Fred Savage – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 3, 2017June 29, 2017

The Fourth of July Parade Location from “The Wonder Years” Finale

Americans nationwide will be gathering together tomorrow to celebrate the birth of our country. So what better time than today to write about a location related to the holiday? Back in late 2015, I stalked the street where Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and his family and friends attended a July 4th parade in the final episode of The Wonder Years, Season 6’s “Independence Day.” Filming of the nostalgic – and, let’s face it, incredibly sad – scene, which was the second to last of the entire series, took place on Greenleaf Avenue in Uptown Whittier. Though I had planned on blogging about the picturesque street last year in honor of the Fourth, I somehow completely forgot to do so. Then, in a rather fortuitous turn, I randomly came across my images of the site while going through old photographs a couple of days ago. Talk about perfect timing!

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Uptown Whittier was originally established in 1887.

The charming business district, which is centered around tree-lined Greenleaf Avenue, boasts shops, boutiques, restaurants, bars, cafes, and a historic theatre.

The district also boasts quite a few historically significant spots, including the National Bank of Whittier Building at 13006 Philadelphia Street. Constructed in 1923 by architects John and David Parkinson, the Beaux Arts-style structure was the site of Richard Nixon’s first law office.

Greenleaf Avenue could not be more idyllic and perfectly encapsulates that Smalltown, U.S.A. feel, especially when viewed through a camera lens.

It is not very hard to see why location managers have flocked there over the years.

I first learned of Greenleaf Avenue’s appearance in The Wonder Years finale thanks to the Tourist Inspiration website, which I came across while researching locations during my binge of the series back in 2014. The website states, “The parade scene in the final episode of The Wonder Years was filmed at the corner of Greenleaf Avenue and Philadelphia Street. Kevin is standing under the awning of Rocky Cola Café. He crosses Philadelphia to meet Paul (Josh Saviano) as a parade goes by.” I immediately added the information to my To-Stalk List without doing any verification of it, which was an unfortunate mistake. As I discovered when I sat down to write this post, Tourist Inspiration’s data is as erroneous as that pesky rumor that Saviano grew up to become Marilyn Manson. Not only did Kevin not cross a street to reach Paul in “Independence Day,” but he also never stood in front of the Rocky Cola Café. In the parade scene, Kevin sidles up to Paul outside of what is now Pour Le Bain at 6721 Greenleaf Avenue. (Sadly, because of the erroneous info, I took photos of the wrong areas of Greenleaf while I was there, so you’ll have to make due with some Street View imagery in this post.)

Kevin and Paul – and Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), who is also in tow – then head over to where the Arnold family is waiting, on the sidewalk in front of the small park-like space situated in between what is now La Monarca Bakery, at 6727 Greenleaf, and Mimo’s Café, at 6735 Greenleaf.

That area is pictured below via Street View.

The group then proceeds to watch the parade while standing in front of what is now Legends Boardshop, at 6725 Greenleaf.

As I mentioned above, Greenleaf Avenue has long been popular with location scouts. In 1987’s Masters of the Universe, He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) searches for a portal-opening cosmic key on Greenleaf.

After finding out they are going to have a baby in 1995’s Father of the Bride Part II, George (Steve Martin) and Nina Banks (Diane Keaton) drive down Greenleaf and watch various parent-child interactions.

Greenleaf is also the road Franck Eggelhoffer (Martin Short) speeds down on the way to the hospital at the end of the film.

Greenleaf is the site of Wendy Carroll’s (Ashley Williams) candy shop in Lifetime’s 2013 made-for-television movie Christmas in the City.

Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) and Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) re-create Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” music video on Greenleaf in the Season 6 episode of Glee titled “The Hurt Locker: Part 1,” which aired in 2015.

The upcoming movie Spinning Man also did some filming on Greenleaf Avenue.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Fourth of July parade from the “Independence Day” episode of The Wonder Years was filmed on the 6700 block of Greenleaf Avenue in Whittier, in front of what is now Pour Le Bain (6721 Greenleaf), Legends Boardshop (6725 Greenleaf), and the small park-like space located in between La Monarca Bakery (6727 Greenleaf) and Mimo’s Café (6735 Greenleaf).

January 7, 2016January 4, 2016

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About “The Wonder Years” Neighborhood

Don’t forget to read today’s Los Angeles magazine post – it’s about The Wonder Years neighborhood. My articles typically get published in the early afternoon hours.

July 23, 2014July 22, 2014

Paul Pfeiffer’s House(s) from “The Wonder Years”

It’s official, folks! The Wonder Years is coming to DVD for the first time ever in October! The 26-disc boxed set includes all six seasons of the show, plus a cast reunion segment, over 15 hours of bonus footage, a collectible metal locker, two production booklets packed with behind-the-scenes information, a replica yearbook, and Wonder Years magnets. Sets can be pre-ordered here and there is even an option to purchase a special edition signed by Fred Savage and Danica McKellar! Um, sign me up! To celebrate the good news, I thought it would only be fitting to write about a Wonder Years location today – the house (or I should say “houses”) where Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) lived on the hit coming-of-age series.

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I found the address of the Pfeiffer residence on the My TWY Yearbook website and stalked it back in February. It was not until doing research for this post, though, that I realized two different properties had actually been used to portray the family’s home on the series. But more on that later. The house mentioned on My TWY Yearbook was featured in the Season 5 episode of The Wonder Years titled “Pfeiffer’s Choice.” In the episode, Paul’s family comes into some money thanks to a lucrative investment and when a jealous Jack Arnold (Dan Lauria) drives by the Pfeiffer home, with his son, Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage), he is irked to see Paul’s father, Alvin (John C. Moskoff), driving a brand new humongous John Deere tractor.

The residence shows up a second time in the episode, in the scene in which Kevin comforts Paul after learning that Alvin has lost all of the money he recently made.

The house used in “Pfeiffer’s Choice” can be found at 536 Tufts Avenue in Burbank, just up the street from Winnie Cooper’s (Danica McKellar) second home from the series (which I blogged about here). The 1950-property, which boasts three bedrooms, two baths, 1,651 square feet of living space and a 0.17-acre yard, looks much the same today as it did when The Wonder Years was filmed.

While I was scanning through various episodes making screen captures for this post, I came across Season 6’s “Poker” and was shocked to see a different dwelling featured as Paul’s. An address number of 537 was visible in the episode and, because most of The Wonder Years houses are situated in very close proximity to each other, I figured I would most likely find the place on University Avenue, near Kevin Arnold’s pad, which is located at 516 University. (I blogged about it here). Sure enough, a quick Google search of “537 University Avenue” proved my hunch correct. Thankfully, fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere site, had recently taken some photographs of the residence (on account of its appearance in an episode of ER) and loaned them to me for this post.

Why two different properties were used is anybody’s guess. Even odder is the fact that the two Pfeiffer residences are located directly next door to each other! (Truth be told, there might have been more properties masquerading as the Pfeiffer home over the years. I am still only on Season 2 of my binge-watch of the series, though, so I cannot say for certain either way.)

In real life, Paul’s house from “Poker” was built in 1949 and features two bedrooms, two baths, 1,742 square feet and a 0.17-acre lot.

As I mentioned earlier, the same residence was also featured in an episode of ER. It popped up in Season 4’s “Fathers and Sons” as the home of Dr. Mark Greene’s (Anthony Edwards) parents.

The real life interior of the property also appeared in the episode and, while fairly non-descript, my head just about exploded upon seeing the kitchen.

The kitchen from ER is an almost exact match to the Arnold’s kitchen from the pilot episode of The Wonder Years! (The Wonder Years pilot made use of the actual interior of the 516 University Avenue home and, after the series got picked up, a set based on it was constructed for all subsequent filming.)

I guess the resemblance should not have come as such a surprise to me being that the two homes are located on the same street, share similar exteriors and were most likely constructed by the same builder. I was still shocked (and delighted!) when I noticed it nonetheless.

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.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for providing the photographs of Paul’s second house that appear in this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: A map of The Wonder Years neighborhood is pictured above. Paul Pfeiffer’s first house is located at 536 Tufts Avenue in Burbank. Paul’s second house can be found next door at 537 University Avenue. Winnie Cooper’s first home is located at 525 University Avenue. Winnie’s second home can be found at 501 Tufts Avenue. And Kevin Arnold’s residence is located at 516 University Avenue.

May 5, 2014July 22, 2014

Winnie Cooper’s Second House from “The Wonder Years”

UPDATE – The Wonder Years is coming to DVD for the first time ever in October! The 26-disc boxed set includes all six seasons of the show, plus a cast reunion segment, over 15 hours of bonus footage, a collectible metal locker, two production booklets packed with behind-the-scenes information, a replica yearbook, and Wonder Years magnets. Sets can be pre-ordered here.

I am still currently in the process of binge-watching The Wonder Years on Netflix. The Season 3 finale, titled “Moving,” in which Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar – who is completely ROCKING IT on Dancing With the Stars! LOVE her!) relocates to a new home located four miles away from longtime love Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage), absolutely broke my heart. Come to think of it, every episode breaks my heart. Prior to this recent re-watching, I didn’t remember the series being so sad, but yikes! I bawl during pretty much every episode. I am a nostalgic person by nature and the sentimentality of the show tugs at all of my heartstrings – but in a good way. So when I found the address of Winnie’s new house on this website, I ran right out to stalk it.

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During the first three seasons of The Wonder Years, Winnie and her family lived in a home (which I blogged about here) located right across the street from the Arnold residence (which I blogged about here). While the Cooper family sold that abode in “Moving,” their new dwelling did not actually appear onscreen until the Season 4 opener, which was titled “Growing Up.” It is said in the episode that the Cooper’s new pad is located four miles away from their previous one, but in reality it is located right around the corner.

The property continued to be utilized throughout the remaining three seasons of the The Wonder Years.

I actually find the residence to be an odd choice for use on the series for two reasons – it is substantially larger than the Cooper’s first home and it doesn’t really have a 1960s-feel to it.

Thankfully though, the property has not changed much since its Wonder Years days.

According to Redfin, the 1950 home boasts two bedrooms, two baths, and 1,896 square feet. It actually looks to be much larger than that, though, so I am not sure if the listed measurements are correct.

Whenever I think of the Cooper’s second residence, I am reminded of the Season 4 episode titled “The Accident,” in which Kevin climbed onto Winnie’s roof, peeked through her window and mouthed “I love you” to her. Ironically enough, though, after re-watching the scene, I do not believe it was actually shot at the house. As you can see below, the roof that Kevin climbs in the episode has two side-by-side dormer windows. Winnie’s residence does not have any such windows, so I am guessing that producers either filmed the scene at a different property or, in a more likely scenario, had a prop roof built on a soundstage for the shoot.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Winnie Cooper’s second house from The Wonder Years is located at 501 Tufts Avenue in Burbank. Winnie’s first home from the series can be found right around the corner at 525 University Avenue. Kevin Arnold’s residence is located diagonally across the street from Winnie’s first home at 516 University Avenue.

April 9, 2014July 22, 2014

Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore from “The Wonder Years”

I recently received an extensive list of The Wonder Years filming locations from a fellow stalker named Mallory who lives in Iowa. Mallory is a huge fan of the series (she loved it so much that she put off watching the finale for ages as she couldn’t bear to see the show end – love that!) and over the years had managed to compile an index of over thirty locales featured on it. One of the locations, the book shop from the Season 1 episode titled “Swingers,” I had been trying to track down for a while. Said book shop turned out to be the historic Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore, an L.A. institution that was shuttered in 2008. I decided the place was still worthy of a stalk, though, and headed over there when I was in the area a couple of weeks ago.

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The original Dutton’s Books & Prints was opened in 1961 by Bill and Thelma Dutton at 5146 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood. All four of the couple’s children worked onsite, including eldest son Davis who took over operations of the store in the 1970s. He opened a couple of sister shops shortly thereafter. Doug, the youngest Dutton child, decided to establish his own branch of the family business and in 1984 purchased Brentwood Book Shop in the Barry Building, which had been around since the ‘60s. He renamed the site Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore and ran it independently of Davis’ outposts. Dutton’s Brentwood was an immediate success and Doug eventually expanded, taking over several adjacent storefronts, all of which surrounded a courtyard where patrons were encouraged to lounge over a good tome. In a 2008 Huffington Post article, author Tom Teicholz described the 5,000-square-foot space as such, “The whole place always had a ramshackle feel, with frayed carpets and crowded shelves. Each area is its own empire, and one felt free to wander among them, and trusted to take a book from one area to the other without being accused of running off.” The store even attracted its fare share of celebrities and such stars as Dustin Hoffman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Diane Keaton, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Meg Ryan, John Lithgow, Nora Ephron, Randy Newman, Maria Shriver, and Calista Flockhart could often be seen perusing the crowded aisles.

In 2004, upon learning that the owner of the Barry Building was securing plans to tear down the property to make way for a new shopping center, Doug decided to open a sister store in Beverly Hills. He figured that if the Brentwood site did end up closing, he would still have a place to operate. Sadly though, the Beverly Hills store wound up hurting him financially and he closed it in 2006. Shortly thereafter, Davis shuttered the original Dutton’s in North Hollywood due to declining sales. Dutton’s Brentwood was soon suffering the same fate and that, coupled with the fact that Doug had never recovered fiscally from the Beverly Hills debacle, led to the decision to close the store. On April 30th, 2008, Dutton’s Brentwood made its last sale. In a cruel twist of fate, the Barry Building’s owner eventually withdrew his plans to tear down the property in 2013. Had Doug not opened the Beverly Hills store, it is quite possible that the Brentwood outpost would still be in operation. Today, the space houses Cisco Home, a sustainable furniture company.

In the “Swingers” episode of The Wonder Years, Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) headed to Dutton’s to pick up a copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex: But Were Afraid to Ask, upon the recommendation of Kevin’s older brother, Wayne Arnold (Jason Hervey). While the Dutton’s name was visible on the shop’s awning in the scene, because the façade of the Brentwood storefront did not match what was shown onscreen, I figured a different Dutton’s had been used in the filming. As you can see below, the shop that appeared in The Wonder Years had an entrance door located on its right hand side. Dutton’s (which you can see photographs of from the time that it was in operation here and here) did not. None of the other Dutton’s locations seemed to match up either, though. It wasn’t until Mallory mentioned that she thought a fake door had been added to the exterior for the shoot that things began to fall into place.

We now believe that a different book store was used for the interior filming and that a fake door was added to the exterior of Dutton’s so that it would match up to what was shown of that interior.

We still cannot figure out where interior filming took place, though. As you can see in the scene capture below (which I flipped), there appear to be the words “Harmon Books” along with some sort of initial (possibly an “A”) painted on the door behind Kevin and Paul. No amount of Google sleuthing has been able to unearth a Harmon Books in the L.A. area, though. Does the store happen to look familiar to any of my fellow stalkers?

Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood website, I learned that the Dutton’s space was also featured in the 1965 film Sylvia, as the spot where Alan Macklin (George Maharis) first tracked down Sylvia (Carroll Baker). At the time, the shop was still operating as the Brentwood Book Shop.

Dutton’s North Hollywood location was the bookstore where Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry) worked in the original opening of Can’t Hardly Wait, which never made it to the screen. That opening is only visible briefly in the movie’s trailer.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Cisco Home, aka the former Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore from the “Swingers” episode of The Wonder Years, is located at 11975 San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood.

March 26, 2014February 11, 2019

Michael’s House from “The Wonder Years”

Fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, recently challenged me to find the old Victorian that Karen Arnold (Olivia d’Abo) and her boyfriend, Michael (who was played by none other than Friends’ David Schwimmer), moved into in the Season 4 episode of The Wonder Years titled “The House That Jack Built.” At the time, I had yet to hit that episode in my binge-watching of the series, so I scanned ahead and was pleasantly surprised to recognize the residence immediately. As it turns out, the home is located in South Pasadena and is one that I know quite well, due to the fact that it sat abandoned and run-down for over a decade before being fixed up. (Y’all know how much I love me some abandoned properties!) When I lived in Pasadena, I practically drove by the place on a daily basis, while on my way to and from the Harbor Freeway, and always wondered why such a beautiful dwelling had been left to deteriorate. I had even watched a music video being shot on the premises many moons ago (more on that later). For whatever reason, though, I had never blogged about the home, so I figured it was about time that I do so.

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In real life, the property, which is a South Pasadena Local City Landmark, is known as the Riggins House and it was originally built in 1885. Yep, it’s currently 129 years old! The five-bedroom, two-bath, 2,778-square-foot Queen Anne-style Victorian, which sits on 0.33 acres of land, was last sold in June 2005 for $1.2 million.

I never did learn the story behind the residence or why it was left in disarray for so many years. I think it has something to do with the 710 Freeway Project, though. (In the 1960s, the state of California purchased 500-plus homes – many quite large, beautiful and historic – in what is now known as the 710 Corridor with the intention of tearing them down to build a connector road between the 210 and 710 freeways. While some of the houses were leased out, many were left vacant from that point onward. Thankfully, the freeway extension project was squashed last October and the homes are now finally, finally being returned to private ownership.) Oddly enough, I preferred the look of the place in its run-down state, most likely because it reminded me of the “Thriller” house. Unfortunately though, I do not have any photographs of it from that time period.

According to An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, Professor Thaddeus Lowe, who was best known for founding the Mount Lowe Railway and Citizen’s Bank of Los Angeles, lived in the Riggins House while his own (much larger – we’re talking 24,000 square feet!) house was being built a couple of blocks away at 995 South Orange Grove Boulevard. That residence, which was once one of the largest homes in the entire nation, was sadly demolished between 1927 and 1928.

In The Wonder Years “The House That Jack Built” episode, Karen decides to leave her college dorm in order to move into a large home with a “roommate,” whom she fails to tell her parents is actually her new boyfriend. Both the exterior of the Riggins House . . .

. . . and the interior were shown in the episode.

The residence subsequently showed up in several Season 5 episodes of The Wonder Years, including “Dinner Out;”

“Stormy Weather;”

and “The Wedding.”

As I mentioned above, I once watched a music video being filmed at the Riggins House – the 2003 video for the Beyoncé/Missy Elliot/MC Lyte/Free compilation song “Fighting Temptation,” which was featured on the soundtrack for Beyoncé’s then most recent movie, The Fighting Temptations. In a 2003 interview, Beyoncé stated that the Riggins House was chosen for filming because it reminded her of the Georgia-area residence where The Fighting Temptations was shot.

The interior of the Riggins House also appeared in the video.

You can watch “Fighting Temptation” by clicking below.

As I also just learned, the Riggins House was utilized as the Pyramid Corners, Oklahoma residence of the Torkleson family in the short-lived series The Torkelsons, one of my favorite shows ever! (Oh, Man in the Moon . . . ! ) In an odd twist, and for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom, imagery of the property was flipped in all establishing shots that appeared on the program, which ran from 1991 to 1992.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Michael’s house from The Wonder Years is located at 919 Columbia Street in South Pasadena.

March 5, 2014July 22, 2014

Fatso’s Drive-In from “The Wonder Years”

My favorite episode of The Wonder Years is Season 5’s “Frank and Denise.” I absolutely love everything about it – the characters of Frank ‘The Stank’ Stanavukovic (Noah Blake) and Denise “The Grease” Lavelle (Amy Hathaway), their relationship, the poetry, and the fact that Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) starts referring to himself as “Calvin Arnold.” All in all, it’s just a perfectly-crafted episode and storyline. So when I saw that the MyTWYYearbook website had tracked down the location of Fatso’s, one of the main locations featured in “Frank and Denise,” I just about died of excitement and ran right out to stalk it while in L.A. last week.

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In “Frank and Denise,” Fatso’s is the restaurant where Denise, a popular girl whom Kevin has recently befriended, works.

In real life, the eatery is known as Jim’s Original Famous 1/4 Lb. Charbroiled Burgers. (I know, I know, the name is a lot to chew on – pun intended.) The drive-in, which serves everything from the aforementioned burgers to tacos to teriyaki chicken bowls, was originally founded in 1960 by a man named Jim (obvs) at 8749 East Valley Boulevard in Rosemead. It has remained at that same location ever since.

Jim’s was taken over by a new owner, Chris Athas, in 1997. At some point thereafter, Athas remodeled the restaurant and it, unfortunately, no longer even remotely resembles Fatso’s from “Frank and Denise,” as you can see below. You can check out some photographs of what Jim’s looked like pre-remodel on the MyTWYYearbook site here.

Oddly enough, Jim’s masqueraded as a different restaurant, Zesty’s, in The Wonder Years episode that followed “Frank and Denise,” titled “Full Moon Rising.” The eatery was shown from the opposite side, which is, I guess, how producers figured they could get away with featuring the same location as two different places in back-to-back shows. Thankfully, whoever runs MyTWYYearbook has eagle eyes and caught the double-usage.

As you can see below, the red, white and blue tiling of Fatso’s from “Frank and Denise” matches that of Zesty’s from “Full Moon Rising,” as does the rock façade exterior and the pick-up window.

Later in Season 5, in the episode titled “Hero,” Kevin heads back to Fatso’s, this time with Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) and Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), to celebrate McKinley High’s big basketball win. As you can see below, though, instead of filming at Jim’s, a different restaurant was utilized – one that I have yet to track down.

On a The Wonder Years side-note – I was shocked to spot none other than Person of Interest’s Jim Caviezel playing high school basketball star Bobby Riddle in “Hero.” He looks exactly the same today as he did when the episode was filmed back in 1992!

Big THANK YOU to MyTWYYearbook website for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Jim’s Original Famous 1/4 Lb. Charbroiled Burgers, aka Fatso’s from the “Frank and Denise” episode of The Wonder Years, is located at 8749 East Valley Boulevard in Rosemead. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

February 24, 2014July 22, 2014

Winnie Cooper’s House from “The Wonder Years”

It was quite a Wonder Years weekend for me. Not only did the Grim Cheaper and I indulge in some more binge-watching of the show, but I also got to meet Dan Lauria, aka Jack Arnold himself! As fate would have it, the actor happened to be participating in a celebrity golf tournament in the desert this weekend. When I saw his name on the list of players, I just about died being that I have been on such a Wonder Years kick as of late. So bright and early Saturday morning I dragged the GC right on out to the course – Starbucks in hand, natch! Dan really could not have been nicer. When I asked him for a photo, he said, “Sure! That’s what we’re here for this weekend!” Um, love! Then, when we went to take the picture, the GC had some trouble getting my camera to work and Dan joked, “He doesn’t know how to use a camera – he must be a director.” Winking smile Such a sweet guy! And I absolutely love that he was wearing a ‘50s-style hat. So apropos! And now, on with the post!

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As was depicted on The Wonder Years, diagonally across the street from Kevin Arnold’s (Fred Savage) house (which I blogged about on Friday) is the home where his perennial love interest, Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), lived.

Like the Arnold residence, Winnie’s house was built in 1949 and also boasts three bedrooms and three baths.

Sadly though, while still recognizable, the property is not nearly as frozen in time as Kevin’s house is. As you can see below, the wood paneling that used to cover the front left portion of the residence has since been removed.

Alterations have also been made to the front porch area and a walkway has been added. The main front window has been changed, as well. LOVE that there is a bench in the exact same spot that the Coopers had one, though!

The one-story residence, which was shown considerably less often than the Arnold home, was only utilized in the first three seasons of The Wonder Years. Winnie and her family sold the house (breaking Kevin’s heart in the process) in the Season 3 finale, which was titled “Moving.” Their new abode, said to be located four miles away on the series, can actually be found just around the corner at 501 Tufts Avenue. And yes, I will be stalking that location soon!

Because it was so rarely shown, I would venture a guess that the inside of the real life home was used as the interior of the Cooper house.

For all of my fellow Wonder Years aficionados, in 2002 the Biography series aired a fabulous episode titled “The Wonder Years: Comedy Coming of Age” that featured a lot of behind-the-scenes information about the show. You can watch it by clicking below.

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, of the Mike the Fanboy website, for suggesting this stalk! You can read his write-up of the day here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Winnie Cooper’s house from The Wonder Years is located at 525 University Avenue in Burbank. Kevin Arnold’s house from the series is located diagonally across the street at 516 University Avenue.

February 21, 2014July 22, 2014

Kevin’s House from “The Wonder Years”

My good friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, recently asked if I wanted to do some stalking of The Wonder Years house with him. The 1968-set coming-of-age series finally made its way to Netflix in October 2011 (due to music licensing issues, it has never been released on DVD) and Mikey had been indulging in some binge-watching. He had never stalked the Burbank-area residence where Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and his family – Jack (Dan Lauria), Norma (Alley Mills), Karen (Olivia d’Abo) and Wayne (Jason Hervey) – lived on the show, though, and while I had stalked and blogged about the location before, because it was eons ago (in March 2008), I figured it was most-definitely time for a redux. So one rainy day (I had literally just had my hair blown out, too!) a couple of weeks ago, the two of us met up to do some Wonder Years stalking. As soon as I returned home, the Grim Cheaper and I started binge-watching the series, as well (thanks, Mikey! Winking smile ), and I was shocked at how oddly sad it is – much more so than I remembered. While still enjoyable, I find myself tearing up at least once during every episode.

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Visiting the Arnold abode was like stepping back in time. As you can see below, virtually no part of the property has been changed in the 25-plus years since the series first debuted.

The one-story, three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,839-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1949, was featured regularly throughout the series six-season run.

Amazingly, the residence was last sold in 1987, which means that the same family who owned it during The Wonder Years years still owns it today! Love that!

The dwelling was also featured weekly in The Wonder Years opening credits.

For some reason, Mikey and I were both under the mistaken impression that Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar) waved to the camera in the opening credits and we each sat down on the curb to reenact the moment while we were there. It was actually Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) who waved in the opening, though. Whoops!

You can watch The Wonder Years opening credits by clicking below. (Bet you can’t not sing along!)

Time also appears to have stood still on the Arnolds’ street. It was never specifically stated where the series was supposed to have been set, producers instead choosing to keep things vague so that the narrative would be relatable to anyone who grew up in a suburban American town in the late 1960s. The formula worked, too. Even though I came of age in the ‘80s, my childhood wasn’t all that different from Kevin’s. I cannot express how incredibly nostalgic stalking the neighborhood was – due both to the fact that it still looks like a community from a bygone era and because it brought back so many memories of my early years.

I am 99.9% certain that the real life interior of the home appeared in the pilot episode and that a set resembling it was subsequently built for all future filming once the series got picked up. As you can see below, the kitchen in the pilot episode looks quite a bit different than than the one that appeared in the Season 1 episode titled “The Phone Call.”

Another view of the kitchen from the pilot as compared to a view of the kitchen from the Season 1 episode titled “Swingers” is pictured below.

Stay tuned for Winnie Cooper’s house (pictured below) on Monday! And I recently stumbled across this amazeballs site, so you know what that means! There will definitely be more Wonder Years stalking in my future!

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, of the Mike the Fanboy website, for suggesting this stalk! You can read his write-up of the day here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kevin Arnold’s house from The Wonder Years is located at 516 University Avenue in Burbank.

September 12, 2011September 11, 2011

The Cabazon Dinosaurs from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

On our way out to visit my parents in Palm Springs two weekends ago, the Grim Cheaper and I made a little stalking stop at the Cabazon Dinosaurs – the two legendary roadside sculptures located just outside of Palm Springs which were featured in the 1985 movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, among countless other productions. And even though I had passed by the humongous prehistoric creatures countless times on my way too and from the Coachella Valley, for whatever reason, I had never thought to stalk them until just recently.

The infamous Cabazon Dinosaurs were originally designed by a Knott’s Berry Farm portrait artist/sculptor named Claude Bell who was looking for a way to attract diners to the Wheel Inn, his roadside restaurant which opened in 1958. He had visited Lucy the Elephant while growing up in Atlantic City and the image of the six-story tin elephant had stuck with him.

So in 1964, Claude set about building a 150-ton, 45-foot tall, 150-foot long Apatosaurus, whom he later dubbed “Dinny” (pronounced Dine-ee), directly behind his eatery. He first built a steel framework of the creature, then covered it over with a metal grid in the shape of a dinosaur, and then finally coated it all with spray concrete. Much of the materials used were procured from scraps left over from construction of the nearby Interstate 10 freeway. Legend has it that a friend of Bell’s painted the entire exterior of Dinny in exchange for $1 and a case of Dr. Pepper. And while I, too, love me some Dr. Pepper, I seriously doubt I would paint a 150-foot long dinosaur in exchange for a case of it. Winking smile

It took eleven years and over $250,000 to complete Dinny and, of his creation which housed a small gift shop, Bell said that it was “the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as building”.

In 1981, Bell decided to give Dinny a friend and began construction on a 100-ton, 65-foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex, whom he named “Rex”. His original plans called for a large slide to be installed on Rex’s back, but that idea never came to fruition. Steps were built leading up into the inside of the Tyrannosaurus’ mouth, though, enabling visitors to climb to the top of the creature. Bell had plans to add more reptiles to his roadside creation, but sadly passed away in 1988 before he could do so. In the mid 1990s, his heirs sold the dinosaurs for $1.2 million to an Orange County developer named Gary Kanter, who, along with a pastor named Robert Darwin Chiles, immediately set about turning the spot into children’s exhibit and museum which would promote the theory of creationism. They added several more dinosaurs, some robotic, to the 60-acre site, as well as an open-air museum, a sand pit where children can dig for fossils, and a non-denominational church. And while I wanted to venture inside the museum and up into Rex’s giant mouth, the GC was, of course, having none of it.

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In Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, truck driver Large Marge (aka Alice Nunn) drops Pee-wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens) off at the Wheel Inn restaurant, where he discovers that he has lost his wallet and ends up having to wash dishes in order to pay for his meal.

The real life interior of the Wheel Inn was used for the filming of the scene.

And, amazingly enough, it still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1985 when Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was filmed.

It is while at the Wheel Inn that Pee-wee meets waitress Simone (aka my former acting teacher Diane Salinger), who invites him to watch the sun rise from the inside of Rex’s mouth. That scene was not actually shot inside of Rex’s mouth, though, but on a soundstage at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank. You can see some great photographs of what Rex’s mouth actually looks like here. In real life, his mouth is not nearly as big as the set replica that Tim Burton created for the film, nor is there a large pink tongue on which to sit.

After watching the sun rise, Simone’s very large and very jealous boyfriend Andy (aka Jon Harris) shows up and chases Pee-wee around the dinosaurs.

Thanks to Diane, I actually got to meet some of the cast of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure a couple of years ago, while attending a screening of the movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Pictured above is Diane Salinger, Elizabeth Daily, and the man himself, Paul Reubens.

Thanks to Kim Potts’ fabulous write-up of the Cabazon Dinosaurs for the Moviefone website, I learned that the landmark was featured in quite a few other productions, as well. At the end of 1989’s The Wizard, while driving by the dinosaurs Jimmy Woods (aka Luke Edwards) recognizes them from a childhood visit and jumps out of his step-father’s car and up to Dinny.

The actual interior of the dinosaur was used for the filming of that scene.

Miraculously, little of Dinny’s interior has changed in the 22-plus years since The Wizard was filmed.

In 1984’s Paris, Texas, the Wheel Inn is the supposed-San-Bernardino-area restaurant where Travis Henderson (aka Harry Dean Stanton)and his son Hunter (aka Hunter Carson) stop to use a payphone.

The Cabazon Dinosaurs and Wheel Inn also appeared briefly in the 1985 music video for the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, in the scene in which the band’s lead singer Curt Smith stops his Austin-Healey 3000 by the side of the road in order to use a pay phone.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World music video –Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

The dinosaurs were featured extensively in the music video for Tonio K’s 1988 single “Without Love”.

Without Love music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

They also appeared in the U.S. version of the music video for the 1994 Oasis song “Supersonic”.

Supersonic music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

And finally, they made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the 2009 music video for Brad Paisley’s song “Welcome to the Future”.

Welcome to the Future music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the new face of About Me! Smile

Stalk It: The Cabazon Dinosaurs, from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, are located at 50770 Seminole Drive in Cabazon. You can visit the official Cabazon Dinosaurs’ website here. While the museum charges an admission fee, the interior of Dinny houses a gift shop which is free to visit. The Wheel Inn restaurant is located directly in front of the dinosaurs at 50900 Seminole Drive in Cabazon.