sitcom houses – IAMNOTASTALKER

Considering the number of people who share this crazy hobby and the length of time we’ve all been at it, you’d think most ‘90s-era sitcom houses would have been found by now. So I was shocked to receive an email in mid-May from fellow stalker Chris (who tracked down the site of Michelle’s downhill derby from Full House, as well as Mary-Kate and Ashley’s home and Chateau Emanuel from The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley) asking if I knew the location of the supposed Oakland residence where Mark Cooper (Mark Curry) and his roommates lived on the popular TGIF series Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper. I didn’t but told him I’d be happy to assist in tracking it down. Well, it turns out Chris didn’t need my help! With no address number to guide him and no idea if the house was in Northern California, where the show was set, or Southern, where it was lensed, he somehow managed to ID it in record time! Just four days later, he wrote me back with its location – 514 El Centro Street in South Pasadena! So I headed right on over there while doing some socially-distant stalking shortly thereafter.

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In real life, the charming 1904 pad boasts 1,665 square feet (though it looks much larger from the street), 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 0.18-acre lot, and a large detached garage.

Though the City of South Pasadena Inventory of Historic Resources notes the place as being “Early Craftsman,” I consider it more Victorian in style.

Either way, it’s gorgeous.

The stained glass windows give the property a definite Bay Area feel, so it is no surprise that it wound up on Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper – especially considering Warner Bros. Studio, where the series was lensed, is just a short distance away.

Fate really stepped in during Chris’ hunt for the locale. As he explained the search to me, “I managed to find it by chance and in a very roundabout way. I had actually watched an episode of Smart Guy last night (as I’ve currently run out of Mr. Cooper episodes) and noticed how their house and driveway was slightly similar to Mr. Cooper’s and wondered whether it was perhaps in the same area, especially as producer Danny Kallis was connected to both shows. I then managed to find the original stock footage of the Smart Guy house and on one of the shots, I could see the numbers ‘521’. I then looked up a postal/parcel map of Los Angeles, typed in ‘521’ and worked my way through each address on Google Maps. The idea was that if I could find the Smart Guy house then maybe Mr. Cooper’s would be nearby. When I came to 521 El Centro Street on the list, I don’t know what it was, but there was something about the area that resembled Mr. Cooper’s neighborhood (possibly the little front walls and similar front steps). I also knew his house was on a wide road and so out of curiosity, I clicked on the Street View image of it. I then turned the camera to the right and as I did so, I spotted a house in the distance that looked like Mr. Cooper’s. I then went up the street a bit and to my amazement, found it at 514. Ironically, I never did find the Smart Guy house which I was hoping would lead me to it, yet still got the result I was hoping for regardless. It was also ironic that Mr. Cooper’s house turned out to be a 500 number too and had I not been searching for a 521 number, I probably wouldn’t have found it.” Hats off to you, Chris, for a job well done!

The property first popped up in Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper’s second episode (no house was featured in the pilot) and then went on to appear in establishing shots throughout the series’ five-season run.

The pad was almost always shown from an eastern-facing angle but, as you can see below, that viewpoint looks a bit different today thanks to a leafy tree growing in the front yard that largely hampers its visibility from the street.

Otherwise though, little of the Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper house has changed since its television stint 28 years ago!

Only the exterior of the residence was utilized on the show. Interiors were filmed on a set built inside Stage 9 at Warner Bros.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chris for finding this location!

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: Mark’s house from Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper is located at 514 El Centro Street in South Pasadena.

The Grim Cheaper and I watch a lot of TV. Like a lot. So I am always surprised when I receive an email from a reader asking about a location from a show I am not familiar with. Such was the case in January, when fellow stalker Marjorie reached out to ask for my assistance in tracking down the house where the Baxter family lives on Last Man Standing. Though I had never seen even one episode of the CBS series, I am always up for a good hunt, so I asked Marjorie to send me some screen captures of the residence. When she did, I was shocked to see that it was a virtual carbon copy of a home that has been featured on The Goldbergs numerous times – one that I will be blogging about soon. I had tracked down that pad – it’s at 2822 Forrester Drive in Cheviot Hills – just a few weeks prior and, due to the similarities, figured the Last Man Standing dwelling had to be located nearby. So I began poking around the area. After a few hours of futile searching, I decided to set my sights on Hancock Park and its environs instead, and hit pay dirt rather quickly.

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Said to be located at 9504 Dublin Street in downtown Denver on the series, the Baxter family home can actually be found at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square.

In real life, the 1923 Tudor boasts 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 4,680 square feet, a library, several fireplaces, a butler’s pantry, a formal dining room, a breakfast room, a detached garage, a covered patio, maid’s quarters, and a 0.33-acre lot.

Per real estate website Zillow, the two-story residence, which was designed by architect Preston Wright, last sold in October 2013 for $2.7 million.

As you can see, the property looks much the same in person as it does on Last Man Standing.

At some point, a flagpole with a brick base was added to the home’s front yard on the show.

The flagpole is not there in real life, though, and I am guessing it is not a set piece, but something that is superimposed digitally into each image of the house featured on the series.

The handsome brick pad appears regularly each week in establishing shots on Last Man Standing, though no actual filming takes place there.

The series is instead lensed on a set constructed on Stage 9 at CBS Studio Center in Studio City.

The set of the Baxter family’s home does not resemble the interior of the actual residence, which is much larger and much more grand. You can check out what the real inside of the property looks like here.

During my search for the Last Man Standing house, I came across a 2011 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin article that mentioned the series’ regular use of the Bass Pro Shops in Rancho Cucamonga. I was thrilled upon learning the news being that the massive sporting goods emporium is one of my dad’s favorite places in the entire world. I’m not kidding – when we lived in Pasadena and friends would visit from out of town, he would invariably drive them the 35 miles to Rancho Cucamonga to see Bass Pro. Not that I blame him. The 180,000-square-foot site, which boasts waterfalls, an 8,000-gallon fish tank, a shooting gallery, a 2-story lobby with a fireplace and a 60-foot clerestory, murals, museum-like dioramas, and a restaurant (yes, a restaurant!), is not your average sporting goods store. It’s pretty darn unique. You can check out some photos of it here. On Last Man Standing, Bass Pro, which is located at 7777 Victoria Gardens Lane, masks as Outdoor Man, where Baxter patriarch Mike (Tim Allen) works as a marketing director. Only the exterior of the shop is utilized on the series. The inside of Outdoor Man is a set that exists at CBS Studio Center and, unlike the Baxter house, it was closely modeled after Bass Pro’s real life interior. In an interesting twist, as the Daily Bulletin points out, a green truck is visible parked outside of the store in the establishing shots featured on the show. That truck is an actual décor fixture of Bass Pro. Producers must have liked the look of it because it somehow made its way on to Last Man Standing as Mike’s car. If you scroll up, you can see an identical green pick-up parked in the driveway in several establishing shots of the Baxter home.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Marjorie for asking me to find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Baxter residence from Last Man Standing is located at 611 Lorraine Boulevard in Windsor Square. Bass Pro Shops, aka Outdoor Man from the series, is located at 7777 Victoria Gardens Lane in Rancho Cucamonga.

Tag: sitcom houses

The “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper” House

The “Last Man Standing” House