The Karate Kid Apartment

One of my favorite movie trilogies of all time is the Karate Kid trilogy. I believe there's a fourth one but I think it's the one with Hilary Swank, which I have no interest in seeing. I used to do Karate moves in my living room thinking I was Daniel-Son.

In the beginning of the movie Daniel and his mom move from New Jersey out to sunny California in an area called Reseda. Reseda sits in the San Fernando Valley just below Northridge (which is where many scenes in the Karate Kid movies were filmed). It's amazing how similar the apartment building looks now compared to 1984 version we see in the movie.

Above is a look at the front of the building and below is a look along the east side of the building where Daniel gets chased down by those goons. Mr. Miyagi has to step in and whoop some ass. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a quick trip to catch a glimpse of this Filming Spot favorite.

The apartment building is located at:
19223 Saticoy Street
Reseda, CA 91335

Fun Fact: About 8 miles east of this location in Van Nuys, also on Saticoy Street is The Office filming spot.

Great Scott! Another BTTF Filming Spot!

Well, actually four more spots.

The spots being revealed in this post are Doc's house (1985), the Burger King Marty skates by, Marty's house (1985) and Doc's house (1955).

In the very beginning of the first film we see Marty enter Doc's house in 1985.  In this classic scene, he hooks up his guitar to the amp and completely blows the speaker to pieces! "Rock and roll."  When Doc's thousand clocks go off Marty realizes he is late for school and heads out in a hurry.  From there, he exits Doc's house and skates past a Burger King on his way towards school.  We see him grabbing onto the back of several vehicles to speed up his trip. 

After a long day of trying out with the Pinheads for the Battle of the Bands at school and an afternoon of making out with Jennifer, Marty heads home.  We see him skate off while Huey Lewis and the News play Power of Love.  As he gets to his street we see the Lyon Estates signs for the first time.  This is the name of Marty's neighborhood and will be shown again several times in the trilogy. 

Marty skates up to his house to find his father's car being towed into the driveway.  As he heads into the house, George McFly is being verbally accosted by the Hall of Fame douchebag Biff Tannen.  But of course George takes it because after all, he's "not very good at confrontation."

Fast forward to later in the film when Marty goes back to 1955, he gets hit by his grandfather in the middle of the street (I will reveal this spot later), and he seeks out the only man who could help him, Doctor Emmett Brown.  After Marty finds the property which he discovered in the phone book, we see him running up the path to the house.  Doc answers the door wearing that strange psychic device on his head and can't believe that "future boy" is visiting him from 1985.

Before getting into the precise addresses of each of these spots, I just wanted to mention that BTTF did a great job of blending each location together.  And as casual viewers it never becomes evident to us that one scene is filmed in one location and another scene is filmed in a location 50 miles up the road.  Southern California is the filming mecca for a reason.  Great locations are fairly close and it isn't a huge ordeal if a movie is being filmed up the street.  When movies are filmed in places like Arkansas or Ohio the entire town would show up drinking their morning coffee trying to get a glimpse of the star.  In Southern California it becomes normal in some places to drive down the street and see flim crews.

Now that that's out of the way, let's look at these particular filming spots.  Marty visits Doc's house in 1985 before school.  He hears the clocks go off, talks to Doc on the phone and skates out in a hurry.  He skates past a Burger King on his way to school.  This is in Burbank, California.  Doc's house was actually a facade built for the movie.  There are no remnants of this building today but the Burger King is still going strong.  Marty skates to school through the Universal Studios backlot and onto Hill Valley High Schoolwhich is actually Whittier High School.  After school he meets up with Jennifer and skates home.  His street and home are located in the Arleta area of Los Angeles.  When Marty looks up the 1955 Doc and visits his house, he is visiting the famous Gamble House in Pasadena, California.

So now you can start to see how many different locations it actually took to create this fictional town of Hill Valley.  The exact locations can be seen below.

Doc's 1985 house and the Burger King are located at:
535 N. Victory Blvd
Burbank, CA

The Lyon Estates street markers were located at:
The corner of Sandusky and Kagel Canyon Street
Los Angeles, CA

Marty's house is located at:
9303 Roslyndale Ave
Los Angeles, CA

Doc's 1955 house aka The Gamble House is located at:
4 Westmoreland Place
Pasadena, CA

**Again, be respectful when driving by someone's home.  Also, Arleta isn't the best of areas so I would only recommend visiting this spot during the day.

Yes Man - The Red Bull Scene Location

Jim Carrey's career has floundered in the past few years with his attempts in dramas, children's movies and even his expertise, comedy.  However, I have seen a few of these attempts and I would say that they weren't a waste of time, and I may even watch a few of them again.  One of the films I am talking about is his 2008 comedy Yes Man.

It's the movie where Jim Carrey has to say yes to everything for an entire year.  He starts falling for Zooey Deschanel (who I happen to think is very cute) and completely changes his lifestyle for the better.  And for you females looking for eye candy, Bradley Cooper is also a main character in this movie.

There is a popular scene in the movie where Carl (Carrey) spends an all-nighter out with his buddies "hittin' up raves" and pounding multiple Red Bulls.  He meets up with Zooey's character Allison for a morning jog with her photography friends.  They jog on the hills above Los Angeles taking pictures the entire way.  In the beginning of the scene they are all stretching and warming up for the run.  Carl pulls up with his two buddies, jumps out of the car and multiple empty Red Bull cans fall out of the car with him.  He runs over to Allison completely wired and starts in on a caffeine-fueled rant.  The entire scene can be seen here.

The location for this scene is the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles.  Griffith Park is also home to the famous Greek Theater and is located west of the city of Glendale in the hills above Hollywood.  From the Observatory you get many great views.  You get an awesome view of the Hollywood sign, downtown Los Angeles and the Hollywood area.  On a clear day you can even see out towards the Santa Monica area (the problem is finding a smog-free day in LA).  There are also some great running and biking trails in and around the Observatory.

So next time you're in the area bring your camera, head up to the Observatory and walk around.  Parking is limited so you may have to park along the road leading up to the top.  In the next few weeks I'll blog about the tunnel you pass through to get up to the Observatory as an all-time classic movies uses that tunnel for a pivotal scene.

Check out a behind-the-scenes clip for that famous Red Bull Yes Man scene here.

The Griffith Park Observatory is located at:
2800 E Observatory Ave
Los Angeles, CA

Because It's Friday

Last October one of my best friends was visiting from Florida and staying for over a week.  It was time to play host and show him what Southern California is all about.  Unfortunately the day he arrived the weather took a turn for the worse and remained like that for almost his entire stay.  I created a list of things we could do and some sights that I could show him like the Hollywood sign, Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles and UFC 121 where Cain Velasquez took the heavyweight title from Brock Lesnar in dominating fashion.

The first stop and attraction that I took him to the day after he arrived was the street where the movie Friday was filmed.  This movie is regarded by both of us as one of the all time greats and I had never seen the filming spots for Friday before.  Very appropriately we embarked on this adventure on a Friday morning on our way to Roscoe's in Hollywood.  When we arrived at the location I actually drove right past Craig's house because they re-painted it and added some new decor to stray away from that same look that we all know and love from 1995.  That god-awful peach pink color is a pleasant blue complimented by white trim.  I quickly turned around and parked up the street.  Let me say that when checking out these filming spots it's hard to not feel creepy and paparazzi'ish, particularly if it's someone's home.  So remember to always be respectful and try your hardest not to come off how I described above.

We snapped pictures of Craig's house and kept reciting our favorite scenes and lines from the movie.  "You gotta be a stupid motherf***** to get fired on your day off!" "What'up Big Perm?"  I must also say that when you are on that street you get the feeling that everyone knows each other and a warm summer day would be just like they portrayed in the movie.  We were deprived of any kind of Miss Parker action with her out watering her lawn because of the weather, but maybe that's motivation for you to go visit this spot.

I loved visiting this filming spot because this is another movie that I grew up watching over and over.  Enjoy the pictures as you replay your favorite scenes in your mind.  I must mention before I wrap this post up, remember to be respectful when visiting these spots and also be aware of your surroundings.  This neighborhood isn't in the best part of town, so travel with someone and preferably during the day.  You better believe that there are real-life Deebo's out there and you don't want to be the one saying "my grandmama gave me that chain!"

Craig's house is located "between Normandie and Western" in the West Athens area of Los Angeles at:
1418 W 126th Street
Los Angeles, CA