My So-Called Weekend

Uni High

I know My So-Called Life has been off the air for over 8 years now, but I am still slightly obsessed with it.  When one of my co-workers told me that MSCL was filmed at his high school, University High School in West LA, I set out to have a My So-Called Weekend!

University High School, aka Uni High, is located at 11800 Texas Avenue.  Although the front of the high school is quite impressive, it was the back staircase that was actually used as Lincoln High in MSCL.  Uni High has a pretty impressive filming history – it was also used in Seventh Heaven, Drillbit Taylor, and Lizzie McGuire – just to name a few.

Staircase

As soon as I came to the bottom of Uni’s back staircase, I immediately recognized it as Angela Chase’s alma mater.  You might remember the staircase from the Halloween episode, when Rayanne spent a great deal of time waiting for Angela at the flagpole located at the top of the stairs.

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Now it was time to find the Chase Home.  I had a hunch the house was located in South Pasadena, as the producers of MSCL were also the producers of thirtysomething – which was filmed primarily in South Pas.  I knew that the address number of the MSCL house was 1110, thanks to the website www.mscl.com – which had several pictures of the real home used in the filming.  So – armed with a pretty big hunch that the house would be in the same vicinity as the thirtysomething houses – my boyfriend and I drove up and down South Pasadena streets looking at every single home with a 1110 address until we located the house.

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Success came pretty quickly when we found the home at 1110  Glendon Way.  The home has been painted since MSCL aired and looks a lot different, but it was still exciting to be there, standing in Angela Chase’s footsteps.  And I just had to take a picture mimicking that famous screen shot from the end of the pilot episode when Angela is standing in the middle of the street with her new red hair.  🙂

Stalk It: I would recommend visiting Uni High on a weekend because soccer games are held on the campus on weekends, and one is allowed to walk around without being bothered.  Uni High is located at 11800 Texas Avenue in West Los Angeles.  The Chase Home is located in South Pasadena at 1110 Glendon Way, just off Fair Oaks Avenue.  While you are in the neighborhood, stop by the Fair Oaks Pharmacy at 1526 Misson St. for an ice cream Sundae.  The Fair Oaks Pharmacy opened in 1915 and is an old time pharmacy with a real soda fountain – and it just happened to be used as a filming location in the movie Mr. Deeds.

Comments

23 responses to “My So-Called Weekend”

  1. […] the locale yet again, though.  It was not until last month, when a fellow stalker named Wylen published a comment on my site letting me know that the Pasadena Urban Outfitters had appeared in an episode of My So-Called Life, […]

  2. wylen Avatar
    wylen

    Glad I’m not the only person who use to figure out the filming locations of My So-Called Life. Part of the episode of Father Figures was filmed in Wood & Jones on Colorado Boulevard in Pas. It was the printing company that was on the ground floor of the building my dad worked at at the time. I think in the episode they even named Patty’s dad’s company Wood & Jones, possibly because they may have had an establishing shot of the actual building,but that didn’t end up in the episode. Anyway. I remember Wood & Jones closed up shop the same year and my family helped move things out and a bunch of stuff that was in the background we ended up taking. When I saw the episode my mom and I kept saying, “Hey, we have that!” Wood & Jones is now the Urban Outfitters at 139 Colorado, the building still has some of the old signage on it.

    1. Lindsay Avatar

      Oh my gosh, this is so cool! Thank you for letting me know! I’m going to have to go back and watch the episode now! The same building was also in National Treasure. 🙂

  3. Brittany Avatar
    Brittany

    I’m so thankful for this website! haha, this school was also used for shots of “Lawrence Jr. High” in Even Stevens. I reallyyyy wanna visit it omg.

  4. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Thank you so much for all this wonderful info! I love reading about your adventures finding all these sites. Im a huge mscl fan! I am getting ready to go on my own trip to all these sites! Thank you for doing the research. I am so lucky I found your blog, I have been looking for the locations fro a while now! YAY! <3

  5. […] I would write today about the house which was used in the remaining 18 episodes of the series.  I have actually blogged about this location once before, over three years ago when I first started this site (and I absolutely CANNOT believe that it has […]

  6. […] Ever since fellow stalker Andrew tracked down the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles from the “So-Called Angels” episode of fave show My So-Called Life, I have been itching to re-watch the entire series from beginning to end as I have not seen it in years.  So, I immediately went out and purchased the most recently-released boxed set of the show and finally sat down to start watching it last night.  While doing so, I became a bit obsessed with locating the house where the Chase family – Graham (aka Tom Irwin), Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), Angela (aka Claire Danes), and Danielle (aka Lisa Wilhoit) – lived, because, as an astute fellow stalker named Somerset pointed out to me a while back, it was not the same property that was used for the other 18 episodes of the show.  […]

  7. Ashley Avatar
    Ashley

    Hi, Great pictures! Do know which church they used during “So-Called Angels”? I think it’s in LA or Culver City; possibly on Tennessee Avenue. Thanks!

    1. Lindsay Avatar

      I’m not sure about the church. Do you have a screen cap you can send me? I’ll try to figure it out if so.

    2. Andrew Avatar
      Andrew

      In the new My So-Called Life boxset (2007), Wilson Cruz does a commentary with the writers for the episode “So-Called Angels”. He actually describes the location of the church to good detail. I tried to pinpoint it on a map but couldn’t figure it out. I’m sure Lindsay can figure it out or someone that is familiar with the area. She found the locations for her My So-Called Weekend Part 2 for me. 🙂

      1. Andrew Avatar
        Andrew

        In the dvd Wilson Cruz says the church is on 6th street close to downtown. I’ve looked all over on Google maps but can’t come up with it. Also while watching this episode, I could swear I could make out a “All Saints Church” plaque on the front of the church. I hope this info can help someone.

        1. Lindsay Avatar

          Do you have a screen cap you can send me? There is an All Saints Church in Pasadena. I’m thinking that could be it. It could also be this one: http://www.allsaintsca.com/ which is near Alhambra/East LA.

          1. Andrew Avatar
            Andrew

            Sent you a bunch of screencaps Lindsay to your AOL email that you were using a few years ago. I hope you still have it.

  8. ali Avatar
    ali

    Great article/blog-thank you for sharing, it was delightfully fun =)

  9. Jenn Avatar
    Jenn

    I just wanted to say thank you for posting all your information on the MSCL locations. I’ve been trying to find them for a very long time, and have had no luck, until today! Now I finally know where to go! Thanks soo much! 🙂 I love the show very much.
    Would you happen to know where Rayanne’s house/apartment is located? The place where her and her mother lived, in the show. Also, did you see Brian’s house when you were standing infront of Angela’s?
    -Jenn

  10. Mia Avatar
    Mia

    The inside of the house if definitely differently then the Chase house that appeared on the show. But I think Halloween was actually filmed inside the house. Since nobody is living in the house right now you can take a little peak inside through the window.

  11. Christopher Avatar

    I have a question….

    the picture of you standing in front of the Chase house…. Something looks odd with it……. Was the house empty or was there someone living there? I mean it looked like it had no window coverings no shades no curtains or anything..The house looks empty… Was it for sale and empty or was there someone living there?

    — Christopher

  12. Somerset Avatar
    Somerset

    The Chase’s house on Glendon and the Uni High School have been used for ext. shots on MSCL, right.
    But not in the first episode!
    The school (int.) there was actually San Pedro High School located on 1001 W. 15th Street (Btw: the same is also shown in the 80s “Some Kind of wonderful”).

    The house and street(s) in the first episode don’t fit at all with the locations on and around Glendon (watch out for the houses just across the street, the porch (rafters) and the driveway of angela’s house.
    Another thing is the fireplace: in all int. scenes its on the left side of the house; the one on glendon is on the right side.

    Maybe you can find a way to look for the house/street(s) used in the first episode.

    Greets

  13. mike flores Avatar

    Lindsay this home was recently used not to long ago for the movie Halloween (rob zombie version) and coincidentally the original Halloween house is around the corner as well as the hardware store…down the street from that is the carrows where the first terminator was filmed “sarah connor’s work” and up the street from that is the house from th Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar….

  14. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    THIS IS AWESOME! GOOD JOB ON YOUR HUNT.

  15. […] weekend, thanks to a few tips from my new stalking buddy Andrew (who posted a comment on my first MSCL  post), I set out to do some more My So-Called Life  stalking.  The first location I stalked was the […]

  16. Andrew Avatar
    Andrew

    Great read! Thanks a bunch. Can’t find 1110 Glendon Avenue on google maps though…:(

    1. Didier Avatar
      Didier

      Andrew, try Glendon Way instead 😉

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