|
|
 |
 
 Page 2
But in reality, the show is filmed in Southern California. Now that we've looked at the major locations for the show (on page one) let's look at some of the other locations seen in the series:   Near the start of the first episode, there is a brief shot of Phil driving his giant camper into a completely deserted shopping mall. That scene was shot inside the Northridge Fashion Center mall, at 9301 Tampa Ave, in Northridge, CA. (in the San Fernando Valley) Here is a Google StreetView of the mall.    Bored out of his mind, Phil bowls in the parking lot of the "Tucson Bowl", replacing bowling pins with lamps, water-filled aquariums, etc. This is an actual bowling alley, but the sign has been changed. It's really the Canoga Park Bowl, located at 20122 Vanowen Street, in Canoga Park, CA.< Here is a Google StreetView of the bowling alley.  Continuing the bowling theme, they used another part of that same Northridge Fashion Center mall for the scene where Phil rolls a car downhill to crash into another car, causing a fiery explosion. In this scene, he starts the roll atop a parking structure between Macy's & Sears. (That's near the southwest corner of the mall property.) The car rolls east down a ramp on the south side of this parking structure, (in the direction of an Ashley Furniture store), and down into a ground-level parking lot, just south of JC Penny. Here is a Google StreetView of that ramp. And here is an alternate StreetView of the base of the ramp.  Early on, while he's still alone (and bored out of his mind), Phil goes to a market and behaves boorishly, ramming his shopping cart into stacks of cans, wearing Twinkies on his fingers like gloves, and snatching up a cartfull of porn magazines.  That scene was shot in Fields Market, at 23221 Saticoy Street, in Canoga Park, CA. (Canoga Park is a residential town located just south of Chatsworth.) Here is a Google StreetView of the market. Desperately lonely, Phil finds himself talking to a female mannequin in the window of a storefront clothing store. (Later, Carol finds out and jealously destroys the mannequin.) 
That storefront window is located at 23233-112 Saticoy Street, in Canoga Park, in the same strip mall as Fields Market, just four storefronts to the left (west). Here is a Google StreetView of the storefronts. Seemingly alone in the world, Phil is so desperate that he finally decides to end it all by driving his car into a boulder out in the middle of the desert. He changes his mind when he spots the smoke from a campfire and learns that there is another person left alive - a somewhat homely woman named Carol.  These desert scenes were filmed in the Mojave Desert, in Lancaster, CA, about 50 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The Lancaster area is the closest desert setting to L.A., so it's sort of the go-to location for filmmakers looking to shoot a scene set in the desert. Once you know about it, you'll recognize those familiar rocks and twisted Joshua trees in a zillion other Hollywood scenes. They filmed these scenes on property bordering both sides of 150th Street East, between Avenue K-10 and E. Avenue M-8.  It appears that the driving scenes, where he tries to kill himself, were shot on the west side of the street, at 41657 150th Street East, in Lancaster. Here is a Google StreetView of that desert location.  But the scene of the Phil & Carol meeting for the first time appears to have been shot at 150 Street East and Grayson's Road (just southeast of Avenue K-10), in Lancaster, a rocky, sand dune spot known as "AV Sandlot Film Location", near "Club Ed". Here is a Google StreetView of that location. Not long after they meet, Phil takes Carol to a hardware store to do some shopping. Bizarrely, she complains when he parks in a handicapped space, despite the fact that they are apparently the only two people left on earth.  In real life, that "Stivers Hardware" store is actually a former EasyLife furniture store, located at 26583 Carl Boyer Drive, in Santa Clarita, CA. Santa Clarita is also in the far north part of the L.A. area, but while Chatsworth is in the northwest corner, Santa Clarita is in the far northeast corner, not far from the Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. Here is a Google StreetView of the store. (seen looking north/northwest from McKean Way)  
|
|
