Truth Be Told – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 20, 2020March 28, 2020

The Buhrman House from “Truth Be Told”

I am a firm believer in love at first sight. I definitely had hearts in my eyes upon catching a glimpse of the stunning Victorian where the Buhrman family lived on Truth Be Told. The towering Queen Anne, pitched atop a leafy hill, was striking, to say the least, and I promptly set out to find it. Though set in San Francisco and its environs, little of the new Apple TV+ series was actually lensed there – most filming took place in L.A. But I figured the Buhrman pad had to be one of the show’s few NorCal locales. I couldn’t imagine such a unique property being in Los Angeles and not coming across it in all my years of stalking. So I began my hunt in the Bay Area, but after countless fruitless hours decided to switch to L.A. on the off chance it might be there. Lo and behold, I discovered the place listed on several online location databases, including Malibu Locations which showed it as having an address number of “2150” and being in Altadena, shockingly enough! How I had never seen it during my almost two decades of living in nearby Pasadena was beyond me! I headed right over to Google, searched for “2150,” “Victorian,” and “Altadena,” was led to 2150 Mendocino Lane and all became clear. As you can see above, no part of the Buhrman’s fabulous Victorian can actually be seen from the street, though it is apparent in aerials. Making the pad even more elusive, the view shown on Truth Be Told was actually of its rear entrance, situated off a small private road named Kengary Lane.

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The massive abode is Truth Be Told’s central location. It is at the supposed Menlo Park pad that author/professor Chuck Buhrman (Nic Bishop) is murdered on Halloween night 1999, thereby setting off the main storyline. Though featured throughout the series’ eight-episode run, we oddly don’t catch many full views of the place, the best being in episode 7, titled “Live Thru This,” as seen below. The shot appears to have been digitally altered because the house is not actually visible at all from Kengary Lane due to a plethora of foliage surrounding it, as I sadly discovered upon arriving to stalk it. I figured the property was still blogworthy, nonetheless. (I did not trespass to take the photo below, by the way. I stayed on Altadena Drive, which is public, and zoomed in on my camera for the shot.)

Per Zillow, the sprawling 3-story Victorian boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,162 square feet, a rock fireplace, a 2.7-acre lot, a detached garage, and a wraparound porch. But neither the fencing out front . . .

. . . nor at the rear provide any sort of clue as to the beauty that lies just beyond them up the driveway.

What I wouldn’t give to see the home up close!

As you can see in this photo, a sign by the property’s front door reads “Circa 1886, Estab. here Sept. 1, 1984,” so I’m wondering if it was initially located elsewhere and then moved to its current location, which sounds crazy but isn’t all that out of the ordinary in Los Angeles.

Interior scenes taking place at the Buhrman house were shot elsewhere. As you can see in these images as compared to the screen captures below, what was shown onscreen bears little resemblance to the actual inside of 2150 Mendocino Lane.

A reader named Mimi wrote in to let me know that the Buhrman house also portrayed the Minnesota residence of Chrissa Maxwell (Sammi Hanratty) in the 2009 straight-to-video movie An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong.

The property popped up as the home of a serial child abductor in the Season 5 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Mosley Lane,” which aired in 2010.

And fellow stalker Richard (you may remember him from this post and this post) let me know that the Victorian appeared in the recently-aired Season 1 episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star titled “Monster Inside” as the residence of a man who refuses to believe his mother has passed away.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Buhrman house from Truth Be Told is located at 2150 Mendocino Lane in Altadena.

February 5, 2020February 3, 2020

Lanie’s House(s) from “Truth Be Told”

I am pretty darn good at recognizing actors in the various roles they play (I am a stalker, after all!), but I watched the new Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told almost the entire way through before realizing that Lanie Buhrman and her estranged twin, Josie, were both portrayed by Lizzy Caplan, aka Mean Girls’ Janis Ian herself! In my defense, the star is virtually unrecognizable today from her snarky 2004 high school character, as you can see above. It didn’t help that she played a set of twins with very differing appearances on Truth Be Told, either – Lanie sports a short brown bob, while Josie’s hair is long and blonde. Lanie’s house on the series is also somewhat of an enigma being that two different dwellings were used to depict it – a tidbit I didn’t realize until I actually sat down to write this post, which meant I had to run out to do some last-minute stalking before hitting publish.

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In Truth Be Told’s premiere episode, “Monster,” Lanie, the daughter of a famous author who was murdered twenty years prior, is shown to be living in a dark peaked-roof Craftsman.

An address number of “229” was visible next to the front door in the episode, which, along with the home’s style, central walkway, and stairs leading down to the sidewalk, led me to believe it was likely in the Windsor Square area. So I began my search there, working my way outward until I found it at 229 South Gramercy Place in Koreatown. I ran out to see the place shortly thereafter.

The charming 1911 pad, which looks much as it did onscreen, boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,060 square feet, and a 0.18-acre lot. Though the interior was not utilized in the episode, you can check out some photos of it here.

In a bizarre twist, the next time the home appeared, in episode 4 “No Cross, No Crown,” it was a different property entirely – one that did not resemble the original in the slightest. Somehow (and I am going to blame the seven days in between the episodes airing), I did not realize the change – even though I had already tracked down the initial house by that point! It was not until I started making screen captures for this post that I noticed the swap and was flabbergasted, to say the least! While location change-ups are fairly common after a pilot is picked up due to the purchasing networks wanting to make certain adjustments, Truth Be Told was developed straight-to-series, meaning Apple TV+ optioned an entire season before the pilot was even lensed. A location alteration made in that scenario is odd. And while I have seen productions switch locales from season to season (I’m looking at you Wilson house from 90210!), it’s a pretty rare circumstance and I can’t ever recall it occurring on a series with a scant eight-episode run like Truth Be Told.

Fortunately, an address number was also visible on Lanie’s second house – “5131” above the front porch. Thanks to that four-digit address and the home’s Anywhere, U.S.A.-style, I figured it was likely in Eagle Rock. Sure enough, I IDed it fairly quickly as 5131 North Maywood Avenue.

Google Street View imagery of the pad shows it in a rather beaten-down state – a far cry from how it looks today. Per Zillow, the abode was completely restored in 2012 – and it is now nothing short of adorable!

The charming property boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,612 square feet, a formal dining room with coffered ceilings, original oak wood flooring throughout, a parlor, wood-beamed ceilings, a modern kitchen, and a large 0.28-acre plot of land.

The gorgeous restored interior, which you can see photos of here, also appeared on Truth Be Told.

The home is no stranger to the screen – it is also where Brett (Mark Duplass) and Michelle Pierson (Melanie Lynskey) lived on the HBO series Togetherness.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lanie’s house from the first episode of Truth Be Told is located at 229 South Gramercy Place in Koreatown. The pad used as Lanie’s in subsequent episodes can be found at 5131 North Maywood Avenue in Eagle Rock.

February 3, 2020January 31, 2020

Melanie’s House from “Truth Be Told”

Apple TV+ sure has hit the ground running! Everything released on the new platform thus far seems to be television gold! I’ve made no secret of the fact that I consider The Morning Show one of the best series to ever grace the small screen and was thrilled to find For All Mankind and Truth Be Told just as gripping. The latter, based on Kathleen Barber’s 2017 novel Are You Sleeping, centers around a journalist-turned-podcaster named Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) who begins re-investigating a decades-old murder to make sure the right man is behind bars, à la Serial. Obviously, as soon as I read the synopsis, I had to tune in! And my crime-loving heart wasn’t disappointed. Minutes after the end credits for episode one started rolling, I, of course, began hunting for locales and was ecstatic to learn that, while set in Northern California, filming largely took place in L.A. During my perusing, I came across a 2018 Backstage article which noted that some footage was shot at a house at 509 North June Street in Hancock Park. From there it wasn’t hard to piece together that the site portrayed the supposed Menlo Park abode belonging to Melanie Cave (Elizabeth Perkins), mother of convicted killer Warren Cave (Aaron Paul), on the series. So I ran right out to stalk it shortly thereafter.

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Melanie’s house is featured throughout Truth Be Told’s eight-episode run. Though we only get a limited view of it, the place first shows up in the pilot, titled “Monster,” in the scene in which Poppy bombards Melanie in her driveway in the hopes of securing an interview with Warren.

I obviously couldn’t get images matching what was shown in the scene, but the driveway is pictured below.

We don’t actually see the full exterior of the pad until episode 3, “Even Salt Looks Like Sugar.”

I have to say that producers did a great job in choosing the residence because while watching the scene below from episode 2, “Black People in the Neighborhood,” the Grim Cheaper, a native San Franciscan, turned to me and said, “I can pretty much guarantee that home actually is in the Bay Area.” I had already read the Backstage article by that time and when I informed him that it was actually in Hancock Park, he refused to believe me. Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

The adorable little property is just as charming in person as it appeared on the series. With its peaked roof and rounded front door overhang, it reminds me quite a bit of Denise’s house from I Love You, Man as well as the Lawrence residence from the 1976 series Family, so it is not at all hard to see how it made its way to the screen.

I believe that the inside of the dwelling was also utilized on the series, but could not find any interior images with which to verify that.

It appears that the actual backyard was used briefly, as well.

In real life, the 1925 pad boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,236 square feet, 2 stories, and a 0.18-acre lot.

With it’s charmingly idyllic Anywhere, U.S.A. appeal, I am shocked it hasn’t appeared in more productions, but I was unable to dig any up.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Melanie’s house from Truth Be Told is located at 509 North June Street in Hancock Park.

November 26, 2018January 10, 2020

Woodbury University from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”

Today’s locale, Woodbury University, was originally going to be included in this year’s Haunted Hollywood postings. I first learned about the Burbank college thanks to its appearance in the 2018 horror flick Truth or Dare and ran right out to stalk it, figuring it would fit in perfectly with my annual October theme. It was not until I sat down to research the place that I discovered its incredibly extensive film resume. The school easily has to be one of the San Fernando Valley’s most oft-used locations! From The Wonder Years to The Office, the site has popped up in countless notable productions over the years, including my and the Grim Cheaper’s latest favorite, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Anytime a college is needed for an L.A.-area shoot, it seems, cast and crew head straight to Woodbury. How I had never heard of the place is beyond me! Thinking the university was better suited to a non-horror-related post, I back-burnered it and am thrilled to finally be writing about it now!

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Woodbury Business College, as it was originally known, was founded by entrepreneur F. C. Woodbury in 1884. Initially housed in single-room space at 316 North Main Street in downtown L.A. with a staff of two, the school offered four classes, all related to practical business skills – bookkeeping, English, spelling, and penmanship. It was not long before high enrollment brought about a need to expand and the college took over an entire floor of the Stowell Building located a few blocks away at 226 South Spring Street. The structure, sadly, has since been demolished. In 1924, Woodbury received charter status from the state and expanded its curriculum to include business administration, foreign trade, and marketing courses. As the student body continued to grow, the school moved numerous times until 1937 when it finally set up shop at a Streamline Moderne building designed by Claud Beelman at 1027 Wilshire Boulevard, where it remained for the next fifty years. Sadly, that property was also since razed.

In 1961, the school received full charter status. That same year, its name was officially changed to Woodbury University.

When the need to expand arose once again in the 1980s, administrators acquired the former Villa Cabrini Academy Catholic girls high school, a 22.4-acre Burbank site that was initially built in 1927 as a summer home for orphans and underprivileged youth.

The new Woodbury campus, which opened to students in the fall of 1987, featured landscaped grounds, a gym, a pool, an athletic field, and dormitories. Additional facilities were also built in order to accommodate an eventual prospective enrollment of 2,500.

Woodbury University continued to flourish in its new home and today the school boasts two additional campuses (in Hollywood and San Diego) and offers degrees in over twenty subjects including business, computer information systems, and design.

The college is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous landscaping . . .

. . . tucked away spots . . .

. . . a tree-lined central quad . . .

. . . and both modern design elements . . .

. . . as well as Italian Romanesque, which harken back to the site’s secular roots.

So it comes as no surprise that Woodbury is a frequent screen star. And what fun I had putting together a comprehensive list of its many cameos!

The school’s original gym was used extensively in the 1989 action flick Best of the Best as the spot where Alexander Grady (Eric Roberts) and the rest of the Team USA martial artists regularly practiced.

In 2001, that gym was transformed into the university’s Design Center. Though completely remodeled, the basketball court markings are still intact today, as you can see in photos here and here.

The exterior of the gym also made an appearance in Best of the Best . . .

. . . as did one of the school’s parking lots.

That same year, the gym popped up as the Kennedy Junior High School gymnasium, where Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) took a stand against his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano), constantly being picked last for team sports, in the Season 2 episode of The Wonder Years titled “Loosiers.”

In 2001, Woodbury masked as the fictional University of Northeastern California in two Season 1 episodes of Undeclared – “Eric Visits” . . .

. . . and “Hell Week.”

In the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Business Trip,” which aired in 2008, Woodbury poses as New York’s Pratt School of Design, where Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) tearfully tells Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) that she failed her art class. Filming took place outside of Woody’s Café and the Cabrini Gallery, though very little of either building can be seen.

Woodbury University appears very briefly in the Season 6 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Middle Man,” which aired in 2010, in the scene in which the Behavioral Analysis Unit canvases college campuses in search of a group of serial killers.

In the Season 3 episode of Workaholics titled “Flashback in a Day,” which aired in 2012, Woodbury poses as RC Polytechnic.

The school’s gorgeous library (which originally served as Villa Cabrini Academy’s chapel) masquerades as the Brooklyn Public Library, where Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) chase down a suspect in a deleted scene from the Season 1 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “The Tagger,” which aired in 2013. You can watch that scene here.

Sadly, the library was closed when we visited Woodbury, so we only got to see its exterior.

During the fourth season of Shameless, which started airing in 2014, Woodbury was utilized regularly as the interior of Chicago Polytechnic, where Lip Gallagher (Jeremy Allen White) attended school.

That same year, Woodbury’s School of Business popped up in an establishing shot of the Raviga Capital Management offices in two Season 1 episodes of Silicon Valley – “Articles of Incorporation” and “Third Party Insourcing.”

Colette Kimball-Kinney (Fortune Feimster) and Jody Kimball-Kinney (Garret Dillahunt) attend a Physicians on the Front orientation in Woodbury’s auditorium in the Season 6 episode of The Mindy Project titled “Danny in Real Life,” which aired in 2017.

That same year, the school portrayed Danton College, where JJ DiMeo (Micah Fowler) shot a guest part in Bikini University 3, in the Season 2 episode of Speechless titled “B-I– BIKINI U-N– UNIVERSITY.”

Woodbury popped up as Long Beach Tech in another episode of Speechless, Season 3’s “THE S-T-A– STAIRCASE.”

In the 2018 horror flick Truth or Dare, Woodbury was used extensively as Westlake University, where Olivia Barron (Lucy Hale) and the rest of her doomed friends attend college.

The movie’s first freaky truth or dare challenge – which was featured in the trailer – takes place in the school’s library.

Actor Hayden Szeto, who played Brad Chen in the flick, posted the image below, of the Truth or Dare cast posing on the campus’ fountain, to Instagram the day that filming wrapped in July 2017, so I of course had to replicate it while I was there. Winking smile

Said fountain can be found in the center of campus in the Alumni Quad.

That same year, Woodbury masked as the Mumbai university where Bravo team rescued a group of American students who had been taken hostage in the Season 2 episode of Seal Team titled “Say Again Your Last.”

The school portrayed Howard University, Dre Johnson’s (Anthony Anderson) alma mater, in the Season 4 episode of Black-ish titled “Black Math” that same year.

Woodbury’s library makes an appearance in 2019’s Booksmart.

The school pops up in the Season 4 episode of Lucifer titled “Super Bad Boyfriend” as Callaway Prep, where Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) and Chloe Decker (Lauren German) investigate the murder of a beloved teacher.

And the library is where Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) checks out books for her uncle in the Season 1 episode of Truth Be Told titled “No Cross, No Crown.”

Woodbury has also been featured in episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Community, Felicity, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Just Add Magic, though I am unsure of which episodes in particular. If anyone happens to know, please fill me in.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Woodbury University, from “The Tagger” episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, is located at 7500 North Glenoaks Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the school’s official website here.

May 5, 2017January 10, 2020

Guasti Villa from "Veep"

It’s no secret how much I hate incorrect filming location information. But sometimes errant info can lead to good things. Case in point – back in 2012, an article was published about the Los Angeles locales featured in The Artist. One of the sites detailed was Guasti Villa, aka Busby Berkeley’s former Jefferson Park mansion, which was said to have masked as the home of Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) in the flick. (I cannot for the life of me remember what publication featured the article, nor can I find it online, but you can see reverberations of the Busby rumor here, here and here.) Prior to reading the blurb, I had been unaware of the historic residence, which is now part of the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, but immediately headed on over there to stalk it. Upon arrival, I was thrilled to discover that the property is not only open to the public, but that tours are offered! I was less thrilled to learn, via our friendly tour guide, that the manse had not actually appeared in The Artist (Peppy’s pad was a similar looking mansion on Fremont Place, but more on that in a bit). I was filled in on some of the Villa’s other onscreen appearances, but somehow never got around to blogging about it. So when I saw it pop up in the most recent episode of Veep, I decided it was high time I amended the situation.

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The Beaux Arts/Italian Renaissance Revival-style mansion was originally built for Secundo Guasti, an Italian-born farmer who founded the Italian Vineyard Company on 5,000 acres of land in Ontario in 1904. The vineyard went on to become the largest winery in California and Guasti constructed a sprawling virtual city, or company town, there for his workers, with a store, a school, a post office, a bakery, a railroad station, a church, and a firehouse. Though the site is now part of the Guasti Redevelopment Project, many of the original buildings remain intact today.

In 1910, Guasti commissioned the Hudson and Munsell architecture firm to build an ornate mansion for him on a large plot of land on West Adams Boulevard.

Hudson and Munsell’s finished product, which took four years to execute, is a virtual work of art. The Grand Ballroom (below) alone features a curving staircase with an ornate balustrade, Carrara marble flooring, carved oak wood detailing, and a hand-painted ceiling mural.

The rest of the Villa boasts coffered ceilings, multiple fireplaces, a hydraulic elevator, servants’ quarters, a carriage house, ornate corbels, egg-and-dart mouldings, friezes, a gentlemen’s parlor, a ladies’ parlor, a porte-cochère, and a formal dining room (pictured below).

When Guasti passed away in 1937, his family sold the Villa to Hollywood director Busby Berkeley. You can see what the mansion looked like at the time that Busby lived there here.

Though Busby was an undeniable genius when it came to directing, choreography and cinematography, finances were not his forte. Due to mounting debt, he was forced to sell Guasti Villa in 1946. The manse was purchased by the Los Angeles Physicians Aid Association, who transformed it into a retirement home, adding two residential wings to the property. During the group’s ownership, the property fell into a bit of a decline.

In 1974, the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA) acquired the Villa and turned it into their headquarters and learning center, painstakingly restoring the property in the process.

During the process, the church restored and revitalized much of the home’s original detailing. The result of their efforts is not only breathtaking, but fascinating and historically enlightening. I honestly could not have enjoyed the tour more.

Guasti Villa, which is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, is like a preciously preserved time capsule of what the city was like at the turn of the century.

MSIA not only revived the Villa, but its surroundings, as well. In 2002, the church added expansive meditation gardens to the premises, complete with a hand-carved stone labyrinth.

The labyrinth was closely modeled after the famous winding walk at Chartres Cathedral in France, which you can see photographs of here, here, and here. Made of travertine, it measures 40 feet in diameter and its pathway spans 1/3 of a mile. I was invited to walk the labyrinth while touring Guasti Villa and it was an entirely calming experience. My mind is constantly running, so only focusing on my steps and breath as I traversed the course was an extremely relaxing experience.

The lush meditation gardens also feature 16 fountains, a koi pond, a myriad of trees and plants, and countless tucked-away, shaded spaces.

Because of its unique and stunning beauty, it should come as no surprise that the site, which is known as the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, has been featured onscreen numerous times.

In the Season 6 episode of Veep titled “Georgia,” Guasti Villa masked as the palace of Murman Shalikashvili (Eugene Alper), the Republic of Georgia president who, as Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) describes, “The poisoning and the torture and the death squads aside, I think Murman is really good people. Honestly. And he’s a hell of a storyteller.”

The site also appeared in Veep’s Season 6 finale titled “Groundbreaking.” In the episode, the labyrinth area masked as the Arizona spa, ahem, the Whispering Sands Wellness Center where Selina stayed after losing the presidency.

In that same episode, Guasti Villa’s formal dining room portrayed the office of Sherman Tanz (Jonathan Hadary).

Thanks to the Silent Locations website, I learned that the mansion not only appeared in the 1923 Stan Laurel short White Wings . . .

. . . but that it also portrayed the supposed Beverly Hills home of Colonel Wilburforce Buckshot (James Finlayson), where Laurel hid out with pal Oliver Hardy, in 1930’s Another Fine Mess.

In the Season 3 episode of Hunter titled “Hot Pursuit: Part 2,” which aired in 1987, Guasti Villa served as the residence of Big Jack Hemmings (Robert Ridgely). Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior appeared in the episode.

The mansion was featured extensively in Meat Loaf’s 2006 “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” music video.

The Villa’s interior was also utilized in the video.

You can watch “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by clicking below.

The property portrayed two different spots in the Season 1 episode of Truth Be Told titled “Live Thru This.” It first popped up as the New Soul rebab center where Erin Buhrman (Annabella Sciorra) was once a patient.

And it is also where Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) interviews Erin’s sober coach.

As I mentioned above, the mansion did not appear in The Artist. Peppy’s residence, which does bear a striking resemblance to Guasti Villa (as you can see below), can actually be found about 3 miles away at 56 Fremont Place in the Mid-Wilshire area. That property is also an oft-filmed spot which I wrote about here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Guasti Villa, from the “Georgia” episode of Veep, can be found at the Peace Awareness Labyrinth & Gardens, located at 3500 West Adams Boulevard in Jefferson Park. For information about touring the site, click here.