Lamarr Avenue in Culver City. Josh Hopkins’ house is located directly across the street at 4034 Lamarr Avenue. Christa Miller and Ian Gomez’s house is just down the street at 4027 Lamarr Avenue.

December 8, 2009December 11, 2011

Mitchell and Cameron’s House from “Modern Family”

The second locale that fellow stalker Robert, from the site Movie Locations and More, tracked down from fave new series Modern Family was the Spanish-style duplex where Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet), and their newly adopted daughter, Lily, live on the show. Because I have always had a thing for Mediterranean-style homes and because Mitchell and Cameron are my two favorite Modern Family characters, their house was the one from the series that I was most looking forward to seeing in person. So, as soon as Robert gave me the address, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place! And, amazingly enough, because my fiancé is also a big fan of Spanish houses, getting him to take me there didn’t actually require much arm-twisting on my part. This was one filming location he was actually looking forward to stalking. YAY! 🙂

Cameron and Mitchell’s duplex shows up each week in the Modern Family opening credits . . .

. . . as well as in set-up shots shown throughout the course of each episode.

And I am very happy to report that their abode looks exactly the same in person as it does onscreen in Modern Family. In fact, the only difference I noticed between the real property and its television counterpart was the address number. Because Mitchell and Cameron live in a duplex on the show, their building has two addresses – 2211 and 2213. Makes sense, right? But, even though the residence is also a duplex in real life, according to Zillow it only boasts one number – 2211. Strange! I am guessing that the 2213 sign shown in the above screen capture was just a prop that was brought in for the filming, which strikes me as odd being that it doesn’t match up to the real sign. You’d think the producers would have wanted the two signs to look somewhat similar, but they don’t! I guess that’s Hollywood for you, though! 😉

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Mitchell and Cameron’s Modern Family house as it is absolutely ADORABLE in person. I have a feeling I am going to be obsessed with this home for a long time to come! 🙂

Ironically enough, an entirely different location stood in for Mitchell and Cameron’s house in the series’ pilot episode (pictured above), as was the case with the Dunphy home which I blogged about yesterday. And, although the two locations do share some similarities – they are both duplexes, have wooden front doors, and arched entryways – in actuality they don’t look anything alike.

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Big THANK YOU to Robert for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mitchell and Cameron’s duplex from Modern Family is located at 2211 Fox Hills Drive, just around the corner from Fox Studios, in Century City.

December 7, 2009December 11, 2011

Claire and Phil’s House from “Modern Family”

A few weeks back I received an email from a fellow stalker in the Nebraska area who had just recently started his very own filming locations blog entitled Movie Locations and More. This stalker’s name was Robert Patterson and I have to admit that when I first saw his email a red flag went up, as I thought he was some weirdo pretending to be the lead actor from the Twilight movies. LOL At the time I didn’t realize that the Twilight actor was actually named Robert PattINson, not PattERson. LOL LOL LOL Man, I can be such a blonde sometimes!!! Anyway, as it turns out, my new friend really is named Robert Patterson and he is not a weirdo at all. 🙂 He is actually quite an amazing stalker and recently tracked down two of the main homes featured on Modern Family, which just so happens to be one of my favorite new shows of the fall season. So, literally, as soon as he gave me the addresses to the houses, I ran right out to stalk them! Thank you, Robert!

The first Modern Family house that Robert managed to track down was the residence belonging to Phil (aka Ty Burrell) and Claire (aka Julie Bowen) Dunphy and their three children on the show. Because Robert knew that Modern Family was filmed at Fox Studios in Century City, he decided to begin his search for the houses featured on the series in the neighborhood surrounding the studio – which is always a smart move. And, sure enough, he found Claire and Phil’s house pretty much immediately. YAY! 🙂 Besides being featured weekly in the series’ opening credits . . .

and in set-up shots during the course of each episode . . .

. . . several scenes have also been filmed on location at the Dunphy home, such as was the case with the episode entitled “Fizbo” in which Claire and Phil host a massive birthday party for their son Luke in the house’s front yard.

As you can see in the above screen captures, though, an entirely different house was used in the filming of the pilot episode. The house featured in the pilot has an address number of 1057, while the house used in the rest of the series has an address number of 10336. The front door of the pilot house, which is flanked by window panes on either side, also does not match the front door of the house used in the rest of the series.

When I first pulled up to stalk the Dunphy house a couple of weeks ago, some neighbors just happened to be outside chatting, so I, of course, just had to strike up a conversation with them. 🙂 The neighbors were SUPER nice and did not think it was at all weird that I was stalking a home in their vicinity. They said they absolutely LOVE having Modern Family film on their street and that everyone involved with the show is extremely nice. LOVE IT! They also said that since I was such a big fan of the show, I should try to come back when an episode was being filmed so that I could watch. How nice is that? 🙂 So LOVE IT! And I am happy to report that Claire and Phil’s house looks EXACTLY the same in person as it does onscreen. 🙂

On a side note – At the very end of the episode entitled “The Bicycle Thief”, Phil and his son, Luke, are shown riding their bikes past a street sign for Dunleer Drive, which is the actual street where Claire and Phil’s house is located in real life. LOVE IT!

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Big THANK YOU to Robert for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Claire and Phil’s house from Modern Family is located at 10336 Dunleer Drive in the Cheviot Hills area of Los Angeles.