One location that my good friend, fellow stalker Lavonna, asked me to track down eons ago was the shopping center that was featured in the Season 3 episode of fave show The Office titled “Women’s Appreciation”.  Because the series is taped in Van Nuys, I figured that the mall was located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, so whenever the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves in a shopping center in that area, I would wander around looking for the large circular water fountain that Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) had tried to climb into in order to retrieve a one-dollar bill.   Try as I might, though, I could not seem to find that fountain anywhere.  I had almost given up hope when, two weekends ago, the GC and I were doing a little shopping at the Westfield Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks and I spotted a water fountain just outside of Macy’s department store.  I snapped a quick photo of it on my phone so that I could compare it to the fountain that had appeared in the episode once I got home.  Ironically, as it turned out, the fountain I had taken a picture of did not, in fact, match, but, thinking that there might be more than one located inside of the mall, I did a quick search of “fountains” and “Westfield Fashion Square Mall” on Google and, sure enough, a photo of the correct fountain popped up.  I am ashamed to admit that not only was The Office fountain located about ten feet away from the one that I had taken a picture of, but we had actually walked right by it while shopping that day and somehow did not notice.  Doh!  So this past weekend I dragged the GC right on back out there (much to his chagrin – he HATES malls) so that I could finally stalk it.

In the “Women’s Appreciation” episode of The Office, Michael Scott takes the women of Dunder Mifflin – Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), Phyllis Vance (aka Phyllis Smith), Meredith Palmer (aka Kate Flannery), Kelly Kapoor (aka Mindy Kaling), Angela Martin (aka Angela Kinsey), and Karen Filippelli (aka Rashida Jones) – shopping at the supposed Steamtown Mall in order to show them that they are “appreciated” by the men in the office.  And while the exterior of the actual The Mall at Steamtown in Scranton, Pennsylvania was used for the establishing shot of the shopping center in the episode, the interior of Westfield Fashion Square Mall was used for all of the actual filming.

Many areas of Westfield Fashion Square Mall were used in the episode, including the food court, where Michael and the ladies ate lunch and where Michael confessed that he wanted to break up with longtime girlfriend Jan Levenson (aka Melora Hardin).

In the scene, the gang sat just outside of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf café;

in the area pictured above.

After lunch, Michael announces (however inappropriately) that he would like to buy each of the women a present of their choosing at Victoria’s Secret.

Some filming did take place inside of the actual Victoria’s Secret store and I very much wanted to venture inside to snap a few pics, but shops tend to get very antsy about photographs for some reason, so I did not even attempt it.  Back in October, when I was stalking the Macy’s at the Burbank Town Center Mall, which appeared in the “Redemption” episode of The Mentalist, a store employee actually tried to confiscate my camera!  Not kidding.  Because I was taking pictures inside of a store – pictures of an area that had been immortalized on a hit TV show for all of the world to see, mind you – she told me she was going to call security and attempted to take my camera out of my hands!  Um, OK.  Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  If you do not want photographs to be taken of your store, fine, no problem, but then do not put said store on national television!  Sigh.  I just really do not get people sometimes, but I digress. 

At the very end of the episode, Michael throws a coin into the mall’s fountain and makes a wish “for every woman in the world”.  Of his wishes, he says, “I wished for Jan to get over me.  I wished for Phyllis a plasma TV.  I wished for Pam to gain courage.  I wished for Angela a heart.  And for Kelly, a brain.”  LOL LOL LOL  Ah, Michael Scott, how we miss you!

And, let me tell you, seeing that fountain in person after so many hours of searching for it was the absolute highlight of the stalk for me!  Whoo hoo!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Westfield Fashion Square Mall, aka Steamtown Mall from the “Women’s Appreciation” episode of The Office, is located at 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks.  The water fountain that Michael Scott tried to climb into can be found just outside of The Disney Store on the mall’s first level.  The Victoria’s Secret store where the women shopped in the episode is located just a few doors down from The Disney Store, also on the mall’s first level.  The Food Court, where the women ate lunch, is located on the mall’s second level.  The gang sat just outside of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf café and Stone Oven restaurant.

Because fellow stalker Lavonna has been in town for the past few days and I have been doing some major stalking with her, today’s post is, unfortunately, going to be a short one.  Sorry about that folks, but I do promise to be back tomorrow with a regular-sized write-up.  And now, on with the post!  One location that has been on my “To-Stalk” list since way back in early February is Larry’s Chili Dog – a tiny Burbank-area hot dog stand that was featured in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “The Search”.  As I mentioned quite a few months back in my post about Kung Pao China Bistro, the Chinese food restaurant that was also featured in “The Search”, fellow stalker Owen tracked down every single location which appeared in the episode.  And because, as I have also mentioned previously, this stalker absolutely loves herself some hot dogs, I was especially excited to stalk Larry’s, but for whatever reason had just never made it out there.  So, a couple of weeks ago, when the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves ravenously hungry after a shopping expedition at the Burbank IKEA, I knew exactly where to head!

In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being left stranded at a local gas station sans wallet, money, and cell phone, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) decides to go on a “walkabout” through Downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania.   He first hits up a pet store and talks to a few random animals about love, before heading over to Larry’s Chili Dog where he orders a hot dog.  Because he has no means of paying, he tells the cashier that he will leave his “$45 watch” behind as a sort of marker, to which the cashier says, “We’re not a pawn shop.”  Michael tries to barter with the cashier further, but he is having none of it and Michael ends up yelling “You’ve just lost my business” before walking away empty-handed.  LOL  God, I love that show!  It has sadly gone downhill this season, but the reruns of the earlier episodes just never get old!

Larry’s Chili Dog looks much the same in person as it did on The Office and I am very happy to report that the owners truly could NOT have been nicer!  They let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming.

They also told me that Steve Carell was extremely nice and had posed for pictures with them during the filming.  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Because the owners were so incredibly nice, it seriously pains me to say that I did not enjoy my hot dog all that much.  It was of the snap-skin variety, which, for whatever reason, gives this stalker the major heebie-jeebies!  As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am an extremely picky eater.  The GC absolutely LOVED his hamburger, though, and the French fries and ranch dressing were both A-MA-ZING, so all in all our lunch was not a total loss.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Larry’s Chili Dog, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 3122 West Burbank Boulevard in Burbank.

Back in August, on the recommendation of my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. and I can honestly say that it was one of the best movies I have seen all year.  In fact, I might even go so far as to say that it was one of the best movies I have seen ever!  And while I have long thought that Ryan Gosling is one of the most gifted actors of our generation, he entered a whole new level in Crazy, Stupid, Love. and blew all of his past performances right out of the water!  The guy is simply phenomenal!  And can you say “heartthrob”?!  I also absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE me some Emma Stone and she, too, was nothing short of fabulous.  If you have yet to see the movie, I cannot more highly recommend doing so!  Like now!  Stop reading this post, in fact, and go right out and rent it!  Seriously!  Anyway, because I loved the flick so much, I could absolutely NOT wait for it to come out on DVD  – which it finally did last week – so that I could start tracking down some of its locations.  And one of the first that I found, thanks to a very helpful crew member, was the residence where the Weaver family lived.  So I ran right out to stalk it – Grim Cheaper in tow, of course – just a few days later.

In Crazy, Stupid, Love., recently-separated Emily Weaver (aka Julianne Moore) and her two children, Robbie (aka Jonah Bobo) and Molly (aka Joey King), live in the two-story Anywhere, U.S.A.-style house pictured above.

The backyard was the area of the property that actually appeared most often in the flick, most notably during Cal Weaver’s (aka Steve Carell’s) late-night gardening sessions.  According to the Crazy, Stupid, Love. production notes, of the residence, production designer William Arnold said, “We were really lucky to find that house, which had this beautiful back sun porch. The owners graciously let us tear down their old glass doors and put in windows and doors that opened the house up to the backyard, lending itself to Cal’s late-night ‘visits’ to his garden. He could see almost all the way through the house, but was, tellingly, on the outside looking in.”

The backyard also appeared in my very favorite scene from the movie, in which Cal’s surprise for Emily goes a bit haywire.  I will not say anymore than that, as I do not want to spoil the scene for those who have yet to see the movie – and if that is the case, then you really should not be reading this post!  You should be out renting Crazy, Stupid, Love. like I told you to before! 

The real life interior of the house was also used in the flick.  Amazingly, according to the production notes, almost all of Crazy, Stupid, Love. was filmed on location at actual sites.  Only two sets were constructed for use in the movie – Cal’s post-separation apartment and Plus, the bar where Jacob Palmer (aka Ryan Gosling) taught Cal the finer points of seducing women – which I found shocking!

In real life, the 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 2,270-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1949 and sits on over half an acre of land, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, except for the cement front walkway, which appears to have been swapped out for a stone one during the filming.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The Weaver residence from Crazy, Stupid, Love. is located at 2002 Minoru Drive in Altadena.

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while in the San Fernando Valley was the site of the former Black Angus Steakhouse in Panorama City which masqueraded as a supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Chili’s Grill & Bar in two different Season 2 episodes of fave show The Office.  I first found out about this location from fellow stalker/Office aficionado Snidley Whiplash who posted a comment about it on my site a little over a year and a half ago and, even though the structure was unfortunately torn down shortly after The Office episodes were filmed, I was absolutely dying to stalk the place.  For whatever reason, though, the GC and I just never made it out there.  Then, when I was randomly asked about the restaurant on three separate occasions over the past two weeks, I decided that I had best get a move on and stalk it, which I finally did two Sundays ago, shortly after grabbing lunch at Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant which I blogged about on Tuesday.

The Panorama City Black Angus Steakhouse was first featured in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “The Dundies” as the site of the Dunder Mifflin staff’s 2005 Dundie Awards ceremony.  The real life restaurant had shuttered its doors shortly prior to the filming, making it easy for the production staff to come in and dress it to look like an actual, working Chili’s.  In TV Guide’s Office Gossip blog about “The Dundies” episode, series stars/co-executive producer/writer B.J. Novak, said, “In the show, the awards ceremony takes place at a local Chili’s restaurant, which we thought would be fun and true to the show. We didn’t want to invent a fake, similar-sounding restaurant, like “Peppers,” or “T.G.I. Wednesday’s.” Since this is supposed to be a realistic show, about realistic offices, we thought setting [it in] a place like Chili’s would be refreshing. We got permission from Chili’s and spent weeks, with their help, reconstructing with painstaking detail a Chili’s restaurant in an empty abandoned building.”  The results of their efforts are pictured above.

Both the interior and the exterior of the former Black Angus appeared in the episode.

And it was there that Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), after consuming far too many margaritas, spontaneously kissed Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) for the very first time.  Sigh!  So cute!

A few weeks later, the very same former Black Angus masqueraded as the Chili’s where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson (aka Melora Hardin) took prospective Dunder Mifflin customer Christian (aka Tim Meadows) for lunch in order to woo him in the Season 2 episode titled “The Client”.  Of the restaurant, Michael says, “Chili’s is the new golf course.  It’s where business happens.”  LOL

And while I was hoping that some portion of the former steakhouse would still be standing, that was sadly not the case.  As you can see in the above photographs, the area where filming took place is now just a large vacant field sandwiched between two strip malls in the middle of Downtown Panorama City.  I am not sure why the building was torn down and not just leased out to a different restaurant chain (like maybe Chili’s ), but I am guessing that the vacant land must have been worth more than the lease for a new restaurant would have been.  Such an incredible shame!

Amazingly enough, though, as you can see above, the former steakhouse is still visible on Bing aerial maps.

It is also still visible on Google Street View, as well.  And while I had originally assumed that the restaurant was painted red while it was still in operation, I happened to stumble across this Facebook page about the former eatery in which the structure is shown to be brown.

Which got me to thinking that the restaurant must have been painted red solely for the filming and, sure enough, while poking around on Google Street View, I noticed that only the front and side of the eatery were red, while the backside was left the original brown, as you can see above.  It is so incredibly cool that the building was captured by the Google Street View camera while in its filming state!  Oh, how I wish I could have seen it that way in person, too! 

And on an Office locations side note – sweetheart that he is, fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members who informed him that the interior of Louis Vople’s Italian Restaurant, where the Season 7 episode “Michael’s Last Dundies” was filmed, was in actuality just a set that had been built at Chandler Valley Center Studios where the show is filmed.  So that mystery is finally solved!  Thank you, Owen! 

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Snidley Whiplash for finding this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The Black Angus restaurant which stood in for Chili’s Grill & Bar in the Season 2 episodes of The Office titled “The Dundies” and “The Client” was formerly located at 14640 Roscoe Boulevard in Panorama City.

One location that I have been on the lookout for for quite a few weeks now is the Italian restaurant where the Dunder Mifflin gang hosted the annual Dundies Awards ceremony in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “Michael’s Last Dundies”.  I had an inkling that the eatery was most likely located somewhere in the Van Nuys area, near Chandler Valley Center Studios where the series is lensed, so one of my first lines of attack was to do a Google search for the terms “Italian restaurant”, “Van Nuys”, and “filming”.  My query kicked back numerous results, most of which pointed to an eatery in Valley Glen named “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant” and when I looked at an exterior image of the place on fave website LA Time Machines, I saw that it indeed matched up perfectly to what had appeared on The Office.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place and grab some lunch two Sundays ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant was originally founded way back in 1945 by brothers Tony, Frank, and Mike Arpaia, all of whom had just returned home after finishing a stint in the Air Force during World War II, and their sister, Josephine Barone.  The siblings purchased a defunct eatery named Barto’s at the corner of Beverly Glen and Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks and, in order to to save a bit of money, simply dropped the “T” and added an “N” and an “E” to the former restaurant’s exterior signage, thus creating “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant”.  The establishment became so popular that just four years later the family was forced to move it to a larger space located at 14151 Ventura Boulevard, where it remained until 2006, at which time it was moved to its current home on the corner of Oxnard Street and Mammoth Avenue in Valley Glen.  It was that Valley Glen location that I set out to stalk two weekends ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant, which has served such luminaries as Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Lucille Ball, John Wayne, and Jane Russell, is still family-owned and operated to this day, 66 years after its inception.  The eatery has long been known for its rectangular-shaped pizzas, an idea which was born out of a need to fit more pies into the restaurant’s tiny oven, but because I am diabetic and have to stay away from carbs, the GC and I were unfortunately not able to sample any.  I instead opted for the Chicken Marsala entree, while the GC sampled Barone’s “Famous Stuffed Mushrooms” and a Caesar salad, and, sadly, I have to say that none of it was especially tasty.  I had such high hopes for the place, too!  Being that we saw no less than thirty pies make their way out the door for delivery in the short time that we were dining there, though, I am guessing that it is the pizzas that have kept people coming back to this place time and time again for over six decades.

In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell), Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell), Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinksi) and the rest of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch employees gather at the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Louis Volpe’s Italian Restaurant to celebrate the 2011 Dundie Awards.  Chaos, of course, ensues and they all end up getting kicked out of the establishment by the restaurant’s manager after Deangelo screams out the word “vomit” numerous times during his acceptance speech.

Upon entering the restaurant, though, I was shocked to discover that it looked NOTHING at all like what had appeared on the show.  From what I was able to discern after talking to the restaurant’s super-nice hostess, while the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode did use the exterior of Barone’s for some filming, all of the interior scenes were filmed elsewhere – at a location that I am unfortunately still on the hunt for.  UPDATE – fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members, who informed him that the interior of Louis Volpe’s was in actuality just a set that was built at Chandler Valley Center Studios.

Some filming has taken place inside of the Barone’s space over the years, though.  The eatery was the spot where Mark “Rat” Ratner (aka Brian Backer) took Stacey Hamilton (aka Jennifer Jason Leigh) out on a date, for which he forgot his wallet, in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.  At the time, the restaurant was a German establishment named Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg, which was originally founded in 1958.

Thankfully, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, even though the establishment has gone through several ownership changes throughout the years, very little of the interior has been altered since Fast Times at Ridgemont High was filmed almost three decades ago.  So incredibly cool!

In 1995, Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg was sold to a new owner, Switzerland native and Chef-of-the-Year-awardee Ueli Huegli, who renamed the place Matterhorn Chef and gave the menu a Swiss flair.  In 2005, the restaurant was featured in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Bad News Bears.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant, which served as the exterior of Louie Volpe’s restaurant from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 13726 Oxnard Street in Valley Glen.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

Another location from the Season 7 episode of The Office titled “Michael’s Last Dundies” that fellow stalker Owen tracked down recently was the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area dwelling belonging to the series’ resident alcoholic/hussy/all-around slob Meredith Palmer (aka Kate Flannery), which just so happened to be the locale that I was most interested in stalking!  Owen had spotted an address number of “14142” on the roof above Meredith’s porch while watching the episode and figured that the property had to be located in close proximity to Toby’s house, which I blogged about yesterday.  And he was right!  He ended up finding the place just two and a half blocks west of Toby’s abode.  So, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over to stalk the place, just a few minutes after visiting Toby’s house, two weekends ago. 

In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and new manager-in-training Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell) drop by Meredith’s house at six o’clock in the morning while out delivering the Dundie Award nomination certificates.  Upon first approaching the dilapidated property, Michael says, “I’ve never seen this place in the daylight!”, to which Deangelo replies, “This reminds me of Katrina!”  LOL LOL LOL 

When they arrive at Meredith’s front door, they find it not only unlocked, but ajar.

A few seconds later, Meredith comes meandering up the driveway, shoes in hand, and exclaims, “I’m so busted!  Walk of shame!”  She then invites Michael and Deangelo inside for breakfast, saying, “I have Vienna sausages and I have . . . napkins.”  LOL  When Deangelo announces, “I’m not going in there!”, Michael shuts the door quietly and the two sneak off the property.  It should come as no surprise to regular viewers of the series that Meredith goes on to win the “Best Mom” Dundie award later that night.  LOL

Before arriving at Meredith’s house, I had no idea what on earth to expect as I was not sure if the property had been dressed to appear run-down onscreen or if it actually looked that way in real life.  Well, as you can see in the above photographs, amazingly enough, the house looks just as bad in person as it did onscreen, if not worse!  When I emailed the above-pictured photographs to fellow stalker/Office aficionado Lavonna, she immediately wrote back asking, “So the house just looks like that?????  I thought it had been decorated for the filming!!!!”  LOL  The Office location scouts must have been beyond ELATED upon discovering the residence and realizing that they would not have to change ANYTHING prior to filming.  As Chelsea Handler would say, “Nailed it!”       

While there, I, of course, just had to reenact Meredith’s walk of shame by posing with my shoes in my hand.   

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Meredith’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 14142 Emelita Street in Van Nuys.  Here is a map link to the location.  Toby’s house from that same episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 5752 Calhoun Avenue, also in Van Nuys.  Here is a map link to that location.  Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys.  Here is a map link to that location.

The night of April 28th, 2011 was one of the saddest nights I have experienced as of late due to the fact that it marked Steve Carell’s final appearance on fave show The Office.  In the days leading up to the airing of his last episode, which was titled “Goodbye, Michael”, I had a fairly large pit in my stomach as I felt like I was gearing up to say goodbye to a good friend, which, in a way, I guess I was.  Michael Scott is one of my all-time favorite characters in television history and the fact that he will no longer be visiting my living room each and every Thursday night is seriously depressing.  I felt the exact same way when Sex and the City went off the air in February of 2004, but I digress.  Anyway, even though I was absolutely dreading it, I was hoping that Michael’s last episode would be a spectacular one, but I have to say that I wound up being sorely disappointed.   I felt that both Michael Scott and Steve Carell deserved a much bigger, much more sentimental send-off than what they actually received.  I did, however, absolutely LOVE the episode titled “Michael’s Last Dundies”, which aired the week prior to “Goodbye, Michael”, in which the Dunder Mifflin team gathered together to attend the annual Dundie Awards.  I thought the episode was a much more appropriate farewell for a man who meant so much to so many people during the past seven years that The Office has been on the air.  So when fellow stalker Owen told me that he had tracked down almost all of the locations featured in it – including the house belonging to Michael’s nemesis, Toby Flenderson (aka Paul Lieberstein) – I just about died of excitement and ran right out to stalk them all that very weekend.

In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott and Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell), Dunder Mifflin’s new Scranton Branch manager-in-training, venture out to all of the Dunder Mifflin employees’ houses – at six in the morning, no less! – to deliver the much-coveted Dundie Award Nominations.  After waking up Jim Halpert (aka cutie John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), and seriously angering the series’ resident grouch Stanley Hudson (aka Leslie David Baker), Michael and Deangelo head to Toby’s house.  When they arrive, instead of ringing the doorbell and presenting the human resources director with a nomination certificate, Michael yells out, “Toby, you suck!” and then proceeds to throw eggs at his front porch, which causes Deangelo to ask, “Is this an employee of ours?”  LOL LOL LOL

During the episode, Owen had spotted an address number of “5752” on the wall of Toby’s house and figured the property had to be located somewhere in close proximity to Jim and Pam’s residence in Van Nuys.  And, sure enough, he was right!  He ended up finding Toby’s house just a few blocks southwest of Jim and Pam’s.

Sadly, the real life owner of Toby’s house recently installed a rather large fence around the perimeter of the property, which not only completely changed the look of the place, but also made it quite difficult to take pictures.  So I must say that this was one stalk that ended up being quite disappointing.  I did get to talk to the owner of the property while I was there, though, and he truly could NOT have been nicer and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of the episode.  He informed me that it took about two hours to film the segment, which ended up lasting about ten seconds onscreen.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Toby Flenderson’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 5752 Calhoun Avenue in Van Nuys.  Here is a map link to that location.  Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys.  Here is a map link to that location.

Two weeks ago, on the recommendation of fellow stalker Owen, the Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down to watch the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin.  I have no idea why we avoided seeing the flick for as long as we did, but I have to say that we both ended up absolutely loving it.  It’s sweet, light-hearted, and laugh-out-loud funny.  It seems that not everyone was a fan, though.  A few months back, fellow stalker Lavonna, who is a major Steve Carell aficionado, told me an absolutely hilarious story about The 40-Old-Virgin that I just have to share!  Apparently, and unbeknownst to her, Lavonna’s husband decided to watch the movie while he was home by himself one day.  He never mentioned anything about it to Lavonna, but when their daughter Melissa went to watch the flick a few weeks later she opened up the DVD box to find a note taped inside which read, “I want that two hours of my life back! – Dad”  LOL LOL LOL  Love it!  That so sounds like something my father would do!

Anyway, when fellow stalker Owen told me that he had tracked down the residence where Andy Stitzer’s (aka Steve Carell’s) girlfriend, Trish (aka Catherine Keener), lived in the flick – along with pretty much every other locale used in the movie – I dragged the GC right on out to stalk the place.  Thank you, Owen!

Sadly, Trish’s house has become a bit run-down since the filming of The 40-Year-Old Virgin took place back in 2005.  While the property was pretty adorable in the movie, the paint is now, unfortunately, faded and peeling, the front yard has become quite overgrown, and weeds are currently growing through the many cracks in the driveway.  Such a shame!  The residence was just sold this past November, though, so I am hoping that the new owner will give the place some much-needed TLC and restore it back to its onscreen condition.

One VERY odd thing that I noticed after I returned home and scanned through the movie was that the home’s front door seems to have been moved since filming took place.  As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, in The 40-Year-Old Virgin the front door was located perpendicular to the street, facing the apartment building next door, but it has since been moved kitty-corner to where it used to be and is now situated facing the street.  Very, very strange!

I think the inside of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was also used in the flick.  Either that or producers modeled the set of Trish’s residence very closely to that of the home’s real life interior.

The home’s real life backyard also appeared in the flick during the montage scene which showed Andy and Trish’s first twenty dates.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Trish’s house from The 40-Year-Old Virgin is located at 4433 Cartwright Avenue in Toluca Lake.

Last Thursday night’s episode of The Office which was titled “The Search” was hands-down one of my all-time favorite episodes of the series ever!  I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!  So, when fellow stalker Owen sent me an email the following day which listed all of the locations featured in it, I just about died of excitement!  As it turns out, Owen loved the episode just about as much as I did and spent a few hours tracking down each and every locale where filming had taken place.  The one I was most excited about stalking was Mr. Choo’s Chinese Food restaurant, which in reality is Kung Pao China Bistro located in Studio City.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there after stalking the nearby Aroma Coffee & Tea Company which I blogged about yesterday.  Well, amazingly enough, when we pulled up to the restaurant, the GC informed me that he had not only eaten there before, but that he had eaten there regularly while living in the Sherman Oaks area a little over a decade ago!  As it turns out, Kung Pao China Bistro was one of his mom’s very favorite Los Angeles restaurants and every time she came to visit she would insist on dining there.  Well, believe you me, as soon as I heard that I gave him quite a lashing being that he had watched “The Search” episode of The Office with me!  How he did not recognize a place that he used to visit regularly is absolutely beyond me!  I mean, have I not taught him anything???   

In “The Search”, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) goes on a sales call in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  While stopping at a local gas station (which in reality is the Civic Center Gas Station and Mini Mart located at 6171 Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys), so that Michael can use the restroom, Jim gets an emergency phone call and winds up leaving Michael stranded, without a wallet or a cell phone.  Instead of panicking, Michael decides to take the opportunity to go on a “walkabout” and one of his stops is Mr. Choo’s Chinese Food where he eats a large meal even though he has no money to pay for it.  Well, Mr. Choo is none too happy with Michael’s “dine and dash” plan and decides to punish him in the best way he knows how.

In the meantime, Erin Hannon (aka Ellie Kemper), Holly Flax (aka Amy Ryan), and Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) go on a “manhunt/rescue mission” to track Michael down and bring him safely back to the Dunder Mifflin office. 

They end up wandering into Mr. Choo’s, only to they discover that Michael has been placed on the restaurant’s “Thief Wall”.

And in a genius bit of writing, after Dwight, Erin, and Holly leave Mr. Choo’s, the camera closes in on a photograph of fellow Dunder Mifflin-ite Creed Bratton (aka Creed Bratton) on the “Thief Wall”, a moment which had me literally LOL-ing. 

The owners of Kung Pao China Bistro literally could NOT have been nicer and allowed me to take all the photographs of the place that I wanted, even though I was not actually dining there.  They also answered all of my silly little questions about the filming and told me that everyone involved was extremely nice. 

The owner also let me know that the reason her property was ultimately chosen for the episode was because of the large parking lot situated directly adjacent to the restaurant.  The location manager was apparently very excited that there was a parking area where all of the production trucks could be held that was in such close proximity to where filming would be taking place.

I could not remember exactly where the “Thief Wall” was located in the episode (which is why I really need to start carrying screen captures with me when I go on these stalking ventures!), so I unfortunately did not get a good photograph of the right spot.  It is just to the right of the restaurant’s front door, though.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Kung Pao China Bistro, aka Mr. Choo’s Chinese Food restaurant from the “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 11838 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.  The Civic Center Gas Station and Mini Mart which was also featured in the episode is located at 6171 Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys

A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, sent me a link to this article from local website Franklin Avenue which stated that in the Season 7 episode of The Office titled “Andy’s Play”, the Macha Theatre in West Hollywood stood in for the Scranton, Pennsylvania “Loose Screw Playhouse” where Andy Bernard (aka Ed Helms) performed in a local production of the Tony award-winning musical Sweeney Todd.  As it turns out, the author of the Franklin Avenue website, whose name is also coincidentally Mike, had actually lived across the street from the Macha Theatre for six years, so he recognized the place immediately when it popped up onscreen.  And I have to say here that the “Andy’s Play” episode of The Office was easily one of my very favorite episodes of the entire series.  I’m sure me liking it so much had to do with the fact that I have acted in quite a few plays over the course of my acting career and can definitely relate to the subject matter.  Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) acting out an entire episode of Law & Order as his audition piece for the play and Andy’s phone ringing in the middle of the show while he was onstage were both such absolutely SPOT ON representations of the idiocracy that can, and does often, ensue during the course of a production, I cannot even tell you!   And I literally just about died laughing when, during a quiet moment in the performance, Michael knocked over a bottle of wine and sent it rolling down the sloped theatre floor all the way to the front of the stage.  Absolutely love it!  So, once I read the Franklin Avenue article, I immediately added the Macha Theatre to my “To Stalk” list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right out to West Hollywood the very next weekend.

Before stalking the theater, I had mistakenly assumed that both the interior and the exterior of the property had been used in the “Andy’s Play” episode, but when we arrived there we discovered that that was not actually the case.  Odalys Nanin, the theatre’s super nice owner, happened to be on-site while we were stalking the place and she was kind enough to chat with us and give us a tour of the premises.  Amazingly enough, though, up until just a few days prior to our visit, she had absolutely NO idea whatsoever that the exterior of her theatre had been used on The Office.  Apparently, another stalker had come by to take pictures of the place and when Odalys inquired as to why, he told her – much to her surprise – that it had been featured on the hit show.  As it turns out, no actual filming had been done on the premises, but producers had in fact used an old stock photo of the theatre, one that had actually been taken back when the place was known as the Globe Playhouse, in the episode.  As you can see in the above picture and screen capture, the theatre looks much different today than it did when the stock photo was taken.  The exterior wood beams have since been removed from the property’s façade, as have the windows, and a large marquee has also since been added to the premises.

Thankfully though, as you can see in the above photograph which I got off of the Macha Theatre website, the barn-style front doors, the “1107” address number, and the comedy and tragedy masks that appeared in the “Andy’s Play” episode of The Office have all been left intact.

After I got home, I did some digging and discovered that the interior theatre scenes of the “Andy’s Play” episode had been filmed at the Assistance League Playhouse in Hollywood, just a few blocks east of Helen Bernstein High School, where Glee is filmed!  So, you know what that means – in the very near future I will be making a stalking pilgrimage out to Hollywood to stalk the place!

You can watch Michael’s absolutely HILAROUS Law & Order audition piece by clicking above.  For those who have not yet seen the “Andy’s Play” episode, Michael was using the piece to audition for a role in the musical Sweeney Todd, not for a role on Law & Order.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from Franklin Avenue, for finding this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: Macha Theatre from the “Andy’s Play” episode of The Office is located at 1107 North Kings Road in West Hollywood.  You can visit the theatre’s official website here.  The interior theatre scenes from the episode were filmed at the Assistance League Playhouse, which is located at 1367 North St. Andrews Place in Hollywood.  You can visit that theatre’s website here.