Calling all This Is Us fans! The house where Madison Simons (Caitlin Thompson) lives on the hit series just hit the market. You can read all about it in my latest post for Dirt.
The “Gimme a Break!” House
Though I definitely consider myself a child of the ‘80s, somehow I never watched Gimme a Break!, which aired on NBC from 1981 to 1987. So when my friend Owen emailed in April asking if I had any intel on the supposed Glenlawn, California residence where widowed police chief Carl Kanisky (Dolph Sweet) lived with his three daughters, Katie (Kari Michaelsen), Sam (Lara Jill Miller) and Julie (Lauri Hendler), and their housekeeper, Nell Harper (Nell Carter), on the series, I was at a loss. Owen isn’t actually a huge Gimme a Break! fan either, but bored during quarantine, caught an episode on YouTube and quickly zeroed in on the traditional-style pad shown in the opening credits. As he wrote to me, “I’m guessing this is one of the few remaining popular ’80s sitcom houses that has yet to be found.” I was, of course, intrigued. One look at its stately architecture told me the property was likely in Hancock Park. I did some digging in the area, but came up empty. It was not until the end of May that the home was finally identified thanks to fellow stalker Chas, of the It’s Filmed There website. As it turns out, my hunch about Hancock Park was right on the money! The Kanisky residence can be found at 515 South Norton Avenue in Windsor Square, looking pretty much exactly as it did during the Gimme a Break! days almost four decades ago!
[ad]
In real life, the 1910 home boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,022 square feet, a fireplace, a 0.16-acre lot, and a detached 2-car garage with what appears to be an in-law unit upstairs.
It really is a handsome property, with plenty of Anywhere, U.S.A. appeal. So it’s no surprise it found its way to the screen.
Said to be at 2938 Wells Drive in the fictional town of Glenlawn, the pad popped up in Gimme a Break!’s Season 1 and 2 opening credits, which you can watch here. Like me, Chas had a feeling the property was most likely located in Hancock Park and its environs. He began his search at Beverly Boulevard and Manhattan Place at the very eastern edge of Windsor Square and, using Street View, worked his way south on Manhattan until he hit Wilshire Boulevard. He then ventured back toward Beverly on North St. Andrews Place and continued on that way in a grid-like fashion, moving west. And there, on the sixth street he searched, was the Kanisky house. Thank you, Chas!
It truly is a feat that so little of the property has been changed considering 39 years have passed since Gimme a Break! first hit the screen, not to mention how prevalent remodels are in L.A.
Only the exterior of 515 South Norton appeared on the series. The interior of the Kanisky house was just a set located on a soundstage at the now-defunct Metromedia Square in Hollywood, where Helen Bernstein High School now stands.
Gimme a Break! is not the pad’s only claim to fame!
Thanks to On Location Vacations, I learned that Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) took Rebecca (Mandy Moore) to an open house there in the Season 3 episode of This Is Us titled “A Philadelphia Story,” which aired in 2018. Only the interior of the property was shown in the episode.
On Location Vacations also tipped me off to the residence’s stint as the home of Marisol (Veronica Osorio) and Richard Onsted (Peter Mark Kendall) on the television series Strange Angel, which aired from 2018 to 2019.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine, and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’s Filmed There website, for finding this location and to Owen for initiating the hunt! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Kanisky house from Gimme a Break! is located at 515 South Norton Avenue in Windsor Square.
Noodles’ House from “A Star Is Born”
News outlets are reporting that Lady Gaga can’t seem to let go of her A Star Is Born character. Well, I am apparently having a hard time letting go of the movie’s locations because here I am yet again with yet another site from the film (you can read my other ASIB posts here, here, and here) – a film that I did not even enjoy, oddly enough. Yes, I did finally sit down to watch it recently, but found myself bored and wound up turning it off about ninety minutes in. I don’t know if my apathy was completely legitimate or had to do with the fact that I was dreading the sad ending, but either way, the portions I did see were just “meh.” The only time I did perk up was when the supposed Memphis home belonging to George ‘Noodles’ Stone (Dave Chappelle) came onscreen as I was fairly certain it was a spot I had stalked long ago. A quick visit to my website verified my hunch – Noodles’ pad is none other than the Teen Wolf party house! Researching further, I was shocked to discover that the property boasts yet a third notable claim to fame! So, even though I already blogged about it back in 2011, I figured it was definitely time for another go-around.
[ad]
Per a couple of commenters on my 2011 post, in real life Noodles’ house was built in 1915 for a man named Dr. Hubert Shearin, who was the head of the Occidental College English Department at the time. A distinguished member of the community, Dr. Shearin also served as director of the Eagle Rock School Board and director of Eagle Rock Bank, as well as belonging to countless local clubs. Considering his prominence, it should come as no surprise that when Eagle Rock became part of the City of Los Angeles in 1923 and many roads were required to be renamed, the street his former residence is on was dubbed “Shearin Avenue” in his honor.
Hubert passed away suddenly on August 12th, 1919 at the age of 41, leaving behind his wife, Ruth, and their two children. Ruth continued to live in the 4-bedroom, 1-bath, 2,346-square-foot property (which you can see interior photographs of here) until 1952, at which time she moved to Glendale. In the ensuing years, the house went on to become quite famous cinematically.
It is there that Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox) and his friends attend a raucous high school party in the 1985 classic Teen Wolf.
A woman named Valerie who grew up in the house and lived there during the Teen Wolf shoot wrote a comment on my 2011 post informing me that the closet where Scott kissed his BFF Boof (Susan Ursitti) was not real, but a set piece built specifically for the filming on the home’s rear deck, which is what I had suspected upon first viewing images of the interior. In actuality, the closet doors seen in the movie are French doors that lead from the dining room to the backyard. You can check out an image of the spot where the prop closet was built here.
It was thanks to my obsessive study of the closet and dining room area while writing my original post that I recognized the pad in A Star Is Born. Actually, what I recognized were the unique arched built-ins situated on either side of the home’s French doors. I had spent quite a bit of time scrutinizing them, so when they popped up in A Star Is Born, I immediately took note. You can check out some actual images of the residence’s dining room, which was massively repainted for the ASIB shoot, here and here.
Along with the dining room . . .
. . . the kitchen (which you can see a photo of here) also briefly appeared in A Star Is Born . . .
. . . as did an upstairs bedroom (matching photo here) . . .
. . . the side yard (matching photo here) . . .
. . . and the street out front (matching Google Street View image below).
As I mentioned earlier, along with Teen Wolf and A Star Is Born, the dwelling boasts yet another Hollywood connection. On the television series This Is Us, it serves at the supposed Pittsburgh residence of the Pearson family. It is this home that burns down in the much-maligned episode titled “Super Bowl Sunday.” For whatever reason, the property was only utilized on the show starting in Season 2.
During the series’ inaugural season, a different home at 1960 Fletcher Avenue in South Pasadena appeared as the Pearsons’.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Noodles’ house from A Star Is Born, aka the Teen Wolf party house, aka the Pearson residence from This Is Us, is located at 5223 Shearin Avenue in Eagle Rock. Rachel’s (Chloë Grace Moretz) home from (500) Days of Summer can be found right next door at 5231 Shearin Avenue.