Movie and TV houses in Los Angeles

Stalking celebrities can be very difficult. They disguise themselves with big sunglasses, they move from place to place and they tend to run away when you yell and point and say things like "Oh my God, it's her! It's her!" Or him, as the case may be.

Since chasing celebrities is obviously fraught with difficulties, I decided to do the next best thing; stalk celebrity houses. These things can't move and don't get embarrassed and are fairly plentiful in L.A. so I decided to make an afternoon out of it.

I had to coerce Patrick to be a navigator. And Dusty came along too, mostly because I thought he would poop and pee in the apartment if left alone too long.

First stop was the apartment where Andy Stitzer, The 40 Year Old Virgin, lived. The address is 12012 Moorpark in Studio City which is right down the road from where I live. I could pay homage to his apartment every day.

Steve Carell used to live in Studio City and he still may. He went to the same gym as I did but sadly we never became work-out buddies. Or friends. Or even passing acquaintances. He never acknowledged my open-mouth stares but I suppose he has a lot of things on his mind.

Without leaving Studio City, we found the famous house at 11222 Dilling Street. For fans of early 70s tv, you should recognize it as the abode of the Brady Bunch.

This house looks a lot like it did back in the day. The subsequent owners of the house put up a fence because there were apparently many overzealous tourists who had no problem with marching up to the windows and peeking inside.

I'm not sure what they expected to see. Marcia Brady getting undressed?

The next stop was still in Studio City and the address was 12334 Cantura Street. This house was very nondescript. It was in a very pleasant neighborhood but if you passed by it, I'm pretty sure you would not have guessed its tv history.

Who lived in this house? The Wilkersons. You say, who the hell were they?

The family of Malcolm in the Middle.

Yep, they lived in this 1400 square foot house just off of Ventura Boulevard. Or at least, they were supposed to live there.

From one article I read, the doctor who really lived there made $100,000 from letting the producers use the facade of his house.

If any producers are reading this, I would be more than happy to loan out my entire apartment for half that price. You could also hire me at union prices. Dusty could be thrown in there for free. No charge! A freebie is unheard of in the movie and tv business but this is a limited time offer because I have no idea how long he is going to live. He is 16 and a half for cripes sakes.

Finding the next house was definitely more of a challenge. The address is 776 Torreyson Drive in West Hollywood, but it is tucked deep into the Hollywood Hills.

This is the Chemosphere, otherwise known as the Spaceship house, and was seen in the first Charlie's Angels movie. It was built in 1960 by John Lautner back in the day when we were a little obsessed with what the future would look like.

It's difficult to see from my picture, but the octagon shaped house is built upon a large pedestal. I have no idea how this house has survived earthquakes but apparently it has.

Next up was the house from Happy Days. You probably thought that the Cunninghams lived in Wisconsin but they actually lived (sort of) in a house on Cahuenga Avenue in Los Angeles.

It's a very attractive, very large house. It is found in a small subdivision just near Melrose Avenue. We thought we weren't going to find it because this area is surrounded by very non-midwestern urban commercialism but we turned down a street and there it was.

The most unusual house on the tour was The Witch's House located at 516 North Walden Drive in Beverly Hills. There isn't a lot of question why this house is so named; it looks like something out of a Brother's Grimm fairy tale.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the current owners are renovating it so most of it was obscured by an ugly green fence. I'm not sure how such an eyesore could be allowed in the 90210 area code. The owners must be VERY important or something.

This house was built in 1921 and was used in some silent films as well as the much more recent Clueless.

And finally, we took a somewhat scary trip though the bowels of Los Angeles to find my favorite house on the tour, the house from the tv show, Charmed.

Truthfully, I have not watched a single episode of Charmed. Apparently it is about three sisters who kick some evil ass and although this does sound entertaining, I much prefer The Office these days.

This beautiful Victorian abode is located at 1329 Carroll Avenue. It is on the same street as many other graceful Victorian houses and the whole area has become a historic district. Most people come to gawk at the Charmed house but it is worth a short walk down the street to admire the architecture of the others.

After four hours it was time to head home. We didn't make it to the Poltergeist house (one of my fav horror movies) but that one is located much further away in Simi Valley.

Maybe next time.