Tag: filming locations

The “Thriller” House

Today, in honor of Halloween, I thought I’d blog about what is arguably the most famous haunted house of all time – the Victorian-style residence that was featured in the 1983 music video “Michael Jackson’s Thriller”. Even though I’ve actually already blogged about this location once before (way back in December of 2007 when I first started my site!), because I mixed it in with a post about Halliwell Manor from Charmed which is located on the same street, I thought it was about time that the “Thriller” house was given proper recognition with its very own post. Especially since my dad recently transferred our VHS recording of “The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller” onto a DVD so that we could finally watch it again, being that neither of us has owned a working VCR in about five years time. I used to watch the “Making Of” special almost weekly as a child and was absolutely ENTRALLED with it. And I am very happy to report that over twenty-seven years later, the behind-the-scenes special is JUST as enthralling. 🙂 I wish the Jackson family would release it on DVD as I’d love to have a copy that wasn’t taped off of television.

In real life, the property is known as the Sanders House and it was originally built in 1887! Yes, you read that right – the residence is over 123 years old! It was commissioned by a man named Michael Sanders who ran a storage warehouse in Los Angeles at the time. The Queen Anne/Eastlake-style home boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and 3,532 square feet of living space – which I was shocked to discover as the residence looks to be much smaller from the street. The property was originally a single family residence, but has since been converted into a duplex-type dwelling, and has been undergoing an extensive restoration project for the past decade. In 1971, the home was declared a cultural historic monument and the entire 1300 block of Carroll Avenue, where the “Thriller” house is located, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see some fabulous historic photographs of the “Thriller” house and its neighboring homes here. And you can read a more in-depth write-up on the history of the Sanders House on fave website Big Orange Landmarks here.

I was only at the “Thriller” house for about ten minutes yesterday and no less than three different groups of fellow stalkers showed up to take pictures of the place while I was there – and it was in the middle of the day no less! Simply amazing! I was really hoping that the “Thriller” homeowners would have decorated their abode for Halloween, but as it turns out they are not currently very thrilled about the publicity that their property’s famous history generates. According to a SUPER nice neighbor whom I spoke with while I was stalking the place yesterday, shortly after Michael Jackson passed away in June of last year, a deplorable fan stole the mailbox from the “Thriller” house and the homeowner is still pretty upset about it – especially being that the mailbox was the original one which was installed when the residence was first built over 123 years ago! I can’t even believe that a person would have the audacity to not only trespass on someone else’s property, but to then steal something from that property while doing so. It is people like that who give us harmless stalkers a bad name and it makes me madder and madder the more I think about it. Not only did that thief sour the residents on the magic of owning and living in the “Thriller” house, but they also destroyed part of a historic landmark in the process. UGH! Don’t even get me started!

The super nice neighbor also informed me that the 1300 block of Carroll Avenue is THE place to be on Halloween. One year he counted over 2,000 trick-or-treaters knocking on his front door alone! Halliwell Manor from Charmed (pictured above) is already decked out for the occasion, but the neighbor said that all of the houses on the block – not just the famous ones – typically have lines of about twenty to thirty people standing out in front of them all night long. Amazing! I would SO love to stalk the neighborhood on Halloween, but I already have plans to spend the holiday in Santa Barbara this year. Ah well, there’s always next year.

Only the exterior of the “Thriller” house was used in the filming of the music video.

All of the interior scenes were shot on a soundstage somewhere in Los Angeles.

You can watch the video “Michael Jackson’s Thriller” by clicking above.

The “Thriller” house was also used as the residence of Finn (aka Reynaldo Rosales) in the Season 4 episode of Charmed titled “Size Matters’”.

And fellow stalker Angela from Florida alerted me to the fact that the dwelling was also used as the residence of Madam Serena (aka Zelda Rubinstein) in the 1989 movie Teen Witch. It is quite ironic that the house belonged to a woman named Serena in the flick, as the star of Teen Witch was none other than Robin Lively – real life sister of Blake Lively, who plays the famous Serena van der Woodsen on TV’s Gossip Girl.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house from “Michael Jackson’s Thriller” is located at 1345 Carroll Avenue in the Angelino Heights section of Los Angeles, just a few miles north of Downtown. The Halliwell sisters’ house from Charmed is located two doors east of the “Thriller” house at 1329 Carroll Avenue. And Holly’s Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 1347 Kellam Avenue. If you stalk any of these locations, please, please do not trespass and, for God’s sake, do NOT steal, touch, or destroy ANYTHING while there!

October 28, 2010
Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch . . . A Second Time

This past weekend, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to one of my all time favorite Halloween-themed stalking locations – Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood. The family owned and operated patch, which is located on a vacant plot of land on North Doheny Drive in between Keith and Harland Avenues, has been serving L.A.’s west side since 1986 and each year during the month of October is the place to see and be seen in Southern California. And even though I’ve actually blogged about this location once before, way back in October of 2008, since it is a landmark Haunted Hollywood stalking venue, I thought it was only fitting that I write about it once again since we are just a few days away from Halloween.

For whatever reason – I am guessing due mostly to its centralized location – the patch has been a celebrity magnet ever since its inception almost two and a half decades ago. Anyone who’s anyone stops by there during the month of October for a bit of Halloween fun. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there recently include Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott, The Girls Next Door’s Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, Britney Spears, Marcia Cross, Scott Baio, Chris Noth, Sara Gilbert, Justin Chambers, Jessica Alba, Mark Wahlberg, Courteney Cox, Christina Aguilera, Laurence Fishburne, Halle Berry, Usher, Breckin Meyer, Dave Grohl, Victoria’s Secret-model Alessandra Ambrosio, and Cougar Town’s Busy Philipps. I could literally go on and on here, but that gives you somewhat of an idea of the patch’s extensive celebrity clientele. Unfortunately, the GC and I did not see any stars while we were stalking the place this past Sunday, but we did run into Heidi Klum and Seal during our first visit there back in 2007 (the two are pictured above) and last year we missed both Tori Spelling and Gwen Stefani by mere minutes! UGH!

And while I love Mr. Bones, I must admit that the Grim Cheaper isn’t too crazy about the place thanks to the fact that they charge a $4 entrance fee for each adult (kids are $2). That fee can later be applied to any pumpkins or Halloween merchandise that is purchased, but as the GC says, Mr. Bones has to be the only pumpkin patch on the planet that has a cover charge. 😉 Besides pumpkins, the patch also boasts plenty of activities to keep the kids (and those adults who want to join in on the fun) occupied, including a large pumpkin-shaped jump house, face painting, a super slide, a small straw maze, a petting zoo, and a pumpkin decorating station. The patch also offers catered lunches of pizza, kosher hot dogs, and sausages. And I can personally attest to the fact that the hot dogs there are fabulous. 😉

Mr. Bones also boasts quite a large paparazzi following. The paps have been a fixture there pretty much ever since the place first opened. As you can see in the above pictures, for a time Mr. Bones employees tried to thwart photographers’ efforts by surrounding the property with large black-out curtains which blocked views of the patch from the street. And each year it seemed that not only did those curtains grow taller and taller, but so did the paparazzo’s ladders.

But this year things changed considerably. I guess the patch has now resigned itself to the fact that as long as it is going to be there each year, so are the paparazzi, because they have now set up a cordoned off “press area” at the corner of the property in which the photogs are allowed to stand and take pictures. A pumpkin patch with a cover charge and a press area? Only in L.A., I swear! SO LOVE IT!

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I honestly cannot recommend stalking Mr. Bones enough! Be forewarned, though, its pumpkins do run on the expensive side – but, then again, you can’t put a price tag on celebrity sightings now can you? 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch is located at 702 North Doheny Drive in West Hollywood. You can visit the official Mr. Bones website here. The patch is open this year from October 2nd through the 31st. Mr. Bones charges a cover fee of $4 per adult and $2 per child during the weekends. That fee can later be applied to the cost of any pumpkins or Halloween merchandise that is purchased while there.

October 26, 2010
The Old Zoo In Griffith Park

Just around the corner from the Griffith Park Merry Go Round, which I blogged about yesterday, is the location of the park’s former zoo – an abandoned site which is commonly referred to as the Old Zoo or the Old Zoo Picnic Grounds. I first found out about this location from favorite stalking tome Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors and was shocked to discover that in the almost decade that I’ve lived in Southern California and in all of the stalking that I have done during that time period, I had never before even heard the place mentioned. As “Javier J.” commented in his Yelp review of the Old Zoo, “It’s one of the biggest in-plain-sight secrets of Old Los Angeles”. So incredibly true! After stalking it a couple of weeks back, I couldn’t help but wonder why more about the landmark location has not been written. It is a truly AMAZING place!

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The Old Zoo property was first built almost a century ago in 1912 and continued to operate until 1965, when a new zoo attraction was opened in another area of Griffith Park, about two miles north of its predecessor. Thankfully, but for reasons I am not entirely sure of, the city had enough foresight to keep the former property intact for the future citizens of L.A. to enjoy and explore. The Old Zoo site, which had been completely renovated and expanded in the mid-1930s, is an absolutely AMAZING piece of L.A. history and is comprised of such structures as animal enclosures;

aviaries and monkey habitats;

rows of cages of all different shapes and sizes;

and a house-like structure of some sort . . .

. . . all of which are (unbelievably) open and accessible to the public.

I was absolutely shocked upon our arrival to discover that there were no fences or gates barring access to the former enclosures and cages. Guests are pretty much given a free pass to wander around and explore the entire property, including the insides and employee-access areas of the former bear habitats. SO incredibly cool!

The website WebUrbanist recently named the Old Zoo one of its Seven Most Amazing American Abandonments and I have to say that I completely agree with that sentiment. While stepping inside one of the old abandoned cages, I turned to my husband and said, “How lucky are we to live in a city that has stuff like this?” It still boggles my mind – and I often have to pinch myself to actually believe it – that we live in such an amazing place! Each week we get to go on these incredible stalking adventures during which we discover countless hidden and historic gems located throughout the city. Los Angeles seems to be an unending treasure trove of unique and historically significant locations and I still can’t believe that I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to explore them all. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I SO HEART L.A.! 🙂

And the Old Zoo is, of course, a filming location! It stood in for the Central Park Zoo in the 1996 movie Eraser in the scene in which Lee Cullen (aka Vanessa Williams) and U.S. Marshal John Kruger (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) face off against U.S. Marshal Robert Deguerin (aka James Caan).

The zoo was redressed significantly for the shoot in order to make it appear as if it was an actual working zoo. Fake entrance gates, resembling those of the real Central Park Zoo in New York, were added to the property for the filming . . .

. . . as was a large indoor exhibit. According to the Hollywood Escapes book, Eraser director Chuck Russell said of the site, “The whole complex is a fun bit of L.A. history. The Old Zoo’s barred cages supplied a nice retro touch. More importantly, the area’s grassy field was big enough for us to land a helicopter, fire weapons, and crash vehicles through our prop gates, activities we were not allowed to do in New York.”

In the 2004 flick Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, the Old Zoo stood in for the San Diego Zoo where Lee Wong, the Panda, gave birth.

The big bear tank that Veronica Corningstone (aka Christina Applegate) and Ron Burgundy (aka Will Ferrell) fell into is not there in real life. It was in actuality just a set that was built solely for the filming.

The Old Zoo was also featured in the Season 2 episode of CSI: New York titled “Zoo York”. (I blogged about this same episode yesterday, as it was also filmed at the nearby Griffith Park Merry Go Round). In the episode, the property stood in for the Central Park Zoo where a dead body is found in one of the tiger cages.

The Old Zoo also appeared in the movies Human Nature, Crazy Mama, and The Star.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Old Zoo is located inside of Griffith Park, just northwest of the Merry Go Round which I blogged about yesterday. It is a bit tricky to find, but the best way to get there is to take Los Feliz Boulevard to Crystal Springs Drive and head north. Make a left onto Fire Road and bypass the first parking lot that you come to (denoted with the blue arrow in the above map). Keep driving until you reach “Merry Go Round Parking Lot #2”, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view. Walk due west from that lot and follow the signs to the Old Zoo Picnic Grounds.

October 22, 2010
The Griffith Park Merry Go Round from “The Mentalist”

One location that I have wanted to stalk for almost two years now, ever since November of 2008 when it appeared in the Season One episode of The Mentalist titled “Seeing Red”, was the merry go round where Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) lured murder suspect Travis Tennant (aka Noel Fisher). The only problem was that I had absolutely NO idea whatsoever where to find it, as in my ten-plus years of living in Southern California the only merry go round that I had ever encountered was the one located on the Santa Monica Pier and it didn’t look anything like the one that had appeared in The Mentalist. So, I immediately called up Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and asked him if he knew where it was located. Sure enough, he did! As fate would have it, the merry go round is located right in the heart of L.A.’s Griffith Park and Mike used to ride it regularly when he was a kid!

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The Griffith Park Merry Go Round is actually something of a Los Angeles landmark and I am extremely shocked that, up until its appearance on The Mentalist two years ago, I didn’t even know of its existence. The Merry Go Round was first built in 1926 by the Spillman Engineering Company and is currently the only full size Spillman carousel still in operation today. It was originally commissioned by the Spreckels family, of the Spreckels Sugar Company, to be used at their San Diego theme park, the Mission Beach Amusement Center. Sadly, the amusement center was shuttered in 1935 in the midst of the Great Depression and the Merry Go Round was subsequently moved to Balboa Park to be featured in the California Pacific International Exposition. When the exposition ended in 1937, a man named Ross Davis purchased the carousel and transported it over 120 miles north to its new home in Griffith Park, where it is still in operation to this day, over seven decades later.



The Griffith Park Carousel is comprised of 68 different hand-made horses, all of which “jump” – ie. move up and down – and boast tails made of authentic horse hair.

The carousel also features a custom-built Stinson 165 Military Band Organ, which plays a library of over 1500 different songs.

And, incredibly enough, the Griffith Park Merry Go Round even served as the inspiration for one of the most famous landmarks in the entire world – Disneyland! Yes, you read that right. According to one of my very favorite stalking tomes, Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, Griffith Park historian Mike Eberts states, “Walt Disney brought his young daughters to the carousel and this is one of the places where he began to dream up the idea that would lead to Disneyland.” So incredibly cool! The bench where Walt used to sit during those outings (which is pictured very poorly above) is still on display at the merry go round to this day. And, according to the book Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, Walt’s daughter Diane “thought the inception [of Disneyland] took place during the Sunday afternoons when Walt picked the girls up from religious services – he never attended himself – and took them to the Griffith Park merry-go-round, where they would spend hours. ‘He’d see families in the park,’ Diane would later recall, ‘and say, ‘There’s nothing for the parents to do . . . You’ve got to have a place where the whole family can have fun.’” Further adding to the carousel’s celebrity status is the fact that James Dean’s very first acting job took place there! It was a commercial for Pepsi Cola and, in it, the newbie actor was shown handing out bottles of the soft drink to teenagers who were riding the merry go round. Such incredible history!

I, of course, had to take a ride on the carousel while I was there and it was so incredibly fun! Being there brought me RIGHT BACK to my childhood when I used to ride the Edgewater Packing House Carousel on Monterey’s Cannery Row each and every weekend. In an odd coincidence, I just found out today that my childhood merry go round was also designed by the Spillman Engineering Company, but it is sadly no longer in operation publicly as it was purchased by a Vegas millionaire who had it installed in a room in his home! Not kidding! But I digress.

In the “Seeing Red” episode of The Mentalist, Patrick Jane hypnotizes a young murder suspect named Travis in order to lead him to a supposed Sacramento-area merry go round so that he can be captured by the CBI.

Mike clued me into the fact that the Merry Go Round was also featured at the very end of the 1988 comedy Twins, in the scene in which Julius and Vincent Benedict (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, respectively) meet up with their wives, Marnie and Linda Mason (aka Kelly Preston and Chloe Webb, respectively), and their new twin children at a carousel in a park.

Once Mike told me about the Merry Go Round, I started noticing it popping up in all sorts of movies and television shows, including the Season 2 episode of CSI: New York titled “Zoo York”, in which the body of a teenage debutante is found on the supposed Central Park carousel.



The Griffith Park Merry Go Round also showed up in the 1992 flick Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as the spot where Amylin (aka Paul Reubens) turned Grueller (aka Sasha Jensen) into a vampire.

And it also appeared briefly in the Season 1 episode of MacGyver titled “Every Time She Smiles” as a supposed Bulgaria-area merry go round.



And thank you to fellow stalker Eileen, who informed me that the carousel also appeared in the video for the Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey song “Where You Are”.

The Merry Go Round was also featured in the Sally Field-directed movie Beautiful, but I don’t own that movie, so I was not able to make screen captures.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Griffith Park Merry Go Round is located at 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, inside of Griffith Park, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. The Merry Go Round is open each Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. During the summer months, it is also open on weekdays. The Merry Go Round can be a bit tricky to find and is not entirely visible from the road. The easiest way to get there is to take Los Feliz Boulevard to Crystal Springs Drive and head north. Make a left onto Fire Road and park in the first lot that you come to. The Merry Go Round is located just north of that lot.

October 21, 2010
Stadium High School from “10 Things I Hate About You”

Yet another location that I stalked while vacationing in the Pacific Northwest this past May was Tacoma’s Stadium High School – the spot that stood in for Padua High in the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. The Grim Cheaper and I, along with our good friends Kerry and Jim, visited this locale on our last day in Washington, whereupon we met up with fellow stalker David and his daughter, Olivia (pictured above), who live in the area. I was especially excited about stalking this location as it is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place and is so incredibly unique in its architecture. When I first watched 10 Things over a decade ago, I was actually convinced that Padua High was a set that had been built solely for the filming. I was absolutely shocked to discover that the castle-like structure is, indeed, an actual high school in real life. I cannot even imagine being lucky enough to spend four years attending classes in a place like that! Sigh!

Stadium High School, which is located in the Stadium District of Tacoma, was first built in 1891 and was originally conceived as a luxury hotel which was set to be named either the Olympic or the Tourist. The hotel was commissioned by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and the Tacoma Land Company and was designed by the Philadelphia-area architectural firm of Hewitt and Hewitt. Thanks to the Panic of 1893 and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company’s subsequent bankruptcy, though, construction on the French Renaissance-style hotel was abruptly stopped later that same year. The building, which at the time consisted of little more than a roof and exterior walls, was then turned into a lumber storage facility for the struggling railroad company. On October 11, 1898, disaster struck when a mysterious fire broke out at the unfinished structure, gutting the property completely. Shortly following the fire, the city made plans to demolish the decrepit building, until the Tacoma School District stepped in and purchased it on February 19, 1904. Architect Frederick Heath immediately set about transforming the vacant structure into a useable high school and on September 10, 1906, the then-named Tacoma High School opened its doors to its first students.

Three years later, Heath set about construction on a 2.5-acre, 32,000-seat stadium on a bluff situated adjacent to the school that overlooks the ocean. The new stadium was completed in 1910 and was given the name Stadium Bowl. The school’s name was eventually changed to Stadium High School in honor of the newly-built structure. The Bowl has been the site of numerous special events and speaking engagements over the years. Louis Armstrong once performed there and everyone from Baby Ruth to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson have given speeches on the premises.

Stadium High School, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, is absolutely breathtaking in person. With its limestone and brick edifice, wrought iron detailing, and majestic views of Commencement Bay, I am extremely surprised that more productions have not found their way to the campus.

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The 10 Things I Hate About You crew spent six weeks shooting on location in Tacoma, dividing their time between the Stratford house, which I blogged about last month, and Stadium High School. Interestingly enough, according to an August 1998 News Tribune article (which I unfortunately cannot link to as the Tribune does not allow free access to its archives), the movie was originally set to be filmed right here in Los Angeles, but when the flick’s location scouts saw photographs of Stadium High School, they decided its look was perfect for their modern-day Shakespeare adaptation and the entire shoot was moved north. I find it so incredibly cool that an entire production was moved over 1,000 miles all because of one single location!

Stadium High School was used extensively throughout 10 Things I Hate About You. The areas of the school that were featured in the flick include the front entrance . . .

. . . and, according to one of the teachers that I spoke with while there, a few real life interiors – including the counselor’s office, the library, several classrooms, and a hallway.

Sadly though, the school’s interior was given an extensive facelift in 2006 and no longer looks the same as it did in the movie.

Stadium Bowl is the area of the school that was most memorably featured in 10 Things, though, and I am happy to report that it looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in June of 1998, when the movie was filmed. The Bowl first appeared in the scene in which Michael (aka David Krumholtz) accidentally rides his dirt bike off of a cliff.

It was later used in the scene in which Patrick Verona (aka Heath Ledger) – along with the Padua High School band – serenades Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles) with the Frankie Valli song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, which has to be one of my VERY favorite scenes in ALL of moviedom. Unfortunately, there is a large, locked fence which now surrounds the stadium, so I was not able to venture onto the bleachers to re-enact Patrick’s serenade. Such a bummer as that was one of the things I had most wanted to do while in Washington!

You can watch the serenade scene by clicking above.

And in a bit of trivia that fellow stalker David clued me into – the band Letters to Cleo was actually on the real life roof of Stadium High playing “I Want You To Want Me” during the filming of the movie’s final scene. And here I thought that whole segment had been shot in front of a green screen! So incredibly cool!

According to IMDB, the school was also featured in the 1990 romantic comedy I Love You To Death.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Stadium High School from 10 Things I Hate About You is located at 111 North E Street in Tacoma, Washington. In the movie, Heath Ledger danced in the southern portion of Stadium Bowl’s bleachers, in the area depicted by the pink circle in the above aerial view. Please remember that this location is a school and that it should not be stalked during operating hours when children are present. And please remember to always get permission from the front office before setting foot on any school campus.

October 20, 2010
The “Black Sheep” House

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked last Monday afternoon was the supposed Buckley, Washington-area home where Mike Donnelly (aka Chris Farley) lived in the 1996 comedy Black Sheep. Fellow stalker Owen tracked down this location – along with pretty much every other locale which appeared in the movie – quite a few months back and the place has been on my To-Stalk list ever since. But because I rarely make it out to the Eagle Rock area, I had yet to visit the place – nor had I ever watched Black Sheep before. So, after Mike and I stalked the house last Monday afternoon, I finally sat down to watch the movie. And I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised. Even though I am a sucker for screwball comedies, for whatever reason I had not really expected to like the flick at all. I ended up laughing all the way through it, though, especially during the scene in which Mike gets pulled over for driving seven miles per hour on the freeway. LOL!

Owen found Mike Donnelly’s home thanks to one of the Black Sheep crew members who remembered that the residence was located somewhere in Eagle Rock. Even with that bit of information, though, I’m amazed that Owen was able to track the place down, because producers had installed a fake address number of 612 for the filming.   UGH! I so hate it when they do that!

It takes a lot more than a simple change of address to fool us stalkers, though! As you can see in the above screen capture, a home with a 4-digit address number was clearly visible in the background of one of the scenes filmed at the Donnelly residence.   Once Owen saw that four digit number, he knew that the Donnelly address had to be a fake. He then immediately set about using Google Street View to search all of the blocks in Eagle Rock with four-digit addresses. And sure enough, it wasn’t long before he found the right house. Yay!



In reality, the Donnelly residence, which features 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1,782 square feet of living space, is a lot cuter and far better maintained in person than it appeared in the film.

The house only actually appears twice in Black Sheep. It first shows up in the scene in which Steve Dodds (aka David Spade) first goes to meet Mike Donnelly. Later on in the movie, the house is featured briefly in the scene in which the two men discover that Governor Tracy (aka Christine Ebersole) has fixed the election.

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



After watching Black Sheep earlier this week, I became obsessed with stalking the Governor’s Mansion which appeared throughout the flick. Sadly though, fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, informed me that, while Owen had also found this property, it was torn down quite some time ago and another home built in its place, which is absolutely mind-boggling to me! How (or WHY!) someone would tear down such a large and stately piece of property just to build a new one is absolutely beyond me. Chas and I were discussing it yesterday, though, and he came up with a possible explanation. He thinks there quite possibly could have been a fire at the property, which would have forced the owners to demolish whatever was left standing and start anew. I searched for property records on the home, though, to see if I could dig up any further information, but came up completely empty-handed. UGH! The only thing I can say for sure is that the Governor’s Mansion from Black Sheep is no longer standing.

There is some good news, though! For whatever reason, the mansion is still visible via certain angles on Bing Maps. As you can see above, when the Bing aerial view is angled south, the image shows a vacant lot.

BUT when you angle the map east, the Governor’s Mansion magically appears.

AND if you then switch back to the south view once again, the front of the home will sometimes show up. So darn cool!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding these locations!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mike Donnelly’s house from Black Sheep is located at 5158 Highland View Avenue in Eagle Rock. The Governor’s Mansion from the movie was formerly located at 874 West Potrero Road in Westlake Village, but has since been torn down and replaced with a new residence.

October 19, 2010
The Glen Capri Inn & Suites from “The Good Girl”

A few weeks ago, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the Glen Capri Inn & Suites – a historic and oft-filmed Glendale-area motel that has appeared in over twenty movie and television productions in the past six years alone. I was most interested in stalking the property due to its appearance in the 2002 flick The Good Girl, which starred my girl Jen Aniston. And even though I didn’t like The Good Girl AT ALL (it was just far too dark and depressing for my taste), because JA had filmed there, I was dying to see the motel which was featured in it in person.

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The Glen Capri is famous not only for its vast motion picture history, but for its distinct architectural style, as well. The property was originally built in 1949 by Louis Armet and Eldon Davis, the architectural team who, according to an August 1999 Los Angeles Times article written by Ed Leibowitz, “defined ‘50s Googie architecture” – Googie being the unique mid-century modern-style of design which had its roots in the now-defunct, John Lautner-constructed Googies Coffee Shop. At the time of its grand opening, the Glen Capri Inn & Suites was called simply the Glen Capri Motel. In 2000, the interior of the property underwent an extensive remodel at which point it was given its more upscale-sounding moniker. Fortunately, the exterior of the property was left intact during the recent remodel and looks almost exactly the same today as it did when it was first built over six decades ago. It is thanks to the motel’s historic facade and authentic 60’s neon signage that location scouts have returned to film there time and time again.

Before arriving at the Glen Capri Inn & Suites, I was a little nervous that the place would not be very stalker-friendly and that taking photographs of the premises would be a big no-no. As it turns out, though, I needn’t have worried. The man working at the front desk was very nice and said that we could take all of the pictures that we wanted. AND there was even a “Wall of Fame” located in the main office, with signed headshots of all of the actors who had filmed at the motel on display.

As you can imagine, I just about died when I saw my girl Jen’s autographed picture hanging on the wall. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

In The Good Girl, the Glen Capri stood in for the Texas-area motel where Justine Last (aka Jennifer Aniston) and Holden Worther (aka Jake Gyllenhaal) conducted their on-going affair.

Both the main office . . .

. . . and Room 8 were used in the flick. I don’t want to give away the ending, but Room 8 also featured significantly in the movie’s climactic finale. On a Good Girl side note – Mike, from MovieShotsLA, recently stalked Retail Rodeo, the discount store where Justine and Holden worked in the movie. You can see pics of it on his site here.

In 2004’s Raising Helen, the Glen Capri stood in for the New York-area motel where Helen Harris (aka Kate Hudson) and Jenny Portman (aka Joan Cusack) catch their underage niece Audrey Davis (aka Hayden Panettiere) on prom night. Audrey’s room was number 205.

In the 2004 teen comedy The Girl Next Door, Matthew Kidman (aka Emile Hirsch) took Danielle (aka Elisha Cuthbert) to the Glen Capri with the hopes of seducing her while there.

Ironically enough, Emile Hirsch returned to the Glen Capri two years later to film a scene for the 2006 drama Alpha Dog. In the flick, the Glen Capri stood in for the Albuquerque motel where Johnny Truelove and his girlfriend Angela Holden (aka Olivia Wilde) hid out after police had discovered the body of Zack Mazursky (aka Anton Yelchin).

In 2007’s Georgia Rule, the Glen Capri stood in for the Hull, Ohio-area motel where Arnold (aka Cary Elwes) stays while in town visiting his wife, Lily (aka Felicity Huffman), and his step-daughter, Rachel Wilcox (aka Lindsay Lohan). In the movie, Arnold stays in Room 206.

Other movies that have filmed at the Glen Capri include The Country Bears, Diamonds & Guns, and Janky Promoters. Episodes of Without a Trace, Parks and Recreation, Cold Case, Saving Grace, Night Stalker, Close to Home, Day Break, Windfall, Lovespring International, Mad Men, and Nip/Tuck have also been shot at the Glen Capri. You can check out the hotel’s very thorough filming page, which chronicles all of the productions that have been filmed on the premises over the past ten years, on its website here. Love it! There are actually several different motels in the Glen Capri chain and the one located at 326 Colorado Street, also in Glendale, has been used for filming, as well. It has appeared in episodes of Life and The Surreal Life and in a 2007 Smash Mouth music video.

On a Jennifer Aniston side note – my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry recently gifted me with the new Jennifer Aniston Perfume and I have to say that it is absolutely DIVINE. It is honestly the best scented perfume that I’ve ever smelled in my entire life! All of the literature written about it says that it has a “beachy” scent, but to me it seems to have more of a floral feel to it and is a bit reminiscent of Michael Kors signature fragrance, which I also love. Jennifer Aniston perfume smells so amazing that I literally cannot stop smelling my wrists when I wear it – I wouldn’t be surprised if I subconsciously gnaw my arm off in the coming weeks. 😉 Because the perfume is only available at Harrods in London (contrary to what Jen reported during her most recent Chelsea Lately appearance, it cannot be shipped outside of the UK), Kerry had to go through hell and high water to get it for me. So, I’ve had to resort to rationing it out in very small portions each day as I simply do not know WHAT I am going to do when I run out. 🙁 I am hoping that by that time it will be available in the US. (Are you listening, Jen?) Anyway, if you live in London or have plans to travel there, I HIGHLY recommend stopping by Harrods to pick up some JA perfume. Take my word for it, you will NOT be disappointed. And a HUGE thank you to Kerry for getting it for me! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Glen Capri Inn & Suites is located at 6700 San Fernando Road in Glendale. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. The Good Girl was filmed in the main office and in Room 8; Raising Helen also used the main office and Room 205; and Georgia Rule was filmed in Room 206.

October 15, 2010
Elliott Bay Cafe – The Inspiration for Cafe Nervosa on “Frasier”

Another location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May was Elliott Bay Cafe – the Seattle-area coffee shop that was the inspiration for Cafe Nervosa on the hit television series Frasier. I first learned about this location from my good friend Nat, who in turn learned about it a few years earlier while taking Bill Speidel’s “World Famous” Underground Tour of Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square District during a vacation in Washington State. And even though I was never a huge fan of Frasier (I watched the show occasionally, but it wasn’t a part of my weekly must-see-TV lineup), when I found out that I was going to Seattle I decided I just had to stalk the place – mostly because of how much I love me some coffee! So, just a few hours after stalking the very first Starbucks store, I dragged the Grim Cheaper, my good friend and fellow stalker, Kerry, and her husband, Jim, out to Elliott Bay Cafe for my second latte of the day.

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As it turns out, Elliott Bay Cafe is a SUPER cool little spot. In fact, I think I would have liked the place even had it not been a (sort-of) filming location. The cafe is located in Pioneer Square’s Globe Building, which dates back to 1891, and is actually most famous for the legendary bookstore, Elliott Bay Book Co., which up until earlier this year was located upstairs from it. The huge store, which carried over 150,000 different titles, originally opened in 1973 and had been patronized by everyone from former-President Bill Clinton to authors Barbara Kingsolver, Norman Mailer, and George Saunders. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I think there is absolutely nothing cooler than a combination coffee bar/bookstore. When Elliott Bay Book Co. was open, shoppers could buy a cup of espresso and then venture upstairs to loiter among the shelves or, consequently, grab a few books to peruse while sitting downstairs sipping on a latte. So darn cool! Sadly, the Elliott Bay Book Co. moved to a new location on Capital Hill in early 2010, but thankfully the Frasier cafe, which is actually located underground, remained behind. And yes, you read that right – Elliott Bay Cafe is located underground. Most of Seattle was situated “underground” at one point in time actually. The Pioneer Square District, which was established in 1852 and is considered the birthplace of Seattle, was originally built on tidal flats that, in the early years, would flood horribly each and every time it rained – which was quite often. So, after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed most of the city, it was decided that the new streets would be raised a full story higher than their predecessors. To accomplish this feat, retaining walls were constructed on each side of the district’s former roads. The area between them was then filled in with dirt and subsequently cemented over, which raised the entire city one full level. During the street raising, storeowners had built temporary street-level shops, so as not to lose out on business during the interim. When construction on the new roads was finally completed, the storeowners simply vacated their former shops and moved up to the second level to sell their goods. The street level spaces were then left abandoned and forgotten for the next seven decades.

Until 1965, when, in an attempt to restore the Pioneer Square District, a Seattle preservationist named Bill Speidel decided to start giving tours of the underground area. The tours became a huge hit with residents and tourists alike and has been going strong ever since. So, on the recommendation of my good friend Nat and because I wanted to learn more about the Frasier coffee shop, the Grim Cheaper and I purchased tickets for Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour. Sadly though, while I thought Elliott Bay Cafe was absolutely awesome, I can’t say the same for the tour. While the whole thing sounds very exciting, as you can see in the above photographs there just isn’t a whole lot to see. And the tour guides seemed to be more interested in telling lame jokes than they were in teaching us about Seattle’s unique history. From what I’ve read on the Yahoo! Travel reviews, the tour used to be fabulous, but has deteriorated greatly since Bill’s death in 1988. Whether or not it was ever good, I can’t say for sure, but I do know that the tour the Grim Cheaper and I embarked on was HORRIBLE. Like really, really horrible. So bad, in fact, that at one point while we were underground, the GC grabbed my arm and said, “I think I’ve found an exit door! I am pretty sure we can escape from this thing unnoticed!” LOL But I digress.

Anyway, Cafe Nervosa appeared weekly throughout Frasier’s eleven season-run as the hang out of radio host Frasier Crane (aka Kelsey Grammer) and his fellow KACL employees. As you can see in the above screen captures, while Cafe Nervosa does bear a passing resemblance to the real life Elliot Bay, according to the barista I spoke to while there, the place has been remodeled numerous times since Frasier was on the air, most recently in November of 1999, and formerly looked much more similar to its TV counterpart. Boo!

The exterior of Cafe Nervosa was also shown on the series from time to time.

As you can see in the above photographs, though, besides having a green awning, the set exterior looks nothing like Elliot Bay Cafe’s real-life exterior.

Even though the coffee house doesn’t much resemble Cafe Nervosa, I still HIGHLY recommend stalking the place! It’s a far better way to experience Seattle’s Underground than embarking on the tour AND they serve up some fabulous coffee to boot! 🙂

You can watch the Season 1 episode of Frasier titled “My Coffee With Niles”, which takes place in its entirety at Cafe Nervosa, by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Elliott Bay Cafe is located at 103 South Main Street in Seattle, Washington. You can visit the Cafe’s official website here.

October 14, 2010
Eagle Rock Plaza from “Glee” and Michael Buble’s “Crazy Love” Photoshoot

This past Monday morning, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up to ask if I wanted to do some stalking with him in the San Gabriel Valley. As it turns out, Monday was a holiday – although I hadn’t realized it beforehand – and Mike had the day off from work. So, after first loading up on some Starbucks coffee (but of course) the two of us headed right on over to Eagle Rock, where the first item on our stalking agenda – Eagle Rock Plaza mall – was located. I had been dying to stalk the mall ever since May 18th of this year when it appeared in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “Dream On”, in the scene in which Artie Adams (aka Kevin McHale) starts a flash mob in the middle of a supposed Ohio-area shopping center. My good friend and fellow stalker Kerry’s daughter, Jen – who is a total Gleek – had challenged me to find this location the day after the episode aired and, amazingly enough, it wasn’t too hard to track down at all. I just simply used Google Images to search through interior photographs of Los Angeles-area malls and fairly quickly came upon one of Eagle Rock Plaza, which I recognized immediately. And even though I live only a few miles outside of Eagle Rock, for whatever reason it has taken me this long to get out there to stalk the place. Oh well, better late than never, right? [And yes, I am pretending to dance like Artie in the above picture. ;)]

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In the “Dream On” episode of Glee, Artie visits a local mall with his girlfriend Tina Cohen-Chang (aka Jenna Ushkowitz), and while she is in line buying a hot pretzel, he daydreams about being able to get up out of his wheelchair and dance. He ends up starting a huge flash mob to the 80’s song “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.

As it turns out, Eagle Rock Plaza is a very tiny mall and it wasn’t hard at all to track down the exact spot where filming had taken place. Artie’s flash mob scene was shot in the very center of the property, right in between the mall’s two main escalators and directly in front of the Seafood City Supermarket.

You can watch the “Safety Dance” number by clicking above.

While we were there, Mike and I stopped by the Eagle Rock Plaza’s management office to ask about the filming that has taken place there over the years and the woman on duty literally could NOT have been nicer! She spent quite a bit of time chatting with us and filling us in on some of the productions that have been shot on the premises, including the Season 4 episode of The Closer titled “Time Bomb”, in which Brenda Leigh Johnson (aka Kyra Sedgwick) and her fellow members of the L.A.P.D.’s Major Crimes Division investigate a bomb threat at a local mall.

Ironically enough, only the interior of Eagle Rock Plaza appeared in that episode. All of the exterior scenes were filmed at Los Angeles City College, in front of the campus’ Communications Center, which does actually look quite a bit like a mall.

Eagle Rock Plaza was also featured in Avril Lavigne’s music video for the 2002 hit song “Complicated” . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

One production that shot on location at Eagle Rock Plaza that the management didn’t know about, but that I recognized immediately was Michael Buble’s 2009 behind-the-scenes DVD titled “The Making of Crazy Love”. In the documentary, Michael is shown posing for a photo shoot outside of a Macy’s department store during which he is made to run back and forth through a large parking lot. Michael is a total goofball and EXTREMELY funny during the shoot, announcing to one passerby who drives by, “Welcome to Macy’s!” LOL I can only imagine if I had arrived at the mall on a random day to do some shopping only to find MICHAEL BUBLE standing at the entrance welcoming me! I probably would have had a heart attack right on the spot. But I digress. Anyway, for whatever reason (most likely because MB was so darn funny in the spot – at one point he says, “The next shot is of me shopping at Macy’s . . . finding discounts . . . there is a pillow set that is to die for!” LOL LOL LOL), I have been literally hell-bent on stalking that parking lot ever since watching the DVD late last year. Trouble was, I couldn’t seem to find the darn place anywhere.

Until this past Monday that is, when Mike just happened to drive through the part of the Plaza’s parking lot that is located directly behind Macy’s and I recognized it immediately. YAY! Thank you, Mike!

And I, of course, just had to imitate MB running while I was there. 🙂

You can watch Michael’s absolutely hilarious photo shoot in the Macy’s parking lot by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Jen for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for taking me there! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Eagle Rock Plaza is located at 2700 Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock. You can visit the mall’s official website here. Michael Buble posed for his running photographs in the southwestern portion of the Plaza’s parking lot, directly behind Macy’s department store, in the area depicted with the pink circle in the above aerial view. The “Dream On” episode of Glee was filmed in the center-most point of the mall, in between the property’s two main escalators and directly in front of the Seafood City Supermarket.

October 13, 2010
My Picture on “SNL” and Hanging Out With Michael Vartan!

This past Saturday was an incredibly lucky and, as my best friend later described, celebrity-fueled day for me. My family, the Grim Cheaper, and I had headed down to San Diego for the weekend to do some relaxing after the stress of my parent’s recent move. While we were walking around Coronado Island on Saturday morning I got an email from a photo licensing coordinator over at NBC Universal who wanted to know if I would grant him permission to use one of my stalking photographs of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School, aka William McKinley High School from Glee, on that evening’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which was being hosted by actress Jane Lynch. Well, let me tell you, I just about had a heart attack right then and there and immediately granted permission for the above photograph to be featured on the show. The coordinator told me he wouldn’t know for sure whether the pic would actually be used or not until Saturday Night Live aired that evening, so I called up my best friend Kylee (who lives in San Diego) and asked her to come over to our hotel, the Coronado Island Marriot Resort, so that we could all watch the show and celebrate together.

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Because my dad wasn’t feeling well, Kylee, the Grim Cheaper, and I ended up heading over to the hotel’s Tides Lounge to watch the show and grab some celebratory cocktails, which turned out to be a very lucky move because not long after we got there, Kylee looked to her left and said, “Isn’t that Jennifer Garner’s ex-boyfriend sitting over there?” I turned my head to catch a quick glimpse and, sure enough, there was cutie actor Michael Vartan sitting at a table just a few feet away from us! I have no idea how in the heck I didn’t notice him, but I do have to admit that Kylee is an absolute master at spotting celebrities in public – dare I say it, even better than me. Kylee is actually the one who spotted actress Julianne Moore while the two of us were in line at Magnolia Bakery in New York a few years back, but I digress. Anyway, I, of course, just HAD to go up to Michael and ask for a picture and, let me tell you, the guy could NOT have been nicer! When I apologized to him for interrupting his evening out with friends, he told me not to worry about it “at all”. And when I told him that I absolutely loved the movie Never Been Kissed, he said, “Oh, that’s back when I was young!” LOL A few hours later, as Michael was leaving the bar he passed by our table and made it a point to say good-bye to all of us. SO INCREDIBLY NICE! Sigh!

But my luck didn’t stop there! Right after snapping my photograph with Michael, I received an email from the SNL photo coordinator who informed me that my photograph was indeed used on the show that night! A celebrity sighting AND one of my pictures appearing on national TV all in the same day?? It was almost too much for me to bear! So, at around 11:30 p.m., I asked the Tide’s bartender to put the TV on Channel 4 so that we could watch SNL, and sure enough, just a few minutes later my picture appeared on the screen! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! The sketch which featured my pic centered around the SNL character Gilly (aka Kristin Wiig) joining the McKinley High Glee club and wreaking her usual havoc in the process. After gluing a crown to Kurt’s head, shooting Finn with a bow and arrow, and pushing Artie and his wheelchair offstage, she brings in a bomb and blows up the school, which is the point when my photograph was featured.

You can watch the Saturday Night Live Glee sketch which features my photograph by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Coronado Island Marriott Resort is located at 2000 Second Street on Coronado Island in San Diego. We met Michael Vartan in the hotel’s Tides Lounge. You can visit the resort’s website here.

October 11, 2010