The Piru United Methodist Church

Highway-126-Stalking-(66-of-248)

Before the Grim Cheaper and I embarked on our Heritage Valley stalking trip three weekends ago, I did some cyber-stalking of the area and came across this page on fellow stalker Gary’s Seeing Stars website which detailed the Piru United Methodist Church’s appearance in the Season 1 episode of True Blood titled “Sparks Fly Out”.  Now I have never seen even one episode of the vampire series, but while I was looking through the screen captures Gary had posted on his site, I realized that the very same church had also been featured in the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Farewell Letter”.  So, because I do love me some Desperate Housewives, I immediately added the place to my Piru Stalking List and dragged the GC right on over there while we were in the area.

Highway-126-Stalking-(69-of-248) Highway-126-Stalking-(68-of-248)

The Piru United Methodist Church, which was designed in the Carpenter-Gothic-style, was originally built in 1888 by David Caleb Cook, the man who founded the town of Piru.  When Cook first moved to the Santa Clara Valley in 1887, after migrating from Illinois due to health reasons, he purchased a 12,000-acre plot of land, which was then known as Rancho Temescal, and began to set up a community there.  In 1888, he built a railroad depot, a school, a fruit packing house, and the United Methodist Church.  Cook’s father had been a Methodist minister and Cook himself had made his fortune publishing religious books, so his faith was extremely important to him.   And while it does seem that the parish is still in operation today, it was sadly closed when we showed up to stalk it, so we were not able to venture inside.

Highway-126-Stalking-(70-of-248)

I did sure love the sign out front, though.  Winking smile

Highway-126-Stalking-(67-of-248) ScreenCap1726

And, amazingly enough, as you can see in the historic photograph pictured above, despite having a different steeple, the structure still looks almost exactly the same today as it did when it was first built over 123 years ago!

[ad]

ScreenCap1710 ScreenCap1709

ScreenCap1712 ScreenCap1711

Thanks to the church’s small-town, U.S.A.-feel, it is used quite regularly for filming.  In the Season 7 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Farewell Letter”, it stood in for the supposed-Las-Colinas, Texas-area parochial school where Gabrielle Solis (aka Eva Longoria) confronted her former teacher, Sister Marta (aka Jill Larson), for not believing her when she told her she was being abused as a child.  While there, Gabrielle also gave a few high school students this sage piece of advice, “Now girls, if it were up to me, I’d say avoid math and science.  They cause serious frown lines.”  When her husband, Carlos (aka Ricardo Chavira), suggests that she is just kidding, Gabrielle says, “No!  Young girls today need to know the dangers of long division.”  LOL

ScreenCap1713 ScreenCap1717

ScreenCap1719 ScreenCap1720

In the Season 1 episode of True Blood titled “Sparks Fly Out”, the United Methodist Church stood in for the supposed-Bon-Temps, Louisiana-area church where Bill Compton (aka Stephen Moyer) spoke to a group of Civil War enthusiasts, including Sookie Stackhouse (aka Anna Paquin) and Sam Merlotte (aka Sam Trammell), about his life as a vampire.

ScreenCap1721 ScreenCap1722

ScreenCap1724 ScreenCap1725

The church also popped up in the 2000 comedy Space Cowboys as the supposed-Oklahoma-City-area parish where Tank Sullivan (aka James Garner) was a minister.

ScreenCap1729 ScreenCap1730

ScreenCap1733 ScreenCap1736

In the Season 2 episode of Justified titled “The Spoil”, the church was the site of the town hall meeting during which the citizens of Harlan, Kentucky, including U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (aka Timothy Olyphant), discussed the pros and cons of allowing Black Pike Coal Company to mine in their area.

Big THANK YOU to Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, for finding this location!

Stalk It: The Piru United Methodist Church, from the “Farewell Letter”episode of Desperate Housewives, is located at 3875 Center Street in Piru.

Watching the Filming of “True Blood”

True Blood filming 1

Last Wednesday evening I got a text from the owner of POP Champagne & Dessert Bar – my very favorite restaurant and the spot where the Grim Cheaper and I held the rehearsal dinner for our wedding last August – alerting me to the fact that the hit HBO television series True Blood would be filming at his eatery the following evening beginning at 9 p.m.  He invited me to come down to watch and even though I’ve never seen even one episode of the vampire series, I was beyond excited!  I immediately called up Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and asked him to join me as True Blood is his very favorite show.  So, the next night at around 8 p.m. the two of us headed out to POP and were floored to see those ubiquitous yellow filming signs that I so love on the streets surrounding the restaurant.

[ad]

IMG_3364 IMG_3365

True Blood was actually first being shot inside of The Old Towne Pub, a bar that is located right next door to POP, and when filming wrapped there, the production was then set to move outside, to POP’s back entrance, which, oddly enough, was standing in for the front entrance to The Old Towne Pub.  Confused?  I was.  For whatever reason though, even though the two doors look very similar (POP’s back entrance is pictured above left and The Old Towne Pub’s entrance is pictured above right), producers had decided that POP’s back door suited their filming needs better than The Old Towne Pub’s actual entrance.  

IMG_3345

And even though only POP’s back door and the alleyway directly outside of it would be appearing in the episode and none of the restaurant’s actual interiors would be seen, the eatery was required to close its doors during the shoot.  So, I ,of course, just had to take a picture standing in front of the sign announcing that POP would be closing early that evening.  Love it!

IMG_0512 IMG_0525

According to one of the crew members that we spoke with, the Old Towne Pub and POP Champagne Bar were being used for a flashback scene that was taking place in a punk bar in 1980’s London.  The courtyard outside of the two bars and the alleyway were dressed to look like 1980’s London for the shoot and there were several British cars parked there, which was very cool to see. 

IMG_0509 IMG_0510 

IMG_0561 IMG_0551

The sides of the alley were also packed to the brim with all sorts of filming equipment and props.

IMG_0537

According to one of the security guards that we spoke with, actors Stephen Moyer, who plays Bill Compton on the series, and Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie Stackhouse’s brother Jason, were in attendance that evening (at least I think that is what he said, but again I have never seen the show, so I cannot be positive of who was actually there).  Sadly though, we did not spot either of them.  We first watched the filming from a distance in the courtyard area behind the two bars, but we unfortunately could not see very much from there at all.  Then the owner of The Old Towne Pub, who had been standing with us, informed us that we should venture upstairs to the courtyard’s outdoor patio where we would have a much better vantage point.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, just as we made our way up to the second story patio, both Stephen and Ryan were wrapped for the night and walked off of the set.  Apparently they took photographs with several fans who were also watching the filming on their way out, too, so Mike and I majorly lost out!!!  While we were on the patio, we did get to watch a scene being filmed with some of the episode’s guest stars, though, which I was floored about.  Even though I do not watch the show, as you all know I LOVE to watch filming of any sort, so I was in absolute heaven.  And the crew truly (pun intended!) could NOT have been nicer, either.  The first crew member that we spoke with upon arriving at POP was actually a real a-hole and I was fearful that they all might be unfriendly towards us.  But, as it turned out, I really needn’t have worried as the rest of the crew was INCREDIBLY friendly and answered all of our questions about the filming and allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted.  YAY!  One of them even came up to me to chat about the jacket I was wearing as he had just bought the exact same jacket for his girlfriend for Christmas.  LOVE IT! 

IMG_3372 IMG_3374

IMG_3375 IMG_3376

The following evening, I dragged the GC out to stalk the The Old Towne Pub so that I could snap some picture of the restaurant’s interior where filming had taken place.  Our original plan was to grab a bite to eat there, but unfortunately the restaurant does not serve food and the two of us were absolutely starving, so we did not end up staying.  The server on duty was super nice, though, and let us take all of the photographs of the place that we wanted even though we were not actually eating there.  I definitely plan on re-stalking this location after the True Blood episode airs and doing a more in-depth post on it as an episode of the HBO series Hung was filmed there as was the 2000 movie Bedazzled.

True Blood Filming in Pasadena–1-12-2011

Mike took the above video on his iPhone of the two guest stars rehearsing the scene that we watched being filmed.  He also took all of the photographs which appear in this post, so, a big THANK YOU goes out to him for allowing me to share them all on my site.  THANK YOU, Mike, from MovieShotsLASmile 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

POP's back door

Stalk It: POP Champagne and Dessert Bar is located at 33 East Union Street in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website hereTrue Blood was filmed at POP’s back entrance on Aayes Alley, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view and which can be reached from East Holly Street.  The episode was also filmed inside of The Old Towne Pub, which is located at 66 North Fair Oaks Avenue, directly behind the Container Store, in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit that restaurant’s official website here.