Van Nuys filming locations – Page 2

April 22, 2010July 22, 2010

Scranton Business Park from”The Office”

The one filming location that fellow stalker Lavonna was absolutely NOT getting on a plane back to Cincinnati without stalking last week was the Van Nuys building which stands in for Scranton Business Park, where the Pennsylvania branch of Dunder Mifflin, Inc. Paper Company is located, each week on the hit television series The Office. And, even though, I have yet to watch even one episode of the show, because I know how popular The Office is with my fellow stalkers, I jumped at the chance to tag along with her to see the location for myself. I should explain here that Lavonna is an absolute MASTER STALKER! Honestly, Lindsay Blake has got nothing on her! In fact, she’s even taught me a thing or two! Lavonna comes out to Hollywood at least once a year for a stalking vacation and her trips are centered solely around visiting filming locations, touring movie studios, and attending television and talk show tapings. A typical L.A. vacation day for her begins at around 8 a.m. with the taping of a television show, which is followed up with the taping of yet another show at around 2 p.m., with a few stops in between at various filming locations and movie studios. She starts stalking at the crack of dawn and doesn’t stop until night falls. A woman after my own heart, I swear! She really should be a Hollywood travel agent, cause, let me tell you, she knows how to do this city right! 🙂

Back in January, Lavonna posted a challenge on my site asking readers to track down the Scranton Business Park building where Dwight (aka Rainn Wilson), Jim (aka John Krasinksi) and Pam (aka Jenna Fischer) report to work each morning. And, lo and behold, just a few days later, a fellow stalker identifying himself as “Snidley Whiplash” – which just so happens to be the name of the villain in the Dudley Do-Right cartoon series – responded with a list of numerous Office locations, including the building Lavonna so badly wanted to see. As it turns out the building is actually a part of Chandler Valley Center Studios, the very studio where The Office is filmed. So, bright and early this past Friday morning, Lavonna, her daughter, Melissa, her friend, Debbie, and I headed out to Van Nuys to do a little “Scranton” stalking. Randomly enough, a few fellow stalkers had actually emailed me prior to Lavonna’s visit to let me know about their experiences stalking The Office set. Most of them had been extremely lucky during their stalk and not only met some of the cast members, but got to take photographs with them, as well. I was hoping we might have the same sort of luck, but, sadly, the series’ had wrapped its Sixth Season two weeks prior and no cast member were on the lot while we were there. 🙁

There was a security guard on duty manning the front gate while we were there, though, and she TRULY could NOT have been nicer to us! Not only did she let us take all of the pictures of the studio that we wanted, but she also spent a good twenty minutes speaking with us and answering all of our silly questions about the cast and the filming of The Office. And, best of all, she even pointed us in the direction of the bar/arcade which appeared in the Season 6 episode of the show entitled “Happy Hour” – a location which Lavonna had feverishly been searching for before her visit. But I’ll save that story for tomorrow’s post. 🙂 (Please excuse the craptastic screen captures pictured above – I downloaded one episode of The Office off of iTunes and, wouldn’t you know, it was an episode which only featured nighttime shots of Scranton Business Park. Ugh!)

I had also heard from a few fellow stalkers that several “Dunder Mifflin, Inc.” and “Vance Refrigeration” signs were posted on the exterior of the Chandler Valley Center Studios building, but, sadly, they had all been removed two weeks prior when filming wrapped. The only Office decor left over from the filming that we could see while we were stalking the place were the parking signs for Bob Vance(aka Robert R. Shafer), president of Vance Refrigeration, and Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell), regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, Inc. Paper Company. And, even though I don’t watch the show, it was incredibly exciting to see those two signs! I can’t tell you how cool I think it is that they are visible to the public!

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When I told fellow stalker Owen about Friday’s Office stalking adventures, he sent me a bunch of photographs of the studio that he had taken back in September of 2008 while he was visiting the Los Angeles area with his brother. As you can see in the above pictures, when the show is not on hiatus, the “Scranton Business Park” and “Dunder Mifflin, Inc.” signs are out in full force! So darn cool! I’m so going to have to go back to stalk the studio again once The Office starts filming next season!

Owen also snapped some pictures of Michael’s office window, which is shown quite frequently on the series . . .

. . . and Dwight’s Trans-Am, which he spotted right out in front of the Scranton Business Park building.

The interior of the Scranton Business Park building actually houses The Office production offices. The soundstage where the interior Office scenes are filmed can be found directly next door and just due west of Scranton Business Park.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Chandler Valley Center Studios enough! I don’t even watch The Office and I was still incredibly excited to be seeing Scranton Business Park in person. But what made our experience extra-special was the super friendly security guard. I can’t tell you how much fun stalking can be when the people working on the set are nice! Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for letting me post his Office stalking pictures on my site and to “Snidley Whiplash” for telling me the location of the Scranton Business Center!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Scranton Business Park from The Office, aka Chandler Valley Center Studios, is located at 13927 Saticoy Street in Van Nuys.

December 30, 2009December 29, 2009

The “Keep It Together” Park from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I visited during our Valley stalking day back in October was the Van Nuys – Sherman Oaks War Memorial Park, aka the spot where Brandon Walsh was “discovered” in the Season One episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Fame Is Where You Find It”. The War Memorial Park is so named because in 1947 the American Legion organization raised money to purchase a 63 acre parcel of land which was then donated to the City of Los Angeles to be used as a public park dedicated to the memory of war veterans. The original plan was to build the park as a sort of homage to “The Wizard of Oz” books – what “The Wizard of Oz” has to do with war veterans, I’m not exactly sure, but I guess that’s why I’m not a city planner 🙂 – with different sections of the property featuring scenery from the Land of Oz. In the end, though, only two “Wizard of Oz” structures were ever built – an “Over the Rainbow” bridge and a castle, both of which have since been demolished. 🙁 The absolutely ginormous War Memorial Park currently boasts two basketball courts, a jungle gym, a football field, a soccer field, a gymnasium, eight tennis courts, three running tracks, and eight baseball diamonds. Like I said, the place is absolutely HUGE! And it is actually thanks to those baseball diamonds that Mike discovered this location. As fate would have it, in the early ‘90s Mike belonged to a softball league which held its weekly games on the War Memorial Park fields. So, when he first watched the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode of 90210, he recognized the park immediately. YAY! And, of course, ever since he mentioned the place to me, I was absolutely dying to stalk it. Which I finally got to do this past October. Thank you, Mike!

Sadly, though, when we arrived at the park we discovered that the little picnic table canopy area, which just so happens to be the part of War Memorial most recognizable from 90210, was in the process of being torn down. 🙁 Such a bummer!!

War Memorial Park shows up numerous times in the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode. It first appears at the very beginning of the show, in the scene in which Brandon plays a little solo game of street hockey next to a playground.

As fate would have it, an episode of the show Keep It Together just so happens to be filming at the very same park where Brandon is playing. When a key actor fails to show up to the set, Brandon is immediately hired to replace him, and voila, a star is born! Or so Brandon thinks.

Brandon’s small Keep It Together scene, in which his only line is “Hey, Babe! Looking good. Real good, babe.” – LOL – was also filmed at War Memorial Park. The now defunct “Over The Rainbow” Bridge is visible behind Keep It Together’s lead actress Lydia Leeds in the above screen capture.

At the end of the episode, the park pops up once again in the scene in which Brandon forgives Lydia for being such a diva.

On a very interesting side note – While watching the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode a few months back, Mike – who has got to be one of the most observant people I’ve ever met in my life!!! – noticed some very fascinating scenery in the background of a few of the scenes. Because the episode centered around the filming of the television show Keep It Together, much of the action took place on a studio backlot. But instead of renting out a different Hollywood lot for the filming of the Keep It Together scenes, producers simply decided to masquerade their own 90210 soundstages as those of the show within the show. Which, of course, makes sense. But what they didn’t realize was that, years later, an eagle-eyed stalker would figure out their little location trick. As you can see in the above screen capture, the famous red brick Peach Pit After Dark wall is visible in the background of the scene in which Lydia Leeds applies Brandon’s makeup in the Keep It Together makeup trailer. And I am fairly certain that the makeup trailer used in that scene was the real life 90210 makeup trailer! Yes, ladies and gentleman, that means that you are looking at the actual spot where Shannen Doherty, Luke Perry, Jennie Garth, and Jason Priestley got their makeup done before filming each and every morning! SO DARN COOL!

I took the above photograph of the Peach Pit’s brick wall back in August of 2008 during Mike and my private tour of the former 90210 studio. As you can see, it matches the brick wall pictured behind Lydia in the make-up trailer scene perfectly. Mike told me that he actually drove by the 90210 studio several times while the show was still on the air and that the make-up and wardrobe trailers were indeed parked in the area directly in front of the Peach Pit wall. So darn cool!!!!!!!

Because the former 90210 studio was located in a industrial area, it was surrounded by various warehouses, one of which happened to be a washing machine factory. When Mike and I visited the studio last year, he pointed out the factory to me and, let me tell you, I’ve never seen so many washing machines in my entire life! There were literally hundreds upon hundreds of them lined up alongside the building. LOL Well, in the scene in which Brandon and Lydia arrive at the Keep It Together studios via limousine, you can not only see that washing machine factory, but you can even see quite a few of their washing machines! Too darn funny!

The above image is an aerial view of the area where that scene was filmed. The pink “X” denotes the spot where Lydia and Brandon were standing and the purple circle shows the hundreds upon hundreds of washing machines stationed just outside of the studio. LOL LOL LOL

Most interesting, though, was what showed up in a later scene from the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode – the scene in which, while walking around the studio, Brandon finds out that the entire Keep It Together script has been rewritten.

In that scene, you can ACTUALLY SEE THE REAL LIFE WALSH FRONT PORCH SET AND THE EXTERIOR OF THE WALSH’S DINING ROOM WINDOW (denoted with the pink arrows above)!!!!! How incredibly cool is that???? When Mike first sent me the screen captures from that scene and pointed out the Walsh house in the background I just about died I was so excited. LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! 🙂

And, a little bit of 90210 trivia for you – a very young Melissa Rivers (pictured above) made one of her first television appearances in the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode playing an actress named MacKenzie, who, according to Lydia Leeds, only has a career because her uncle is “like this really big producer” . Hmmm, sound familiar, Tori Spelling?? 😉

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A big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for discovering all of the behind-the-scenes location information from the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode! You are my hero! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks War Memorial Park, aka the park where Brandon Walsh was discovered, is located at 14201 Huston Street in Sherman Oaks. The area used in the “Fame Is Where You Find It” episode can be found near the corner of Hazeltine Avenue and Huston Street.

September 23, 2009September 23, 2009

The 17 Again House

As I’ve mentioned numerous times in the past, I am a total sucker for any sort of teeny-bopper movie. So, a couple of weeks ago when my fiancé surprised me with a copy of 17 Again, I just about died! 🙂 And while I have to admit that I’ve never been a big Zac Efron fan– I mean, have you seen High School Musical??? – and didn’t have very high hopes for this movie, I ended up absolutely LOVING it!! Surprisingly enough, it’s actually a really cute, really funny flick. And Zac Efron is absolutely fabulous in it!!!! Before watching 17 Again, I had never thought of him as any sort of great actor, but he was absolutely hilarious in it and really pulled off playing a 37-year-old dad who wakes up one morning in a 17-year-old body. So, of course, immediately after watching the movie, I called up fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, and Chas, and asked for their help in locating the house belonging to Matthew Perry and Leslie Mann in the flick. And, sure enough, Mike found it almost immediately. YAY!

While watching 17 Again, Mike thought he recognized the neighborhood where filming took place. He was fairly certain that Matthew Perry’s house in the movie was located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, and since he used to play in a softball league in that area, thought he may have driven by it on a regular basis while going to and from his games. So, using Google Maps Street View, he retraced the various routes he used to take and found the house almost immediately!! Talk about observant! The fact that Mike remembered pretty much the exact location of a house he used to drive by several years ago that was NOT even a filming location at the time absolutely boggles my mind! I’m lucky if I can even find my way home most days. LOL

As it turns out, this location was actually an amazingly lucky find for us, because as you’ll notice in the above screen capture and photograph, producers changed the address number on the house for the filming! In the movie, Matthew Perry’s address number is 5005, but in real life the house is actually numbered 6610! Honestly, had Mike not recognized the neighborhood, I’m certain this is one location that would have had us stumped for a very long time! Please tell me that changing house numbers like this is not the way of the future! UGH!

Besides the change in address numbers, I am happy to report that the 17 Again house looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did in the movie – except for one major difference. It appears that 17 Again was shot sometime in the late fall or early winter, because as you can see in the above screen capture, the trees in the front yard were quite barren at the time of the filming. Today those trees have filled in quite considerably, blocking much of the view of the house from the street. Other than the trees, though, the house is very recognizable from the movie. The 17 Again house is absolutely GINORMOUS in person (3,409 square feet according to Zillow) – so big, in fact, that I had a hard time fitting the whole thing in my camera lens.

According to the movie’s production notes, producers remodeled the real life backyard of the 17 Again house for the scene in which landscape architect Leslie Mann shows Zac Efron and Sterling Knight the magical garden she has created. And, as you can see on the MovieShotsLA website, the real interior of the house was also used in the filming. The 17 Again house is actually an oft-used filming location. Besides being featured in countless commercials, it has also been seen in the television series Day Break, In Justice, and Turn Up the Heat with G. Garvin, and the movies Happy Endings and Something New.

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Big THANK YOU to Mike for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The 17 Again house is located at 6610 Allott Avenue in Van Nuys.

September 12, 2008February 13, 2009

Ray Pruit’s House

Thanks to Geoff over at 90210Locations, I was able to stalk Ray Pruit’s house this past weekend while out in Van Nuys. The home was featured in numerous Season 5 episodes of the series as the abode of Donna’s abusive, pumpkin-patch-owning boyfriend, Ray. At that time, the house was painted a light beige color, but has since been repainted a darker blue. Other than the exterior color, though, the house looks exactly as it did back in the 90210 days. Big THANK YOU to Mike from MovieShotsLA for the above screen capture. 🙂

Ironically enough, while taking pictures in front of Ray’s house, a neighbor walked outside and I asked him if he lived in the neighborhood at the time 90210 filmed. He said that not only was he around during that time, but he was, in fact, the location manager of the show for Seasons 4 through 10!!! I absolutely could not believe my luck and ended up talking his ear off for about fifteen minutes. He really could not have been nicer and he even gave me his email address in case I ran up against any elusive 90210 filming spots that I might need help in locating. 🙂 YAY!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Ray Pruit’s house is located at 6628 Canteloupe Drive in Van Nuys. Not far away are both the former 90210 production studios, located at 15001 Calvert Street, and the liquor store from the “U4EA” episode, located at 6020 Kester Boulevard.

September 10, 2008February 13, 2009

"I’d Like to Exchange an Egg . . . "

At the risk of this site becoming strictly a blog about 90210, I just had to do a post about another location from the iconic 90s television show. I finally got Season 2 of the series on DVD and this weekend I spent many hours glued to my television set watching it. And I must admit I got a little obsessed with finding the liquor store from the episode in which Emily Valentine (my least favorite character in 90210 history) convinces the gang to spend their Saturday night at an underground club. In the episode, entitled “U4EA”, Emily tells the gang that they will have to visit a liquor store and “exhange an egg” for directions to the oh-so-secret underground club.

While watching the episode I noticed the numbers “6202” and a sign reading “Pat’s” located above the liquor store doors. I had an inkling that the liquor shop might be located in Van Nuys, near the 90210 studios, so I got to Googling and sure enough, there it was, just a few blocks from where 90210 was produced. So this weekend, I of course dragged my boyfriend out to Pat’s Jr. Market to do some stalking. I was so happy to see that after all these years the liquor store looks almost EXACTLY the same as it did back in the 90210 days.

Even the interior is still completely recognizable from the “U4EA” episode. The poor clerk at the register had no idea what I was talking about when I told him that 90210 had filmed there 17 years ago and I’m pretty sure he thought I was a complete moron when I had my boyfriend snap pics of me inside. LOL Geez, some people just don’t get it, do they?!? 🙂

The “U4EA” episode also featured one of my fave 90210 scenes ever – the scene where Andrea and Steve enter a different liquor store and tell the befuddled clerk that they want to exchange an egg. “Is there something wrong with the egg?” she asks. LOL LOVE IT!

You can watch the full liquor store scene here.

Stalk It: Pat’s liquor store is located at 6202 Kester Avenue in Van Nuys. The former 90210 studios are located just a few blocks away at 15001 Calvert Street.