Thousand Oaks – IAMNOTASTALKER

January 14, 2015January 13, 2015

Hyatt Westlake Plaza from “The Karate Kid”

2014 was definitely the year of The Karate Kid. Not only did the flick turn thirty, but two of its missing locations were finally found – Mr. Miyagi’s house, which I blogged about here, and the fictional Encino Oaks Country Club, which, as it turns out, was actually the Hyatt Westlake Plaza hotel in Thousand Oaks. The latter was only brought to my attention recently thanks to this June LA Weekly article. So while I was in the area one (very rainy) day a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by to investigate further.

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I had actually stalked the Hyatt Westlake Plaza once before, way back in February 2010, because of its appearance in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend.” (You can read that post here.) I later came to find out that the hotel was also used for some interior filming in the Season 5 episodes titled “P.S. I Love You: Part I” and “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” which were also set in Palm Springs. As I said in that post, which you can read here, Hyatt Westlake Plaza was obviously 90210’s go-to Palm Springs hotel stand-in. But more on that in a bit.

In The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) heads to the Encino Oaks Country Club to pick up Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue) for a date. Ali tells Daniel that she will meet him outside at 9:30, but she winds up being late. According to the LA Weekly article, Daniel waited for her just outside of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza’s main entrance. Thankfully, that information was easy to verify as the hotel’s entrance looks exactly the same today as it did in the fall of 1983, when The Karate Kid was shot.

In the scene, Daniel stood in front of the easternmost beam of the hotel’s porte-cochère.

You can even see the Hyatt’s tiled lobby fountain in the background, which was also visible in the “P.S. I Love You” episodes of 90210.

Today, the fountain is no longer tiled, but its shape remains the same as it was when 90210 was filmed in 1995.

Once Daniel gets tired of waiting for Ali in The Karate Kid, he heads inside the country club to try to see what is holding her up. He sneaks in through the kitchen and eventually sees Ali in a luxe ballroom kissing his nemesis, Johnny (William Zabka). According to LA Weekly, filming of that scene took place in the Hyatt’s Grand Plaza Ballroom, so I headed inside to check it out. Sadly, due to the fact that the hotel has been remodeled several times over the past thirty years, it no longer looks anything like it did onscreen, which gave me some pause.

The most notable change was that of the chandeliers. In The Karate Kid, the ballroom chandeliers were made of ornate crystals, while the room’s current chandeliers are almost Mediterranean in style and feature iron accents.

I did notice that the ballroom’s recessed ceiling squares and positioning of heating vents did appear to be a direct match with what appeared in The Karate Kid. Despite that fact, though, I started to have doubts about the location. It was hard for me to believe that the hotel would do away with such fancy crystal chandeliers, especially considering that the new chandeliers make the room much less elegant and far more casual. I thought it was more likely that filming had taken place at a different spot, one that still had those chandeliers in place.

I also was unable to locate the set of double doors that led to the kitchen in the movie, which only gave me further hesitation that the Grand Plaza Ballroom was the ballroom from The Karate Kid. I know, I know. I was definitely nitpicking, especially considering that it has been thirty years since filming took place. What can I say? I don’t like to be 95% sure, or 99% sure, or even 99.9% sure about locations I present on my blog. Before reporting anything, I want to be 100% certain about all of my assertions.

This past Monday, I started searching for other ‘80s productions filmed at the hotel, hoping one might show the Grand Plaza Ballroom. If I could find some sort of image of the ballroom and those crystal chandeliers were indeed in place, then I could verify that it was the same spot used in The Karate Kid. Thanks to IMDB, I learned that Hyatt Westlake Plaza had been featured in two Season 6 episodes of Knots Landing, “Vulnerable” and “The Long and Winding Road.” The episodes were filmed in 1985, just two years after The Karate Kid was shot. I spent hours searching for them online, but, sadly, Knots Landing is not available to watch anywhere! I finally managed to find a (rather dramatic) scene from the “Vulnerable” episode on YouTube and, miraculously, it took place in the Grand Plaza Ballroom! Eureka! You can watch it by clicking below.

Maddeningly though, the cameras never panned high enough in the scene to show the chandeliers. I did spot some similarities between the Knots Landing ballroom and The Karate Kid ballroom, though. As you can see below, the single and double wood frame décor elements were present in both productions.

The chair railings that run across both rooms are also a match.

As is the shaping of the doorframes. The wallpaper also seems to be the same in both films, though it is hard to tell.

I still was not convinced that the two rooms were one and the same, though. I wanted to see an image of those chandeliers! That would clinch things for me. Then, like a lightning bolt, it hit me! I suddenly remembered that in “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) made a speech to her fellow sorority sisters – wait for it – in a ballroom. I immediately popped in my DVD of the episode and, sure enough, the crystal chandeliers from The Karate Kid were visible! I finally had my confirmation!

While I was at it, I figured I might as well also chronicle all of the productions filmed on the premises. In the 1985 movie Tuff Turf, Hyatt Westlake Plaza once again masqueraded as a country club, this time the El Canyon Country Club that Morgan Hiller (James Spader), Frankie Croyden (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Kim Richards) and their friends snuck into. The front exterior of the property . . .

. . . and the lobby area were used in the flick.

Oddly though, the ballroom featured in the movie was actually the Riviera Country Club’s Crystal Ballroom in Pacific Palisades. You can see pictures of it here.

As I mentioned above, Hyatt Westlake Plaza appeared in two episodes of Knots Landing, Season 6’s “Vulnerable” and “The Long and Winding Road.” In the episodes, the hotel was where Mack MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson) and Karen MacKenzie (Michele Lee) confronted the shady Dr. Ackerman (Laurence Haddon) while he was participating in a bridge tournament. After the confrontation, Dr. Ackerman runs outside to the Hyatt’s parking lot and shoots himself.

In the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend,” which aired in 1991, the Hyatt Westlake Plaza masked as two hotels. It first stood in for the Desert Palm Mirage, where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) thought she was supposed to meet Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) for a romantic rendezvous.

“I had to sleep in a broom closet!”

And it also played the Desert Mirage, the hotel where Brenda later caught Dylan with another girl.

I so love that the elevators still look exactly the same today as they did when 90210 was filmed 24 years ago.

In Season 5’s “P.S. I Love You” episodes, the Hyatt was used as the interior of the hotel where the KEG/Alpha Convention was being held.

The Hyatt’s hot tub was also used in the scene in which Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) and Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) almost rendezvoused. The hot tub is denoted with a yellow arrow in the photograph below (which I got off of the hotel’s website). It is located just beyond the pool. As you can see, the tiered shaping of the top of the pillar visible behind Brandon on 90210 matches that of the Hyatt’s pillars. And the boulders situated near the pool are also a match to what appeared onscreen.

Hyatt Westlake Plaza has also appeared on The Bachelor. For a time, it was where contestants were put up prior to moving into the mansion. I do not believe that it has been used in the show’s more current seasons, though. The screen captures below were taken from the first episode of the series’ 14th season, which starred Jake Pavelka.

On a side-note – my dad has a couple of doctor appointments in L.A. this week and I am heading out there with him. While I will have a new Los Angeles magazine post for tomorrow, I will not have a new post for Friday.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hyatt Westlake Plaza, aka Encino Oaks Country Club from The Karate Kid, is located at 880 South Westlake Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

December 9, 2014December 8, 2014

Regular Jon’s Pizza from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

Fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, recently texted me to let me know he had tracked down a location that I had been curious about for what seemed like forever – the pizza parlor from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Thanks to John Hughes’ DVD commentary of the flick, I knew that the restaurant was once in Brentwood and was no longer in operation, but I still desperately wanted to find its former location. So I was thrilled to receive Chas’ text and ran right out to stalk the site last week while I was in L.A.

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As it turns out, the pizzeria that made an appearance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was Regular Jon’s, formerly located at 11645 San Vicente Boulevard. The eatery was originally founded by Jon Persoff in 1971 and was a Brentwood landmark for the twenty years that it was in operation. Sadly, when Persoff’s lease expired in 1991, the landlord raised his rent considerably causing Jon to close up shop, much to the chagrin of the restaurant’s many regulars. After Jon’s was shuttered, the space was completely gutted and turned into a Louise’s Trattoria. When Louise’s closed, Yuzu Sushi Roll House & Sake Bar moved in. Today, the site houses an organic eatery known as the Coral Tree Café. Unfortunately, it looks completely different in its current state than it did when Regular Jon’s was still in operation.

The good news is that Regular Jon’s has a sister location, which Chas also informed me of. When Persoff passed away on September 25th, 2010, a former regular and one-time employee named Steven Goldberg decided to make a pizza in the former Regular Jon’s-style in his honor. He spent weeks trying to replicate the thin crust recipe that generations of Brentwoodians had fallen in love with over four decades prior. He finally nailed it and posted a comment about his endeavor on his Facebook page. Soon friends were clamoring for him to make them a Regular Jon’s pizza and an idea took hold – Steve would establish his own replica pizzeria. He opened the new eatery, which he dubbed “Steve’s Un-Original Pizza,” in November 2013 inside of the MB2 Raceway at 1475 Lawrence Drive in Thousand Oaks. I ventured out to stalk the place last week and had the pleasure of meeting Steve. He could NOT have been nicer. In fact, when I showed up to the parlor, it was not yet open for the day. Figuring my chances were slim to none, but being that I had just driven an hour and a half, I decided to call the number on the website to ask if there was anyway I could come inside to snap some pics. And what do you know, he invited me right in!

Steve designed his pizzeria to be reminiscent of Regular Jon’s, with dark wood paneling and an old school brown and yellow menu board.

He also has numerous photographs of his yearly childhood birthday parties, which all took place at Regular Jon’s, as well as a panoramic screen capture from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on display. I absolutely loved seeing it all! You can check out some more of Steve’s old photographs on his Facebook page here.

Steve answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and filled me in on Regular Jon’s history. While I was under the assumption that the Jon’s building had been torn down after the site closed in 1991, Steve informed me that was not the case. He said that the Jon’s property originally consisted of a thin, one-story, rectangular building with a large L-shaped parking lot. That original rendering is denoted with a pink arrow in the Historic Aerials image below.

In the early ‘80s, Jon expanded the eatery by adding a second, larger attached rectangular building that was constructed in the side portion of the parking lot. The two-part structure remains standing today, but due to the many changes in ownership and subsequent remodels, it, unfortunately, looks nothing like it did when Jon’s was in operation.

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Regular Jon’s is where principal Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) goes in the hopes of catching Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) cutting school. While an exterior of the pizzeria is not shown in the movie, the spot where Rooney parks his car before heading inside Jon’s is actually located just outside of Chicago, where FBDO is set. Rooney parks where Chestnut Street intersects with Chestnut Court in Winnetka.

Quite a bit of Regular Jon’s is shown in the movie, including the order counter . . .

. . . and the eating area and small arcade –

– where Rooney has an unfortunate encounter with a straw full of soda. “Le jeux son faits!”

Regular Jon’s also appeared in a couple of other productions. In 1978, it was the spot where Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) searched for clues while looking for Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) in the Season 2 episode of Dallas titled “Kidnapped.”

That same year, the pizzeria was featured in the pilot episode of the television series The Paper Chase as the restaurant where Harvard Law School student James T. Hart (James Stephens) worked. For subsequent episodes of the series, a different location was used as James’ workplace.

You can watch all of The Paper Chase scenes shot at Regular Jon’s by clicking below.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Regular Jon’s, from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, was formerly located at 11645 San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood. The space now houses the Coral Tree Café. Steve’s Un-Original Pizza can be found at 1475 Lawrence Drive, inside of the MB2 Raceway, in Thousand Oaks. You can visit Steve’s official website here.

November 3, 2010November 2, 2010

The Gas Station from the “Palm Springs Weekend” Episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like forever now is the gas station where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth), Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling), Steve Sanders (aka Ian Ziering) and David Silver (aka Brian Austin Green) fueled up their cars in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend” (aka “A Fling in Palm Springs”). Because “Palm Springs Weekend” was one of my all-time favorite episodes of the entire series, and was also coincidentally the very first episode of the show that I ever saw, it holds an extremely special place in my heart and I was absolutely dying to stalk all of the locations featured in it. And while I had found most of the other “Palm Springs Weekend” filming sites a while back, for whatever reason, try as I might, I just couldn’t seem to track that gas station down. So, I recently enlisted the help of fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who contacted one of the show’s former crewmembers, who happened to remember that the gas station was located on Thousand Oaks Boulevard just a few blocks west of Hampshire Road in Thousand Oaks. As soon as Chas gave me that detailed information, I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Valley to look for the place. Amazingly enough, though, even with the crew member’s detailed directions, I just could not seem to find it. So, after returning home I emailed fellow stalker Owen and asked if he might be able to lend a hand. Magically, Owen found the gas station almost immediately! As it turns out, the GC and I had relegated our search to too small of an area and had only stalked the short stretch of Thousand Oaks Boulevard located immediately to the west of Hampshire Road. Had we ventured just one more block west, though, we would have found the station right there on the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Live Oak Street. UGH! So, this past weekend, while on our way to Santa Barbara, I made the GC take a little detour off the 101 so that I could finally, finally stalk the “Palm Springs Weekend” gas station!

In the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode, which originally aired almost twenty years ago on February 21, 1991, Brenda and the gang stop by the gas station while on their way to Palm Springs, where they are all spending President’s Day weekend. Quite a lengthy scene takes place at the station, at one point during which Steve informs David that if he wants to hang out with him and pick up girls he needs to “at least attempt to be cool”, to which David says, “Oh, OK, so you think I should, like, hold off and give ‘em, like, a Johnny Depp-type attitude thing?” That line absolutely amazes me every time I hear it being that it still holds true to this day, almost two full decades later, as Johnny Depp is still considered the epitome of cool in Hollywood! Talk about a star having staying power!

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Today, the 90210 gas station, which at the time of the filming was operated by Shell Gas Company, is now an auto repair shop named Steve’s Automotive. I had the pleasure of speaking with Steve, the super-nice owner, while I was stalking the place and he was pretty excited to learn that his shop had once appeared on the iconic series. He also informed me that it had been used a few times in car commercials in more recent years.

Amazingly enough, even though the property has since changed ownership and is no longer a gas station, it still looks much the same today as it did nineteen years ago when filming took place. I was most excited to see that the bathroom area, where David met Tuesday (aka Shana Furlow), was still there and that it still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in the episode! So incredibly cool!!!!

And, of course, I just had to take a picture in the spot where Kelly had parked her car in the episode. 🙂

Big THANK YOU to both Chas from It’sFilmedThere and fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Steve’s Automotive, aka the gas station from the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 2658 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. The bathroom where David met Tuesday, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view, can be found just to the left of and around the corner from the front of the auto shop. The area where Kelly was parked is located under the carport, directly in front of the entrance to the office portion of Steve’s Automotive and is denoted with a blue “X” in the above aerial image.

December 4, 2009December 3, 2009

JMJ Ranch from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked during our day in the the Valley together a few months back was the Fraziers Bottom farm that movie star Tad Hamilton purchased in fave film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. In real life, Tad’s property is named JMJ Ranch and it is not located anywhere near Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia, but about two thousand miles West in Thousand Oaks, California. As so often happens when searching for filming sites, I actually came across this one while looking for another location entirely. After seeing the Season One episode of The Mentalist entitled “Carnelian Inc.” earlier this year, I became absolutely obsessed with finding the ranch that was featured in it. And it was while searching for that locale that I came across the website for JMJ Ranch and immediately recognized it as the one from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. YAY! So, since Mike and I were in the area a few weeks back, we decided to drive by the property to see if it was at all accessible to the public. And amazingly enough, it was! Or so we thought. LOL

When we first pulled up to JMJ Ranch, the main gates were wide open, several people were horseback riding in the central ring, and there was no posted sign saying the area was private property. Because I had read online that JMJ is an actual working ranch, I turned to Mike and said “OH MY GOD, I think it’s actually open to the public!” So, of course, the two of us drove right in. And, let me tell you, I almost had a heart attack I was so excited! 🙂

I spotted Tad’s little white ranch house pretty much immediately upon entering the property and just about hyperventilated as we pulled up to it! The fact that Josh Duhamel (aka the love of my life) had once been in the very spot I now found myself was almost too much for me to bear. 🙂 Now, I know that rumors of JD’s infidelity are currently flying around Hollywood, but I honestly have to say that I just don’t believe all the hype. If the rumors do turn out to be true, though, and Josh really did cheat on his wife, then all bets are off – he’ll be dead to me, just like that little homewrecker Angelina Jolie! But in the meantime, I have to say, my heart still belongs to JD. 🙂

I so love the above screen capture, by the way!! Sigh. 🙂 But I digress!

Only one brief scene from Win A Date took place at JMJ Ranch. After announcing that he has purchased a house, or as he says “it’s actually a farm, with a house, and a silo for my wheat” LOL, Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Pete (aka Topher Grace) show up to tour the property. While there, know-it-all Pete attempts to give Tad some lessons in certain farming skills like milking a cow and chopping wood, but as it turns out, thanks to his training for various movie roles, not only does Tad know how to do said activities, but he can actually do them better than Pete. LOL

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JMJ Ranch is actually an oft-used filming location. Besides Win a Date, the property has also been featured in Dynasty, Dallas, Knots Landing, Cracker, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Fall Guy, Picket Fences, Hot Shots Part Deux, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Route 9, and Private School.

The 300 acre ranch truly is a beautiful spot, with large open fields, towering oak trees, winding roads, and rustic barns, and as we drove through the property I got to thinking that it would be the perfect spot to host a wedding. 🙂 Being that filming locations often double as wedding venues, I thought there was a pretty good chance that the ranch might also be available for special events and made a mental note to find out. Well, after driving around for about five minutes, a very angry woman on a tractor drove up to Mike and I and informed us that we were on private property. WHOOPSY! We apologized profusely and explained that we had been driving by, saw the open gate, and thought the area was open to the public. I also told the woman I was currently in the market for a wedding venue and asked if the ranch was available for such occasions. My question was met with an emphatic “NO!” – LOL – at which point, Mike and I thanked the lady for her time and quickly left. So, unfortunately, I can’t recommend stalking JMJ Ranch as it is definitely NOT open to the public. 🙁 But at least you can live vicariously through the photographs I was able to take before being kicked off the property. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: JMJ Ranch from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is located at 930 West Portrero Road in Thousand Oaks. The property is not actually open to the public, so please do not trespass. You can visit the JMJ Ranch website here.