Head over to Dirt to read my new post about Venice High School from Britney Spears’ . . . Baby One More Time video.
Market from “Mother”
I absolutely love surprises! So I was thrilled to receive an email a couple of days ago from my friend Michael with the news that he had written yet another guest post! For those who don’t read IAMNOTASTALKER regularly, Michael is a frequent contributor. His body of work is now so large, in fact, that I have added a category titled “Michael’s Guest Posts” that can be found on the right side of my site, as well as a “Michael’s Guest Posts” tag in each column in order to easier find his articles. His latest locale is a rather poignant one. So without further ado . . .
[ad]
The sad circumstances of late found me reminiscing about one of my favorite Debbie Reynolds movies, Mother. Although it was released in 1996, I end up laughing at it just as heartily now as I did twenty years ago. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Debbie Reynolds stars as the film’s titular character, sharing top billing with Albert Brooks who plays her son, John. After his second divorce, John moves back home in an effort to try and dissect his relationship with his mother—an experiment he hopes will help him get to the root of his chronic misfortune with women.
Although most of the movie takes place in the Bay Area, the majority of it was filmed in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, the cast and crew did travel to Sausalito to obtain some establishing shots of the town, along with footage of Reynolds and Brooks driving.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie has Beatrice and John critiquing each other’s selections at the grocery store before (literally) bumping into a neighbor. The sequence begins the in the store’s parking lot where, to John’s frustration, Beatrice is inadvertently blind to the only available spot.
As the camera pulls out, the store’s name is revealed: Mollie Stone’s Market. The grocery chain, founded in 1986, has a scattering of Bay-Area locations, and as the film would have you believe, the actors were indeed parking outside the Sausalito store.
This summer when I took the ferry over from San Francisco to check out the Too Close for Comfort house, I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to finally have a look at Mollie Stone’s. As I walked up, I was excited to see that the exterior of the store and parking lot, while updated, were still recognizable from the film.
But, when I ventured into the store, I was surprised to find out that the interior scenes had been filmed elsewhere. I hadn’t done my usual amount of due diligence and had just assumed that they’d filmed the interior when in town for the parking lot scene. Had I originally looked just a little closer, I would have noticed that the roof, windows, and doors differed between the interior and exterior scenes.
Pretty certain that the Sausalito Mollie Stone’s wasn’t used for the interior, I started to focus my search on Los Angeles-area stores, where the remainder of the movie had been filmed. I re-watched the scene frame-by-frame hoping for some hidden detail that would betray its location, but there wasn’t much to go on. Battling with a hotel’s questionable Wi-Fi, Lindsay came to my digital rescue and helped scour the clip for clues to the store’s real location.
Lindsay noticed what looked like palm trees outside the doors, which could suggest a Southern California locale. And that the green Mollie Stone’s carts used by the principal actors didn’t match the rest of the store’s blue carts, helping confirm that they hadn’t filmed in a real Mollie Stone’s location.
I, in turn, was able to make out what looked to be a Googie-style sign across the street, which I thought might be a Norms Restaurant, since they have similarly designed signs.
The other thing that jumped out at me was a coin-operated toy machine —with a hen that spins around and clucks before “laying” a prize-filled egg. Admittedly not a clue, it was a welcome bit of nostalgia that I haven’t seen since I was little.
Thinking the store looked a little dated to have been one of the major chains, I tried researching as many independent markets as I could find, but unfortunately hit a dead end.
Stymied but not defeated, I decided to “cheat” and get in touch with someone involved in the production of the movie. Fortunately, he was kind enough to respond and remembered exactly where the store was located.
The Mar Vista Market, appropriately located in Mar Vista, a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, on Venice Boulevard at Grand View, was used to film the interior scene.
Sadly, the market was demolished in 2000, and in 2004 a post office was built on its footprint.
According to “Distant Vistas,” a wonderful history of Mar Vista written by S. Ravi Tam and posted on the Mar Vista Historical Society’s site, the market, originally owned by Nate and Allen Arnold, opened in 1939 as Arnold’s Super Ranch Market, and by 1947 it had changed owners and names to the Mar Vista Food Center, before finally remodeling and reopening as the Mar Vista Market in 1949.
A 1984 piece in the Los Angeles Times further explains that Dave Simmons originally bought the store’s produce department in 1945, and by the 1950s had taken ownership for remainder of the entire 23,000-square-foot market.
Remarkably, the building across the street from the market, whose distinct sign I had noticed through my fuzzy Wi-Fi connection, is still there. The sign, originally created for the Mar Vista Bowl, has been removed, but remains immortalized in a mural painted on the exterior of the building, which still houses a bowling alley.
Apparently, I wasn’t too far off in thinking it might have been a Norms Restaurant. Mar Vista Bowl was designed by Armet and Davis, who also designed a spate of Googie buildings, including Norms on La Cienega Boulevard.
Now with the name and address of the market, Google linked me to a MacGyver filming location page that noted a scene from the episode “Split Decision” was filmed in the market’s parking lot.
As expected, the door and window placement match what’s seen in Mother. And, you can even make out part of the enter/exit signs above the doors in the film.
Another touchpoint revealed in the MacGyver footage is a group of utility poles near the door which can be seen through the window in Mother, and one of which is still standing today.
And there you have it, the market from Mother, only 400 miles from the parking lot to the fancy jam aisle.
Big THANK YOU to Michael for yet another fabulous – and timely – post. 
Don’t forget, you can check out the rest of Michael’s articles here.
Stalk It: Mollie Stone’s Exterior from Mother is located at 100 Harbor Drive in Sausalito. USPS, aka Mar Vista Market (razed), aka “Mollie Stone’s Market” Interior from Mother is located at 3826 Grand View Boulevard in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Houses from “Life in Pieces”
Today’s post is once again brought to you by my friend, fellow stalker Michael (you can read his other fabulous guest columns here, here, here and here). As was the case yesterday, this article is, surprisingly, not about a The Brady Bunch location. Take it away, Michael!
[ad]
Each fall I’m always excited as the newest television season starts to air, but I’m often dissuaded from watching the networks’ latest offerings because it seems as soon as I get into a new show, it’s canceled. However, last year I thought I’d give CBS’s new sitcom, Life in Pieces, a shot. I’m a long-time Dianne Wiest fan, and I thought the concept of the show sounded interesting. Every episode of the 30-minute program consists of four individual stories—each separated by a commercial break. Fittingly, episodes are named with four words—one to describe each story.
Not uncommon for pilots, the first episode of Life in Pieces used a different residence to represent Joan (Dianne Wiest) and John’s (James Brolin) house (the Wilson home from 90210, as Lindsay pointed out to me), while the second episode provides us with the main residences used for the rest of the season.
Joan and John live in a large white traditional-style home, along with their son Matt (Thomas Sadoski) who has moved into the garage. Joan and John’s daughter Heather (Betsy Brandt), son-in-law Tim (Dan Bakkedahl), and grandchildren Tyler (Niall Cunningham), Samantha (Holly J. Barrett) and Sophia (Giselle Eisenberg) move into a Cape Cod just down the street in the second episode (“Interruptus Date Breast Movin’”). And Joan and John’s youngest son Greg (Colin Hanks) lives with his wife Jen (Zoe Lister-Jones) and their daughter in a mid-century modern home.
When I couldn’t find any mention of the show’s filming locations online I started looking into them myself. Thankfully the producers and owners of the homes didn’t try to disguise the locations, leaving the house numbers affixed and painted curb addresses unobscured.
Then it was just a matter of finding the right neighborhoods. I had an inkling that the two traditional-style homes might be located in Cheviot Hills. I’d spent some time in the area last year looking at filming locations from The Goldbergs and Modern Family, and it was easy to picture the residences from Life in Pieces in that neighborhood. Using the addresses that I could glean from the show, I started checking like-numbered blocks until I hit pay dirt.
Like the show would have you believe, Joan and John’s house is located just a couple homes away from Heather and Tim’s. When in Los Angeles last month, I headed right out to Cheviot Hills to have a look.
Since I’m used to tracking down locations that were filmed 30-40 years ago, it’s always a delight and a little jarring to find a contemporary location and have it look exactly the same as it does on television.
Even the neighbors’ homes along Patricia Avenue can be seen in many episodes.
Having found two of the homes for the price of one, I just needed to track down Greg and Jen’s mid-century modern. Since that style would be out of place in Cheviot Hills, I started looking into other neighborhoods. After investigating a few suspected possibilities with no luck, I tuned into the then-latest episode (“Tattoo Valentine Guitar Pregnant”) and the dialog referred to Greg and Jen’s Mar Vista home. Since it’s not unusual for the fictional location of a television show to not mesh with the actual location used for filming, I didn’t get my hopes up, but still figured it was worth checking out.
And once again the show itself helped me zero-in on the proper location. Greg and Jen’s house is indeed located in Mar Vista, a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, nestled between Venice, Santa Monica, and Culver City.
The house used on Life in Pieces isn’t the only mid-century modern home in the area. In fact it’s one of 52 residences built on the Mar Vista tract on Meier and Moore Streets, originally marketed as “Modernique Homes” and designed by architect Gregory Ain, a student of renown California Modern architect Richard Neutra. Thankfully these homes are now part of a Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone which limits alternations to architecturally important structures.
Until recently, I’d never visited Mar Vista, but in addition to checking out the Life in Pieces house, I’d certainly recommend a stroll around the block to check out the unique architecture. [Editor’s Note – the fabulous mid-century modern home where Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) lived in Matchstick Men is located on the same block!)
Editor’s Note – A big THANK YOU to Michael once again for yet another fabulous post! I have yet to watch Life in Pieces, but I think it’s time I start. And I need to get myself out to Mar Vista pronto to peruse the Modernique Homes – they sound right up my alley! 
Stalk Them: Joan and John’s house (and Matt’s garage) from Life in Pieces is located at 3321 Patricia Avenue in Cheviot Hills. Heather and Tim’s house is located at 3308 Patricia Avenue in Cheviot Hills. Jen and Greg’s house can be found at 3531 Meier Street in Mar Vista. (Editor’s Note – Roy’s house from Matchstick Men is located just down the block at 3508 Meier Street.)