A. I
honestly
didn't think I would ever find this one. There wasn't much to go
on. It's just a 25-second scene, and all you see is the side of
the house, that giant satellite dish, a shed in the back yard, and a
tilted pine tree.
I
had a hunch that it was in Miami, but couldn't be positive, since they
were filming in both Miami and L.A. at the time, and the house was
typical enough to be in either city.
I remember searching
for it in vain, using Bing
aerial photos to look for that giant satellite dish - with no success. Then I realized that the dish might
no longer be there, and eventually I gave up trying to find it.
In
2011, Jesse, a fan living in Miami, contacted me about the location of
the interiors of the police station, and that made me take a second
look at the first episodes. I realized I had never found the
valet's house, and decided to try again. So, I recruited Jesse into the hunt, and spent all
day looking for it.
This
time, I took a different approach. I concentrated on finding a tall, red building seen in the background. I had no luck at
first. But fortunately, Google Earth is now available, and that
tool allowed me to "fly" above Miami, looking for that red
building.
After hours of searching, I finally spotted that tall red building, which turned out to be Park Lofts, an apartment house.
Once
I found that background building, all I had to do was look a few
blocks away to find the house.
Fortunately,
the tall building looks
different on the east side (facing the house) than it does on the west
side, so I knew which direction to look in. I switched to Google
StreetView and began cruising the residential streets west of the
building at eye-level, looking back towards that building, and trying
to recreate
the same view.
I
finally found the house, just four blocks to the west. It was
immediately recognizable. The big satellite dish is gone, and one of
the neighbors painted their house pink, but the main house looks the
same, the same shed is still in the back yard, and so is that unique
slanted pine tree.
When I emailed Jesse that I had found the house, here was his response:
" OMG! You sir, are a maniac! I am amazed that you found it. I looked all day and wasn't even close!
You my friend, have a gift! LOL! "
