Wicked City – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020

Jack’s House from “Wicked City”

Some locations are so arresting they almost become a character in a production. Such was the case with the spectacular mid-century modern pad where LAPD detective Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) lived with his wife, Allison (Jaime Ray Newman), and daughter, Vicki (Anne Winters), on the 2015 ABC series Wicked City. Though its exterior was only featured once on the short-lived show, the interior seriously made an impression! I found myself looking forward to its appearance week after week, even more so than I did any of the actors. So I was thoroughly bummed to discover said interior was just a set that only ever existed on a soundstage and was dismantled after filming wrapped. Regardless, I figured the residence used in the lone exterior shot of Jack’s home was still worthy of a stalk. Thankfully, I didn’t have to look far for it.

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The sole exterior shot of the house popped up in Wicked City’s seventh episode, “Destroyer,” in the scene in which Jack moves out after disclosing to Allison that he has been having an affair. Its mid-century architecture and large, flat front yard led me to believe the property was likely located deep in the San Fernando Valley. After initially searching Granada Hills, I remembered coming across a smattering of unique MCM homes near Shoup Park in Woodland Hills years prior while stalking the neighboring residences where Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) and David Santiago (Rodrigo Santoro) lived in the 2009 romcom Post Grad. So I headed over to the area via Google Maps and, wouldn’t you know it, right next door to Ryden’s house at 22210 Tiara Street was Jack’s pad!

It truly is a shame the exterior wasn’t featured more prominently on Wicked City because it.is.fabulous.

The mid-century stunner was designed by architect Charles DuBois in 1960.

In real life, it boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,084 square feet, a double fireplace, a vaulted ceiling, a 0.37-acre lot, a large pool, a spa, and a fire pit.

It also features incredible mid-century detailing including a low gabled roofline;

a tiered front walkway;

large bright double doors;

and a stone and wood façade.

The property last sold in 2009 and, per the MLS images featured on Realtor.com, looked extremely different at the time. Kudos to the new owners and their superb exterior renovation!

Sadly, the MLS photos did not include any inside shots aside from the rather murky one below.

22210 Tiara St, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

The interior as it was imagined by production designer Craig Stearns for Wicked City, though, was spectacular! I fell in love with the clean lines, beamed ceiling, and 1960s feel. That screened entry, amirite? You can check out some more images of it here.

Interestingly, the ceiling of the set, which slopes toward the front and back of the house, doesn’t match the roofline of the Tiara Street residence, which peaks above the front door and slopes to the sides. The discrepancy, coupled with the fact that an exterior is not shown until the series’ seventh episode, leads me to believe that Wicked City producers never intended to feature the outside of Jack’s home. Then when a scene unexpectedly came up requiring an exterior shot, location scouts had to scramble to find a dwelling that matched the set, eventually settling on 22210 Tiara Street even though it didn’t entirely line up with Stearns’ design. That is just a hunch, though.

While the pad’s exterior didn’t get much love on Wicked City, it did pop up fairly regularly as the residence of Sabrina (Shannon Woodward) and Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff) on the Fox sitcom Raising Hope.

The interior of Sabrina and Jimmy’s place was also just a set, but a gorgeous one at that!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Jack Roth’s house from Wicked City is located at 22210 Tiara Street in Woodland Hills.

January 5, 2016August 7, 2020

The “Wicked City” Library

I have one more Wicked City location up my sleeve (for the time being, at least – I did track down a couple of others after watching the recently-released final five episodes, but have yet to stalk them) – the former Second Church of Christ, Scientist in West Adams, which masked as an L.A. library in “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” I have long been familiar with the stately, domed structure thanks to my many area stalkings (Fatty Arbuckle’s former house is located on the same street, as is the oft-filmed St. Vincent de Paul Church) and recognized it immediately upon viewing the episode. I had never done a proper stalking of it, though, and promptly dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to remedy that a couple of weeks ago.

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Second Church of Christ, Scientist was designed by architect Alfred H. Rosenheim, who also designed the American Horror Story house. The prolific Albert C. Martin, Sr. (of Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles City Hall and Thomas Higgins Building fame) acted as the engineer. The massive Italian Renaissance-style structure, which was modeled after the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, aka the “Mother Church,” took more than two years to complete at a cost of $318,000. Its doors were opened to the public on January 23rd, 1910.

The property, which was built out of terracotta, brick, stucco and granite, was so grand that, according to the Big Orange Landmarks website, a 1908 Los Angeles Times article deemed it “the largest and most elaborate church west of Chicago.”

At the time of its completion, the interior featured a pipe organ, mahogany woodwork, stained glass windows, wainscoting throughout, and seating for 1,200 churchgoers.

The site’s most impressive feature, though, was – and still is – its 130-foot tall copper-clad, poured-concrete dome, which according to Big Orange Landmarks, measures 70 feet in diameter and weighs 1,400 tons.

The green-tinted dome seems to sparkle in the sunlight and only adds to the grandeur and beauty of the already picturesque church, which was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1968.

Due to declining membership and the high cost of maintaining the property, Christian Science Church vacated the building in 2008. The empty structure proved attractive to vandals, who spray painted the once stately structure with graffiti and broke many of its stained glass windows.

In December 2009, the site was sold to The Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit organization that teaches meditation, yoga, breathing, and emotional balance. The group lovingly repaired the damage done to the property and today use it as their main headquarters.

The former Second Church of Christ, Scientist played a significant role in Wicked City’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go.”

Masking as a local library, it is there that Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) leaves the head of one of his murder victims among the stacks of books for detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) to find.

I initially thought that the actual inside of the former church had also been used in the filming of the library scenes, but as soon as I looked through these interior photographs of the place I realized that was not the case.

As it turns out, interior filming took place at DC Stages, a downtown Los Angeles studio that has been around since 1988. The facility, which was originally called Dos Carlos Stages, is situated inside of a a former perishable food storage center and boasts several standing sets including that of a police station, a city hall, a courthouse, political offices, a hospital, a jail, apartments, hotel rooms, a restaurant, and, of course, a library. You can check out a drone video shot of the various sets here and some some photographs here. What I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place in person!

Many sources state that the Second Church of Christ, Scientist was used regularly as the Fulton County Courthouse on the television series Matlock, but I have not been able to verify that. I downloaded a couple of episodes to scan through and in each of them a different building masked as the courthouse, neither of which was the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, as you can see below. The series aired for nine seasons, though, so it is quite possible the West Adams church did make an appearance (or several appearances) at some point during that run.

The locale also pops up as the Radiant Assembly of God church on the HBO series Perry Mason.

Only the exterior of the building is utilized on the series. Interior church scenes were shot at the Trinity Auditorium, located at 851 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Second Church of Christ, Scientist, aka the Wicked City library, is located at 948 West Adams Boulevard in University Park. DC Stages, which was used for the interior library scenes, is located at 1360 East 6th Street in downtown L.A. Be advised that the studio facility is not open to the public.

January 4, 2016January 3, 2016

Edgeway Auto Upholstery from “Wicked City”

ABC finally released the remaining five episodes of Wicked City on both ABC.com and Hulu. Watching them proved to be a bit of a double-edged sword because the show got really good. And I already thought it was great! By episode 8, I realized what a real contender it could have been, with a long life on the small screen, but, sadly, that was not to be. I was thrilled, though, that producers were given a bit of a heads-up about the cancellation which allowed them to grant the story some closure. But seeing that closure only made me wonder what the original ending was intended to be, as I am sure it was vastly different from what did make it to the airwaves. My guess is that (spoiler alert!) the death of Karen McClaren (Taissa Farmiga) was a last-minute departure from the planned storyline, but who knows? Here’s hoping a DVD with behind-the-scenes info will be released at some point. (If I don’t eventually find out what was up with the Fly Brand cocaine, I may go crazy!) For those who have yet to see the final five episodes, I highly recommend watching. As fate would have it, Edgeway Auto Upholstery, where Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) worked on the series – a spot I had previously stalked, but had yet to blog about – figured prominently in one of them.

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Edgeway Auto Upholstery first popped up in the episode titled “Running with the Devil,” in the scene in which Kent pretended to be a Hollywood producer while making a phone call to a production company in order to try to track down an actress he wanted to kill. (The storyline was dark, but oh so enthralling!)

Edgeway turned out to be an easy find. I figured filming had most likely taken place at a real auto upholstery facility, one that was most likely located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley. Besides the fact that the shop had a very Valley look to it, many of the spots featured in the series, such as Kent’s house and Valli Tropics, where Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) lived, were located in the area and producers often pick places to film that are in close proximity to each other. So I started searching for upholstery shops in the SFV and came across Nacho’s Auto Upholstery at 12443 Victory Boulevard in Valley Glen within minutes. Sure enough, it matched what had appeared on Wicked City.

Nacho’s looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. I love the fact that although the name was changed for the filming, producers used the shop’s actual lettering style for the fake signage.

Besides “Running with the Devil,” Nacho’s also popped up in “Heat Wave.” In the episode, detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) figure out that the serial killer they’ve been chasing works at an upholstery shop. While hunting down leads, they spot a vintage red Corvette similar to one that the killer had been seen driving, parked at Edgeway Auto Upholstery and they break into the shop to investigate.

Quite a bit of the location was shown in “Heat Wave.”

A sign reading “Nacho’s Auto Upholstery” was even visible in the background at one point. Whoops! Winking smile

The shop’s small office area, which Roth and Contreras search through, was actually just a set, though.

And not even a full one, at that, as I learned thanks to a photograph that executive producer Jon Cassar tweeted along with the caption, “Sometimes 2 walls is all you need.” Ah, the magic of filmmaking.

Only the rear side of Nacho’s, which is reached via a back alley, appeared in Wicked City. The front of the shop, pictured below, was never shown onscreen.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Nacho’s Auto Upholstery, aka Edgeway Auto Upholstery from Wicked City, is located at 12443 Victory Boulevard in Valley Glen.

December 4, 2015February 25, 2016

Valli Tropics from “Wicked City”

Locations, locations, locations! Aside from Ed Westwick, locations were easily the best aspect of the now cancelled ABC series Wicked City. The show took place in Los Angeles circa 1982 and the location manager did a fabulous job of securing spots evocative of that era. None was more spectacularly retro than the apartment building where Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) lived. I became obsessed with the place, and all of its pink-accented glory, while watching Wicked City’s pilot episode, but, unfortunately, had a heck of a time tracking it down.

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In the pilot, a sign with the name “Valli Tropics” was prominently shown posted outside of Betty’s apartment. Because the complex had somewhat of a tropical aesthetic, I figured the name might be legitimate and did a Google search for “Valli Tropics” and “Los Angeles.” It yielded nada, though, so I abandoned my hunch that the name was real and began searching for images of tropical-style apartments in L.A. I poured through countless photographs, but none was of the right spot. I then looked through all of my local architectural guidebooks to see if the complex was pictured, but came up empty-handed. So I abandoned the hunt for a bit.

When the third episode, titled “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” aired and Betty’s apartment was featured prominently, I decided to start the pursuit up again. I revisited my original hunch that the name might be legit and this time did a search for “Valli Tropics Apartments” and “Los Angeles,” which led me to a yelp review written by the manager of a Valli Tropics in Studio City. From there, the complex was a snap to find. I honestly cannot believe that I spent so many fruitless hours searching for the place, when the name of it was right in front of me the entire time! The blonde factor was strong with this one.

In person, Valli Tropics did not disappoint!

Every square inch of the place was just begging to be photographed.

And the vintage signing was to die for!

I was floored to see that the retro-ish sign that had been so prominently featured in Wicked City was a real life element of the building.

Surprisingly, other than the fact that it was built in 1956, I could find virtually no information online about Valli Tropics.

The complex is actually situated in an odd way, with the front entrance running diagonal to the street. One could easily drive right past it without noticing its architectural splendor.

Valli Tropics was featured repeatedly throughout the three episodes of Wicked City that made it to the airwaves. Besides the front exterior, the courtyard was also utilized on the show.

I am fairly certain that the interior of a real life Valli Tropics unit was used for the filming of the pilot . . .

. . . and that a set re-creation appeared in the other two episodes.

Oddly, while a brief shot of the exterior of Valli Tropics was shown in Wicked City’s second episode, which was titled “Running with the Devil” . . .

. . . a scene that was supposed to take place there was actually shot about five miles away, on the corner of Kittridge Street and Wilkinson Avenue in Valley Glen.

Thanks to the Litany of Schist blog, I learned that the Valli Tropics masked as the apartment of murder victim Jason Devereaux (Ben Feldman) in the Season 10 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Working Stiffs.”

In the episode, Jason was said to live at 1120 Marapasa Parkway in Las Vegas, the numbering of which meshes with Valli Tropic’s real life address of 11120 Acama Street. The crew failed to remove the extra “1” from the building’s address placard, as well as from the Valli Tropics sign for the shoot, though, so the scripted address didn’t end up gibing with what appeared onscreen. Whoops!

Valli Tropic’s courtyard was also used in the filming of CSI.

As was the interior of one of the apartment units.

In the Season 11 episode of Criminal Minds titled “A Badge and a Gun,” the Behavioral Analysis Unit investigates a murder at the Valli Tropics, which is said to be in Atwater Village.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Valli Tropics, aka Betty’s apartment from Wicked City, is located at 11120 Acama Street in Studio City.

November 30, 2015November 24, 2015

Kent’s House from “Wicked City”

I cannot express how disappointed I am that ABC cancelled Wicked City. I’ll admit that I was not very impressed with the series’ pilot episode, but I think that was mainly due to the fact that it was rather jarring to see Ed Westwick (one of my absolute faves!) portraying a serial killer. The second episode had me hooked, though, and by episode three I was full-blown obsessed. So it was quite a blow when the show was cancelled just three days after that episode aired. And while ABC has said that the remaining five episodes that have yet to be broadcast will soon be available via streaming, so far that has yet to happen, which has me heartbroken that there might not be any sort of resolution to the show’s core mystery. The cancellation did not stop me from hunting down locations from the series, though. A couple of weeks ago on LAmag.com, I blogged about the Whisky a Go Go, which made several appearances on Wicked City. In the article, I mentioned some other locales featured on the show, but at the time I had yet to track down a few key spots, one of which was the Spanish-style home belonging to Kent Galloway (Westwick).

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I spent a ridiculous amount of time scouring film location databases looking for Kent’s home and, just as I was reaching my wits’ end, decided to call in the Grim Cheaper to ask for his thoughts. I happened to show him a scene from the second episode, which is titled “Runnin’ with the Devil,” and he noticed that a large wall was located across the street from Kent’s residence. He presumed it to be part of a studio and told me to search the neighborhoods surrounding The Walt Disney Studios.

Sure enough, I found the house within seconds, exactly where he said it would be! Sometimes I think he’s better at this stalking stuff than I am! Thank you, GC!

I was so intent on finding the locale not only because I am such a huge fan of Ed Westwick and Wicked City, but also because I just love the look of the place. The residence is picturesque, homey and a perfect representation of the Los Angeles bungalow.

In person it did not disappoint.

Though Zillow states that the property, which was built in 1940, measures one bedroom, one bath, and 1,551 square feet, it looks to be much larger from the outside.

The setting is also quite beautiful. The residence is situated on a 0.21-acre corner plot of land that almost looks like a park.

The house appeared in the first two episodes of Wicked City. I’m sure it was also utilized in the five unaired episodes that were shot prior to the cancellation, as well.

As you can see below, it looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, though it appears that a lot of foliage was brought in for the shoot.

I fell in love with the iron adornment on the front door while watching the pilot and was floored to see that it is an actual feature of the house.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was used in the filming of the pilot episode.

Unfortunately, I could not find any interior photographs of the place with which to verify that hunch.

The inside of Kent’s residence also made a brief appearance in the third episode of Wicked City, which is titled “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” but I am pretty certain that a set was used for that scene.

Interestingly, in the Google Street View imagery of the house, a film crew is visible shooting some sort of production in one of the neighboring residences.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kent’s house from Wicked City is located at 2023 West Parkside Avenue in Burbank.

November 19, 2015November 11, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Whisky a Go Go from “Wicked City”

Don’t forget to check out my latest Scene it Before post for Los Angeles magazine about the Whisky a Go Go from Wicked City. My articles typically get published in the early afternoon hours.