The Office Filming Locations

June 19, 2020December 3, 2020

The Best Buy Parking Lot Where Jim Proposed to Pam on “The Office”

Like much of the world, I have been re-watching The Office while quarantining. There’s nothing quite like the silly shenanigans of the Dunder Mifflin gang to provide laughs during a trying time. And it’s even inspired me to do some stalking! In viewing Season 5’s “Weight Loss: Part 2,” I realized I had never stalked the roadside service station where Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) finally proposed to Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer). As most fans know, the station was not real, but a set built specifically for the shoot in the rear parking lot of a Los Angeles Best Buy. Though several sources note the Best Buy as being in Los Feliz, I quickly discerned it was actually the outpost at 2909 Los Feliz Boulevard in Atwater Village. I headed out to stalk the lot shortly thereafter (donning a mask and gloves, of course!) and took photos of practically every square inch of it. Per co-executive producer Gene Stupinsky, even the hills in the background were digitally replaced with trees indigenous to the East Coast for the scene, so I did not have high hopes for being able to pinpoint exactly where the set stood. But then I received The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene for my birthday last week and my prayers were answered! There in the image section of the book was a photo of the proposal set with a backdrop of mountains visible, allowing me to ID the spot where Jim got down on one knee! Though I only took one selfie during my stalk, it turned out to be in the perfect position! Talk about fortuitous!

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In “Weight Loss: Part 2,” Jim spontaneously IMs Pam, telling her to meet him “halfway” for lunch (Pam was attending art school in New York at the time) at “the rest stop where that soda exploded on me.” As soon as he arrives, he drops to one knee and proposes, saying he can’t wait any longer. Series creator Greg Daniels chose to shoot the romantic segment at such a mundane setting because, as noted in Greene’s book, “Momentous events can happen to us in a place that we least expect it.” Daniels was actually inspired by a real service station he patronized. In the book, producer Randy Cordray explains,“ What he had in mind was an actual rest stop that he and his family visit when they visit his in-laws in Connecticut. They would fly into LaGuardia and hop in their rental van and they would always stop at this one ExxonMobil station along the Merritt Parkway to use the bathroom and get a bite to eat and grab a drink.” 9/11, of all things, thwarted the show making use of the actual station thanks to a moratorium on filming the oil company implemented following the attacks. When a similar location could not be found anywhere on the West Coast, Daniels and Cordray sent production designer Michael Gallenberg on a mission to photograph and measure the Merritt Parkway site and then subsequently re-create it back in L.A.

I’m sure you can guess what’s coming next! As soon as I read that the famous gas station set was based upon a real locale, I, of course, set out to find it! It proved a bit tough being that all six Merritt Parkway rest stops bear a similar aesthetic and all were remodeled in 2012/2013. In doing some detective work via historic Google Street View imagery, though, I am fairly certain that the rest stop in question is the one located in Fairfield on the southbound side of the parkway.

Though it boasts a side wing that the set station did not have, the roofline, octagonal windows and front door positioning all match what appeared onscreen. Not to mention The Office station was named “Fairview”, which is very similar to Fairfield. Again, this is just a hunch, though. I reached out to Michael Gallenberg for confirmation, but unfortunately he does not have access to his office or his files right now due to COVID-19. He is going to get back to me as soon as that changes, though.

Once Gallenberg had his measurements in hand, the production team looked to where the set replica would be constructed. Building it on an actual highway was given a quick veto by the California Highway Patrol, so Michael instead zeroed in on the Best Buy parking lot. In The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History, Cordray says, “There’s five acres of black asphalt behind a Best Buy store in Glendale, California. It is completely barren, unstripped and unpainted.” And it is well-known to location managers, having appeared in the Shibuya Square race segment of 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Using the below photo from Andy Greene’s book, I lined up the hills in the background and was able to determine that the gas station was constructed in the middle of the lot’s western edge.

The set was extensive! The mini-mart portion of it was actually just a façade with a scant eight-foot depth, the fridges and coolers visible behind Jim and Pam merely hi-res photographs. In front of the mart was an overhang canopying four pumps.

And in front of the pumps, a faux freeway was created! In Greene’s book Cordray says, “We built a four-lane freeway out in front and we used colored tape to mark the lanes. And we built a median strip with Astroturf and guardrail. This was designed in a giant dog bone shape so that cars and trucks could pass through the shot at fifty-five miles an hour, and then go way out into the distance, arc in a big circle and come back through the shot the other direction. I had thirty-five precision drivers.” The set also boasted extensive rigging to supply the rain the segment required. (That rigging is visible in the photo of the set from Andy Green’s book above.) Of it, Cordray states, “The nearest water was a fire department hydrant in front of Best Buy, which was several hundred yards away, so we had giant construction cranes holding up water tankers over the whole set so that we could rain [on] four lanes of freeway and the whole top of the gas station.” (As it turns out, my friend’s company, Underwood Water Trucks, was responsible for the rigging, which I was so thrilled to learn!) While it may sound like far too large an undertaking to take place in an electronics store parking lot, the Los Feliz Best Buy lot is quite possibly the biggest I have ever encountered!

Aerial views truly do not do it justice.

Neither do my photographs!

It.is.huge.

While the lot is situated behind Best Buy, I learned from Nick Carr, of Scouting New York, that it is actually owned by the adjacent New Life Vision Church.

A portion of it, though, appears to be utilized as parking for employees of the nearby Costco, so I am guessing it is partially leased out to the wholesale company. But, as my pictures attest, it was almost completely vacant when I stalked it mid-day on a weekday.

Amazingly, The Office gas station segment was pulled off in only nine days! It seems like a ridiculously short amount of time, but as Gallenberg told Andy Greene, “We had nine days to scout, design, build and shoot a rest stop with a four-lane parkway.” It’s pretty incredible – and was so well-executed that here I am, twelve years later, stalking and blogging about the vacant, wholly unrecognizable parking lot where it all occurred! Magic definitely happened on this site!

If you want to learn more about “Weight Loss: Part 2,” as well as other Office episodes, be sure to pick up a copy of Andy Greene’s book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History! It is fabulous!

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: The Best Buy parking lot where Jim proposed to Pam on the “Weight Loss: Part 2” episode of The Office is located at 2909 Los Feliz Boulevard in Atwater Village. The lot is situated directly behind and to the north of Best Buy. The exact spot where the rest stop set stood is denoted with a pink box below.

June 21, 2017May 11, 2020

The Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel from “The Office”

I typically have the memory of an elephant, but up until the Grim Cheaper and I recently started re-watching The Office over again from the beginning, I had honestly forgotten what a great show it is. I had also forgotten that several locations from it remain unknown and/or undocumented. One that I recognized immediately during our re-watch was the supposed Philadelphia hotel where Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) stayed in Season 3’s “The Convention.”

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Filming of the episode actually took place a good 2,700 miles west of the City of Brotherly Love. In reality, Michael, Dwight, and Jim checked into the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, a spot I originally visited in November 2011 when I met up with my friends/fellow bloggers Ashley, from The Drewseum, and Katie, from Matthew Lillard Online and Rumble Fish Online, for the very first time.

Because that meet-up took place a good year or so after my initial viewing of “The Convention,” I did not recognize the hotel. But as soon as I saw it onscreen for the second time, realization immediately hit and I ran right out to re-stalk the place shortly thereafter.

Situated on 12 acres directly across the street from the Bob Hope Airport, the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel boasts 488 rooms, 2 outdoor pools with cabanas and fire pits, a Jacuzzi, a fitness center, 45,000 square feet of meeting space, a coffee bar, and a business center.

The property also features two onsite restaurants, the Daily Grill and an outdoor lounge named E.D.B. – Eat, Drink, Be.

In “The Convention,” which aired in 2006, Michael, Dwight and Jim head to Philly to attend the Annual Northeastern Midmarket Office Supply Convention – or as Michael refers to it “a booze-fueled sex romp where anything goes.” The Marriott Burbank Airport was used extensively throughout the episode. Sadly, because the property has been remodeled twice since filming took place (first in 2008 and then again in 2015), it looks quite a bit different today than it did on The Office. It is still recognizable, though. Areas that were featured in the episode include the lobby;

the East Tower elevator bay;

the Convention Center (which you can see some photos of in my 2012 post about the Hollywood Show);

a couple of rooms;

a hallway;

the Daily Grill restaurant – which masked as the Scranton, Pennsylvania eatery where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) went on a double date with Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak), and Kelly’s neighbor, Alan (Robert Bagnell);

and the exterior hallway leading from the lobby to the East Tower . . .

. . . which, while enclosed at the time of the filming, was opened up during the 2015 remodel.

The Marriott Burbank also portrays the Antelope Valley hotel Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) pop into for a “shower pit stop” in the Season 2 episode of Dead to Me titled “Between You and Me.”

Their room, the presidential suite, was just a set, though, I believe.

Jen and Judy also party at the hotel’s Daily Grill, which poses as Whispers and Winks bar, in the episode.

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: The Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel, from “The Convention” episode of The Office, is located at 2500 North Hollywood Way in Burbank. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

July 21, 2014July 21, 2014

Scranton Business Park from the First Season of “The Office”

A fellow stalker named Scott recently challenged me to track down the building that was used as both the interior and exterior of Scranton Business Park during the inaugural season of The Office. I was perplexed at his query as I had no idea that two different Dunder Mifflin locations had been utilized during the show’s run. While I knew that interior filming had originally taken place inside of a real office space and that a set modeled after it had later been built inside of a soundstage, I always assumed that said office was at Chandler Valley Center Studios (which I blogged about here) on Saticoy Street in Van Nuys. I was wrong.

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Upon receiving the challenge, I did a Google search for “The Office filming locations Season 1” and came across a Yahoo! Answers query from an inquiring mind named Nickvet419 who had the very same question that Scott did. Nickvet419 had provided some screen captures (pictured below) and, sure enough, the building shown was NOT Chandler Valley Center Studios. Upon further searching, I dug up a 2006 TV Guide blog post written by Jenna Fischer (aka Pam Beesly) in which she stated that the series’ first season – both interiors and exteriors – had been filmed at a real office building in Culver City. I immediately forwarded the screen captures and Jenna’s post to fellow stalker/Office aficionado Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and asked if he had ever done any research on the locale. His response? “Nope, I’ve never tried to track down that location. In fact, I have zero recollection of that. Are you telling me that the Saticoy Street building we’re all familiar with wasn’t used for exterior scenes during the entire Season 1 run? I don’t remember that at all. My memory sucks, but I figured I would have remembered if outdoor scenes suddenly changed from an unidentified building to the Saticoy spot. All the outdoor scenes I can picture are of Saticoy. Weird.” You’re telling me! How in the heck did I not recognize the fact that two different Dunder Mifflins had appeared on the show? Thankfully, Owen quickly tracked down the Culver City locale and I ran out to stalk it this past weekend.

In real life, the original exterior of Scranton Business Park was actually Stage 1 and 2 of the Century Studio Corporation, which has since gone out of business due to runaway production. The building housed both soundstages and second floor office space when it was in operation. You can see photographs of some of the company’s soundstages (there were nine of them in total) here.

For a time, Stage 1 and 2 were being offered for sale, but the property now appears to have been taken off the market. Several set pieces and backdrops are still located onsite, though, as you can see below. I am guessing that the location went into foreclosure at some point and is currently in a holding pattern, waiting to be sold by the bank.

Sadly, the exterior of the property was altered in recent years, as you can see in the Google Street View image below (and LoopNet listing photo here) as compared to my current photograph. While there used to be eight windows running across the second floor of the building, there are now only six.

The door to the loading dock located directly beneath the missing windows has also been made taller, which means that a portion of the second floor office space has been removed. I was absolutely heartbroken upon discovering the change because it is that removed area that I believe was used on The Office.

As you can see below, the building is divided into two sections, each with a soundstage and second-floor office space, separated by a green-gated entrance. The northern portion comprises Stage 1, while the southern portion comprises Stage 2.

After spending a ridiculous amount of time comparing the blurred views of buildings visible in the background of some Season 1 episodes to Google Street View images of buildings located across the street from Stage 1 and 2, I became convinced that it was the second floor of Stage 1 (the northern section) that was used as the interior of Dunder Mifflin. (I know, I know – I have way too much time on my hands!) The discovery was particularly distressing as I was hoping that the office space that appeared on the series was still intact – and that I could possibly tour it someday. But that does not appear to be the case.

Stage 1’s offices were only utilized for the first season of The Office (a total of six episodes), but because the set built for the remainder of the filming was almost an exact replica, the space would have been completely recognizable.

What a thrill it would have been to see it in person!

Of the set, Jenna Fischer stated in her blog post, “In Season 1 of The Office, we shot on location at a real office building, on the second floor of some old offices in Culver City, California. For Season 2, we moved to a soundstage, where they re-created the original office location down to the smallest detail. (Except that they made Michael’s office a little larger. It was hard to fit the camera crew into the old office to do his interview segments.) Why move at all? The No. 1 reason: Now we can control the weather and the amount of light that comes through the windows. When they were real windows facing the real outside, it was tricky! If you watch the DVD of Season 1, I bet you can see some subtle differences between our old location and our new stage. The craziest thing was that for the first few weeks in our new location we would forget we were on a soundstage and get confused trying to leave. The actual exit doors were all different. Just imagine if someone rebuilt the interior of your house on a soundstage. So when you walked out your “front door,” instead of seeing the outside you were still inside a giant warehouse with lights and equipment. It felt like we were on The Truman Show!”

Pictured below are screen captures of Michael Scott’s (Steve Carell) office, the set version of which was made slightly larger than the real life version, as Jenna mentioned.

The change is barely noticeable, though.

The Dunder Mifflin warehouse, where the gang played basketball in the Season 1 episode titled “Basketball,” was actually the soundstage on the bottom floor of Stage 2. This was easily discernible thanks to the adjacent brick wall that was visible in the episode.

According to DVD commentary provided by B.J. Novak (aka Ryan Howard), during Season 1 the production team transformed the soundstage located directly below the real life offices used for interior filming into a makeshift production office. I am guessing that is why the Stage 2 soundstage was employed as the warehouse in “Basketball” – because the Stage 1 soundstage was already being utilized as production space.

I was thrilled to discover that the little green-gated alcove located in between Stage 1 and 2 had appeared in some of the first season’s deleted scenes. At least that area is still intact. Now if only I could get in there to see it!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Scranton Business Park from the first season of The Office is located at 3322 La Cienega Place in Culver City. Chandler Valley Center Studios, the building used during Seasons 2-9 of The Office, can be found at 13927 Saticoy Street in Van Nuys.

April 5, 2012April 4, 2012

The Historic Mayfair Hotel from “The Office”

Fellow stalker John Bengtson, from the SIlent Locations blog, sent me an email last week after reading my post on Red Studios Hollywood from The Artist (a location that I had learned about from his website) informing me that he had tracked down some locales from Season 7’s “The Search” episode of The Office that I might be interested in stalking, most notably The Historic Mayfair Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Holly Flax (Amy Ryan) shared a rooftop kiss. Ironically enough, my good friend, fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, had also sent me this location on February 4th of last year, the day after the episode had originally aired, along with a list of all of the other places featured in “The Search”. And while I did stalk a few of them – Kung Pao China Bistro and Larry’s Chili Dog – for whatever reason, I never made it out to The Mayfair. So, this past weekend, I decided to change that and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there. (I am not sure what happened with the above photograph, but somehow it turned out a bit wonky and neither the GC nor I realized it at the time.)

The Historic Mayfair Hotel was originally designed in 1927 by Alexander E. Curlett and Claud W. Beelman, the same architecture team who gave us the Park Plaza Hotel near MacArthur Park (an extremely popular filming location that I have stalked, but have yet to blog about), the Cooper Arms condominium building in Long Beach, and the Los Angeles Board of Trade Building in Downtown L.A. The 13-story hotel, which at the time was named simply The Mayfair, was commissioned by Texas oil tycoons and was constructed at a cost of $1.5 million – and we’re talking 1920’s dollars! In its heyday, the luxury property hosted such luminaries as Mary Pickford and John Barrymore. Raymond Chandler even wrote and set his 1939 short story “I’ll Be Waiting” at The Mayfair, although he dubbed the place the “Windermere Hotel” in the tale.

The property, which originally boasted 350 rooms, but now has just 304, was the largest hotel west of the Mississippi at one time and featured an immensely popular supper and dance club known as the Rainbow Isle Room, from which George Eckhardts, Jr. and the Rainbow Isle Orchestra would broadcast a live radio show each night. In 2004, after suffering from a long period of neglect, the structure underwent a massive and much-needed $40 million renovation, at which point it was renamed The Historic Mayfair Hotel. You can check out some great photographs of the place during its early days on The Mayfair’s Facebook page here.

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In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being stranded at a supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area gas station, Michael Scott goes on a walkabout which ends on the rooftop of The Historic Mayfair Hotel. When Holly finds him there and Michael tells her how much he has missed her, the two finally kiss, ending several years worth of will-they-or-won’t-they-get-together storylines and allowing audiences to finally breath a long-overdue sigh of relief. Not surprisingly, the roof area of The Mayfair is closed to the public, so I was unable to snap any pictures of it.

Mike, from MovieShotsLA, figured out that The Mayfair stood in for the supposed Chicago, Illinois-area The Addison Hotel where Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) attended her 15-year high school reunion in 1999’s The Deep End of the Ocean.

It was from the lobby of The Mayfair that Beth’s 3-year-old son, Ben Cappadora (Michael McElroy), was kidnapped.

As you can see above, despite the renovation, the lobby still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1998 when The Deep End of the Ocean was filmed.

The super-nice front desk clerk that we spoke with while we were there informed us that both the interior and the exterior of the property had also appeared in 1994’s True Lies, as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area Washington Mayfair Hotel where Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger), on horseback, chased motor-cycle-riding religious zealot Salim Abu Aziz (Art Malik) through a lobby.

The Mayfair lobby was actually one of three different lobbies used in that particular scene. Harry is first shown chasing Salim across the length of The Mayfair’s lobby.

The two then turn a corner and are magically transported to the now-defunct The Ambassador hotel, the same lobby of which was used as the Regent Beverly Wilshire in 1990’s Pretty Woman.

The duo then heads outside, “across the street” and into The Westin Bonaventure Hotel. In reality, when the Ambassador was still standing, it was located a good two miles away from The Bonaventure. Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

Thanks to the Richard Dean Anderson Website, I learned that The Historic Mayfair Hotel was also used in the 1986 Season 1 episode of MacGyver titled “The Assassin”.

I am fairly certain that only the exterior of the property appeared in the episode, though, and that all of the interior hotel scenes were filmed on a set. And while IMDB states that The Mayfair was also featured in 2009’s Don’t Look Up, I scanned through the flick yesterday while doing research for this post and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers John Bengtson, from the SIlent Locations blog, and Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for informing me of its appearance in The Deep End of the Ocean! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Historic Mayfair Hotel, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 1256 West 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 20, 2012March 19, 2012

Erin’s Florida House from “The Office”

I would like to start off today’s post by wishing my good friend and fellow stalker Lavonna a VERY HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY! In honor of her big day, I decided that I just had to write about an Office-related locale, because not only it is Lavonna’s very favorite show, but she is actually the person who is responsible for getting me hooked on the series in the first place – for which I will always be grateful. And while I do have a few Office locations in my back pocket, so to speak, as fate would have it, this past Sunday morning I received a timely email from fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, who wanted to let me know that he had just tracked down the supposed Tallahassee, Florida house where Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) lived in the Season 8 episodes of the series titled “Last Day in Florida” and “Get the Girl”. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place that very afternoon.

The eagle-eyed Geoff tracked this location down thanks to a sign reading “Stagg Street” which he spotted in the background of the scene in which star-crossed lovers Erin and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) finally kissed in the “Get the Girl” episode. A quick Google search informed Geoff that Stagg Street was located in Panorama City, so he started looking through aerial views of the area and thankfully it was not long before he found the right abode.

As Geoff later pointed out to this directionally-challenged stalker, Erin’s Florida house is actually located directly behind Chandler Valley Center Studios, where The Office is lensed!

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In the “Last Day in Florida” episode of The Office, broken-hearted Erin decides that she will not be returning to Scranton, Pennsylvania once the Sabre “Special Project” has been completed. She winds up being hired as a personal assistant/house cleaner to an “old lady” named Irene (Georgia Engel) and moves into her Tallahassee home. In the following episode, “Get the Girl”, Andy drives out to Florida in order to profess his love to Erin in the hopes that she will quit her new job and return to Scranton with him.

In person, Erin’s Tallahassee house looks much the same as it did onscreen in The Office, minus some Florida-themed foliage and the dolphin water fountain that Andy tried to fix in the “Get the Girl” episode. In real life, the tiny dwelling, which was originally built in 1951, measures 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and 1,040 square feet. I have only been to Florida once, when I was about three years old, and do not remember much about it, but the GC spent quite a few of his childhood years in the Sunshine State, so I asked him if the abode looked like one that would be found there. His answer, “No, not at all.” LOL (The building that is visible behind the house in the above photographs is Chandler Valley Center Studios. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to live that close to where The Office is filmed!)

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the property was also used in the episodes.

The intersection where Andy and Erin kissed is located a block and a half north of the house, but, unfortunately, I did not realize that at the time, so I did not take any photographs of it.

On an Office side-note – I was beyond floored when I recognized that the supposed Tallahassee, Florida hotel where the gang stayed during the “Special Project” episodes (“Tallahassee”, “After Hours”, “Test the Store”, “Last Day in Florida”, and “Get the Girl”) was actually the Hyatt Regency Valencia, the very same hotel which appeared in the first Twilight movie and which I stalked way back in November of 2009. Quite a bit of the property was used in the five episodes, including the front exterior;

several rooms;

the main lobby;

and Vines Restaurant and Bar.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location and a very big HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY to my good friend Lavonna! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Erin’s “Florida” house from the “Last Day in Florida” and “Get the Girl” episodes of The Office is located at 7777 Cherrystone Avenue in Panorama City. The home backs up to Chandler Valley Center Studios, where The Office is filmed, which is located at 13927 Saticoy Street in Van Nuys. Erin and Andy kissed in the “Get the Girl” episode just up the street from the house at the intersection of Stagg Street and Cherrystone Avenue. The “Tallahassee, Florida” hotel where the gang stayed during the “Special Project” episodes is the Hyatt Regency Valencia, which is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

January 10, 2012January 9, 2012

Westfield Fashion Square Mall from “The Office”

One location that my good friend, fellow stalker Lavonna, asked me to track down eons ago was the shopping center that was featured in the Season 3 episode of fave show The Office titled “Women’s Appreciation”. Because the series is taped in Van Nuys, I figured that the mall was located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, so whenever the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves in a shopping center in that area, I would wander around looking for the large circular water fountain that Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) had tried to climb into in order to retrieve a one-dollar bill. Try as I might, though, I could not seem to find that fountain anywhere. I had almost given up hope when, two weekends ago, the GC and I were doing a little shopping at the Westfield Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks and I spotted a water fountain just outside of Macy’s department store. I snapped a quick photo of it on my phone so that I could compare it to the fountain that had appeared in the episode once I got home. Ironically, as it turned out, the fountain I had taken a picture of did not, in fact, match, but, thinking that there might be more than one located inside of the mall, I did a quick search of “fountains” and “Westfield Fashion Square Mall” on Google and, sure enough, a photo of the correct fountain popped up. I am ashamed to admit that not only was The Office fountain located about ten feet away from the one that I had taken a picture of, but we had actually walked right by it while shopping that day and somehow did not notice. Doh! So this past weekend I dragged the GC right on back out there (much to his chagrin – he HATES malls) so that I could finally stalk it.

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In the “Women’s Appreciation” episode of The Office, Michael Scott takes the women of Dunder Mifflin – Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), Phyllis Vance (aka Phyllis Smith), Meredith Palmer (aka Kate Flannery), Kelly Kapoor (aka Mindy Kaling), Angela Martin (aka Angela Kinsey), and Karen Filippelli (aka Rashida Jones) – shopping at the supposed Steamtown Mall in order to show them that they are “appreciated” by the men in the office. And while the exterior of the actual The Mall at Steamtown in Scranton, Pennsylvania was used for the establishing shot of the shopping center in the episode, the interior of Westfield Fashion Square Mall was used for all of the actual filming.

Many areas of Westfield Fashion Square Mall were used in the episode, including the food court, where Michael and the ladies ate lunch and where Michael confessed that he wanted to break up with longtime girlfriend Jan Levenson (aka Melora Hardin).

In the scene, the gang sat just outside of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf café;

in the area pictured above.

After lunch, Michael announces (however inappropriately) that he would like to buy each of the women a present of their choosing at Victoria’s Secret.

Some filming did take place inside of the actual Victoria’s Secret store and I very much wanted to venture inside to snap a few pics, but shops tend to get very antsy about photographs for some reason, so I did not even attempt it. Back in October, when I was stalking the Macy’s at the Burbank Town Center Mall, which appeared in the “Redemption” episode of The Mentalist, a store employee actually tried to confiscate my camera! Not kidding. Because I was taking pictures inside of a store – pictures of an area that had been immortalized on a hit TV show for all of the world to see, mind you – she told me she was going to call security and attempted to take my camera out of my hands! Um, OK. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. If you do not want photographs to be taken of your store, fine, no problem, but then do not put said store on national television! Sigh. I just really do not get people sometimes, but I digress. Winking smile

At the very end of the episode, Michael throws a coin into the mall’s fountain and makes a wish “for every woman in the world”. Of his wishes, he says, “I wished for Jan to get over me. I wished for Phyllis a plasma TV. I wished for Pam to gain courage. I wished for Angela a heart. And for Kelly, a brain.” LOL LOL LOL Ah, Michael Scott, how we miss you!

And, let me tell you, seeing that fountain in person after so many hours of searching for it was the absolute highlight of the stalk for me! Whoo hoo!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Westfield Fashion Square Mall, aka Steamtown Mall from the “Women’s Appreciation” episode of The Office, is located at 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. The water fountain that Michael Scott tried to climb into can be found just outside of The Disney Store on the mall’s first level. The Victoria’s Secret store where the women shopped in the episode is located just a few doors down from The Disney Store, also on the mall’s first level. The Food Court, where the women ate lunch, is located on the mall’s second level. The gang sat just outside of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf café and Stone Oven restaurant.

November 15, 2011November 2, 2011

Larry’s Chili Dog from “The Office”

Because fellow stalker Lavonna has been in town for the past few days and I have been doing some major stalking with her, today’s post is, unfortunately, going to be a short one. Sad smile Sorry about that folks, but I do promise to be back tomorrow with a regular-sized write-up. And now, on with the post! One location that has been on my “To-Stalk” list since way back in early February is Larry’s Chili Dog – a tiny Burbank-area hot dog stand that was featured in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “The Search”. As I mentioned quite a few months back in my post about Kung Pao China Bistro, the Chinese food restaurant that was also featured in “The Search”, fellow stalker Owen tracked down every single location which appeared in the episode. And because, as I have also mentioned previously, this stalker absolutely loves herself some hot dogs, I was especially excited to stalk Larry’s, but for whatever reason had just never made it out there. So, a couple of weeks ago, when the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves ravenously hungry after a shopping expedition at the Burbank IKEA, I knew exactly where to head!

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In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being left stranded at a local gas station sans wallet, money, and cell phone, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) decides to go on a “walkabout” through Downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania. He first hits up a pet store and talks to a few random animals about love, before heading over to Larry’s Chili Dog where he orders a hot dog. Because he has no means of paying, he tells the cashier that he will leave his “$45 watch” behind as a sort of marker, to which the cashier says, “We’re not a pawn shop.” Michael tries to barter with the cashier further, but he is having none of it and Michael ends up yelling “You’ve just lost my business” before walking away empty-handed. LOL God, I love that show! It has sadly gone downhill this season, but the reruns of the earlier episodes just never get old!

Larry’s Chili Dog looks much the same in person as it did on The Office and I am very happy to report that the owners truly could NOT have been nicer! They let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming.

They also told me that Steve Carell was extremely nice and had posed for pictures with them during the filming. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Because the owners were so incredibly nice, it seriously pains me to say that I did not enjoy my hot dog all that much. It was of the snap-skin variety, which, for whatever reason, gives this stalker the major heebie-jeebies! As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am an extremely picky eater. The GC absolutely LOVED his hamburger, though, and the French fries and ranch dressing were both A-MA-ZING, so all in all our lunch was not a total loss.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Larry’s Chili Dog, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 3122 West Burbank Boulevard in Burbank.

June 16, 2011June 15, 2011

Chili’s Grill & Bar from “The Office”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while in the San Fernando Valley was the site of the former Black Angus Steakhouse in Panorama City which masqueraded as a supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Chili’s Grill & Bar in two different Season 2 episodes of fave show The Office. I first found out about this location from fellow stalker/Office aficionado Snidley Whiplash who posted a comment about it on my site a little over a year and a half ago and, even though the structure was unfortunately torn down shortly after The Office episodes were filmed, I was absolutely dying to stalk the place. For whatever reason, though, the GC and I just never made it out there. Then, when I was randomly asked about the restaurant on three separate occasions over the past two weeks, I decided that I had best get a move on and stalk it, which I finally did two Sundays ago, shortly after grabbing lunch at Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant which I blogged about on Tuesday.

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The Panorama City Black Angus Steakhouse was first featured in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “The Dundies” as the site of the Dunder Mifflin staff’s 2005 Dundie Awards ceremony. The real life restaurant had shuttered its doors shortly prior to the filming, making it easy for the production staff to come in and dress it to look like an actual, working Chili’s. In TV Guide’s Office Gossip blog about “The Dundies” episode, series stars/co-executive producer/writer B.J. Novak, said, “In the show, the awards ceremony takes place at a local Chili’s restaurant, which we thought would be fun and true to the show. We didn’t want to invent a fake, similar-sounding restaurant, like “Peppers,” or “T.G.I. Wednesday’s.” Since this is supposed to be a realistic show, about realistic offices, we thought setting [it in] a place like Chili’s would be refreshing. We got permission from Chili’s and spent weeks, with their help, reconstructing with painstaking detail a Chili’s restaurant in an empty abandoned building.” The results of their efforts are pictured above.

Both the interior and the exterior of the former Black Angus appeared in the episode.

And it was there that Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), after consuming far too many margaritas, spontaneously kissed Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) for the very first time. Sigh! So cute!

A few weeks later, the very same former Black Angus masqueraded as the Chili’s where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson (aka Melora Hardin) took prospective Dunder Mifflin customer Christian (aka Tim Meadows) for lunch in order to woo him in the Season 2 episode titled “The Client”. Of the restaurant, Michael says, “Chili’s is the new golf course. It’s where business happens.” LOL

And while I was hoping that some portion of the former steakhouse would still be standing, that was sadly not the case. As you can see in the above photographs, the area where filming took place is now just a large vacant field sandwiched between two strip malls in the middle of Downtown Panorama City. I am not sure why the building was torn down and not just leased out to a different restaurant chain (like maybe Chili’s Winking smile ), but I am guessing that the vacant land must have been worth more than the lease for a new restaurant would have been. Such an incredible shame!

Amazingly enough, though, as you can see above, the former steakhouse is still visible on Bing aerial maps.

It is also still visible on Google Street View, as well. And while I had originally assumed that the restaurant was painted red while it was still in operation, I happened to stumble across this Facebook page about the former eatery in which the structure is shown to be brown.

Which got me to thinking that the restaurant must have been painted red solely for the filming and, sure enough, while poking around on Google Street View, I noticed that only the front and side of the eatery were red, while the backside was left the original brown, as you can see above. It is so incredibly cool that the building was captured by the Google Street View camera while in its filming state! Oh, how I wish I could have seen it that way in person, too! Sad smile

And on an Office locations side note – sweetheart that he is, fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members who informed him that the interior of Louis Vople’s Italian Restaurant, where the Season 7 episode “Michael’s Last Dundies” was filmed, was in actuality just a set that had been built at Chandler Valley Center Studios where the show is filmed. So that mystery is finally solved! Thank you, Owen! Smile

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Snidley Whiplash for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Black Angus restaurant which stood in for Chili’s Grill & Bar in the Season 2 episodes of The Office titled “The Dundies” and “The Client” was formerly located at 14640 Roscoe Boulevard in Panorama City.

June 14, 2011June 15, 2011

Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant from “The Office”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for quite a few weeks now is the Italian restaurant where the Dunder Mifflin gang hosted the annual Dundies Awards ceremony in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “Michael’s Last Dundies”. I had an inkling that the eatery was most likely located somewhere in the Van Nuys area, near Chandler Valley Center Studios where the series is lensed, so one of my first lines of attack was to do a Google search for the terms “Italian restaurant”, “Van Nuys”, and “filming”. My query kicked back numerous results, most of which pointed to an eatery in Valley Glen named “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant” and when I looked at an exterior image of the place on fave website LA Time Machines, I saw that it indeed matched up perfectly to what had appeared on The Office. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place and grab some lunch two Sundays ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant was originally founded way back in 1945 by brothers Tony, Frank, and Mike Arpaia, all of whom had just returned home after finishing a stint in the Air Force during World War II, and their sister, Josephine Barone. The siblings purchased a defunct eatery named Barto’s at the corner of Beverly Glen and Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks and, in order to to save a bit of money, simply dropped the “T” and added an “N” and an “E” to the former restaurant’s exterior signage, thus creating “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant”. The establishment became so popular that just four years later the family was forced to move it to a larger space located at 14151 Ventura Boulevard, where it remained until 2006, at which time it was moved to its current home on the corner of Oxnard Street and Mammoth Avenue in Valley Glen. It was that Valley Glen location that I set out to stalk two weekends ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant, which has served such luminaries as Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Lucille Ball, John Wayne, and Jane Russell, is still family-owned and operated to this day, 66 years after its inception. The eatery has long been known for its rectangular-shaped pizzas, an idea which was born out of a need to fit more pies into the restaurant’s tiny oven, but because I am diabetic and have to stay away from carbs, the GC and I were unfortunately not able to sample any. I instead opted for the Chicken Marsala entree, while the GC sampled Barone’s “Famous Stuffed Mushrooms” and a Caesar salad, and, sadly, I have to say that none of it was especially tasty. Sad smile I had such high hopes for the place, too! Being that we saw no less than thirty pies make their way out the door for delivery in the short time that we were dining there, though, I am guessing that it is the pizzas that have kept people coming back to this place time and time again for over six decades.

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In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell), Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell), Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinksi) and the rest of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch employees gather at the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Louis Volpe’s Italian Restaurant to celebrate the 2011 Dundie Awards. Chaos, of course, ensues and they all end up getting kicked out of the establishment by the restaurant’s manager after Deangelo screams out the word “vomit” numerous times during his acceptance speech.

Upon entering the restaurant, though, I was shocked to discover that it looked NOTHING at all like what had appeared on the show. From what I was able to discern after talking to the restaurant’s super-nice hostess, while the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode did use the exterior of Barone’s for some filming, all of the interior scenes were filmed elsewhere – at a location that I am unfortunately still on the hunt for. UPDATE – fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members, who informed him that the interior of Louis Volpe’s was in actuality just a set that was built at Chandler Valley Center Studios.

Some filming has taken place inside of the Barone’s space over the years, though. The eatery was the spot where Mark “Rat” Ratner (aka Brian Backer) took Stacey Hamilton (aka Jennifer Jason Leigh) out on a date, for which he forgot his wallet, in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. At the time, the restaurant was a German establishment named Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg, which was originally founded in 1958.

Thankfully, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, even though the establishment has gone through several ownership changes throughout the years, very little of the interior has been altered since Fast Times at Ridgemont High was filmed almost three decades ago. So incredibly cool!

In 1995, Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg was sold to a new owner, Switzerland native and Chef-of-the-Year-awardee Ueli Huegli, who renamed the place Matterhorn Chef and gave the menu a Swiss flair. In 2005, the restaurant was featured in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Bad News Bears.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant, which served as the exterior of Louie Volpe’s restaurant from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 13726 Oxnard Street in Valley Glen. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 9, 2011June 8, 2011

Darryl’s House from “The Office”

This past weekend I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the San Fernando Valley to do some stalking of the home belonging to Darryl Philbin (aka Craig Robinson) on fave show The Office. Fellow stalker Owen had actually tracked this location down well over a year ago and it is, ironically enough, located directly next-door to the abode where Meredith Palmer (aka Kate Flannery) lives on the series, which I blogged about a few weeks back. And even though I had the address written down in my trusty stalking notebook and even though Owen had reminded me that the two dwellings were located right next door to each other, for some reason I completely forgot that fact when I went to stalk Meredith’s house in early May. Yes, I am most definitely a blonde. 😉 As soon as I realized my mistake, Darryl’s house was moved to the very top of my To-Stalk list and I dragged the poor GC right on back over there this past Sunday afternoon to finally snap some pics of the place.

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Darryl’s house was actually only featured in one episode of The Office – the Season 6 episode titled “The Meeting”, in which Dunder Mifflin paper salesman Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) convinces human resources director Toby Flenderson (aka Paul Lieberstein) that warehouse manager Darryl is lying about his claim that he injured himself while standing on a ladder at work. In order to prove his case, Dwight persuades Toby to conduct a stakeout of Darryl’s home. While on the stakeout – during which Dwight invites Toby to someday visit his “run-of-the-mill-slaughterhouse” where he is currently restoring a life-size train LOL – the two are parked in front of the residence located next door and to the west of Darryl’s.

The two then spot a rather large individual wearing a sports jersey and carrying a humongous bag of dog food whom they assume is Darryl. Dwight immediately pulls his car up to the front of Darryl’s house in order to confront him, while Toby yells out, “Hey you, a**hole! You gonna eat all that dog food yourself?” As it turns out, the person whom they thought was Darryl is actually his younger sister, who was played by actress Jahmilla Jackson.

Once they realize their mistake, Dwight and Toby panic and Dwight tries to drive away quickly, but ends up plowing his car into Darryl’s garbage cans. Interestingly enough, Meredith’s house can be spotted in the background of that part of the scene.

I am very happy to report that Darryl’s house looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

Even the two blue Adirondack chairs which were situated on the front porch during the episode are there in real life!

Interestingly enough, in the Season 7 episode of The Office titled “Search Committee”, Darryl is shown typing up his resume, on which his home address is visible. It reads “14152 Emelita Ave, Scranton, PA 18505”. In real life, the address of the house used as Darryl’s is 14152 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Darryl’s house, from “The Meeting” episode of The Office, is located at 14152 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. During their stakeout, Darryl and Toby are parked in front the residence located at 14156 Emelita Street. Meredith’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located next-door to Darryl’s at 14142 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. Toby’s house from that same episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 5752 Calhoun Avenue, also in Van Nuys. And Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys.