The Walsh Family’s Minnesota House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One Beverly Hills, 90210 location that both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have long wanted to stalk was the Walsh Family’s former Minnesota residence which briefly appeared in the Season Four episode entitled “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye”.  Sadly, though, because no address number or background information which would point us to the home’s location were visible in the episode, we had no idea where to even begin looking.  So, this past week I called upon the usual suspects, fellow stalkers Owen and Chas, to help us track down the residence.  And sure enough, they did!  Chas ended up getting into contact with a former 90210 crew member who remembered that the home was located somewhere in Altadena, in the very same vicinity as Casa Walsh.  So, Owen got to cyberstalking aerial views of the area and, voila, fairly quickly found the home!  YAY!  As it turns out, the “Minnesota” house is located a mere two blocks away from Casa Walsh, so it looks like when the Walsh’s moved, they didn’t go very far. 😉  And, let me tell you, once Owen gave me the address, I immediately hopped into my car and dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place!  As fate would have it, when we pulled up to the house, the owner – an incredibly nice woman named Judy – just happened to be standing outside, so I of course had to strike up a conversation with her.  🙂

Judy truly could not have been nicer and did not find it at all weird that I was stalking her home.  😉  She even shared some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes information with us, the most exciting of which was the fact that not only did her home appear in the “So Long, Farewell” episode of 90210, but also in the opening credits of the Season One episode entitled “The Green Room” – which you can watch here.   In the credits, the house is featured in one brief scene in which a mailman is shown picking up the Walsh’s forwarded mail from their snow covered former home in Minnesota.  For some reason, though, that particular segment appeared only in “The Green Room” episode’s opening credits and never again.  It’s too bad, too, because I think it would have been a really cute way to start off each show.  Judy told us that it was about 105 degrees in Altadena on the day that scene was filmed and that the producers were having a hard time keeping the “snow” – which in reality was just a soap suds mixture – from evaporating in the heat.

In the “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye” episode, Brenda returns to Minneapolis for the first time since her family’s move to Beverly Hills in order to begin her Freshman Year at the University of Minnesota.  Before school starts, Cindy takes Brenda to see their former home and she knocks on the front door, hoping to take a peek at her old bedroom, but unfortunately no one is home.  Is it while standing in the front yard of her former home, though, that Brenda first starts to have doubts about attending college in Minnesota.  Those doubts soon turn into all out misgivings and in the following episode she leaves Minnesota and heads back to Beverly Hills to attend CU with Brandon, Kelly, and the rest of the gang.  🙂

In the scene, Brenda mentions that as kids she and Brandon used to play on a tire swing that their father had hung from a tree in their former home’s front yard.  So, I was absolutely floored when I noticed that the house had a swing hanging from a tree in the front yard in real life, too, as you can see in the above photograph.  So cool!

Judy also told us that for the past eight years her family has hosted a huge – and I do mean HUGE – annual Halloween spectacular in their front yard, consisting of a 40 foot maze, creepy clowns, life-size animatronics, monsters with chainsaws, and screenings of horror movies, along with numerous other tricks and treats to both terrorize and delight.  Judy’s a woman after my own heart, I swear, as Halloween has always been my very favorite holiday.  🙂   The “Haunted Yard”, as it has come to be known, attracted some 3,500 spectators this past year, including the Los Angeles Clippers Cheerleading Team who led the entire crowd in a spontaneous rendition of Michael Jackson’s zombie dance from Thriller.  Which begs the question, HOW IN THE HECK DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS????   I mean, I would have absolutely DIED to have seen that!!!!   And it was all happening just a few miles from where I live!  Oh, how I wish I had been there.  🙁  Ugh.  Maybe I can convince the Clippers to do a repeat performance next Halloween! 😉  You can read more about the annual “Haunted Yard” on fave website AltadenaBlog here.

A big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, and Chas for finding this house.  This one was definitely a group effort!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh Family’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1640 Braeburn Road in Altadena.