Luke Perry filming locations

March 26, 2013March 26, 2013

The Apple Pan from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

While the Grim Cheaper and I were out and about doing some stalking in the West L.A. area two weekends ago, we happened to pass by The Apple Pan, the exterior of which masqueraded as the original Peach Pit on fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. Finding ourselves both hungry, we decided to pop in for a bite to eat, which turned out to be quite the magical experience for this stalker, let me tell you! So, even though I have stalked and blogged about The Apple Pan once before – very, very briefly, way back in May 2008 (you can read that post here) – because it was such a short write-up and because I did not venture inside during that particular visit, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a re-hash.

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The Apple Pan was first established by Alan and Ellen Baker on April 11th, 1947 and, amazingly enough, still currently stands in the exact same spot that it did on that opening day. Even more astounding is the fact that the eatery is still owned and operated by the Baker family over six decades later! Alan and Ellen made the fortuitous decision to purchase the land on which The Apple Pan now stands (long before they ever built the restaurant, in fact), and, thankfully, despite countless – and very large – offers from developers to sell, held onto it, which is a big part of how it has managed to survive for so long.

Nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, about the eatery has been altered since its inception – not the menu (which consists of age-old family recipes), not the seating, not the décor, not even the employees, most of whom have worked there for well over thirty years! Such a refreshing thing to see in a city where change seems to be the norm.

The Apple Pan menu, which you can take a look at here, consists of a scant 11 items – two burgers (the Steakburger and the Hickoryburger), five sandwiches [Southern Baked Ham, Swiss Cheese, Combination (a ham and cheese combo), Tuna Salad, and Egg Salad], three pies (Pecan Pie, Fresh Apple Pie and Cream Pie), and French Fries, which are simply uh-ma-zing! According to a 2007 Los Angeles Times article, of the stalwart menu, owner Martha Gamble (Alan and Ellen’s daughter) said, “My dad was a perfectionist. He tried recipes out at home until it was the way he wanted it.” Alan is my kinda guy – why mess with something that is obviously working? There are also a few “secret” menu items available to those in the know, including Grilled Cheese, Tuna Melts, and Pickled Peppers.

I opted for the Steakburger with cheese and, even though I am not AT ALL a meat person, absolutely LOVED it. As you can see below, The Apple Pan serves its burgers standing up and wrapped in paper, utilizing much the same method as Johnny Rockets restaurants. Apparently, Johnny Rockets founder Ronn Teitelbaum used the The Apple Pan as the model for his popular diner chain. There are other similarities, as well, including the use of small cardboard plates to serve French Fries and ketchup, as you can see above.

The Apple Pan serves its sodas (Coca-Cola, Root Beer, Orange, and Dr Pepper) in paper cones that sit inside of stainless steel cup-holders, which apparently used to be commonplace back in the 1940s. This stalker had never seen anything like it before, though, and thought it was so incredibly cool!

The tiny, 26-stool, Zagat-rated eatery is so immensely popular that it is pretty much standing-room only every single day of the week (except for Monday, when it is closed). Even celebs have been known to frequent the place. Such stars as the Jonas Brothers, Tori Amos, Michael Kors, Emma Stone, Rob Lowe, Rob Reiner, Rodney Dangerfield, Sammy Davis Jr., Joel Siegel, Lee Iacocca, and Magic Johnson have all been spotted there at one time or another. Drew Barrymore and then fiancé/now husband Will Kopelman even ate Valentine’s Day dinner there in 2012. Of the eatery, Drew told the JustJared website, “It’s an institution basically and you HAVE to try it. You’ll love it.”

The exterior of the Apple Pan showed up only twice on Beverly Hills, 90210. It first appeared at the very end of the Season 1 episode titled “Every Dream Has Its Price (Tag)”, in the scene in which Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) took Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) out for a piece of “the best pie in L.A.”

It then showed up again in the episode titled “One on One”, in the scene in which Brandon stopped by his workplace to ask Nat Bussichio (Joe E. Tata) for his paycheck and, while waiting, ran into James Townsend (Tico Wells), his rival for a spot on the West Beverly High basketball team. Ironically, in the scene’s establishing shot of The Peach Pit, The Apple Pan sign was visible, as you can see below! LOL Oddly enough, in the very next episode, which was titled “Higher Education”, The Apple Pan had been replaced with a different exterior – one at 1027 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, which I blogged about here. That location was used throughout the end of Season 1, until it, too, was replaced by a third exterior in the Season 2 episode titled “Pass, Not Pass.” That third and final exterior, which I blogged about here, can be found at 45 South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena.

While I knew (thanks to Darren Star’s DVD commentary for the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Spring Dance”) that The Apple Pan had served as the model for The Peach Pit’s interior set, I was not at all prepared for how closely the real life restaurant would resemble its onscreen counterpart. When I walked through The Apple Pan’s front doors, I honestly felt like I had stepped right inside The Pit! For a die-hard 90210 fan like myself, the experience was nothing short of exhilarating! Not only is The Apple Pan set up exactly like The Peach Pit, with a small U-shaped counter surrounding an open kitchen . . .

. . . but, as you can see below, the doors and windows are also an exact match.

As is the wood wall paneling . . .

. . . and the vintage cash register! Love it, love it, love it!

In a 2008 interview with the Zap2It website, Jason Priestley mentioned The Apple Pan, saying, “That’s what the Peach Pit was modeled after. If you watch the early episodes of 90210, the Peach Pit is laid out almost exactly like The Apple Pan. Whenever I’d have dinner with Charles Rosin, the show runner, we’d go there. “ He also calls the burgers “amazing.” Smile

The Apple Pan was also featured in THREE different Huell Howser specials over the years – one in 1992, one in 1996, and one in 2009.

You can watch one of those specials by clicking below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Apple Pan, aka The Peach Pit from Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 10801 West Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

February 14, 2013February 15, 2013

Tom Rose’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper surprised me with tickets for the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert annual Discovery Home Tour as a sort-of Welcome-to-Palm-Springs gift. The tour was an experience, to say the least. I honestly cannot remember the last time the GC and I laughed so hard – and for so long. I was “live texting” fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, throughout the day and at one point, after describing a house that had a microwave, mini-fridge, espresso machine, and pantry set up in multiple bathrooms directly across from toilets
(I’m not making this up – residents of that particular abode could literally be sitting on the toilet and making espresso at the same time!), he asked, “What f*cking desert have you moved to? The Sahara?” I have tears in my eyes right now going back through all of the texts from that day. Ah, good times! Anyway, while driving through the Las Palmas neighborhood mid-tour, I mentioned to the GC that I had yet to stalk the Palm Springs residence that Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) visited in the Season 5 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “P.S. I Love You.” I remembered that fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, had the address posted on his site, so I pulled over to look it up. As fate would have it, I actually pulled over directly across the street from the home! I mean, what are the odds of that? So I jumped out of the car and quickly snapped a few pics.

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In real life, the residence, which was originally built in 1983 and sits perched above Patencio Road, boasts seven bedrooms, seven baths, 6,989 square feet of living space, and a 0.73-acre plot of land. The ginormous property was last sold in December 1986 for $3,428,000.

According to a September 2010 Palm Springs Life article, the dwelling belongs to none other than Barbra Streisand and James Brolin, although I was unable to verify that claim through property records or other sources.

The article also states that the residence boasts a “guest mansion”, which, from looking at aerial views, can only be the structure denoted below. It was also built in 1983 and features five bedrooms, six baths, 6,948 square feet, and a 0.9-acre plot of land. Some guest mansion! That place is bigger than most houses!

In the “P.S. I Love You” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Dylan and Charley Rawlins (Jeffrey King) head to Palm Springs to meet with a possible investor for their movie. That investor, Tom Rose (James Handy), turns out to be a mobster and, as you can see below, things don’t go quite according to plan. Gotta love the later years of 90210!

Before Dylan winds up hanging off of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, though, he meets with Tom Rose at the mobster’s desert mansion. As you can see below, the home’s front gate looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. (A HUGE thank you to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making screen captures of Tom’s house for me. I do not own Season 5 of 90210 on DVD, but presumed that the episode would be available for download on iTunes or elsewhere online. Sadly, that was not the case. I could not find “P.S. I Love You” ANYWHERE! Because the vast majority of the episode took place in the Coachella Valley, I was really looking forward to watching it, too. Boo!)

The property’s intercom now looks completely different, though, and was either swapped out for the filming or has since been replaced.

In an odd twist, the house that appeared in the episode looks nothing at all like the actual house that stands behind that front gate. As you can see below, Tom Rose’s residence was Moroccan in style and featured a tall, domed tower . . .

. . . while the real life residence is modern in style and lacks any sort of a tower.

The home’s real life driveway does not match what appeared in the episode, either. While Tom Rose’s driveway opened up to the front of his residence, the actual driveway opens up to the side of the house. Tom’s driveway was also flanked by short stone walls . . .

. . . which are missing in real life. If I had to guess, I would say that, while it is possible that the residence has been vastly remodeled since the filming of 90210 in 1995, I think it is much more likely that a different house (most likely one in the Los Angeles area) was used for the scenes that took place behind the front gate. Don’t quote me on that, though – it is just a guess. If Barbra Streisand really does own the home, as Palm Springs Life states (and because it was last sold in 1986, that means she would have owned it at the time of the filming, as well) this scenario would make sense, as Babs does not strike me as the sort of person who would EVER allow a film crew inside of her residence.

The interior of the property that appeared in the episode is pictured below. And while I am certain that a real life interior was used in the filming and not a set, I am guessing that said interior is located elsewhere, most likely in Los Angeles.

Check out the boom microphone visible in the top of the screen capture below, which Mike pointed out to me.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the screen captures that appear in this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking – and a very happy Valentine’s Day to all of my fellow stalkers!

Stalk It: Tom Rose’s house from the “P.S. I Love You” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 555 North Patencio Road in Palm Springs.

July 17, 2012July 16, 2012

The Parking Lot Where Jack McKay was Killed on “Beverly Hills, 90210”

This past Saturday (which, as you can see above, was extremely overcast and cloudy – boo!), Mike, from MovieShotsLa, and I spent all day stalking in the Venice Beach/Marina Del Rey-area. After stopping by the Killer Café (aka the former Edie’s Diner from Enough and Dexter), which I will be blogging about soon, Mike pointed to the parking lot across the way and mentioned that it was where Jack McKay (Josh Taylor), father of Dylan McKay (Luke Perry – my high school love, sigh!), was killed by a car bomb in the Season 3 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Dead End”. Well, as you can imagine, I was completely bowled over at hearing this bit of information and asked Mike to take me right on over there to stalk the place.

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It’s funny, but even though I had only seen the “Dead End” episode once, way back in 1993 when it first aired, the parking lot where Jack McKay was killed was seared into my memory and, as soon as Mike pointed it out, I recognized the place at once and was immediately transported back to my high school days. It is amazing how some television shows and movies have that capability! I mean, I could literally almost feel the braces on my teeth! Smile

In “Dead End”, Jack, who has just been released from federal prison, moves into a humongous, borrowed yacht with his girlfriend, Christine Pettit (Valerie Wildman), and Dylan. In the episode, the vessel was docked at the very end of Berth E2500 in Marina Del Rey.

One rainy morning, shortly after moving in together and mending their relationship, Dylan goes to move his father’s car from the marina parking lot. In the scene, he walks out of the gate marked “E2500, 2700, 2900”.

As fate would have it, just as Dylan is about to unlock the car door, Jack calls out to him to inform him that Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) is on the phone. (And I just have to say here that while scanning through “Dead End” to make screen captures for today’s post, I got seriously fed up with Kelly’s incessant baby-talk! Blech! I realize that this goes without saying, but Team Brenda all the way! Smile ) Jack then runs up the dock to give Dylan the phone and tells him that he will move the car because, “Well, hey, what are dads for, huh?”

While Dylan is talking to Kelly, Jack’s car blows up, killing him (or so producers would have us believe) and forever altering Dylan’s life.

And I, of course, just had to imitate Dylan’s reaction to the explosion while I was there. (For some reason, I thought he had his arms out during the scene.)

The very same parking lot was also the spot where Dylan got rid of his gun – and let go of his anger over his father’s murder – with his girlfriend, Antonia “Toni” Marchette (Rebecca Gayheart), standing by his side in the Season 6 episode titled “Gypsies, Cramps and Fleas (a.k.a. Halloween VI)”.

The parking lot was also used in the Season 2 episode of Dexter titled “An Inconvenient Lie”, as Gulf Shore Motors, the used car dealership where murderer Roger Hicks (Don McManus) worked and where Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) stalked him.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And don’t forget to take a look at my latest post – about my no-carb diet – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for showing me this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The parking lot where Dylan McKay’s father was killed in the “Dead End” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is Public Parking Lot # 9 located at 14110 Palawan Way in Marina Del Rey. In the above map, the location of Jack’s boat is denoted with an orange arrow; the gate Dylan and his father walked out of (for berth E2500, 2700, 2900) is marked with a blue arrow; the spot where Jack’s car was parked is designated with a pink arrow; the area where Dylan was standing when the bomb exploded is denoted with a yellow “X”; and finally, the used car lot from the “An Inconvenient Lie” episode of Dexter is stamped with a green circle.

October 13, 2011September 29, 2017

Palace Costume – The Halloween Costume Shop from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for close to two decades now is the costume shop that was featured in the Season 2 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Halloween”. Not only was that episode one of my most beloved of the entire series, but, as has been made blatantly apparent by now, Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and I was positively DYING to wander through the very same clothing racks that the 90210 gang had wandered through. So when fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, tracked the place down a while back, I just about died of excitement and immediately added it to my Haunted-Hollywood-To-Stalk list. Being that the store’s actual name – Palace Costume Company – had been visibly displayed in the episode, I am highly embarrassed that I was not able to find the place myself. I mean honestly, what kind of a stalker am I? Winking smile Anyway, I finally dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the store two weekends ago and, as you can imagine, I could NOT have been more excited!

Palace Costume, which was originally a vintage clothing retailer, was founded in the 1960s by a woman named Melody Barnett in a storefront on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. The shop was the very first vintage clothing store to be located on Melrose, a street that is now rife with thrift emporiums and vintage boutiques. In 1970, Palace Costume moved to a 2,000-square-foot space on Fairfax Avenue and began exclusively renting out authentic vintage clothing to film and production crews. According to this October 1998 Los Angeles Business Journal article, Barnett has become so successful in the entertainment industry that she has had to add about 1,000 square feet of space to her store every single year due to her rapidly growing collection. Today, her 36,000-square-foot emporium houses over half a million different pieces, making it one of the largest vintage clothing collections in the entire country. Melody’s costumes have appeared in thousands upon thousands of productions, including Titanic, Chinatown, A Beautiful Mind, Blow, Frida, Pleasantville, Boogie Nights, Evita, Forrest Gump, What’s Love Got to Do with It, and all three Austin Powers movies. In 1998, Barnett had a wooden and stucco façade constructed around her store for security reasons, so the place looks quite a bit different today than it did onscreen on 90210.

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In the “Halloween” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), and the rest of the 90210 gang head out to what they call “Hollywood Costume” to pick out some costumes for a Halloween party they are attending that night. As I mentioned above, the name “Palace Costume Co.” is blatantly visible on the storefront in the scene. Yes, I am a blonde! Winking smile

It is while there that Brenda and Dylan find their amazeballs Bonnie and Clyde costumes. It has ALWAYS been my dream to dress up as Brenda and Dylan dressed up as Bonnie and Clyde for Halloween, but somehow I do not think the GC would go for that. Although this year we are dressing up 90210-style, but I am saving that information for a future post! Winking smile

Sadly, Palace Costume is not open to the public, but is only open to industry professionals. Words cannot express how heartbroken I was when we arrived and saw the “not open to the public” sign on the front door. I was literally almost in tears (OK, not really, but I was pretty bummed) as I had so badly wanted to peruse through the countless racks of period clothing like Brenda and Donna had done on 90210. And I had also wanted to verify if the episode had actually been filmed inside of the store or at a different location.

Because I hate making phone calls (I know, I know – I am weird!), I enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA (who is doing his own Halloween locations theme this month), to call Palace Costume and ask Melody if any 90210 filming had been done inside of the store. She confirmed that indeed it had. And if you look at the above screen capture from the episode and compare it to the photograph of the inside of Palace Costume, which I got off of the company’s website, you can see that the light fixtures and ceiling do, in fact, match. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to go inside of that place! I am a member of SAG, doesn’t that count for anything?? Winking smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Palace Costume, from the “Halloween” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 835 North Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. You can visit the store’s official website here. Palace Costume is sadly not open to the public, but is only open to members of the entertainment industry.