Clark Magnet High School from “Our House”

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Back in March, a fellow stalker named Bill contacted me to ask for some help in tracking down the high school that Kris Witherspoon (my girl Shannen Doherty) attended in the 1986 television series Our House.  In his email, Bill included the links to several episodes of the series on YouTube (because it is maddeningly not yet available on DVD!), but the large brick structure did not look at all familiar to me.  So I called up Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and asked if he happened to know of any large brick schools in the L.A.-area off the top of his head.  He, of course, did and mentioned three of them that he thought I should check out – Grant High School in Van Nuys, Taft High School in Woodland Hills and Clark Magnet High School in La Crescenta.  As luck would have it, Clark Magnet was the right one!  That right there is why I love Mike – I can give him the vaguest of descriptions and, right off the bat, he knows the exact place I am talking about!  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there a few days later.

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Sadly though, Clark Magnet High School – like most schools in L.A. – is gated and, aside from the front entrance, not very accessible to the public.  So I called on Mike – who is now a location manager – once again, and suggested that he scout Clark the next time he was in need of a high school location – and that he should also bring me along.  Which he did just a few weeks later. Yay!

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Clark Magnet High School, which was named in honor of humanitarian Anderson W. Clark, was originally founded in 1961 as a middle school, serving kids in the 7th through 9th grades.  In 1983, suffering from low enrollment, the property’s doors were forced to close.  Thankfully though, the structure was not torn down, but instead became a community center, a teacher resource and training station and an office for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  And it was also used for filming.  Due to the fact that Clark was no longer a functioning school and therefore easy to film at, and had a desirable All-American look, the place became an obvious choice for location scouts.  But more on that later.  In 1996, a task force decided to re-open Clark, this time as a high school, to alleviate nearby overcrowding and the property subsequently underwent a 13-month, $15 million renovation and modernization project.  The site was re-founded in the fall of 1998 as a magnet school with focuses on science and technology and is currently the most technologically advanced school in the entire Glendale Unified School District.  In a very odd side-note – Clark has a “twin” – a virtually identical carbon copy – named Rosemont Middle School that is located about ten blocks east.  Both properties were built at the same time and, in order to be cost efficient, were designed in the exact same image.  So incredibly weird!

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In Our House, Clark Magnet High School stood in for James Polk High School, which Kris attended and where her mother, Jessica ‘Jessie’ Witherspoon (Deidre Hall), taught for a time.  The school can best be seen in the Season 1 episode titled “First Impressions”.  As you will notice below, during the renovation, Clark’s windows were, unfortunately, changed and no longer look as they did in the series.  Blah!

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In the “First Impressions” episode, Kris and her friend are shown walking through Clark’s humongous interior quad and then sitting on a set of cement bleachers.  It was those bleachers that I most wanted to see while we were there.  And thankfully, unlike the windows, they still look pretty much exactly the same as they did onscreen.

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And I, of course, just had to sit in the area where Shannen was sitting in the episode.

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Clark Magnet High School was also the school attended by despondent teenager Lane Meyer (John Cusack) in the 1985 flick Better Off Dead.  (My second photograph below does not exactly match the posted screen shot, but it is of the general area.  I am going to re-stalk the school soon so that I can get an exact pic.)

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In 2003’s Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Clark Magnet was the school attended by Sam Finney (Scott Terra) and Sally Finney (Jenna Boyd).

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The school’s gym, which we did not get to see, appeared in the movie’s pep squad tryout scene.  You can see a real life photograph of the Clark gym here.

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And thanks to this 1987 Los Angeles Times article, I learned that the movie Return to Horror High was also filmed at Clark.

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Randomly enough, a very young George Clooney had a starring role in Return to Horror High.

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As did Maureen McCormick, aka Marcia Brady.

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According to IMDB, the 1986 flick Dangerously Close was also filmed at Clark Magnet High School, but I could not find a copy of the movie with which to verify that.

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Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and taking me to stalk it!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Clark Magnet High School from Our House is located at 4747 New York Avenue in La Crescenta.  You can visit the school’s official website here.  Clark’s twin, Rosemont Middle School, is located at 4725 Rosemont Avenue in La Crescenta.  You can visit that school’s official website here.

The Dickie Roberts House

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Today is my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry’s birthday!  The two of us are actually heading down to Disneyland in a bit, where Kerry has secured a reservation for a little birthday celebration at the park’s exclusive Club 33 members-only restaurant and, let me tell you, I could not be more excited!!  I’ve been trying to get into that place for YEARS!!  But I’ll save that story for a future post.  🙂  Anyway, for the past few months, Kerry has been begging me to find the blue clapboard residence featured in the 2003 movie Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.  Unfortunately, though, not only had I never seen the movie, but I also had no idea where the home might be located.  So, the other day when fellow stalker Chas happened to mention that he knew the location of the Dickie Roberts  house, I just about died!!!  I immediately told Kerry, who also just about died.  🙂  So, Kerry, this one’s for you! 

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Once Chas had given me the address of the Dickie Roberts  house, I just HAD to watch the movie, and I am happy to report that I LOVED it.    I even found myself tearing up at the end, causing my fiance to look over at me and say “Are you actually crying over Dickie Roberts???”  LOL LOL LOL  What can I say, it’s a very touching movie!  🙂  Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star is the story of a thirty-something washed up actor, played by David Spade, who pays a family to let him move into their  home with them in the hopes of recreating his lost childhood so that he may become a better adult and, in turn, a better actor.  The home, which belongs to the Finney family in the film, is supposedly located at 741 Mockingbird Lane in an idyllic neighborhood somewhere in the Los Angeles area.  Once I visited the house in person, it wasn’t too hard to see why producers chose to use it as Dickie’s perfect childhood home.  While I was there a woman was out walking her dog, children were riding their bikes in their front yards, a couple was jogging down the street together, and every time any of them passed each other they would call out “Hi Mrs. So and So!  How are you this morning?”  It was literally like a scene out of a movie!  I felt like I had somehow stumbled onto the set of The Truman Show  or something!  LOL  It’s just as idyllic of a street in real life as it was portrayed to be in the movie.   Love it!  

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I am also very happy to report that the Dickie Roberts  house looks pretty much EXACTLY the same in person as it did in the movie.   According to IMDB, the real life owners of the home liked David Spade’s backyard treehouse from the movie so much, that after filming wrapped they elected to keep it!  I was SO looking forward to seeing that treehouse in person, but, alas, it is not visible from the street.  🙁  

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The Dickie Roberts  house shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably in the hilarious scene when Dickie is introduced to the wonder that is a Slip ‘n Slide!   A little bit of movie trivia for you – Wham-O, Inc., the company that manufactures the Slip ‘n Slide toy, actually sued Paramount Pictures for using their product in the movie without permission.  LOL  The things people get upset about, I swear!   🙂

 Happy birthday to Kerry and a big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Dickie Roberts  house is located at 741 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena.