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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 🙂
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.
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
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!
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.
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. 🙂
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.
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.
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.
Great article/blog-thank you for sharing, it was delightfully fun =)
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
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.
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
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
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….
THIS IS AWESOME! GOOD JOB ON YOUR HUNT.
Great read! Thanks a bunch. Can’t find 1110 Glendon Avenue on google maps though…:(
Andrew, try Glendon Way instead 😉