The “She’s Out of Control” House – Part 2

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060121-2

One of my favorite parts of writing my blog each day is uncovering the various productions a particular locale has appeared in.  Some spots are so prevalent on the big and small screen that I inevitably miss a role or two, though.  Such was the case with the South Pasadena pad that portrayed the home of the Simpson family in the 1989 coming-of-age comedy She’s Out of Control, one of my very favorite flicks of the era.  A couple of months after publishing my post on the property in 2011, I spotted it in Bruce Almighty (as I mentioned here).  Then this past December, fellow stalker David, from The Location Scout, published a comment on my site alerting me to the fact that the dwelling had also been featured in Star Kid.  When Mike, from MovieShotsLA, texted me not more than two days later to inform me that he had also noticed the place pop up in Little Fockers, I just about fell over and decided it was definitely time for a redux!  So here goes!

[ad]

Considering the home’s vast Anywhere, U.S.A.-aesthetic and obvious curb appeal, it is not hard to see why location managers have flocked to it like moths to a flame.

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060125

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060126

Per Zillow, the 2-story 1908 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 1 bath, 2,800 square feet of living space, and a 0.17-acre lot.

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060127

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060122

The picturesque property last sold in 1979 for $140,000 and today is worth an estimated $1.6 million, according to Redfin.  Not a bad ROI, especially considering all the film income the place has generated over the years!

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060123

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060131

   In She’s Out of Control, the residence is where newly-made-over teen Katie Simpson (Ami Dolenz) lives with her long-suffering father, Doug (Tony Danza), and smart aleck younger sister, Bonnie (Laura Mooney).

Screenshot-006861

Screenshot-006899

Amazingly, the property still looks exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed almost thirty years ago.  Talk about being frozen in time!  I mean, the trees don’t even appear to have grown in the past three decades!

Screenshot-006860

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060120

  Only the exterior of the residence was utilized in She’s Out of Control.  The interior of the Simpson home was nothing more than a studio-built set.

Screenshot-006864

Screenshot-006867

I cannot even express what a shame it is that Katie’s famous staircase doesn’t exist in real life.  If it did and I lived in that house, I’d so have Frankie Avalon’s “Venus” playing on loop!  The dwelling’s actual staircase is much less impressive than its onscreen counterpart, sadly, and leads both upstairs and into the kitchen, oddly enough.  Regardless, the residence is quite charming inside.  You can check out some photographs of it here.

e397bd6fb886d564ffffbe8baeaebc47--ami-swans-2

The backyard area also appears briefly in She’s Out of Control.

Screenshot-006862

Screenshot-006863

In the 1997 family flick Star Kid, the abode portrays the Griffith family residence, where Spencer (Joseph Mazzello) lives with his father, Roland (Richard Gilliland), and sister, Stacey (Ashlee Levitch).

Screenshot-006872

Screenshot-006875

Though interiors were filmed on a set, said set very closely resembled the actual inside of the house.

Screenshot-006873

Screenshot-006874

The pad also masquerades as the supposed Buffalo, New York-area home belonging to Debbie (Lisa Ann Walter), Grace Connelly’s (Jennifer Aniston) sister, in the 2003 comedy Bruce Almighty.

Screenshot-006870

Screenshot-006871

I absolutely love this candid shot of Jennifer Aniston and director Tom Shadyac taken out in front of the house during the shoot.

As I mentioned in my original 2011 post, the property serves as the Doyle residence, where Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) babysits Tommy Doyle (Skyler Gisondo), in Rob Zombie’s 2007 horror flick Halloween.

Screenshot-006876

Screenshot-006881

In the 2010 comedy Little Fockers, the dwelling masks as the Chicago-area “American foursquare” (“also known as a prairie box”) that Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and his wife, Pam (Teri Polo), are renovating.

Screenshot-006884

Screenshot-006885

  The backyard area, which is undergoing a massive pool installation in the film, also makes an appearance.

Screenshot-006886

Screenshot-006889

And Izzy Richardson (Megan Stott) and April Jarvis (Isabel Gravitt) attend a party at the house in the recently-aired episode of Little Fires Everywhere titled “Picture Perfect,” though the exterior is only seen briefly.

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

Big THANK YOU to David, from The Location Scout website, for telling me about the home’s appearance in Star Kid and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for alerting me to its role in Little FockersSmile

The Simpson House from She's Out of Control-1060121

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Simpson house from She’s Out of Control is located at 1960 La France Avenue in South Pasadena.

Bob’s Big Boy Broiler in Downey from “License to Drive”

P1000401

Hold onto your hats, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one!  Another Bob’s Big Boy location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked recently was the legendary Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, aka Johnie’s Broiler, located on Firestone Boulevard in Downey.  I had been longing to stalk the historic restaurant ever since 1988 when it stood in for Archie’s Atomic Drive-In in fave movie License to Drive.  Sadly though, shortly after I moved to Southern California ten years ago, the eatery shuttered it doors and was then later partially – and illegally – demolished.  It was not until this past year that the place re-opened and I was finally, finally able to drag the GC out there to see it in person.

P1000406 P1000402

P1000399 P1000403

Johnie’s Broiler was first founded in 1958 by former Clock-Broiler-restaurant-chain-partner Harvey Ortner and his wife, Minnie.  In 1950, the couple purchased a poultry farm located at the corner of Firestone Boulevard and Old River School Road in Downtown Downey and hired architect Paul B. Clayton to design a Googie-style coffee shop on the 2-acre site.  According to Clayton’s 2005 obituary in the Los Angeles Times, the architect later called the restaurant “the most important commercial design of his entire career”.  Harvey’s Broiler, as it was then-named, was an immediate success, sometimes attracting over 5,000 patrons in a single weekend.  Much as it was depicted in License to Drive, the spot was a popular high school hang-out where teens would come to grab a bite to eat and show off their cars.  In 1965, the Ortners retired and sold their restaurant to a man with the last name of Johnson.  He changed the eatery’s moniker to Johnie’s Broiler.  Shortly thereafter, a former Harvey’s chef named Christos Smyrniotis purchased the property.  He still owns the restaurant to this day.   And while it continued to be successful, especially as a filming location, for whatever reason Johnie’s closed its doors in February of 2002.  It was then transformed into a used car dealership and the interior was heavily remodeled to suit the needs of its new tenant.

P1000409 P1000415

P1000416 P1000420

When the car dealership’s lease expired a few years later, a new tenant named Aras Yanik moved in.  Yanik immediately filed demolition permits with the City of Downey, but those permits were rejected.  Local residents and area preservations were horrified at Yanik’s plans to level the historic site and quickly took action, having the property declared eligible for the California Register of Historical Places, which protected it, in theory at least, from any alterations.  But despite the historical status and the city’s rejection of the demolition permits, at approximately 3 p.m. on the afternoon of Sunday, January 7th, 2007, Yanik illegally began to demolish the restaurant.  Police were called in and Yanik was slapped with three misdemeanor charges and his lease on the property was revoked.  Sadly though, the damage was done.  The beloved coffee shop had been almost entirely destroyed.

You can watch a video which features numerous photographs of the destruction by clicking above.

P1000376 P1000379

P1000395 P1000396

P1000380 P1000388

In April 2008, Bob’s Big Boy franchise owner Jim Louder signed a lease with Smyrniotis and, along with help from Downey’s Redevelopment Agency and the Downey Historical Society, set about salvaging materials from the wreckage site and rebuilt the eatery in its entirety, using the original Harvey’s blueprints.  The restoration project won the Los Angeles Conservancy’s prestigious President’s Award and the new Bob’s Big Boy Broiler opened to much fanfare on October 19, 2009.

[ad]

ScreenShot1111 ScreenShot1107

ScreenShot1110 ScreenShot1109

Johnie’s Broiler has been featured in countless productions over the years, many more so than I could ever dream of chronicling here.  But I will do my best to try.  In License to Drive, Les Anderson (aka Corey Haim) and his buddies, Dean (aka Corey Feldman) and Charles (aka Michael Manasseri), get into a scuffle with some punks while dining at the fictional high school hangout “Archie’s Atomic Drive-In”.

ScreenShot1097 ScreenShot1098

ScreenShot1100 ScreenShot1099

In 1988’s My Stepmother Is an Alien, Johnie’s is where Celeste Martin (aka Kim Basinger) goes to find breakfast recipes.

ScreenShot1000 ScreenShot1002

ScreenShot1003 ScreenShot1004

In 1989’s She’s Out of Control, Doug Simpson (aka Tony Danza) takes his daughter Katie (aka Ami Dolenz) and her boyfriend Joey (aka Dana Ashbrook) to Johnie’s for a bite to eat.

ScreenShot1127 ScreenShot1128

In 1989’s Earth Girls Are Easy, Valerie (aka Geena Davis), Candy (aka Julie Brown) and their new alien friends, Mac (aka Jeff Goldblum), Wiploc (aka Jim Carrey), and Zeebo (aka Damon Wayans), drive by Johnie’s Broiler in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene.

ScreenShot1019 ScreenShot1020

ScreenShot1023 ScreenShot1022

In 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do with It, Johnie’s is where Ike Turner (aka Laurence Fishburne) and Tina Turner (aka Angela Bassett) get into a fist-fight.

ScreenShot1073 ScreenShot1076

ScreenShot1079 ScreenShot1081

In 1993’s Short Cuts, Johnie’s is the restaurant where Doreen Piggot (aka Lily Tomlin) works.

ScreenShot1083 ScreenShot1086

ScreenShot1087 ScreenShot1088

Johnie’s shows up twice in the 1994 comedy Reality Bites.  It first appears as the spot where Lelaina Pierce (aka Winona Ryder) runs into Troy Dyer (aka Ethan Hawke) after her disastrous job interview during which she is unable to define the word “irony”.

ScreenShot1090 ScreenShot1096

ScreenShot1094 ScreenShot1095

It later pops up in my very favorite scene in the entire movie as the restaurant where Lelaina and Vickie Miner (aka Janeane Garogalo) discuss the television series Melrose Place.

ScreenShot1014 ScreenShot1017

ScreenShot1015 ScreenShot1016

In 1995’s Heat, Johnie’s Broiler is where Neil McCauley (aka Robert De Niro) tries to kill one of his crew members, Waingro (aka Kevin Gage).

ScreenShot1009 ScreenShot1010

ScreenShot1011 ScreenShot1013

In 1997’s The Game, a destitute Nicholas Van Orton (aka Michael Douglas) stumbles into Johnie’s to ask patrons for a ride to San Francisco.

ScreenShot1025 ScreenShot1026

ScreenShot1027 ScreenShot1030

In 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait, Johnie’s is where Preston Meyers (aka Ethan Embry) meets The Angel (aka Jenna Elfman) while trying to call Barry Manilow on a payphone.

ScreenShot1057 ScreenShot1058

ScreenShot1064 ScreenShot1063

In the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “Orison”, which aired in 1999, Johnie’s stood in for a supposed-bus stop/coffee shop in Harrisburg, Illinois where Fox Mulder (aka David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (aka Gillian Anderson) search for a murder suspect.

ScreenShot1069 ScreenShot1072

ScreenShot1070 ScreenShot1071

In the 1999 movie Jawbreaker, Johnie’s is where Courtney (aka Rose McGowan), Julie (aka Rebecca Gayheart), and Marcie (aka a pre-Dexter Julie Benz) discover that they have accidentally killed their friend.

ScreenShot1104 ScreenShot1106

ScreenShot1101 ScreenShot1102

In my favorite scene from 2000’s Bounce, the diner was where Abby Janello (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) removed toilet paper off of the shoe of an unknowing woman.

ScreenShot1033 ScreenShot1034

ScreenShot1036 ScreenShot1037

Supposedly the restaurant also appeared in Mission: Impossible II, but I scanned through the movie earlier today and did not see it anywhere.  It did however appear in Limp Bizkit’s 2000 video for the song “Take A Look Around”, which was featured on the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

ScreenShot1119 ScreenShot1121

ScreenShot1124 ScreenShot1120

Johnie’s was also used in the 2000 music video for the Bob Dylan song “Things Have Changed”.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

ScreenShot1038 ScreenShot1039

ScreenShot1041 ScreenShot1043

Johnie’s was also used extensively in the music video for the 2001 Staind song “For You”.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

ScreenShot1051 ScreenShot1049

ScreenShot1047 ScreenShot1050

It also popped up in the 2001 Kurupt “It’s Over” music video.

ScreenShot1044

A cartoon rendering of the restaurant was even made for that video . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

ScreenShot1065 ScreenShot1066

ScreenShot1067 ScreenShot1068

The diner was featured in the 2001 music video for Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For a Girl”.

Which you can watch by clicking above.

ScreenShot1112 ScreenShot1113

ScreenShot1115 ScreenShot1117

It was also used in Knoc-turn’al’s “The Knoc” music video in 2002.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

ScreenShot1005 ScreenShot1006

ScreenShot1007 ScreenShot1008

In the ultra-creepy 2002 movie One Hour Photo, Johnie’s is the coffee shop where Seymour Parrish (aka Robin Williams) ate a late-night dinner after getting off work at the local photo lab.

ScreenShot1052 ScreenShot1053

ScreenShot1054 ScreenShot1056

Most recently, Bob’s Big Boy Broiler appeared in the Season 4 episode of Mad Men titled “Tomorrowland”, in the scene in which Sally Draper (aka Kiernan Shipka) spills a milkshake and her father, Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm), is shocked to discover that his girlfriend, Megan Calvet (aka Jessica Pare), is not upset by it.

P1000381 P1000383

P1000382 P1000392

That scene was shot in a booth located in Johnie’s side room, which was the same room that appeared in the Melrose Place scene in Reality Bites.

P1000412 P1000413

There is quite a bit of erroneous information out there about Johnie’s Broiler’s filming history.  For instance, the 2003 flick Matchstick Men was not filmed at Johnie’s, but at KJ’s Diner & Restaurant near LAX; 1998’s American History X was not filmed at Johnie’s in Downey, but at the Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile District of L.A.; 1980’s Midnight Madness was also shot at Johnie’s Wilshire, not at the Broiler; as was the Sean Kingston video for the song “Beautiful Girls”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the face of About Me!  Today is the VERY LAST day to vote, so please get those votes in!   Smile

Stalk It: Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, aka Johnie’s Broiler, aka Archie’s Atomic Drive-In from License to Drive, is located at 7447 Firestone Boulevard in Downey.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

The “She’s Out of Control” House

P1060133

Last week I enlisted fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, to help me find locations from the 1989 teen comedy She’s Out of Control. Now I should mention here that while I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED She’s Out of Control growing up, according to the movie’s IMDB trivia page film critic Gene Siskel detested it so much that he actually considered quitting his job after viewing it! LOL In truth, the flick is one of my very favorite 80s movies of all time, so how Gene could hate it that much is absolutely beyond me!

Dustin Diamond - She's Out of Control

I mean, how can you go wrong with a movie that features performances by both a very young Dustin Diamond (aka Screech from Saved by the Bell!) . . .

ScreenShot019

. . . AND Mr. Chandler Bing himself, Matthew Perry?!? Sheesh! I don’t even want to know what choice words Gene would have for that other favorite 80s movie of mine Girls Just Want To Have Fun!

[ad]

ScreenShot007 ScreenShot016

ScreenShot009 ScreenShot011

Anyway, Chas being the great guy that he is immediately added the DVD to his Netflix queue (even though it is unequivocally a chick flick) and it arrived in his mailbox just a few days later. He watched the movie shortly after receiving it and, amazingly enough, somehow managed to track down the house belonging to the Simpson Family – Doug (aka Tony Danza), Katie (aka Ami Dolenz), and Bonnie (aka Laura Mooney) – that very same night! The abode was, of course, the location that I was most interested in stalking, so I could not have been more excited when he gave me the news and I ran right out to stalk the place the very next morning. Yay!

P1060121 P1060126

P1060127 P1060122

I had fallen in love with the Simpson house the first time I watched She’s Out of Control over two decades ago and I am very happy to report that it is just as cute and charming in person as it appeared to be onscreen.

ScreenShot010 ScreenShot008

And while I had originally thought that the real life interior of the residence was used in the movie, that does not actually seem to be the case. I happened to find these interior photographs of the house online and, as you can see in the above screen captures as compared with this interior image as well as this one, the stairwell which appeared onscreen does not match that of the actual house.

ScreenShot012 ScreenShot020

The real life kitchen and living room areas also do not seem to match their onscreen counterparts.

ScreenShot001 ScreenShot004

While doing some internet research on the property yesterday morning, I was shocked to discover that the very same dwelling also popped up as the residence where Laurie Strode (aka Scout Taylor-Compton) babysat Tommy Doyle (aka Skyler Gisondo) in the 2007 Rob-Zombie-directed remake of the horror film Halloween.

P1060120

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location! Smile You can check out Chas’ detailed She’s Out of Control filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Simpson house from She’s Out of Control is located at 1960 La France Avenue in South Pasadena. Here is a map link to that location.