Wonderland from “Scandal”

I realize this is a complete about-face, but I am so over Scandal!  I know, I know – my love for the series was incredibly short-lived.  The Grim Cheaper and I just finished watching Season 4, though, and both felt that it went downhill fast.  The last few episodes proved so ridiculous that I don’t think we’ll be watching Season 5 when it starts airing in September.  Case in point – and warning, there be spoilers ahead! – one of the series’ main storylines centers around a super secret agency known as B613 that works outside of the government.  The agency is responsible for killing and torturing numerous people in the name of protecting the republic.  During Season 4, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and her fellow gladiators vow to take down B613 and in one of the last episodes a grand jury is convened to review evidence about the agency’s past evils.  After testimony is heard, all of the jurors are gunned down and killed, as is the court stenographer, and NO ONE notices or cares – not the media, not the government, not the courthouse workers.  Nothing is done about the killings, they aren’t investigated, the show just moves on from there.  I mean, wouldn’t it be a fairly easy crime to solve?  Entire jury gets massacred after hearing testimony – gee, I wonder if murderer happens to be a member of B613?  Oh, and did I mention that the jurors were killed in a court van while inside the courthouse parking garage?  I mean, come on!  I’m all about suspending disbelief, but that scenario is just so ridiculously implausible that I was angered upon watching it.  There were several other asinine storylines that played out this past season (I won’t even get into the fact that Olivia is completely safe after returning home from being kidnapped despite the fact that it was made apparent she could easily fetch over a billion dollars if she was sold on the black market) that just added to my annoyance.  So I just can’t even with Scandal anymore.  BUT I did happen to stalk the headquarters of B613 a couple of weeks ago while I was in L.A. and figured what better time than today to blog about it.  OK, end rant!

On Scandal, the B613 headquarters has a litany of names.  It is known as Wonderland (because it is said to be located on Wonderland Avenue in Washington, D.C.), ACME Limited, and ACME Paper Company.  And, as we found out in the Season 3 episode titled “No Sun on the Horizon,” the agency does actually sell paper.  As wannabe B613 agent Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes) says upon  being relegated to answer the ACME Limited sales line as a way to pay her dues, “I don’t know if we sell copy paper.  Because I just don’t, OK!  Ugh, yeah, well your phone manner sucks, too!”  Ah, such a great scene from back when Scandal was good!

The exterior of Wonderland was featured in the Season 3 episode titled “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”

The location manager did a fabulous job with this location.  The building chosen for filming is equal parts non-descript and foreboding.

In real life, the building serves as the headquarters of the J.M. Carden Sprinkler Co.  The Art Dec-style structure was originally built in 1931 as the Valley Dairy Company offices.  According to this The  Eastsider LA article, the interior of the property is quite fabulous.  I am kicking myself now for not having ventured inside.

I am unsure if the interior of Wonderland, which was shown in the “No Sun on the Horizon” episode, was a set or if filming took place on location somewhere.  I am 99.9% certain, though, that the interior of the J.M. Carden Sprinkler Co. building was not used onscreen.

Thanks to fellow stalker Richard (you may remember him from this post and this post), I learned that the building masked as a downtown Los Angeles 9-1-1 dispatch center in the Season 3 episode of 9-1-1 titled “The Taking of Dispatch 9-1-1.”

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Wonderland, aka B613 Headquarters from Scandal, is located at 2909 Fletcher Drive in Glassell Park.

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