Shannen Doherty – Page 4

December 29, 2009December 29, 2009

Tamale Heaven from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has been begging me to blog about for over a year now is the Canoga Park burger restaurant that stood in for Tamale Heaven in the Season Two episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Ashes to Ashes”. In real life that restaurant is named Michael’s Burgers and even though it has been on my “To Stalk” list for ages now, because I rarely find myself in the Canoga Park area, I had yet to visit the place. So, during our Valley stalking day back in October, Mike made a point of stopping by the tiny restaurant to finally show it to me. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited! 🙂 Especially because the “Ashes to Ashes” episode has always been one of my favorites, thanks to the fact that it featured all of the elements that made 90210 such a classic show – a sugary sweet, albeit cheesy, moral message, Dylan and Brenda back together and madly in love, and boyscout Brandon not only taking on the Beverly Hills Security Patrol, but race relations, as well! Love it! One of my favorite 90210 lines EVER was actually spoken during this episode, in the scene in which Devo (love the name!) accuses Brandon of trying to score drugs at Tamale Heaven, causing Brandon to say, “Hey, I’m not a doper, man!” LOL LOL LOL See what I mean? Classic 90210!

Amazingly enough, Mike frequented Michael’s Burgers on a regular basis back in the early ‘90s. So, when the restaurant appeared in the “Ashes to Ashes” episode, he immediately recognized the place. Love it! According to Mike, the burgers at Michael’s are out of this world, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to eat there while stalking the place. 🙁 Oh well, it looks like I’m just going to have to drag my fiancé back there in the near future. In the “Ashes to Ashes” episode, only the back entrance and rear parking lot area of Michael’s Burgers were used.

For some reason, the front exterior, which is pictured above, was never shown.

The areas which appeared in the episode include the main rear door,

the interior,

the rear employee entrance,

and the dumpster area. Because Tamale Heaven is supposed to be located in the ghetto, somewhere between “Watts and the airport”, producers really dressed the place down for the filming. In reality, though, Michael’s Burgers is not located in a bad area at all, nor is it completely covered over with graffiti. And, amazingly enough, despite a change in paint color and the lack of graffiti, Michael’s Burgers still looks almost exactly the same today as it did eighteen years ago when the episode was filmed! LOVE IT!

On a side note – While making screen captures for today’s post, I spotted something quite interesting. If you look in the above screen capture, you will notice a sign in the upper left hand corner which ends with the letters “R” and “S”. I am fairly certain that that sign read “Michael’s Burgers” and that it wasn’t actually supposed to appear in the scene. I am guessing that producers either forgot to take the sign down for the filming or left it up thinking it would not be visible in the shot. Whoopsie! 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for taking all of the photographs featured in this post. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael’s Burgers, aka Tamale Heaven, is located at 7225 Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park. You can visit their website here. Directly across the street from Michael’s, at 7218 Topanga Canyon Boulevard, is the strip mall that was used in the 1999 movie Blast from the Past.

August 7, 2009February 18, 2010

The Walsh House – Circa August 2009

UPDATE 2/18/10 – The Casa Walsh garage has been torn down in the months since I wrote this post. You can see pictures of the rubble here. And to see the inside of the real Walsh house, click here.

My fiance tried to talk me out of writing this post today, but it just seemed to be too important of an item for me to ignore. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, last week, while giving a stalking tour of Pasadena to my good friend Kerry and her husband Jim, I drove by the Walsh House from fave TV show Beverly Hills, 90210 and almost had a full blown panic attack right there in my car! While cruising down Altadena Drive, I, Lindsay Blake, almost passed right by my favorite stalking location of all time without even recognizing it!!!!! I actually turned to Kerry at one point and said, “Wait a minute! Where’s the 90210 house???” What I didn’t realize at that time was that some pretty major changes had been made to the exterior of the house rendering it almost unrecognizable to me. OK, OK, maybe I’m being slighty melodramatic here, but, let me tell you, the whole experience was pretty JARRING. I mean, not only had a large hedge been removed from the Walsh’s driveway, but their entire house had been PAINTED PINK! Oh, Jack, say it ain’t so!

Ironically enough, when I showed my fiance photographs of the newly painted 90210 house, he said “What are you talking about?? It looks exactly the same as it always did! You CANNOT write a post about that!” LOL LOL LOL It’s amazing to me how two people can have such differing views of the same exact thing. To me, the difference in the house’s appearance was absolutely STAGGERING, yet my fiance didn’t even notice it! Men! LOL I also showed the photos to my mom, though, who said “THAT’S what you’re so upset about? From the way you were talking, I thought they had painted the house black or something!” LOL OK, OK, I will concede that the paint color isn’t that different, but I guess because the 90210 house is so cemented in my memory, any change in its appearance, no matter how minor, is going to seem huge. And, to be fair, the paint color doesn’t show up well in pictures. In person, the house is PINK! Anyway, against my fiance’s better judgement, I just had to write a post today about the house and how it looks post-paint.

Also altering the appearance of the house was the removal of the large hedge which used to stand along the West side of the Walsh’s driveway. As you can see in the two screen captures pictured above, the hedge used to run the length of the driveway, separating the Walsh property from that of their neighbor’s.

But, as you can see in the above photographs, that hedge has been completely removed, which only adds to the difference in the home’s appearance, especially if you approach it from the West.

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At least the garage still looks pretty much the same as it always did – minus Brandon’s basketball hoop, of course. Last November, when Mike and I met Jack, the owner of the house, he told us that he was in the process of remodeling his garage and we both got looks of absolute HORROR on our faces! Jack laughed and said “What? Is it a crime to change the Walsh garage or something?” To which both Mike and I replied with a resounding “YES!” LOL Obviously Jack didn’t heed our words of wisdown, though! SUCH A BUMMER!

I guess it’s really true what they say – the only constant is change. But this is one filming location I was convinced would stay as fixed in real life as it is in my memory. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena, CA.

May 26, 2009July 13, 2009

It’s A Wrap!

Got an email the other day from fellow stalker Heather who told me about a store in Burbank named It’s A Wrap that sells clothing, props, and memorabilia from recently wrapped movies and television shows! Being that the store sounded right up my alley, I immediately ran out to stalk it!! 🙂 It’s A Wrap has been in business selling Hollywood costumes and movie merchandise since 1981. Owner and founder Janet Dion purchases clothes and props directly from the many movie studios in the area and sells them to the public out of two retail stores – one in Burbank and one in Beverly Hills. It’s A Wrap has sold clothing from hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the last twenty-eight years, including The Flinstones, Beverly Hills, 90210!!!!, Seventh Heaven, Charmed, Drillbit Taylor, Twilight, Lipstick Jungle, Spanglish, Seven, Guiding Light, Varsity Blues, Seinfeld, Baywatch, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Las Vegas. Love it!!

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Not only does It’s A Wrap provide the general public access to movie items we might otherwise never have the ability to purchase, but the store also has INCREDIBLE deals!!!! I’m talking INCREDIBLE!!!! Designer dresses are usually marked down well over 50% below retail value. Yesterday, while I was stalking the place, I spotted a few super cute BCBG dresses with the original price tags still attached. The dresses, which were originally priced $298, were selling for $98!!! But, of course, not a one of them was in my size!!! Ugh! Such a bummer!

Because It’s A Wrap receives new merchandise from the local studios on a daily basis, you simply never know what treasures you are going to discover there. While I was stalking the place last week, I found clothing from Kath & Kim, Ugly Betty, General Hospital, Hancock, According to Jim, and CSI: Miami – just to name a few. But the cutest clothes, by far, had to be from the newly-released Wayans Brothers’ movie Dance Flick. I pretty much loved every single piece from that collection, which included a large assortment of tees by fave designer Michael Stars. 🙂 It’s A Wrap was also selling a HUGE array of evening gowns and cocktail dresses from the soap opera General Hospital. If I was still in high school, this would DEFINITELY be the place I’d shop for my prom dress. 🙂

The store even had a dress from Disney Studios that looked strikingly similar to Silver’s prom dress from last week’s episode of 90210. Oh, if only I had a prom to go to! 🙂

I honestly can’t recommend stalking It’s A Wrap enough. But be sure to keep in mind that even though the shop sells movie costumes, it is still a used clothing store. Don’t go in there expecting it to look like a Beverly Hills boutique. It’s A Wrap is a thrift shop, and if you don’t like that sort of thing, you won’t like this place. 🙂 Also don’t go in there expecting to find a specific costume from a specific movie or television show. While all of the clothing for sale at It’s A Wrap bears tags marking what production or what studio it came from, no reference is made to what actor or actress actually wore the item. In fact, many of the clothes for sale were most likely not worn by a lead actor, but by secondary and background actors. And some of the costumes may never even have been worn at all. At the same time, though, you simply never know what you are going to find at It’s A Wrap. A few years back, one lucky customer walked away with Brad Pitt’s shoes from the movie Seven. 🙂 Any visiting tourist who wants to take a piece of Hollywood home with them should definitely stalk It’s A Wrap! Oh, and the best part about the store? Showcased on the walls are countless costumes worn in famous movies and television shows, including items worn by Shannen Doherty, Shirley MacLaine, Sean Penn, and Demi Moore. If you do happen to stalk It’s A Wrap, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for celebs, because, amazingly enough, quite a few of them are fans of the store. Famous customers include Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Mario Lopez, Jennifer Love Hewitt, David Arquette, Brittany Murphy, Nicole Eggert, Drew Barrymore, Geena Davis, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and my fave Shannen Doherty. 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Amanda for telling me about It’s A Wrap! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: It’s A Wrap has two Los Angeles area locations. The first is located at 3315 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The other can be found at 1164 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills. You can visit the It’s A Wrap website here. Another great place to purchase movie and celebrity memorabilia is the website www.starwares.com.

April 28, 2009June 16, 2011

The Beverly Hills, 90210 Spring Dance!

A few weeks ago, I happened to pop in my Beverly Hills, 90210 Season 1 DVDs to watch the “Spring Dance” episode – one of my very favorite 90210episodes of all time! As I scrolled through the DVD menu, I realized that, unbelievably, I had yet to watch that episode accompanied by the commentary by series’ creator Darren Star. So, I settled in with a nice Starbucks Iced Latte to listen to what Darren had to say. And I am SO glad I did, because besides dishing juicy little tidbits of information (such as Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry were not getting along at all that day), Darren also stated that the West Beverly High Spring Dance sequence had been filmed at the Universal Sheraton Hotel in Universal City. So, I of course, grabbed my boyfriend and my camera and immediately headed over there! 🙂

Unfortunately, last year the Sheraton Universal Hotel underwent a $25 million renovation project and now looks completely different than it did back in 1991 when 90210 was filmed there. 🙁 Even the hotel’s main entrance has changed significantly and the circular awning which was shown as the gang drove up to the prom venue has been replaced. : ( According to the hotel’s General Manager, Peter Walterspiel, the forty year old Sheraton “needed a facelift pretty badly”.

First opened in 1969, the twenty story, 451 room hotel is now ready to face the 21st Century. Although I never saw the Sheraton pre-remodel (except on 90210, that is!) , I absolutely love the way it now looks! The lobby is shiny and modern and full of bright, open spaces. And there are many black and white photographs of old time movie stars, like Audrey Hepburn and my girl Marilyn Monroe, lining the lobby walls! Gotta love it! 🙂

I really wanted to grab a cocktail in the hotel’s Club Lounge (where the lights change colors based on the cycle of the sun!), but alas it was only 4 in the afternoon when I was there. 🙁 Oh well, next time!

The Beverly Hills, 90210 Spring Dance scenes were filmed in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom, which, thankfully, looks much the same today as it did eighteen years ago when it appeared on 90210. 🙂 Although some parts of the room have changed since that time, you can see in the above photos that the dark wood doors, wainscoting, and even the wallpaper are still the same.

You can see in the above photos that the wierd lights located above the ballroom doors also haven’t changed since the filming. The screen capture I made of the lights didn’t come out very well, but if you watch the episode you can see the lights more clearly.

Many other productions besides Beverly Hills, 90210 have also been filmed at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. The reality series Cougar used the hotel for both location filming and as the place where all of the contestants were put up during the filming. According to the concierge the escalators leading down to the hotel’s conference rooms were used repeatedly on the show (pictured above). Contestants from the reality series America’s Got Talent were also put up at the Sheraton Universal. And on an episode of Hogan Knows Best, Brooke Hogan and her father, Hulk, checked into the Sheraton while visiting Los Angeles. A recent episode of the television series Chuck was filmed in the Club Lounge and the hotel was also featured in both Desperate Housewives and CSI: Las Vegas.

The Universal Sheraton, which is nicknamed the “Hotel of the Stars”, often plays host to celebrities, as well, including George Clooney, B.B. King, Michael Jackson, Ava Gardner, Tom Hanks, Sophia Loren, Gladys Knight, John Travolta, Dolly Parton, Matthew McConaughy, and my girl Jen Aniston. Telly Savalas, Jen’s godfather, actually LIVED in the hotel for over 17 years!!!! Apparently, Telly began staying at the Universal Sheraton while starring in the television series Kojak, which was filmed just down the road at Universal Studios. He was so keen on the hotel that he ended up moving his wife and kids in and making it his permanent residence. Supposedly, he used to hang out quite often in the lobby bar and was always willing to take pictures and sign autographs for hotel guests. 🙂 Sadly, on January 22, 1994, Telly passed away in his Universal Sheraton Hotel suite. He was only 70 years old. 🙁

I HIGHLY recommend stalking – or even staying at – the Universal Sheraton. In fact, I am trying to think of a good excuse to drag my boyfriend there for a weekend. 🙂 The staff was incredibly nice to me and answered all of my silly questions about the filming that had taken place there over the years – although no one remembered the 90210 Spring Dance being filmed there back in 1991. LOL For all of you tourists who are planning a trip to Universal Studios, the Sheraton Universal would be the place to stay as it is literally a hop, skip, and a jump away from the theme park. You wouldn’t even have to rent a car. 🙂 Oh, and my favorite part of the hotel? The mini Hollywood sign located at the Sheraton’s main entrance (pictured above). LOVE IT! 🙂 I’ve gotta get me one of those for my backyard! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sheraton Universal Hotel is located at 333 Universal Hollywood Drive in Universal City. You can visit their website here. The Beverly Hills, 90210 Spring Dance took place in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom, located just downstairs and to the right of the main lobby.

April 15, 2009April 14, 2009

The Adamson House

I spent all last week on the hunt for a location from my fave 90s TV show Beverly Hills, 90210. The spot I was looking for was the location that stood in for Baja, Mexico in the Season 2 episode entitled “Mexican Standoff”. In the episode, Brenda sneaks off to a Mexican resort town for the weekend with Dylan without telling her parents. I knew from this amazing website that the “Mexico” scenes were actually shot near the beach in Malibu, so I started my hunt there. And it wasn’t long before I found the right spot!

While watching the “Mexican Standoff” episode, I noticed an abundance of intricate Spanish tile in the background of pretty much every scene. (You can see an example of that tile behind Dylan in the above screen capture.) The tiles were my big tip-off, as there is actually a famous house in Malibu that is known for its exquisite tile work. In fact, the house has been deemed the “Taj Mahal of tile”. I had done some research on the home a few years back when I was working and immediately thought of it when I watched the “Mexican Standoff” episode this past week. The home, which is named the Adamson House, is owned by the State of California and has been open to the public as a museum since 1983. So, I, of course, dragged my boyfriend right out there this weekend for a tour.

In 1891, a man named Frederick Hastings Rindge purchased what is now known as the city of Malibu for the bargain price of $10 per acre. Rindge’s wife, May, was fiercely protective of her family’s privacy and did everything she could to keep outsiders out, including fencing off the 17,000 acre property and hiring armed guards who patrolled the area day and night. For close to forty years the Rindges were Malibu’s only occupants. But in the 30s, May ran into some financial trouble and had to sell off parcels of her property. Not wanting to sell to just anyone, May made sure she sold her land to wealthy, distinguished individuals who understood the need for privacy. Most of those individuals were movie stars. And thus, the city of Malibu, celebrity haven, was born. It was Frederick and May’s daughter, Rhoda Agatha Rindge, and her husband Merritt Adamson who in 1930 built the 4,000 square foot Mediterranean style home that is now known as the Adamson House.

Rhoda and Merritt’s custom home, which was designed by Stiles O. Clements, took a year and a half to build and is situated directly above the Malibu Lagoon. May Rindge, who was a tile connoisseur and owned her own tile company named Malibu Potteries, commissioned all of the custom, handmade tile that eventually made her daughter’s home so famous and, in the end, saved it from demolition. In 1966, four years after Rhoda’s death, the State of California was granted eminent domain on the Adamson House and its surrounding property. The state purchased the home from Rhoda’s heirs for $2.6 million and set about razing the property to build a beach parking lot. Unbelievable!! Thankfully, the Malibu Historical Society and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation stepped in and fought to stop the demolition of the home. That fight turned into a ten year battle. During that time, the chancellor of Pepperdine University leased and lived in the property. In 1976, thanks to the home’s unique tile work and its historical significance to the city of Malibu, the house was saved from the wrecking ball. In 1983, after a lengthy renovation process, the home was opened to the public as a museum. The Adamson House is currently both a California Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

And, let me tell you, it is an absolutely incredible place to visit. The tile work in the home is nothing short of A-MA-ZING! I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life and doubt I ever will again. I was shocked when I heard that construction on the home took only a year and a half to complete, as the detailing is so incredibly intricate and elaborate that I would have expected it to have taken much longer. Everything from the clock in the kitchen to the heater grates in the ceiling are made from hand-painted tiles! The house could not be more exquisite and I HIGHLY recommend taking the tour to see it for yourself.

That being said, I have to say that the actual tour was one of the most BIZARRE experiences of my life. There are simply no words to accurately describe our tour – or our docent for that matter. I’m not quite sure what was wrong with her, but I think it is safe to say she was a few bricks shy of a load. A sample bit of her dialog from the tour: “Now we are in the upstairs . . . the ceiling . . . has . . . and you can see . . . and there are . . . this piece of . . . . . . . . . . . . . string . . . during World War II . . . there were bombs . . . who can guess why there are no lights?” And I’m pretty much QUOTING her! LOL When I asked why the Rindge family sold the Adamson House to the State of California she told me it was because “they were tired of it”. LOL LOL LOL At one point during the tour, my boyfriend turned to me and said “Please don’t ask if 90210 was filmed here – that might just make her head explode!” Within the first five minutes I became convinced we were on a hidden camera show – I was hoping it was I Get That A Lot – and at any moment a camera crew was going to jump out at us from behind a wall. I was actually laughing so hard on more than one occasion that I had to completely turn away from the group and stare at the wall. LOL I haven’t laughed that hard in a really long time, so I guess the tour wasn’t a total bust! In fact, as I sit here writing about it, I’m STILL laughing. 🙂 We even made friends with another couple, who were just as bewildered over our docent’s behavior as we were. At the end, one of them said to us, “I realize that they are all volunteers, but isn’t there some sort of screening process???” LOL But I must say that despite our nimrod of a tour guide, seeing the house in person is still an experience I’d recommend.

Oddly enough, only a very small section of the Adamson House was used in the “Mexican Standoff” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. Of course our docent had no clue whatsoever where, or even if, 90210 had filmed on the property back in 1992 and I had a surprisingly difficult time locating the exact spot used on my own. After the tour on Saturday, I went home and watched the “Mexican Standoff” episode once again and finally figured out where it had been filmed. Unfortunately, I had only taken one photograph of that spot while on the tour. LOL So, I actually had to drag my boyfriend BACK to the house the following day to take some more pictures. Thank the lord our docent was nowhere to be found. 🙂 The area featured on Beverly Hills, 90210 was the little porch and driveway located to the side of Adamson House garage.

In the scene, Brenda and Dylan get into an argument over a girl that Dylan dated the previous summer. Brenda is in quite the little snit until a mariachi band strolls over and serenades them with a Spanish version of the Morris Albert song “Feelings”. The two make up and then dance the night away under the Mexican sky. GOD I LOVE THAT SHOW! 🙂 The new one doesn’t even compare!!! You can watch the scene filmed at the Adamson House here.

The “Baja” beach where Brenda and Dylan surf the following morning is very obviously the Malibu Lagoon State Beach, which is located directly in front of the Adamson House.

The location where Brenda and Dylan run into Jake Hanson in the beginning of that same episode is the beach parking lot located just south of the Adamson House. It is actually the place where you must park your car if you are going on an Adamson House tour. That’s the Malibu Pier in the background behind Dylan.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Adamson House is located at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The grounds are open daily to the public from sunrise to sunset. You do not need to be part of a tour to walk around the grounds. The interior of the house is only made available to the public via docent led tours. Tours are held Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 3pm, with the last tour beginning at 2pm. Tours cost $5 per adult and $2 per child under the age of 16. Kids 5 and under are free. You can visit the Adamson House website here.

March 5, 2009March 5, 2009

The Pilot House!

One filming location that has pretty much been the bane of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and my existence for quite some time now is the home that the Walsh family lived in during the very first of episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. Mike and I fondly, and sometimes not so fondly – LOL – refer to this location as “The Pilot House” since it was used in one episode and one episode only of our favorite 90’s series – the pilot episode. The home was never seen again on the series and the question as to why the Walshes lived in a different house when the show began than in later episodes has remained a location mystery for the past twenty years. It’s actually quite common, though, for certain elements of a television series, i.e. locations or actors, to be changed after a pilot episode is filmed. Pilots are usually filmed with extremely small budgets months before regular series filming begins. After a pilot is filmed, it is then shopped around to different networks in the hopes of being sold. The sad truth is that less than twenty five percent of the television pilots that are filmed ever get picked up by the networks, so producers aren’t usually willing to spend a boatload of money to shoot them. But even so the questions as to where the original Walsh home was located and as to why the Walsh home changed from the traditional style home pictured above to the famous Spanish style home that we all know and love have never been answered. Until now! 🙂

A few weeks ago while Mike was watching the pilot episode of 90210 he noticed the number 130 located above the front door of the Walsh home – a little location clue neither of us had picked up on before. (Pictured above). So pretty much immediately the two of us started searching 100 blocks in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas. We must have scrutinized almost every single square inch of L.A. looking for this house! With no luck, I might add. Mike’s instincts kept telling him that the house was located in a gated community due to the fact that the street in front of the home appeared extremely narrow on TV. But, knowing that the shooting budget for the pilot was most likely meager and that filming on a private road is usually a whole lot more costly than filming on your average city street, I disagreed with him. Until last week, that is.

While driving through Brentwood with my boyfriend last week I saw a gated community that I had never noticed before. I could tell just by driving by that it bore a striking resemblance to the 90210 pilot neighborhood. So when I got home that night I did some cyberstalking and quickly found a house in the community with a 130 address that looked a whole lot like the Walsh’s first Beverly Hills home. But I couldn’t be certain it was the Pilot House until I saw the property with my own two eyes. And I was really worried that, being that the home is located in a gated community, I would never get that chance. Well, I must have a guardian angel watching over me, because on a whim, last weekend, I asked my boyfriend to drive by the neighborhood. I knew there was a house for sale just up the road from the pilot house and I had a bit of a hunch. Sure enough – right as we drove up to the community, there on a sign in big red letters were the words I was hoping beyond all hope to see – OPEN HOUSE! 🙂 YAY! And that was my ticket in!

Let me tell you, as we came around the corner and the Pilot House came into view, I was so excited I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest!!!! 🙂 I was pinching myself the whole time! It was so surreal to finally be standing there in front of a filming location I had wondered about for almost twenty years! I almost felt as if any second I would wake up at home in bed only to realize that none of it was real. LOL The Pilot House is a lot smaller in person than it appeared on the show, but otherwise, even twenty years later, it looks EXACTLY the same as it did on 90210! And I could not have been more ecstatic to finally be seeing it with my own two eyes!!!!! The neighborhood where the Pilot House is located is really beautiful, too, with towering trees, huge lawns, and hilly, winding roads. The house for sale wasn’t too shabby, either – yes, of course, we went to go see it! 🙂

And once I determined that the home was located in a gated community, the other part of the 90210 pilot house mystery was solved, too. Upon entering, I just happened to ask the guard on duty at the guard shack if the community allowed filming of any sort to take place on the premises. He told me that in fact filming is not allowed and he laughed as if he gets asked that question all the time. I am sure location scouts come a-knockin’ at the guard shack door all too often. My best guess is that back in 1990, when the pilot episode was filmed, there was no ban on filming in the neighborhood. The pilot house was probably the first home on the premises ever used for filming of any sort. And I am pretty sure it must have belonged to someone on the production team – ie. the director, producer, art director, etc. It actually happens more often than you’d think that someone involved with a lower budget production will offer up their home for filming to keep costs down. Because the Pilot House is a beautiful home located in an upscale community, and since the 90210 pilot budget was most likely quite small, I think that is exactly what happened. Otherwise I just don’t see how they could have afforded to film there. If you’ve seen the pilot episode as many times as I have, you’ll remember that most of the location shooting at the Walsh house took place at night, which I am sure angered quite a few neighbors. Night shoots usually last from sunset to sunrise and can be loud, messy, and annoying to anyone whose house is nearby. So I am gonna go out on a limb and say that during the production of 90210, a few of the neighbors probably got a little miffed about the filming and as soon as the pilot wrapped, members of the small community (there are only 67 houses on the property) made certain nothing like that would ever happen again. So when Beverly Hills, 90210 got picked up as a series three to six months later, the producers were left without a home to use for filming. And that’s how we ended up with Casa Walsh. 🙂

Now we can FINALLY put to bed one of the greatest filming location mysteries of all time. Now if only I could find that darn Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The 90210 Pilot House is located at 130 North Gunston Drive in the Brentwood Circle community. Please remember that this home is located in a private, gated community, and unless they open their gates for a reason (ie. an open house), you should not be on the property.

February 26, 2009February 26, 2009

Isn’t It Romantic!

A few weeks ago while watching my all time favorite episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, entitled “Isn’t It Romantic”, I noticed something I had never noticed before in all of my previous times watching it. In the episode, Dylan takes Brenda on a date to a scenic lookout point to discuss their burgeoning relationship. While watching that scene I noticed that Dylan and Brenda walk right by a sign reading “Mulholland Scenic Corridor” (pictured above). And I almost jumped right out of my chair as I knew exactly where Brenda and Dylan were standing. My boyfriend had taken me to that exact same spot about four or five years ago. My boyfriend – stealing romantic moves from Dylan McKay! Who knew? LOL

So immediately after watching the episode, I dragged my boyfriend out to stalk the overlook that he had taken me to all those years ago. But when we got there I realized immediately that we were in the wrong place. For some reason it just didn’t look to me like Brenda and Dylan’s overlook. My boyfriend kept telling me “Lindsay, the episode was filmed 20 years ago! Surely the place is going to look different now!” LOL Well, come to find out, we were in the wrong place! Turns out there are EIGHT different scenic overlooks located along the twisty turny 24 mile stretch of Mulholland Drive known as the Mulholland Scenic Corridor and Parkway. LOL I believe it was at that point that I became a bit unglued and told my boyfriend that we were going to drive to EACH AND EVERY ONE of those overlooks until I found the right one. LOL I know, I know, it’s amazing that he puts up with me!

Well, lucky for my boyfriend, we didn’t actually have to go to all eight overlooks. I believe we only made it to five of them. 🙂 The funny thing is that by that point I didn’t even care so much about seeing Brenda and Dylan’s overlook in person – it was more the frustration over not being able to find it that was driving me. Anway, the overlook used on Beverly Hills, 90210 is named the Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook and as soon as I saw it in person I had to give myself a mental kick. I am sad to say that I really should have figured this one out sooner, as the Pohl Overlook is pretty much the only Mulholland overlook that has any sort of parking lot. And parking lots are definitely one thing location scouts look for when scouting locations. They need a place to park all of those massive production trucks! The Pohl Overlook has a HUGE parking lot that can fit over 40 cars, so it would have been the obvious choice for the filming of my fave 90s show. UGH! I can be such a blond sometimes! LOL

I HIGHLY recommend stalking ANY of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway and Corridor overlooks. All five that we visited boasted absolutely majestic views of Los Angeles. The eight overlooks are located on Mulholland Drive in between the 101 and 405 Freeways. Their names are: Barbara A. Fine Overlook, Hollywood Bowl Overlook, Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook, Stone Canyon Overlook, Universal City Overlook, The Groves Overlook, Las Virgenes Overlook, and Seminole Overlook.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook is located at 8401 Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.

February 12, 2009February 14, 2009

Quake!

The other night while driving home from the hospital – yes, my dad is in the hospital yet again – I happened to hit a red light at the corner of Green Street and Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena. The light took a really long time to change and while waiting I just happened to gaze off to my left. What I saw almost made me run my car right off the road! LOL Just down the street from me on Green Street, I saw what looked a whole lot like the exterior of Quake Restaurant from the television series Charmed. Even though I never watched Charmed while it was on the air, I have been slightly obsessed with finding Quake’s exterior ever since some Charmed fanatics challenged me to find it this past summer. And let me tell you, it was one difficult location to find!

For Christmas Mike from MovieShotsLA bought me the entire Charmed series on DVD and I just started watching the first season last week. By scrutinizing some screen captures I could tell that the exterior of Quake was not the exterior of a real restaurant. Basically Quake’s entrance consisted of two pillars and an archway that producers spruced up a little by adding some foliage, potted plants, and a sign reading “Quake”. My best guess was that the pillars were the entrance to an apartment building or a commercial driveway of some sort. But trying to find two random pillars in L.A. proved to be quite difficult and to tell you the truth I had no idea even where to begin looking. Due to the vagueness of what was shown on TV, this is one location I had no hope of ever finding. Until Sunday night, that is!

What caught my eye as I drove by Green Street the other night were the twinkle lights covering “Quake’s” archway (pictured above). I’ve probably driven by this location about a hundred times in the past, but in the daylight I never really noticed it. At night, though, the bright twinkle lights caught my eye and triggered something in my mind. I immediately pulled off to the side of the road, snapped a few photographs, and sent them off to Mike. He called me back right away and said that the Green Street location was, indeed, Quake!!!!

It turns out that in real life the exterior of Quake is the entrance to an office building named the Pasadena Livery Building. The lit archway in front leads to a small brick courtyard located at the Livery’s entrance. While the archway and courtyard area are very cute in person, I’m sure it will be pretty disappointing for Charmed fans to find out that in real life Quake is just a nondescript office building that one could easily drive right by without even noticing. LOL I was still SUPER excited to find it, though!!

Now that I can check Quake off my must-find locations list, I can pour all of my stalking attention yet again into finding the ever elusive Girls Just Want to Have Fun apartment . LOL For some reason not even Mike, master stalker, can locate that apartment building. But like I told him the other day, if we can find two pillars and an archway that were used in the filming of a television series over 11 years ago, surely we can find the Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment!!!! LOL

And it’s definitely true what they say – every cloud does have a silver lining. Because while my dad might have spent all week in the hospital, had I not been driving home from visiting him late at night I never would have discovered Quake. Sometimes you’ve just gotta keep your eyes open to what the universe is trying to show you. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The exterior of the fictional Quake restaurant is really the entrance to the Pasadena Livery Building located at 101 East Green Street in Pasadena.

February 6, 2009February 13, 2009

The 90210 Pilot Church

A few days ago I sent Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a screen capture of the church featured in the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. I had a hunch he might know where it was located – and, sure enough, he did! He immediately called me and said “That’s the Spiderman church!” as it was also used in the filming of Spiderman 3. 🙂 God, he’s good! St. Brendan Church – or as Mike and I like to call it, the “pilot church” – was built in 1927 by Los Angeles area architect Emmett Martin.

In the pilot episode of 90210, Brenda, not wanting her new twenty-something boyfriend Jason to know that she is only sixteen years old and still living at home with her parents, lies and says that she is attending UCLA and living in a sorority house named Sigma Rho Tau. After their first date, Jason drops Brenda off in front of her fake sorority house, which just happens to be located next door to a church. That church is St. Brendan and that sorority house is not really a sorority house at all, but the church rectory. As you can see in the above screen captures, all the producers had to do was add a sign with the sorority’s name to the outside of the rectory and cover up the stained glass window with a bulletin board – and voila, they had themselves a sorority house!

While researching St. Brendan Church earlier today I remembered something very ironic from my past. I can’t even believe I’m admitting to this – in a public forum no less – but you only live once, so here goes! When I was in high school I receieved the Sacrament of Confirmation. At the time I was fifteen years old and deep in the throws of my 90210 obsession. So much so in fact, that I chose Brendan, after St. Brendan, as my confirmation name. In the Catholic faith, when ones receives the Sacrament of Confirmation, they are to adopt the name of a patron saint who is said to then guide and protect them. Confirmation candidates are supposed to study the history of the saints and find one that represents the type of Christian they want to become. But for me the choice was easy. Once I found out there was a saint named Brendan, that was it for me! Of course, the female version of the name Brendan is Brenda. 🙂 Yes, I was THAT obsessed. LOL Being that my mother wanted to kill me when she found out the saint name I chose, this little episode of my life has been a long running joke in my family. LOL So earlier today when I found out that St. Brendan was the name of the 90210 church, I just about fell out of my chair.

St. Brendan actually has quite a rich filming history. Besides the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, the church was also featured in Armageddon as the location of Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler’s wedding.

You can watch the wedding scene below:

It was the location of Stephanie Seymor and Axl Rose’s wedding in the Guns N’ Roses music video for the song “November Rain”.

On a side note – I must say that I absolutely LOVE Stephanie Seymour’s wedding dress from the video (pictured above). I am gonna have to get me one of those for my wedding! LOL As if!! 🙂 You can watch the “November Rain” music video below:

In the Season Four episode of CSI: Miami entitled “From the Grave”, my fave Horatio Caine confessed his sins at Saint Brendan.

The church was also featured in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds (as the location where the residents of L.A. gather during the final scenes of the movie), Spiderman 3 (the interior is where Topher Grace prayed for God to kill Peter Parker), Fight Club (Edward Norton’s cancer support group was held there), and an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. You can see interior pics of the church on the Saint Brendan website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Beverly Hills, 90210 pilot church, aka St. Brendan, is located at 310 South Van Ness Avenue in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.

November 26, 2008January 25, 2010

The Inside of the Walsh House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Last Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I set out to do a little Pasadena stalking. Who knew that our day would hold the stalking adventure to end all stalking adventures! Even as I sit here, days later, writing these words, I am pinching myself, unsure if the whole thing even really happened. But since I have the photographs, I guess it really did. 🙂

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On Friday afternoon, after stalking a few Pasadena locations, Mike and I stopped off at our old staple, the 90210 house, aka Casa Walsh. Even though Mike and I had stalked this home countless times before, we had to return yet again as it is one location that we just never grow tired of. On this particular trip, though, the stalking gods must have been smiling down on us because the owner of the home pulled up in his car right when we arrived. So of course, we got to talking with him. 🙂

The owner, whose name is Jack, could NOT have been a nicer guy! He stood and talked with us in the Walsh driveway for about 45 minutes, sharing all sorts of 90210 stories and behind the scenes info. For instance, he told us that on one occasion when they filmed at his house, producers cleared out all of his living room furniture and built a soundstage of Kelly’s bedroom in the vacant room! LOL He also told us that some of the camping scenes from the Season 2 episode entitled “Camping Trip” were actually filmed in his backyard! And – my personal favorite story of the many Jack shared with us – one day he got home from work to find a message on his answering machine from a woman who said “Hi this is Emily Valentine and I wanted to let you know that I just got out of the asylum.” LOL Jack even told us of a few other 90210 filming locations that he knew about. 🙂 Now, this is where the story gets REALLY exciting. After talking with us for a bit in his driveway, Jack invited us into his backyard to take some photos.

Numerous events in the Walsh twins’ lives took place in Jack’s backyard, including Cindy and Jim’s 20th wedding anniversary, Jackie Taylor and Mel Silver’s wedding, the painting of the gang’s homecoming float which was later doused with gasoline by Emily Valentine, and – my personal favorite – one of the first times Brenda lays eyes on Dylan.

In that episode, entitled “Isn’t It Romantic”, Dylan and Brandon are working on Brandon’s car Mondale in the Walsh backyard. In the meantime, while speaking with Kelly on the phone, Brenda walks outside onto a little balcony to admire Dylan from afar, but he notices her and turns around to give her that cute Dylan smile that I was so in love with. 🙂 LOVE THAT SHOW! Anyway, Brenda’s balcony is really a part of the Altadena home and I could not have been more excited to see it in person! I believe it was at this point in our Casa Walsh tour, as Mike and I stood there snapping pictures like crazy and screaming like little schoolgirls, that Jack told us we both had way too much time on our hands. LOL 🙂

After seeing us go a bit crazy over being in the actual 90210 backyard, Jack (wait, are you sitting down for this???) INVITED US TO SEE THE INSIDE OF THE HOUSE!!!! Yes, you read that right – HE INVITED US INSIDE THE HOUSE! THE 90210 HOUSE! BRANDON AND BRENDA’S HOUSE! WE GOT TO GO INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mike and I both just about keeled over and died at this proposition and I am surprised we didn’t knock poor Jack to the floor as we made a running b-line for the house. 🙂 LOL While inside, Jack first showed us some scrapbooks he had made with photographs and articles from his house’s filming days. The scrapbooks included all sorts of photographs and memorabilia from the 90210 days, including photos of his kids with the stars and the original contract he signed allowing the production company to use his home for filming. I couldn’t help but smile as I read one clause in the contract which stated that a basketball hoop would be added to the exterior of Jack’s garage. 🙂 That basketball hoop is now gone as Jack is in the middle of remodeling his garage (say it ain’t so!). There were actually two different basketball hoops used during the filming of 90210 and when the series ended, Jack got to keep both of them. Many years later he ended up giving both of those hoops away to 90210 fans who had stopped by his house to take pictures. Like I said – what an amazingly nice guy! Mike was extremely bummed that he wasn’t the lucky recipient of one of those basketball hoops, but we should consider ourselves lucky as Jack said that Mike and I were the first two fans he had ever invited inside the house. 🙂

The most surreal moment of the day for me happened when my phone rang while I was standing in the 90210 kitchen (which you can sort of see in the above photograph). You see, my ring tone is, and always has been, the 90210 theme song. I kid you not. So there I was standing in Casa Walsh when the familiar strains of “Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh” came pouring out of my phone. LOL After looking at Jack’s 90210 scrapbooks, he took us on a mini-tour of the downstairs of his home. I was in utter shock not only at the fact that he would invite us into his home, but also that I WAS ACTUALLY STANDING INSIDE THE 90210 HOUSE! I had dreamed of seeing the inside of that home for YEARS and the only thing I can imagine that would have been more satisfying to a stalker like myself would be to have visited the studio set of the Walsh home during filming. I had read that the set of Casa Walsh was based on the real interiors of the Altadena home and on Friday I saw for myself that that was sort of true. While the kitchen area looks nothing like Cindy Walsh’s kitchen, the entryway, living room and dining room are all very similar to what we saw on TV. When walking inside the house it was like worlds were colliding inside my head as the image I knew of the interior sets meshed with reality. It was surreal and almost as if my brain couldn’t accept both images at the same time. LOL

The dining room area, which was just re-painted and therefore has no furniture in it, is very reminiscent of the Walsh dining room.

The living room is also quite similar to its television counterpart, except that it is longer and not quite as deep as the Walsh living room. In real life it is also missing the Walsh’s built-in bookshelves.

The area of the home I was most excited to see was the entryway/stairwell, as the Walsh’s entryway/stairwell was shown so often on the show. In reality, the stairway is situated like a mirrior image of how it appeared on 90210. The stairs run from the left to the right, while the Walsh stairway went from right to left. I asked Jack why he thinks they made this change for the studio set and he said he thinks that it worked better for camera angles that way. Aside from the stairway running the opposite direction, the real entryway looks very similar to the Walsh entryway and I still cannot believe I got to see it with my own two eyes!

Of course, we just had to take a picture with Jack in the entryway to document our time spent at Casa Walsh. On our way out, after giving Jack our phone numbers and telling him that if he ever needed ANYTHING to give us a call :), Mike told him that if he ever decided to sell Casa Walsh he wanted to be the first to know. 🙂

I still can hardly believe this whole thing even happened!! Mike and I seem to have a lot of luck when it comes to stalking 90210 locations, and I think I need to bring him with me on all of my stalking adventures from now on. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Casa Walsh is located at 1675 E. Altadena Drive, in Altadena. We got really lucky being let inside the house, but please don’t bother the owner to do this yourself as it is not his common practice.