Halloween Filming Locations – Page 2

April 3, 2009April 3, 2009

The Mama’s Family House

Last week I got a challenge to find the house used in the 1980’s television series Mama’s Family. I had heard a while back that Mama’s house was in Pasadena, but had no idea of its exact location. After doing a simple Google search, though, I quickly found the address. Or so I thought. 🙂 According to IMDB, Mama’s house is located at 1019 Montrose Avenue in South Pasadena. But as I have mentioned before, IMDB has been known to post incorrect information. And this time was no different. Oh, Internet Movie Database, why do you so often lead me astray?? 🙂

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After thinking I had found the correct location, I grabbed my camera and immediately drove out to South Pasadena to snap some photos of Mama’s house. But when I arrived at 1019 Montrose Avenue, it quite obviously wasn’t the home where the Harper Family had lived on the show. Feeling defeated, I got in my car to drive home. And that’s when I noticed a house just a few doors down from number 1019 that looked a whole lot like Mama’s. So, I snapped some pics and drove home to compare them to the screen captures I had from the show. Sure enough, it was the place!

The house in South Pasadena was used each week for establishing shots of the Harper home. The interiors existed only on a soundstage located about 15 miles away on the former KTTV/Fox Television Center lot on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sadly, that studio has since been torn down. The home was also shown each week in the Mama’s Family opening credits, in which Mama would march to the end of her walkway, pick up the morning newspaper, and then proceed to dust it off . LOL You can watch the Mama’s Family intro here. This same house was also used very briefly as Lynda’s home in the original Halloween movie.

Even though I haven’t seen an episode of Mama’s Family in years, I was very excited to be stalking the home, as I have such fond memories of watching the show with my grandma when I was a little girl. I still remember not being able to wrap my six year old brain around the fact that, in real life, Mama wasn’t truly an old lady. 🙂 It is unbelievable to me that Mama’s house still looks almost EXACTLY the same as it appeared onscreen 26 years ago! Besides the white picket enclosure, which has since been removed from the porch area, and a blue trim which has been added, the house is pretty much identical to how it appeared on television back in 1983. And I highly recommend stalking it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mama’s Family house is located at 1027 Montrose Avenue in South Pasadena.

October 24, 2008September 29, 2017

More Halloween!

Last year, during our annual Haunted Halloween tour, I dragged my boyfriend to the two houses where Jamie Lee Curtis and her friend babysit in the movie Halloween. The final action sequence in the movie takes place at these two houses, which are located across the street from each other. Even though I had never seen the movie Halloween, being that it was the season, I just had to stalk it. 🙂 I seriously need to rent this movie!

The first house I dragged my boyfriend to was the Doyle Family home where Jamie Lee Curtis babysits Tommy and Lindsay Doyle at the end of the movie. The Doyle home is a very cute house and it actually looks like it should be located in the Pasadena area. Being that the majority of the filming of Halloween actually took place in Pasadena, I am very surprised that the producers didn’t just find a home there to use. These location decisions always fascinate me and I would love to find out the reasoning behind them! Someday I really need to sit down with a location scout to pick their brain!

Anyway, the next house we stalked is located directly across the street from the Doyle house. It is the house where Jamie Lee’s best friend Annie babysits and also where she meets her untimely end. From what I can tell from the screen captures, this house looks very different from how it appeared in Halloween. While the front porch area is still recognizable from the movie, it appears that the home was somewhat modernized in recent years and a side garage was added. I so hate it when movie homes are remodeled! Filming locations should really be designated historical landmarks so that the exteriors are protected and forced to remain the same for eternity. 🙂 I mean I think I would seriously cry if anyone ever remodeled the 90210 house! LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The home where Jamie Lee Curtis babysits is located at 1530 North Orange Grove Avenue in Hollywood. The house where her friend Annie babysits is located directly across the street at 1537 North Orange Grove.

October 9, 2008September 29, 2017

Halloween

Hi, my name is Lindsay Blake and I have never seen the movie Halloween. I know, I know – it’s like sacrilege or something, especially since Halloween is my favorite holiday. I’ve also never seen any of the Friday, the 13th movies. But I’ve always been kind of a scaredy cat, so as a teenager I was way too afraid to watch any sort of horror flick. I fully intend to rent and finally watch them this Halloween season, though. In the meantime, even though I have yet to see the movie, I did some Halloween stalking this past weekend. Halloween supposedly takes place in Haddonfield, Illinois, but in reality all of the filming was done in the L.A. area.

This weekend I set out to stalk Jamie Lee Curtis’ house from the movie, which is actually located in South Pasadena, not far from Michael Meyer’s childhood home and the Pretty In Pink house. In the movie, pretty much only a side view of the house is shown, so when we first drove up I didn’t recognize it at all. I actually thought we were in the wrong place, until I rounded the corner and saw the side of the house, which I am happy to report looks exactly the same as it did thirty years ago when filming took place.

The front of the home actually looks completely different than the side. The front of the house is a very cute, very typical South Pasadena style Craftsman home. The side of the house does not have any Craftsman features at all. It has more of a traditional American feel to it, so it was odd to see.

The next Halloween location I set out to stalk – the street where Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends walk home from school and Michael Meyes drives by in his station wagon – is also located in South Pasadena. The most recognizable part of the street where the girls walk is a large stone pillared half-wall located on a corner, which amazingly also looks EXACTLY the same thirty years later. Very cool!!! 🙂

Big THANKS to Mike from MovieShotsLA for the above screen captures! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jamie Lee Curtis’ house is located at 1115 Oxley Street, at the corner of Oxley Street and Fairview Avenue, in South Pasadena. The stone wall the girls walk by is located on the corner of Fairview Avenue and Highland Street, also in South Pasadena, just around the corner from Lady Heather’s house on CSI .

September 26, 2008February 11, 2009

Stalking In Pink

Got a challenge the other day from Niki all the way over in Greece to stalk some of the locations from her favorite 80s flick Pretty In Pink. I have to admit that before I got the challenge I had never actually seen the movie, so this week I made a special trip to Blockbuster to rent it. After watching it I was in shock that I had somehow missed seeing this movie during the 80s – Pretty In Pink is pretty much right up my alley and I have no idea why I had never watched it before this week. Better late than never, though, right? Anyway, thanks to Mike over at MovieShotsLA, who located all of the Pretty In Pink locations long ago, I was able to stalk one of the houses from the movie yesterday.

In Pretty In Pink, Molly Ringwald plays Andie, a girl who is literally from the wrong side of the tracks. In the movie, Andie’s tiny home is located directly next to a set of train tracks supposedly in the Chicago area. In reality, her home can be found just outside of L.A., in South Pasadena, right next to the Metro Gold Line tracks. Andie’s train tracks looks much the same today as they did back during the filming of the movie. I was actually pretty surprised to discover that the majority of the filming of Pretty In Pink took place in Los Angeles, as John Hughes usually prefers to film on location in Chicago.

Anyway, I was absolutely amazed to discover that Andie’s house also looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1985 when filming for Pretty In Pink took place. The only major difference I noticed is that there is now much more foliage located in front of the house than there was 23 years ago. Otherwise the home is exactly as it was portrayed onscreen. It is always amazing for me to stalk a location from a movie or television show that was filmed over two decades ago only to find that little to nothing has changed over the years. I’ve never been a big fan of change. : )

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Andie’s house is located at 1010 Hope Street in South Pasadena. Literally directly around the corner from Andie’s house is Michael Meyer’s house from the original Halloween movie.

November 27, 2007September 17, 2015

The “13 Going On 30” Houses

If someone asked me what movie most closely resembles my life, I would have to say 13 Going On 30. I am definitely a child of the 80s, I still dress like a 13 year old most of the time, and I’ve been known to do the Thriller Dance at a few parties, so it’s only natural that I would be slightly obsessed with the movie 13 Going On 30. While most of the filming locations for the movie are located in Manhattan, a few of them can be found right here in LA.

If you are as obsessed with 13 Going On 30 as I am, you’ll remember the scene in the movie when adult Jenna first shows up at Matt’s apartment and says “I don’t know if you’re him, but if you lived on Spruce Street and your favorite shirt is the grey velour one . . .” Well, Jenna and Matt’s houses really can be found on Spruce Street – only they are in South Pasadena, not New Jersey. Jenna’s house has been painted and looks a bit different, but you will recognize them immediately when you see them.

This location was extremely easy to find. I just happened to be getting my nails done one day in South Pasadena and the woman next to me was talking about how her home had been used in a Jennifer Garner movie. I almost flipped out when I heard it was 13 Going On 30 and I begged her to tell me all of the scoop about the filming. She told me that the producers also used the inside of her home – and they even used her real bed and bedding in the scene where Jenna crawls into bed with her parents. She was even nice enough to tell me where her house was and I went to find it just as soon as my nails were dry!

Another 13 Going On 30 location is located just a few blocks away at the intersection of Mission and Meridian at the train tracks. This is the spot where adult Jenna jumps out of Chris Grandy’s taxi cab and rushes to stop Matt’s wedding. This location was easy to figure out – I recognized it the first time I saw the movie.

Me hoping over the center divide like Jenna does in the movie! 🙂

If you turn directly around from this location and look behind you, you will see another filming location – Michael Meyer’s house from the original Halloween movie. The home has definitely been given a face lift and is not nearly as run down as it was back in Michael Meyer’s day, but it is still definitely recognizable.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jenna’s and Matt’s houses are located at 1837 and 1839 Spruce Street, respectively. Spruce Street is just one street north of Huntington Drive in South Pasadena. Once you’ve stalked those houses, just drive north to Mission Street, turn left and drive to Meridian to see the intersection where Jenna ditches Chris Grandy. The Halloween house is located at 1000 Mission Street. After you’re done stalking, grab a coffee or a Fosselman’s ice cream at Buster’s Ice Cream Shop at 1006 Mission St. – all that stalking does work up an appetite!