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Seeing Stars: Where the Movies Were Shot on Location


The 1970's
Filming locations
of TV Shows,
Made-for-TV Movies & Music Videos.



- The 1970's series "WONDER WOMAN",
starred Lynda Carter as the comic book
hero and her alter ego Diana Prince, battling evil alongside the IADC (Inter-Agency
Defense Command).
The IADC building seen on the show was actually the Inglewood
City Hall, located at 1 Manchester Blvd, in the city of
Inglewood, CA.
- ( That same City Hall building was also seen as
the coroner's office, Dr. Quincy's workplace, in Jack Klugman's
70's TV show, "QUINCY, M.E."
)


- Speaking of "WONDER WOMAN",
her "Paradise Island" scenes were actually shot at The Arboretum
of Los Angeles County, located across the street from Santa
Anita race track at 301 N. Baldwin Ave., in Arcadia, CA. It's open
to the public, and is a very nice place to visit (especially in the Spring),
with peacocks, fountains, flowers, waterfalls, and a large lagoon where
"Fantasy Island" was shot.

[Click on the photo above to see a larger version. This scene was shot
near the pool/fountain on the large central lawn at the Arboretum. The
camera is facing west, looking from outside the Arboretum (near parking
area to the east) into the paid area of the park.]

"Here's
the story, of a lovely lady..."
You remember TV's "THE BRADY BUNCH,"
of course, but you probably didn't know that you can find the real Brady
House at 11222 Dilling Street (on
the south side of the street), in Studio City
- not far from Universal Studios.
It may not look exactly the same - the trees have grown and its owner of
20 years put in a fence to keep tourists from peeking in her windows. Also,
the "Brady" producers temporarily installed a fake window on
the roof to make the split level home appear to be a full two stories. 
(Some Brady trivia: the Brady's fictitious address on the show was 4222 Clinton
Way,
and their phone number for the Brady house was 555-6161.)

- Remember the opening credits of the TV-comedy "THREE'S
COMPANY," where the trio were frolicking on a boardwalk
and riding bumper-cars? That opening scene was shot at the Santa Monica
Pier. (They have since built a larger amusement park area adjacent
to the pier, which wasn't there when the series was filmed.)

A later opening sequence from "Three's
Company" (shot after Suzanne Somers
left the show) featured the new threesome riding a zoo tram and looking
at flamingos. Those sequences were filmed at the Los Angeles County Zoo
in Griffith Park. 

 Remember the Cunningham house from the 1970's TV
sitcom series "HAPPY DAYS,"
where Richie, Joanie, Mr. C, Marion, and Fonzie lived?
Well, you can find it at 565 N. Cahuenga Avenue,
Hollywood, just north of the Wilshire Country Club.


- From 1976 to 1981, the nation was enthralled by
the adventures of Farrah, Kate & Jaclyn in TV's "CHARLIE'S ANGELS."
The trio of beautiful detectives worked for "Townsend
Investigations", and the headquarters for the Townsend
agency was an actual building at the southwest corner of Robertson
Blvd and Clifton Way, in Beverly Hills, just north of Wilshire
Blvd. (The exact address is 189 N. Robertson Blvd.)
We may never have seen 'Charlie', but we saw this
building a lot.
The modest, brick building has changed a little over the years - the owner
expanded the windows in front. And it now houses... a vacuum cleaner store.
(I'll try to resist saying "that sucks.") But it's still easy
for "Angels" fans to recognize. 
[ When ABC remade the TV series in 2011, they inexplicably relocated
the Townsend Agency to Miami Beach! And instead of brick, they used
this white Art Deco building at 425 Ocean Drive, Miami (StreetView). ]
You know the opening scenes from "M*A*S*H,"
of course, where the helicopters land at the mobile army hospital and unload
wounded soldiers.
If those hills behind the helicopters look familiar, that's because those
are the local Santa Monica Mountains. The scene was shot at the old Century
Ranch, now part of Malibu Creek State Park,
east of Malibu Canyon/Las Virgines Road (which meets PCH just west of the
Malibu Pier at Pepperdine University.)
It was formerly the 20th Century Fox movie ranch, and many movies have
been shot there ), including "PLANET OF THE
APES" and the war film "TORA! TORA! TORA!."

 The
Queen Anne cottage near the lagoon
at the Los Angeles State & County Arboretum
(at 301 N. Baldwin Avenue) in Arcadia was featured during
the opening credits of each episode of "FANTASY ISLAND,"
when little "Tattoo" would climb the cottage's bell tower and
call out "Da Plane, Boss! Da Plane!."
Other TV shows shot there include "MURDER SHE WROTE"
and "ROOTS". And, of course,
"WONDER WOMAN".

From 1979-1976, in the TV series "BENSON,"
Robert Guillaume went from butler
to chief executive at the Governor's Mansion. That mansion was actually
a Pasadena home, located at 1365 S. Oakland
Avenue.


- Fans of the popular 1970's series "CANNON"
(starring William Conad) will
remember the high?rise apartment house where the detective lived.
That building is now called the Sunset
Tower, and you can find it at 8358 Sunset Blvd,
in West Hollywood (on the Sunset Strip, just east of Kings Road). 


From 1978-1981, TV's "THE
WHITE SHADOW" (Ken Howard)
coached basketball at "Carver High School," supposedly a
tough, inner-city school. But in reality the location shots for the show
were shot at two schools in the Valley:
- North Hollywood High,
at 5321 Colfax Ave. (at the southeast corner of Colfax & Magnolia
Blvd.), in North Hollywood (for most of the establishing exterior
shots)
,
and
- Notre Dame High School,
located at 13645 Riverside Drive (on the northeast corner of Riverside
& Woodman Avenue), in Sherman Oaks.
 (Most of the show was shot inside CBS Studio
Center, also in the Valley - in Studio City.)

- Chad Everett
played 'Dr. Joe Gannon' on the popular '70s TV series "MEDICAL CENTER,"
where the action took place in the
fictitious "University Medical
Center."
In fact, the building shown each week in the opening credits of the show was the
UCLA Medical Center, a gigantic,
ten-story complex with over 18 miles of corridors, which takes up the entire
south end of the UCLA campus. That massive building is now called the Center of Health Sciences.
You can see an aerial photo of the medical center here.
(UCLA
is located at the north end of Westwood Blvd., in L.A.'s Westwood Village.)
- And a fan, Dan Katz, tells me that the show also
filmed a lot on the campus of Cal-State Northridge, where they used the
exteriors of Oviatt Library and the Sierra Towers as medical buildings.


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- In TV's "THE ROCKFORD
FILES," detective James Garner
lived in a house trailer on the beach, at the fictional address of "29
Cove Road." That stretch of beach was really the beach behind
(what was then) the Sandcastle Restaurant at Paradise Cove
(at 28128 Pacific Coast Highway) in Malibu
- about five miles west of the Malibu Pier. (That restaurant is now
called the Paradise Cove Beach Café.)

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* Locations marked by an asterisk (*) may be located
in areas with high crime rates.
Exercise reasonable caution.
For information about watching TV sitcoms
being taped live in the studio, see the separate page about getting tickets
to live TV tapings.
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