Bob and I got up on the morning of Thursday, January 5, 2018, grabbed some good ol’ continental breakfast in our fancy Hollywood Super 8 Motel, and then continued our quest of finding a smattering of sitcom locations in the Los Angeles area. We had had fun and good luck doing this the day before, and this day promised to continue the run. Wanting to capture virtually any sitcom location I could find for my Facebook Sitcom Kaleidoscope page, and being a big fan of The Brady Bunch, there were numerous cool sites related to that show on this day’s docket, beginning with the first one.
Bob pours syrup into his lap
Most of The Brady Bunch spin-offs have been largely forgotten by the mainstream public, but to Brady fans, these shows are equally as canonized at the original series, even if they weren’t as entertaining. Our first stop was in the Valley Village area and was the home used in The Brady Brides, which served as the home to both Marcia and Jan and their husbands.
Maureen McCormick and Jerry Houser in front of the house
Eve Plumb and Ron Kuhlman in front of the house
No one in front of the house
Me in front of the house
The next location was a rather morbid one in the nearby city of Encino: the house in which Saturday Night Live and NewsRadio star Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife, and subsequently killed herself in the bedroom. The thing about these locations is that they are not fun, but after hearing about incidents such as this, you get an idea in your mind about where they took place, and it’s a fascinating feeling to actually stand in front of the house in which it occurred.
The Phil Hartman death site
After the ‘death house’ interlude, we swing by Raseda so that Bob could visit the apartment complex used in the original The Karate Kid. I had visited this one back in 2012, but it’s always a terrific location to see, as I’m a big fan of the film and this location has changed very, very little since 1984. As an added bonus, as we went around the building to check out the location of Mr. Miyagi’s (fake) office, I noticed that the side entrance door was ajar, so this time I was able to go inside and get even closer to the LaRusso apartment. I could have actually gone all the way up the front door, but the notes about trespassing spooked me a little from doing so.
Arrival in the film
Back to the South Seas
Bob’s Marion Crane technique
The side of the building
Mr Miyagi’s office was built in one of the carports
This one, specifically
This is where Daniel was chased by the Cobra Kai
The apartment and pool in the film
The pool, now filled, this time from the inside
Just up the stairs is the LaRusso apartment
Next up was a house in Canoga Park that was where John Connor and his foster parents lived in Terminator 2.
The T-1000 approaches John Connor’s house
I just stay on the sidewalk
The next sitcom stop was in Van Nuys where the house that served as Ann Perkins’ house in Parks and Recreation. The house was used prominently in the first season and was actually adjacent to ‘the pit’ that the entire season’s story arc revolved around. The pit was a very real construction site at the time, and the apartments that they were building are now standing tall right behind Ann’s house.
Ann Perkins threw Andy out of here
The same house
Former location of ‘the pit’
Elsewhere in Van Nuys is the Ulysses S. Grant High School, which served as the faux high school as seen in the Saved by the Bell predecessor Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which starred Hayley Mills and was aired on the Disney Channel for just 13 episodes. During that series the kids’ school was located in Indianapolis, Indiana and was supposed to be named after another president: John F. Kennedy Junior High. When the series changed to Saved by the Bell, the school changed to Bayside High located in Pacific Palisades, California. No establishing shot was ever shown of Bayside, so this is the closest we can get.
The High School
The part seen in Good Morning, Miss Bliss
That part today. Let’s just call it Bayside despite the evidence.
Speaking of schools, for the next one we are back on The Brady Bunch, and now in Sherman Oaks. The Dixie Canyon Avenue School served as exterior shots for Cindy’s elementary school in the episode Eenie, Meenie, Mommy, Daddy. Although there had been some changes to its structure, the basic look of the school was the same, and even the lettering in its name looked identical even if it had been moved a bit.
Cindy Brady’s school
Same school, different student
Still staying in The Brady Bunch motif, there was another house in Sherman Oaks relevant to the series. In fact, you might even say it’s where the entire series began. Few recall that Mike Brady actually had a different house in the pilot episode The Honeymoon in 1969, (and we’ll get to that later) and that the wedding between Mike and Carol actually took place in her family home, that is the home of her parents. This one was a little difficult to get a good picture of or with, because they had let a giant hedge grow directly in front of it. Still it was easy enough to identify.
Where the Brady folks got married
The location of said wedding
More in Sherman Oaks? More from The Brady Bunch? Okay, how about Haskell’s Ice Cream Parlor where Marcia, Jan, and Peter all worked in the season 5 episode Marcia Gets Creamed. This was a real ice cream parlor called Cherry House ice cream back in the 50’s through the 70’s, and was also used in a season 7 episode of My Three Sons. The building has gone through multiple owners since then. In fact when I learned about this site on the iamnotastalker.com website, it was an Amp Shop, selling guitar amplifiers. By the time I got there less than three years later, it was getting ready to open as Donny’s Breakfast Spot… which closed before the year was up!
The Cherry House in the 1950’s
Posing as Haskell’s in The Brady Bunch
Night life in My Three Sons
So much less interesting today
Believe it or not, there was one last interesting location to visit in Sherman Oaks that was not related to the Bradys. This one was pretty straightforward: the last home of iconic actor James Dean.
James Dean’s last home
Remarkably we had gotten all of these location in before noon, and now it was time to switch gears and visit another type of TV location, that of a restaurant that had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. This once was an Italian restaurant called Barone’s that had been featured on the episode Global Greats. I didn’t precisely stay with Guy Fieri’s recommendation as he had went for a sausage and pepperoni pizza, but I wanted something a little bit different so I had it made with shrimp and anchovies. I was not disappointed.
DDD #142: Barone’s in Valley Glen, California
A nice ambiance
Shrimp and anchovies. What could be better?
Happy to dig in
A sitcom pow-wow
After lunch, Bob and I visited another ‘death house’, this one maybe even more disturbing and fascinating, as this had been a story I had heard since childhood. This was the home in Mission Hills where Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer of the Our Gang comedies had been shot while attempting to collect a debt. The story has varied and developed over the years as more witnesses have come forward, which changed the narrative of Alfalfa being shot in self-defense, to straight-up manslaughter. In any case, it was odd to see the place where it had actually taken place.
The location of Alfalfa’s deadly confrontation
Over in Studio City, we visited the next location, a house used in Parks and Recreation to serve as exteriors to April and Andy’s house.
April and Andy’s house
It’s not really Indiana
Another site we attempted in Studio City ended up being a bust, as it was the former North Hollywood Medical Center that had been used for exteriors in the sitcom Scrubs. Unfortunately I didn’t find out until arrival that it had been demolished in 2011, so this is merely a photo of where it once sat. Lame.
Where the Scrubs hospital once stood
The next location in Studio City was a ‘sort-of’ sitcom house, as it was actually featured in the 2005 film version of Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, as the house where real-life witch Isabel Bigalow (Kidman), who played Samantha on the TV show Bewitched, chose to live. It was there, so we saw it.
Nicole Kidman outside the Bewitched house
Head on shot from the film
Bewarlocked
The last location in Studio City was definitely the biggie of this area, as it was the original home of Mike Brady and his boys in the pilot episode of The Brady Bunch that I mentioned earlier. This house appeared to have changed very little since 1969, and I really enjoyed seeing its retro ‘modern’ style. Not the type of house you see very often, and even cooler that it played such a significant role as the Brady house no one remembers.
The original Brady house
Still the same…and beautiful
At the other side of the driveway entrance so that you can see all that great lattice detail
Bob and I took a quick break from our adventures by stopping at a post office and the home of Lori and Colin, fellow Sons of the Desert, who weren’t home. And now back to our regularly scheduled program.
Our final Parks and Recreation house of the journey was in Altadena, and probably the best one. It was the home in which Leslie Knope lived. Take note of how they masked the actual address in the photos below.
Leslie Knope’s place
Bradley yep
While we were in Altadena, we swung by the Mountain View Cemetery to visit an important grave that I had never seen before, that of George Reeves, who starred as Superman in the TV series The Adventures of Superman. He had a nice little niche in the mausoleum with a proper marker noting his iconic role.
Final resting place of George Reeves…the Supergrave
A sitcom that is sadly seldom seen these days from the 1980’s is The Hogan Family, originally a vehicle for Valerie Harper known as Valerie that morphed into a different sitcom when she quit the show and they killed her off. In any case, it was the sitcom that Jason Bateman starred in immediately following my favorite sitcom It’s Your Move, and the Hogan family house is located in Pasadena.
The Hogan Family home
Hogans on fire
No fire
The next one was a biggie… literally. The Governor’s mansion where Benson worked after he departed the Tate family in Soap, is actually a private residence in Pasadena. Sadly, I still had no word at this point about the houses from Soap.
Opening shot of a Benson episode
It hasn’t changed a bit
It’s not a sitcom and I never watched it, but I’ve heard good things about the series thirtysomething, and Bob wanted to see it, so I posed for a photo outside the house from that series which is located in South Pasadena.
The house from thirtysomething
fortysomething at thirtysomething
Also in South Pasadena is the house used in Step by Step where Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers’ characters lived. This is a show I’ve never seen much of, but I figured I’d get it now while I was in the area and pick up the pieces later…
Step by Step
Me by the steps of Step by Step
While we were in South Pasadena, Bob wanted to check out one of the locations we had just seen the night before in the movie La La Land when Sebastian and Mia had their first date here seeing the film Rebel Without a Cause. The theater was also used in Scream 2, as the location where the faux-film Stab was enjoying its premier. For such a ‘famous’ location, it sure looked abandoned and dilapidated in the bright sunlight.
Ryan Gosling and the Rialto
Emma Stone at the Rialto
The Stab premier in Scream 2
Feeling abandoned… both of us
It was past 4:30pm at this point, so we decided to head back into L.A. for dinner, and so an hour later we were at our second DD&D of the day, this one called Harold & Belle’s, a New Orleans style restaurant that had been seen in the episode Creole, Cold Cuts, and Crepes. Once again I deviated from the Fieri recommendation, and went for some straight-up Creole classic Jambalaya, with rice, chicken, shrimp, beef sausage, and mixed vegetables. I also supplemented it with a cup of New England Clam Chowder for good measure. Bob really veered off the beaten path by ordering what must have amounted to a entire chicken.
DDD #143: Harold & Belle’s in Los Angeles, California
Clam chowder
Jambalaya (said in Newman voice)
It was so good, I got blurry
Bob and a chicken
We got done there around 7pm and headed back to the Hollywood Super 8. It had been a long day so I fell asleep fairly early, only awakened once by the sound of Bob and his leftover chicken bones.
We’d have one more day of sitcom location fun, culminating with one of the coolest celebrity encounters possible.
The Winter 2017 Hollywood trip will continue…
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