Rent-A-Swag from “Parks and Recreation”

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (10 of 15)

Back in early May, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me to let me know that he had just tracked down Rent-A-Swag – the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area high-fashion rental store for teenagers owned by Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) on fave show Parks and Recreation. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it – Starbucks in hand (but to be fair when do I not have a Starbucks in hand? Winking smile) – while visiting Los Angeles this past Memorial Day weekend.

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While watching the Parks and Rec Season 5 finale, which was titled “Are You Better Off?”, Owen had spotted an address number placard with a missing digit (120-9) on the exterior of the Rent-A-Swag storefront. His eye was immediately caught by that missing digit and his interest piqued, so he decided to begin searching for the locale. Thankfully, the hunt was an easy one and he wound up finding the shop at 12059 Ventura Place in Studio City.

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And while Owen and I had both assumed that the 5 had been removed during the Parks and Rec shoot in order to thwart the efforts of us stalkers, that does not appear to have been the case. As you can see below, the digit is missing in real life, too, which I was shocked to discover!

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (5 of 15)

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (6 of 15)

In real life, the Rent-A-Swag storefront is vacant and looks to have been so for some time, which is probably how it came to be used on Parks and Recreation. The 4,000-square-foot space, which is currently divided into two separate units, most recently housed a branch of the US Postal Service. In January, EaterLA reported that the property was rumored to be the site of the future Valley outpost of the popular mid-city restaurant Joan’s on Third. And while Joan’s founder Joan McNamara did talk about opening a cafe in a former post office on Ventura Place in this April 2012 Los Angeles Times article, as you can see below, the site is still presently available for lease, so that venture appears to have fallen through.

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (2 of 15)

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (1 of 15)

Unfortunately, the GC and I showed up to stalk the site on Sunday morning, smack-dab in the middle of the highly-popular Studio City Farmers Market which takes place directly in front of Rent-A-Swag, so I was not able to get the greatest of photographs.

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Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (13 of 15)

Rent-A-Swag first showed up in the Season 5 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Pawnee Commons” and has been featured fairly regularly ever since.

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In “Pawnee Commons”, Tom rents out a space, which he states in a later episode is located on Durham Avenue, to house his latest brainchild – a store in which he will lease his expensive threads to tweens. Of the new venture, he says, “I started a business where I rent my fancy clothes to teens so their parents don’t have to buy them nice things they’ll just grow out of. So if you see a 14-year-old kid wearing a Louis Vuitton cravat, you know who to thank – me . . . and Louis Vuitton, for making some dope-a*s cravats.” LOL In “Pawnee Commons”, Tom enlists his Parks and Recreation Department co-workers to help him get the space, which is in pretty dire straits, ready for the grand opening. The real life interior of the store, which you can see pictures of here, was also used in the episode, as well as in several episodes since.

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The group’s first go at the renovation turns out rather dire, as well, so they wind up remodeling it twice in the episode.

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The final result is pictured below.

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In an odd twist, while scanning through Season 5 episodes of Parks and Recreation to make screen captures for this post, I discovered that the other side of the Rent-A-Swag storefront (as I mentioned earlier, the space is currently divided into two separate units) was used as the Pawnee VideoDome/XXX Adult DVD Emporium in the episode titled “Bailout”.

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (9 of 15)

In “Bailout”, Councilwoman Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) petitions the city council to declare Pawnee’s local video store, Pawnee VideoDome, a historical landmark to prevent its impending closure. Leslie succeeds, but the site winds up re-opening as a pornographic video shop – owned in part by the government. LOL

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The real life interior of the space was also used in the episode.

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I was shocked to learn, while doing research for this post, that the very same location was used in another of Owen’s favorite shows – Seinfeld. The Rent-A-Swag storefront popped up briefly in the Season 4 episode titled “The Trip (2)”, which aired in 1992, as the spot where Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) and George Costanza (Jason Alexander) watched as two policemen arrested a man for attempted robbery. At the time, the space housed the Bicycle Shack bike store and looked quite a bit different than it does today. Although, structurally still the same, since the time that Seinfeld was filmed, a large awning has been added, significantly altering the look of the place.

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The location also appeared in 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III, in the background of the scene in which Det. Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) jumps out of a car to escape from Jon Flint (Hector Elizondo).

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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 Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Rent-A-Swag Parks and Recreation (7 of 15)

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Rent-A-Swag from Parks and Recreation is located at 12059 Ventura Place in Studio City.

The “Boy Meets World” House

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Last Friday, a fellow stalker named Breanne contacted me to see if I could track down the supposed Philadelphia-area residence where the Matthews family – brothers Cory (Ben Savage), Eric (Will Friedle) and Joshua (Daniel Jacobs), sister Morgan (who was played by both Lily Nicksay and Lindsay Ridgeway), and parents Amy (Betsy Randle) and Alan (William Russ) – lived in the 1993 television sitcom Boy Meets World.  Breanne is a huge fan of the series and informed me that on one of the DVD commentaries it was mentioned that the Matthews’ house was located near The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where the series was lensed.  So I immediately enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and the two of us spent a few hours scouring the streets near Disney.  As we worked our way outward, though, both coming up empty-handed, I had an inkling that we were on the wrong track.  So I asked Breanne to listen to the commentary once again and to let me know exactly what was said.

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Breanne wrote back immediately with this, “So I found the part that I had told you about on the commentary.  Rider Strong says, ‘Now that house is right next to where we ended up filming, not at this point, but later.’  Then the executive producer says ‘It’s in Sherman Oaks.’  Then Danielle Fishel corrects him and says, ‘Studio City, actually.’  Then it sounds like in the background that Rider Strong then says, “Right across from CBS.’”  I was shocked that the cast-members knew in such detail where a house that was only ever used in establishing shots was located, but I took their word for it and Mike and I resumed our hunt, this time in the Studio City area.  And, sure enough, I found the place right where Rider said it would be – directly across the street from CBS.  Yay!  (Come to find out, Boy Meets World was originally filmed at The Walt Disney Studios and then later moved production to CBS Studio Center, which is what Rider was talking about when he said the house was near where they ended up filming.  Ironically enough, when Breanne had originally sent me a screen capture of the home, my first thought was that it was located in Studio City.  Like they say, one should ALWAYS go with their gut! Smile)  So I ran right out to stalk the place yesterday morning – in the midst of having my car break down . . . TWICE.  Not kidding!  Thank God for AAA!

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In real life, the Matthews’ house, which was originally built in 1940, boasts two bedrooms, two baths, 2,108 square feet of living space, and a 0.27-acre plot of land.  And, as you can see below, it is absolutely adorable in person and does have a very East Coast feel to it.  It is no surprise at all that producers chose to use it in Boy Meets World.  In fact, I am quite surprised that the dwelling has not appeared onscreen more often, except for the fact that it is located on a very busy street, which filmmakers tend to shy away from.

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Boy Meets World house (4 of 8)

According to the Celebrity Black Book 2008, the dwelling belongs (or at one time belonged) to soap opera star Joseph Campanella.

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When I first arrived at the house, I was absolutely amazed – and thrilled! – to discover that it looks pretty much EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1993 when Boy Meets World started filming (minus the set of shutters that used to flank the front door). LOVE IT!  The homeowners should be commended!

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Boy Meets World house (7 of 8)

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Boy Meets World house (8 of 8)

Only the exterior of the residence was used in the filming of Boy Meets World.  The interior of the Matthews’ house was, of course, just a set that only ever existed on a soundstage.

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The Matthews’ backyard and Mr. Feeny’s (William Daniels’) backyard were also just sets.

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On a stalking side-note – Earlier this week, Mike re-launched the new and improved MovieShotsLA and I have to say that it is pretty darn amazing.  No one takes photographs like him!  You can check it out here.  As you can see below, MovieShotsLA’s new motto is “A brand you can trust.”  I absolutely LOVE that being that Mike is as meticulous about being correct in his reporting as I am.  I just started reading fellow stalker E.J.’s (from the Movieland Directory) 2000 book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites (it’s fabulous, by the way!) in which he writes the following, “That’s how this book came about.  There are countless tour guides, maps, and tapes showing where stars lived, worked, or played.  Some show where they’re buried.  Most are redundant and almost none are very well-researched.  A good number are downright fiction.  Until now no guide has presented the tour highlights – or lowlights – showing where all this mayhem actually happened.”  A man after my own heart, I swear!  That paragraph goes for so many of the filming location blogs and websites currently out there, as well – most are redundant, almost none are very well-researched and a good number are downright fiction.  But I am very happy to say that MovieShotsLA, The Movieland Directory, and IAMNOTASTALKER are all brands that you can trust!  Smile

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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 fellow stalker Breanne for asking me to track down this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me do so! Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Boy Meets World house is located at 4196 Colfax Avenue in Studio City.

Henry’s Tacos from “People Like Us”

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Last weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I finally decided to check out People Like Us.  And while I can’t say that I loved it (I am not big on depressing movies), it was an enjoyable watch and Chris Pine was, as always, oh-so-yummy.  And the flick was filmed in its entirety in Los Angeles, so there’s that.  Winking smile  Anyway, while watching, I became a wee-bit intrigued with Henry’s Tacos – a walk-up taqueria where several scenes were filmed.  In one of the scenes that took place there, I noticed a sign in the background that, on first glance, I thought read “Silver Lake” and immediately assumed that Henry’s was located in that area.  And while I made a mental note to do some further research on the place, for whatever reason (probably too much champagne Winking smile), I promptly forgot about it.

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So imagine my surprise when I spotted the place on the corner of Moorpark Street and Tujunga Avenue in Studio City last Monday morning while heading to one of my favorite stores, Swag Antiques, for a little retail therapy.  As it turns out, the sign behind Henry’s is actually for a bar named the Starlite Room.  Yes, I am that blonde!  Anyway, I could not believe my good fortune in stumbling upon the restaurant and immediately pulled over to snap some pics.

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Henry's Tacos People Like Us (4 of 9)

Henry’s Tacos was originally founded on December 13th, 1961 by an Assembly of God minister from Nebraska named Henry Comstock.  The Googie-style walk-up eatery was designed by architect John B. Ferguson and, at the time of its opening, tacos were priced at 35 cents.  When Henry retired in 1968, his daughter, LeVonne Eloff, took over the business and ran it for more than four decades until she passed away in 2009, at which point her daughter, Janis Hood, stepped in.  Amazingly, Janis still employs the exact same recipes that her grandfather did over fifty years ago.  The corner building that houses Henry’s has also been left unaltered during all of that time and still looks exactly the same today as it did when it first opened.  As Janis said in a NoHo Arts District article, “When you have something that works . . . don’t change it.  If it works it doesn’t need to be fixed.  People like good homemade food at affordable prices . . . no matter what decade it is.”  Couldn’t agree with you more, Janis!  I wish the owner of Vitello’s (which is located down the street from Henry’s and used to be one of my very favorite restaurants) had heeded the same advice.   Sadly, the place was recently gutted and remodeled, its menu completely revamped, and currently is a sad shadow of its former self.  Sigh.  But I am happy to report that Henry’s is still going strong!

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Unfortunately it was 10:30 in the morning when I stalked Henry’s – a bit too early for tacos (I was only on my second Starbucks of the day at the time Winking smile) – so I did not get to sample any of the fare.  But I do plan on dragging the GC back there as soon as possible for some lunch.

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Henry's Tacos People Like Us (8 of 9)

In People Like Us, long-lost siblings Sam (Chris Pine) and Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) head to Henry’s Tacos for a bite to eat after attending an AA meeting.

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Sam and Frankie are later shown eating at the taqueria once again during a montage sequence in which the two are getting to know each other.  The idea to use Henry’s Tacos in the flick was actually Chris Pine’s.  According to a June 2012 Los Angeles Daily News article, the actor, who grew up in the Studio City area, used to grab a bite to eat at Henry’s regularly during his childhood years.  Other celebrity fans of the eatery include Larry King, Brad Pitt, Sarah Hyland, Michelle Branch, James Marsden, Adam Levine, Marla Sokoloff, Jason Reitman, Tony Danza, Adam Carolla, Tom Hanks, Andy Griffith, George Lopez, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.  Mary-Kate even told Oprah Winfrey in a special “favorite foods” segment that Henry’s has “the most incredible hard shell tacos I’ve ever had”.

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People Like Us is not the first production to film at Henry’s.  The taqueria also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Adam –12 titled “Log 91: You’re Not the First Guy’s Had the Problem”, in the scene in which Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Officer Jim Reed (Kent McCord) discuss the difficulties of being a married police officer.

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It is amazing to me that the restaurant still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1968 when the episode was shot.  So incredibly cool!

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Henry’s also appeared very briefly in the background of the 1978 Cheech and Chong flick Up in Smoke, in the scene in which “Stoned Motorcycle Cop” (Otto Felix) pulled over Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin) and Anthony ‘Man’ Stoner (Tommy Chong).

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And, according to fave website OnLocationVacations, the yet-to-air Alyssa Milano series Mistresses also filmed at Henry’s this past August.

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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.

Henry's Tacos People Like Us (3 of 9)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Henry’s Tacos from People Like Us is located at 11401 Moorpark Street in Studio City.

Jimmie’s House from “Pulp Fiction” – the Correct One!

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Last week, a location photographer named Cris emailed me to ask for some stalking help.  Turns out he had just scouted a house located at 4507 Kraft Avenue in Studio City and the owner (who bought the abode in 2009) had informed him that the residence had been used as Jimmie Dimmick’s (Quentin Tarantino’s) house in Pulp Fiction.  Cris was a bit confused, though, as the place looked nothing at all like what he remembered of Jimmie’s pad in the 1994 thriller.  So he did some online digging later that day and discovered that several websites confirmed what the homeowner had told him.  Still not convinced, though, Cris contacted me to see if I might be willing to either verify or discount the rumors.  And because I quite simply HATE, HATE, HATE erroneous location information being out there, I happily obliged!  Thankfully it did not take me long to find the answer to this conundrum.

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One look at the residence located at 4507 Kraft Avenue via Google Street View and I knew it was not the right place.  Jimmie’s house in the movie did not have a curved front door, nor did I remember it being L-shaped.   So I popped in my Pulp Fiction DVD, scanned ahead to to the portion of the movie that took place at Jimmy’s house and immediately noticed an address number of “4149” on the curb in the background of the scene.  Knowing that the simplest answer is most often the correct one, I decided to begin my hunt on Kraft Avenue, the street where most websites said the abode was located.  I did a quick Google search of “4149 Kraft Avenue” and, sure enough, the Street View of that address matched perfectly to what had appeared onscreen – which absolutely shocked me!  If the location was that easy to find, why on earth is there erroneous information about it out there??  The answer – shoddy research, which irks me to no end.  One person says that Jimmie’s house is located at 4507 Kraft Avenue and everyone else just takes it at face value.  There are so many blogs out there on which locations from other sites are merely copied in their entirety with no verification or new research done – which in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion is both lazy and unoriginal.  As I stated recently in my post on the correct A Nightmare on Elm Street bridge, if one is going to take the time to write a blog or publish a book, then they should also take the time to make sure their information is valid.  I just finished reading O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It in which author William C. Dear repeatedly states the mantra, “Never assume, always verify.”  LOVE IT!  (The book is PHENOMENAL by the way!   I went in thinking Dear was a total fruitcake for believing O.J. is innocent, but am now completely convinced of that fact!  If you are interested, you can visit his website here.)

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As you can see below, the two sculpted hedges and streetlight in front of 4149 Kraft Avenue match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen in Pulp Fiction in the scene in which Winston “The Wolf” Wolfe (Harvey Keitel) arrived at Jimmie’s house.

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From there, finding Jimmie’s house via aerial views was a snap.  As it turns out, Jimmie’s pad is located at 4145 Kraft Avenue.

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Jimmie's House Pulp Fiction (7 of 20)

While the front exterior of the residence was never actually shown in Pulp Fiction, the backyard area was used extensively in the scene in which The Wolf hosed down Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson).  As you can see in the below screen capture as compared to the aerial view, the unique roofline (blue arrow), porch overhang (pink arrow), diagonally-angled chimney (red arrow), and placement of the garage (green arrow) are exact matches.

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As is the wooden fence that was visible behind Jules in the scene.

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You can see a partial view of that fence in real life in the photograph below.

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The only portion of the home’s exterior that appeared in Pulp Fiction was the front door.

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As you can see below, the placement of the front door (at the southern edge of the house, next to a room that pops out), is also a match, although the actual door, and house color, have since been changed.

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And thanks to Bing aerial views, you can also see that the house was, in fact, painted pink at one point in real life, just as it was in Pulp Fiction.

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Because I also come from the “never assume, always verify” school of thought, I did a bit more research and happened to find a July 2007 Los Angeles Times article about Michael Glenn Mullen which stated that the soon-to-be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff happened to grow up in the Kraft Avenue house that was used as Jimmie’s residence in Pulp Fiction.  The blurb also mentioned that Michael’s brother, Kevin, still owned the place.  So I did a quick search of property records and found that 4145 Kraft Avenue is, indeed, owned by a Kevin Mullen.  Voila!  During his lifetime, Michael and Kevin’s father, Jack Mullen, was a press agent for countless Hollywood stars including Dyan Cannon, Peter Graves, Ann-Margret, Anthony Quinn, Julie Andrews, Steve McQueen, and Jock Mahoney, some of whom would even stop by the residence from time to time.  So incredibly cool!

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Jimmie's House Pulp Fiction (13 of 20)

And while I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,702-square-foot house, which was originally built in 1936, was also used in the filming, I could not find any real life photographs of the interior with which to verify that hunch.

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March 29th, 2018 UPDATE – As I just learned via Curbed Los Angeles, Jimmie’s house is currently for sale! If you have an extra $1.4 million laying around, it can be yours!  For the rest of us, MLS photos of the property are aplenty, thankfully, and I can now say with certainty that the real life interior of the home was utilized in Pulp Fiction.  As you can see below, the kitchen still looks almost exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed 24 years ago.

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As does the living room;

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bedroom;

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and backyard.

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Sadly, the listing does not include any pictures of the infamous hand-washing bathroom.

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Sadder still, the residence is being marketed as a “development opportunity,” which means it will likely be gutted or torn down completely.  Not cool!  I do love the fact that the homeowners have a Pulp Fiction poster prominently on display, though!

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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 Cris for asking me to find this location! Smile

Jimmie's House Pulp Fiction (12 of 20)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Jimmie’s house from Pulp Fiction (the correct one) is located at 4145 Kraft Avenue in Studio City.  In the movie, The Wolf pulled up in front of the house located next door, at 4149 Kraft Avenue.  The “Smallest Park” from the “Smallest Park” episode of Parks and Recreation (which I blogged about here) can be found just up the street, in the parking lot located next to 4378 Kraft Avenue.  Vitello’s Italian Restaurant from The Deep End of the Ocean and Robert Blake-fame (which I blogged about here) is located just around the corner at 4349 Tujunga Avenue, as is Robert Blake’s former house (which I blogged about here) at 11604 Dilling Street; The Brady Bunch house (which I blogged about here) at 11222 Dilling Street; and the house where Kevin Federline and Britney Spears got married (which I blogged about here) at 4053 Farmdale AvenueHenry’s Tacos from People Like Us (which I have yet to blog about) is also located up the street at 11401 Moorpark Street.

The Smallest Park from “Parks and Recreation”

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I just recently finished watching Season 4 of fave new show Parks and Recreation (and yes, I was devastated when I came to the end of the last episode being that I now have to wait until September to watch a new one!) and can honestly say that the episode titled “Smallest Park” had to be one of the best of the entire series.  I found myself in tears when (spoiler alert!) Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) finally got back together.  So when fellow stalker Owen gave me the address of the eponymous Smallest Park, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to Studio City to stalk the place.  Well, truth be told, that’s not exactly how things happened.

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Earlier this year, before I had ever even seen an episode of the show, Owen had given me a list of several Parks and Recreation locales, one of which was the Smallest Park.  I did not stalk any of them, though, until I finally started watching the series back in May.  Flash forward to early June, when I was stalking April and Andy’s house (which I blogged about here), and realized that the abode was located just a short distance from the “Smallest Park”.  So, even though I had yet to begin watching Season 4 at the time, since we were in the area, I decided to drop by and snap some pics.  Because the Smallest Park is in actuality just a parking lot, Owen had only given me an approximate address for it.  Well, as fate would have it, when we pulled up to that address, I noticed a vacant plot of land (pictured below) across the street and immediately assumed it was the right place.  And while I did say to the GC, “It really doesn’t look all that small to me!” (LOL), I did not realize my mistake until a few weeks later when I watched the “Smallest Park” episode.  I am SUCH a blonde sometimes!  That’ll teach me to stalk a location prior to seeing the production in which it was featured!

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It wasn’t until last weekend that I was finally able to get back out to Studio City to stalk the correct location – which, as you can see below, is the rear parking lot of a strip mall and does not look anything like a park, hence my original confusion.

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In the “Smallest Park” episode of Parks and Recreation, Pawnee’s last remaining telephone booths are torn down, leaving a 0.000003-square-mile patch of concrete, on which Leslie and Ben (aka the “Dream Team”) decide to build the city’s “newest tourist attraction – the smallest park in Indiana”.

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As you can see below, the Smallest Park was actually just a square plot of cement that producers placed at the western-most edge of the parking lot, covering up the first spot.

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And while just a vacant parking lot, I could NOT have been more excited to stalk this location, most likely because the Smallest Park and the episode in which it was featured were both so incredibly memorable.  It is at the park that, in what had to be one of the series’ cutest moments EVER, Leslie tells Ben how much she misses him and the two seal their reunion with a kiss.  Sigh!  I’m tearing up just looking at the screen capture below.  Smile

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And I, of course, just had to stand where Leslie stood while she was picketing the park in the episode (and announcing its nightly midnight fireworks show) – although I was having another blonde moment at the time and accidentally had the GC snap a pic from the opposite direction of what was shown onscreen.

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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 check out my new blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

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Stalk It: The Smallest Park from Parks and Recreation was built in the northwesternmost parking space of the Valley Stores Shopping Center’s rear parking lot in Studio City.  The lot can be found next to the property located at 4378 Kraft Avenue in Studio City.

April and Andy’s House from “Parks and Recreation”

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I hope y’all are not getting tired of my many Parks and Recreation posts, ‘cause here I am yet again with yet another locale from the series that was provided to me, per usual, by fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog – this time the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area residence where Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and later Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), live on the show.  And I am very sad to say that I am currently about halfway through Season 4 and only have about ten new episodes left to watch before I am all caught up on the series.  I honestly have no idea what I am going to do with myself when that time comes.  Sad smile Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, while doing some stalking in the Studio City area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk April and Andy’s home – before I had even begun to watch Season 3 actually, the season in which the property was first featured.

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April and Andy’s house first shows up in the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Fancy Party” (which actually made me cry), in the scene in which the young couple throws a dinner party for their friends – a dinner party that turns out to be (spoiler alert!) their surprise wedding.  Shortly thereafter, in the episode titled “Jerry’s Painting”, April and Andy’s roommate moves out and Ben, in turn, moves in and teaches the duo “how to be adults”.  (As you can see below, a dang car was parked directly in front of the house when we showed up to stalk the place, so I was unable to get photographs to match the exact angles shown on the series.)

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For the filming, producers had the address number of the house changed from “12718” to “1271” in what I am guessing was an attempt to thrwart the efforts of us stalkers.  But, thankfully, it takes more than a simple address change to throw off Owen and his mad stalking skills!

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I absolutely LOVE the screen capture pictured below in which there is snow in the home’s front yard!  So wish I could have been there to see that in person!  You can check out an article written by someone who did get to witness some P&R filming at the property in October 2010 on the Studio City Patch website here.  According to the write-up, April and Andy’s house has been used in countless productions over the years (although I am unsure of which productions exactly) and, to attract even more crews, the owner has made the place very film-friendly by placing the kitchen island and most of the furniture on casters for easy movement or removal.  So incredibly cool!  If I was a homeowner, I would so do the exact same thing!

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In real life, the Studio City residence, which was originally built in 1938, boasts four bedrooms, two baths, and 2,831 square feet, and looks exactly the same in person as it does onscreen.

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Despite what was reported in the Studio City Patch article, only the exterior of the property is used in Parks and Recreation – and the place most definitely does NOT belong to Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) on the show, as was also reported.  (You can read my post on the Altadena residence that is used as Leslie’s here.)  As you can see in these images of the real life interior of the home here and here, it does not match what appears onscreen.

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Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong site, for finding this location!  Smile

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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.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: April and Andy’s house from Parks and Recreation is located at 12718 Valley Spring Lane in Studio City.

Vitello’s Italian Restaurant from “The Deep End of the Ocean”

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A couple of weeks ago, after doing some stalking in Beverly Hills, the Grim Cheaper and I decided to head over to the Valley to grab dinner at one of our very favorite eateries in all of Los Angeles – Vitello’s Italian Restaurant in Studio City.  And even though I have blogged about the place twice before – first in June of 2008 and then again later that November –  due to the fact that it is set to undergo an extensive – and when I say extensive, I mean extensive – renovation and remodel in the near future, I figured that it was most definitely worthy of a re-post.

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Vitello’s was originally opened by Sal Vitello, a native New York baker, in 1964.  Ironically enough, at the time the place was not an Italian restaurant, but a modest subway sandwich shop which featured fresh, homemade bread.  In 1977, Sal sold his little eatery to brothers Joe and Steve Restivo, Sicilian natives who migrated to Los Angeles via Chicago.  The brothers added down-home, hearty Italian-style staples to the Vitello’s menu, quickly turning the restaurant into a Los Angeles institution.

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Thanks to its proximity to the many area movie studios, along with its fabulous fare, it was not long before Hollywood took notice of Vitello’s.  As you can see above, the restaurant’s main entrance is literally covered with autographed headshots.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted dining at Vitello’s over the years include Frank Sinatra, Sally Kellerman, Ana Ortiz, Tony Danza, Jason Alexander (the one from Seinfeld, not Britney Spears’ ex-husband Winking smile), Life Goes On’s Chris Burke, Candice Bergen, Melissa Joan Hart, Frankie Muniz, Michael Landon, Joanna Kerns, Dom DeLuise, Rick Fox, Scott Baio, Tom Smothers, and Wilford Brimley.

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The restaurant’s most famous celebrity guest, though, has to be actor Robert Blake, who used to be a regular patron of the eatery, dining there at least three times a week. On the evening of May 4, 2001, Blake notoriously grabbed dinner there with his then-wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, in a booth that, according to the above photograph, was located in the bar area.

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The actual bar area is pictured above. Shortly after the couple finished their meal, Bonnie was shot and killed just around the corner from the restaurant. And while Blake claimed that at the time of the shooting he had been walking back to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had inexplicably left behind in his booth, he was arrested and charged with Bakley’s murder on April 18, 2002. He was then acquitted of those charges in March of 2005, but a few months later was found liable for Bakley’s wrongful death in a civil court.   Unlike was the case with Brentwood’s Mezzaluna Restaurant, where Nicole Brown Simpson ate her last meal and which closed shortly thereafter, Vitello’s association with the crime only seemed to further the eatery’s fame and made the place even more of a Valley hot spot.

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In 2005, Joe and Steve Restivo, seeking retirement, sold Vitello’s to Matt Epstein, a Sherman Oaks real estate agent who had been a regular patron of the restaurant since childhood.  And while Epstein kept the menu and décor largely the same for quite some time, earlier this year he brought in a new chef, Tonino Cardia, and completely revamped the menu.  And I am very sad to report that it is not nearly as good as it used to be.  Gone are the vast majority of the hearty Vitello’s staples that the GC and I had come to know and love and the few items that the new menu did retain have been completed made over.  The chicken marsala – which used to be my favorite entree – is a lackluster version of its former self and Vitello’s famous garlic bread now tastes much like the kind that can be purchased in the frozen food aisle of your local supermarket.  Such an incredible shame!

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There are also plans in the works to gut the interior of the restaurant and give it a completely new look.  Even the famous Vitello’s wall mural will be coming down, as will the vintage leather booths.  The new design will apparently feature French doors in the entryway and a huge olive tree in the middle of the dining room.  And while it all sounds lovely, I am of the mantra that “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”.  Vitello’s has been a veritable Los Angeles institution for decades, always packed to the gills whenever we have dined there.  It is widely noted that 59% of new restaurants close within three years of their opening, so for an eatery that has remained successful for over thirty-four years, you have to wonder why the owners would change a thing!  It is such a shame!  And while the super-nice manager came over to speak with us after we had expressed our disappointment with the new fare and even offered to comp our meal (which we turned down – we were not looking for a free meal, but just wanted to voice our opinion that the former cuisine was one hundred times better than the current), I am sad to say that I do not think we will ever be dining at Vitello’s again – the food was that bad!

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Besides being a celebrity hangout, our super-nice waitress also informed us that Vitello’s has been used as a filming location!  Ironically enough, it stood in for two different locations in the 1999 movie The Deep End of the Ocean.  The interior very briefly appeared as the supposed Madison, Wisconsin-area Italian restaurant where Pat Cappadora (aka Treat Williams) worked towards the beginning of the flick.

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And the exterior later popped us as Cappadora’s, the supposed Chicago-area restaurant that Pat founded with his father, Angelo (aka Tony Musante), in the middle of the movie.

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And while the interior was (I think) just a set, with its orange-toned walls, painted murals, and brickwork, it very closely resembles the real life interior of Vitello’s.  Our waitress also informed us that the restaurant will be featured in an upcoming episode of Whitney, the yet-to-be released television series which stars Chelsea-Lately-regular Whitney Cummings.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Vitello’s Restaurant, from The Deep End of the Ocean, is located at 4349 Tujunga Avenue in Studio City.  You can visit Vitello’s official website here.

The Other “Catch Me If You Can” House

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A few years ago during an acting class, my very favorite acting teacher, Annie, happened to mention that the Catch Me If You Can house was located just around the corner from where she then lived in Studio City.  She said she had been walking her dogs one afternoon back in 2002 and had stumbled upon a scene from the movie being filmed at a large, Colonial-style house that producers had dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow.  Well, her story had me thoroughly confused as I knew that the large, Colonial-style house where Frank Abagnale Jr.’s (aka Leonardo DiCaprio’s) mother, Paula (aka Nathalie Baye), lived in the flick, which was dressed in Christmas décor and covered with fake snow for a scene, was located on East California Boulevard in Pasadena.  Annie insisted, though, that the house was located in Studio City and that she had watched much of the filming take place.  I didn’t think much of it at the time and figured it was just a case of producers scrapping one location for another mid-shoot, as has been known to happen sometimes during the course of a production.  It wasn’t until I was scanning through Catch Me If You Can back in March to make screen captures for my post on the Barclay Hotel that I realized that, as incredible as it may sound, there were actually TWO large, Colonial-style homes that had been dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow in the flick!  As it turns out, the house Annie had told me about appeared briefly in the very beginning of the movie as the supposed New Rochelle, New York-area residence where Frank Jr. lived with his parents before they lost all of their money. 

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Once I realized that the house that Annie had told our class about had, in fact, appeared in the movie, I immediately got to work in tracking it down.  I knew where Annie’s former residence was located, so it was just a matter of searching around her neighborhood for the property.  Thanks to the home’s distinct corner location, it was not very hard to find.  And I dragged the GC right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend.  The Catch Me If You Can house is quite charming in person and is situated on an absolutely HUGE corner lot which measures .38 of an acre.  And while the landscaping in front of it has changed quite a bit since filming took place, it is still very recognizable from the movie.

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The residence appeared in two scenes in the movie.  It first popped up in the scene in which Frank Abagnale Sr. (aka Christopher Walken) and his wife Paula dance in their living room after attending an awards ceremony at the local Rotary Club.

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And it later appears in the scene in which the family is shown moving out of the house after having fallen upon hard times.

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And, as you can see in these photographs of the home, the real life interior, including the living room area  . . .

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. . .and one of the bedrooms, was used in the filming.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Frank’s parents’ house from the beginning of Catch Me If You Can is located at 12075 Valleyheart Drive in Studio City.

Kung Pao China Bistro from “The Office”

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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???  Winking smile 

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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.

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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. 

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

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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.  Smile

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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. 

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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.

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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!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

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

Mike and Carol Brady’s Homes from the Pilot Episode of “The Brady Bunch”

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Earlier this week while perusing through fellow stalker Chas’ website, ItsFilmedThere, I came across his Brady Bunch page which details numerous filming locations from the beloved 1970s series and, let me tell you, I almost fell off my chair!  Especially when I saw that he not only had listed the location of the house where Mike Brady (aka Robert Reed) lived in the pilot episode of the series, which was titled “The Honeymoon”, but also the address of the home where Mike and Carol (aka Florence Henderson) tied the knot in that very same episode!  How I had never noticed those locations on his site before is beyond me, especially since I am absolutely obsessed with the series!  I immediately texted Chas to find out how he managed to track the two locations down and as it turns out he had, in typical Chas fashion, contacted the show’s creator Sherwood Schwartz!  Chas always somehow manages to go straight to the source, so to speak, when seeking out locations.  I recently enlisted his help in finding Chez Quis restaurant where Ferris Bueller (aka Matthew Broderick) pretended to be Abe Froman in fave movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and what did Chas do?  You guessed it – he somehow managed to track down actor Jonathan Schmock who played the restaurant’s snooty maître d’ in the scene.  As it turns out, Chez Quis restaurant was actually the now-defunct L’Orangerie restaurant in West Hollywood, but that’s a whole other story for a whole other post that I promise to write very soon.  Anyway, Chas got a message delivered to Sherwood Schwartz asking him for information about the Brady houses and who should call him back but writer/producer Lloyd Schwartz – aka Sherwood’s son!  So incredibly cool!  So, once I had the addresses I immediately ran out to stalk both of the locations.  YAY!  Thank you, Chas!  Smile

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The mid-century modern-style house pictured above is where architect Mike Brady lived with his three sons, Greg (aka Barry Williams), Peter (aka Christopher Knight), and Bobby (aka Mike Lookinland), in the “Honeymoon” episode of the series.  For whatever reason, when the second episode, titled “Dear Libby”, aired, Mike and the rest of the Brady clan were shown living in a different house – the Studio City abode that was featured on every episode of the series thereafter.

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Amazingly enough, the “Honeymoon” episode house still looks almost EXACTLY the same today as it did when the episode was filmed over 42 years ago!

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Even the three plants on the front porch are still strikingly similar to how they appeared in the episode!  Love it, love it, love it!

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Located just about three miles west of Mike’s house is the residence belonging to Carol Brady’s parents, which is the spot where Mike and Carol tied the knot in the pilot episode.

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Sadly though, while the house still looks very much the same as it did onscreen, there is now a large wall which surrounds the property and substantially obstructs the view of it from the road.  UGH! 

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Mike and Carol’s wedding took place in the home’s backyard, which is, of course, also not visible from the street.

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But you can catch a glimpse of it in the above aerial view.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for finding these locations!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Mike Brady’s house from the pilot episode of The Brady Bunch is located at 12049 Iredell Street in Studio City.  Carol Brady’s parents’ house, where the Brady wedding took place, is located at 4101 Longridge Avenue in Sherman Oaks.