Monica Bushman
produces arts and culture coverage for LAist's on-demand team. She’s also part of the Imperfect Paradise podcast team.
Published October 30, 2023 3:37 PM
A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
Topline:
For decades, cities east of downtown L.A. — including Pasadena, South Pasadena and Altadena — have been a big draw for film and TV location scouts. Veteran location scout and manager Rick Schuler says the "denas," with their wide variety of single-family homes and tree-lined streets, are most often used as stand-ins for the Midwest or East Coast.
Why it matters: Schuler says there's so much location scouting that goes on in L.A. for film and TV (and commercials too) that he likes to say that there's "no door" that "hasn't been knocked on at some point or the other." Some filming locations have become tourist destinations unto themselves — like the Halloween houses in South Pasadena or the Back to the Future house (also known as The Gamble House) in Pasadena. And when a location that was spotlighted in film or TV becomes a point of interest, it can sometimes also help get folks interested in historical preservation.
Listen to the conversation:
Listen
24:08
From 'Halloween' To 'Back To The Future': Why Filmmakers Love Pasadena and South Pas
From 'Halloween' To 'Back To The Future': Why Filmmakers Love Pasadena and South Pas
There isn't as much filming going on in Los Angeles right now due to the ongoing actors' strike and only recently resolved writers' strike. But for decades, cities east of downtown L.A. — including Pasadena, South Pasadena and Altadena — have been a big draw for film and TV productions.
Veteran location scout and manager Rick Schuler says the "denas," with their wide variety of single-family homes and tree-lined streets, are most often used as stand-ins for the Midwest or East Coast.
Schuler recently took the How To LA team on a tour of some filming locations, used in movies like Halloween, Back to the Future and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
A small-town feel in L.A. County
The city of South Pasadena, Schuler says, is often a go-to destination when a film crew wants a location that has the feel of a small, Midwestern town.
And interestingly, the city does have a historical connection with the Midwest — the Anglo founders of South Pasadena and Pasadena, back in the 1870s, were from Indiana.
Probably the most well-known filming location in South Pasadena is the “Michael Myers” house at 1000 Mission St., which was featured in the 1978 horror classic Halloween. In the film, and subsequent sequels, it’s the home of the killer, Michael Myers.
The "Michael Myers" house in South Pasadena featured in the 1978 film "Halloween," set in a fictional town in Illinois.
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
A still from the 1978 film “Halloween,” written and directed by John Carpenter.
(
Shout! Factory
)
The Victorian-style home, built in 1888, is one of several South Pasadena houses featured in the film and is meant to be the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois.
“But they chose South Pasadena,” Schuler says, because “South Pasadena is like an everywhere American city, basically from the Midwest or the East Coast. And what makes it that are the tree-lined streets, the type of architecture that's here. And it feels like a small town.”
Schuler says there’s also a good number of brick buildings in South Pasadena, which you don’t see too much of in L.A., and lots of big camphor trees that form canopies over streets.
The South Pasadena Public Library is surrounded by trees, including some pesky palms.
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
The only tree that’s a problem? Palm trees — a dead giveaway that you’re in L.A.
“Palm trees can be the bane of our existence,” Schuler says. Or at least, they used to be. “In the age now of CGI and all that kind of stuff, they can quickly now say, ‘Oh, we can remove that.’”
There are other workarounds too that don’t involve computers. For example, near the Pasadena home that Schuler found for the 2005 movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which was set on the East Coast, the film crew disguised the tree trunks of some palm trees that line the street.
“We wrapped them with two semi-cylinder, oak-looking or camphor-tree-looking shells,” Schuler says. “And so we did like 10 feet of that” because only the tree trunks could be seen in the frame.
Being from the Midwest himself though, Schuler says South Pasadena and Pasadena aren’t exact matches for the region.
“I think we've created kind of a movie version of the Midwest with a white picket fence, dormers [on the house] and wood shingles. And that kind of thing does exist there, but there's all kinds of other styles there too.”
Knock, knock. Can we film at your house?
Another big challenge to filming in residential neighborhoods, Schuler says, is getting the support of a homeowner to use a specific house.
The first step is knocking on the door, then explaining why you’re there, but also not giving them too much information too quickly.
“What we would have to do is talk to the people [about] whether they want to do it,” Schuler says, “and then eventually [explain that] yes, we need to move you out into a hotel, we want to take all your stuff out and put it in storage, we want to bring our stuff in…”
And depending on what city you’re in and what time of day or night you want to film, productions also need to get sign off from a certain number of neighbors.
A house in Pasadena featured in the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.
(
20th Century Fox
)
Robbie Leslie shows a photo of his family with actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who filmed “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” in part, at the Leslie’s home. Robbie is on the far left.
(
Claire Fogarty
)
In the case of the Colonial-style Mr. & Mrs. Smith house on San Pascual Avenue in Pasadena, which was only used for outdoor shots, the owners also agreed to let the film crew drive a car up onto their lawn, build a temporary garage in the backyard, and even set off a small explosion.
Robbie Leslie, whose parents own the home, and who was 7 years old at the time of filming, remembers it as a great time.
“We were put up in the Ritz Carlton a couple miles away and I remember putting it to good use,” Leslie says. “I would always go down to the bar after school and ask for a bowl of cereal, which they would always provide. And it was fun.”
“Now it's kind of like every icebreaker thing that I ever need. I can be like, ‘Oh, have you ever seen Mr. & Mrs. Smith? That's our house … [and] no, it didn’t really get blown up.’”
A variety of architectural styles
Another draw for film location scouts are the variety of homes in the “denas.”
Just down the street from the main Mr. & Mrs. Smith house is a Tudor-style house that was also used for a short scene.
A house in Pasadena featured in the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.
(
20th Century Fox
)
And it’s just a short drive across the city to the iconic Craftsman Back to the Future home (or Gamble House) which is a popular tourist destination with architecture buffs and film-lovers alike. It was designed by the renowned architectural firm Greene and Greene.
The Gamble House in Pasadena which was featured in "Back to the Future."
(
Samanta Helou Hernandez
/
LAist
)
Though, in the case of the Gamble House, Schuler says it now may be too well known now to use in other films. “Not so much because it’s the Gamble House, but more because it was in Back to the Future.”
And even though having a house become somewhat “off limits” isn’t a great thing for location scouts like him, Schuler says: “in some sense that's good, because we showcase certain things that people sort of get interested in preserving.”
Other film locations to check out in the "denas"
Jamie Lee Curtis’s character’s home from “Halloween” in South Pasadena at 1103 Fairview Ave.
The house from “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985) at 1848 Oxley Street in South Pasadena
The Spanish-style mansion from the classic 1974 film “Chinatown” at 1315 S. El Molino Ave. in Pasadena
From “Back to the Future”: George McFly’s house at 1711 Bushnell Ave. and Lorraine’s house at 1727 Bushnell Ave.
The “Father of the Bride” house from the 1991 film: 843 South El Molino Ave. in Pasadena (The film was set in nearby San Marino)
Morgan Freeman’s character’s Victorian-style house from the 1995 thriller “Seven”: 919 Columbia St. (meant to be East Coast)
Jon Voight’s character’s Colonial-style house from the “National Treasure” films: 1030 Buena Vista St. (meant to be D.C.-area)
Inglewood officials are working on a full rewrite of the city map for the first time in nearly 40 years, laying out how they want the city to grow and change for the next two decades.
(
Isaiah Murtaugh Barish
/
The LA Local
)
Topline:
Inglewood officials are working on a full rewrite of the city map for the first time in nearly 40 years, laying out how they want the city to grow and change over the next two decades.
Why now: It’s all part of the ongoing process for Inglewood’s new general plan, the foundational guide that governs things like what kind of buildings can be built where in the city and how they need to look. A draft land-use plan will go before the Inglewood City Council on Tuesday, then go into the environmental impact review process. The new update to the general plan could set the city’s direction until 2050.
Mixed use development and housing: Planners hope to change some of the city’s commercial corridors into mixed-use zones that allow for housing and businesses alongside each other or even stacked on top of each other. Planners are aiming to open up room for new housing and to revitalize some of the city’s flagging business corridors, without changing the city’s existing residential blocks or sacrificing the grocery stores, barbershops and local restaurants that make neighborhoods tick.
Inglewood officials are working on a full rewrite of the city map for the first time in nearly 40 years, laying out how they want the city to grow and change for the next two decades.
Along part of Manchester Boulevard, city planners are setting up an option for developers to rebuild rows of small storefronts with a mix of homes and commercial space. On La Brea Avenue, south of Centinela Avenue, they envision the possibility of dense housing and business blocks as high as six stories.
Jerome Johnson, an Inglewood local, said he’s lived through three decades of change in the city. He recalled watching a “raggedy market” at the corner of La Brea and Centinela make way for the two-story shopping center that’s there today. He said the potential developments around the intersection could be a catch-22.
“There’s a shortage of housing,” Johnson said. “But you don’t want it to turn into New York City.”
It’s all part of the ongoing process for Inglewood’s new general plan, the foundational guide that governs things like what kind of buildings can be built where in the city and how they need to look. A draft land-use plan will go before the Inglewood City Council on Tuesday, then go into the environmental impact review process.
“This is really a historic milestone for the city,” Bernard McCrumby, Inglewood development services director, told The LA Local.
McCrumby said planners are aiming to open up room for new housing and to revitalize some of the city’s flagging business corridors, without changing the city’s existing residential blocks or sacrificing the grocery stores, barbershops and local restaurants that make neighborhoods tick.
“The stadiums and arenas are here, they’re not going anywhere,” McCrumby said. “Now we can plan around those.”
The last time the city did a full update of its general plan was 1987, when horses were still racing at Hollywood Park and the “Showtime” Lakers were winning championships at the Forum. Edward Vincent Jr., the city’s first Black mayor, had only been in office for four years.
The city has made intermittent updates to its planning guidelines since then — notably remapping a band of Inglewood along the Metro K line before it opened — but city documents indicate planners spent the past couple years working on a comprehensive rewrite.
Planners hope to change some of the city’s commercial corridors into mixed-use zones that allow for housing and businesses alongside each other or even stacked on top of each other.
Those zones could go in place along Century Boulevard and Arbor Vitae Street as well as Manchester, Centinela and La Brea.
The rest of the update, McCrumby said, is aimed at lining the city’s zoning regulations up with state law and the city’s current reality on the ground.
City staff held several community meetings over the last year as they put together the draft and still aren’t done gathering feedback.
The next year will see at least one more community meeting and a 45-day public review period, according to city documents. McCrumby said that, with the anchor of the land-use map in place, planners will continue to work on the rest of the general plan, targeting final City Council approval of the plan and accompanying environmental impact report next spring.
You can get all the details on the general plan at nextlevelinglewood.com and attend the City Council meeting at 2 p.m. on Tuesday to give a public comment.
We also want to know what you think of the proposed changes. Email isaiah@thelalocal.org with your questions or thoughts.
Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published July 21, 2026 2:50 PM
The Marshall High School Jazz Band opened the 2026 Los Angeles Unified Opening of Schools event.
(
Mariana Dale
/
LAist
)
Topline:
Los Angeles Unified students showed improvements on the state’s reading, math and science standardized tests for a third consecutive year.
Why now: Superintendent Andrés Chait announced the preliminary results at the annual opening-of-schools address at East L.A.’s Garfield High School— his first as the district’s leader since the board appointed him to the job in June.
“ These are not just numbers on a page,” Chait said to an audience that included about 1,000 principals, administrators and district supporters. “They are the result of your passion, your persistence, your belief in what students can achieve.”
Why it matters: Student achievement, as measured by test scores, plummeted during the pandemic. Los Angeles Unified’s growth in 2025 outpaced the state as test scores exceeded pre-pandemic levels. This year the percentage of students in all grades who met or exceeded the standard are 39.7% for math, 48.3% for English and 32.1% for science.
It’s unclear how this compares to students statewide because those results have yet to be released.
Read on ... for more information from the address. This story will be updated.
Students within the Los Angeles Unified School District showed improvements on state reading, math and science standardized tests for a third consecutive year, district authorities announced Tuesday.
Superintendent Andrés Chait revealed the preliminary results at the annual opening-of-schools address at East L.A.’s Garfield High School— his first as the district’s leader since the board appointed him to the job in June.
“ These are not just numbers on a page,” Chait said to an audience that included about 1,000 principals, administrators and district supporters. “They are the result of your passion, your persistence, your belief in what students can achieve. These are collective accomplishments.
"They reflect the dedication, skill, and commitment of our entire community,” he said.
Jai Gant-Leau, principal of Eagle Tree Continuation High School, said the “back-to-basics” focus of Chait’s speech was a welcome departure from the tone of recent opening addresses.
“We will continue to rise for the outcomes and expectations for the success of our students. That's the message I got,” Gant-Leau said. “Very different than the others where it was a lot of… bells and whistles.”
This year the percentage of students in all grades who met or exceeded the standard are 39.7% for math, 48.3% for English and 32.1% for science. It’s unclear how this compares to students statewide because those results have yet to be released.
“The decisions will be hard, but we cannot lose sight of what defines us,” Chait said. “We are the system that lifts students to opportunity, turns potential into achievement, creates spaces of belonging, healing, growth.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Cato Hernández
covers important issues that affect the everyday lives of Southern Californians.
Published July 21, 2026 2:41 PM
The program will focus on homes that survived the Eaton Fire.
(
Mario Tama
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
Altadena residents with homes that survived the Eaton Fire will soon have a chance at getting their soil cleaned up. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a new remediation program focused on lead contamination.
Didn’t this already happen? The federal government previously remediated properties where homes burned, although that thoroughness has been scrutinized. Helen Chavez Garcia, a spokesperson for Supervisor Kathryn Barger, said the county’s new program will be for properties that are still-standing, to help residents facing insurance obstacles.
What we know: The program will use $3 million of state and county funds for administrative and remediation costs. It will prioritize applicants who live with pregnant women or children under 6 years old. These groups face serious health risks with lead exposure.
What’s next: The program structure is being figured out, but it will be under the L.A. County Development Authority. A cohort of community organizations and researchers are helping design it. That's expected to launch this fall.
Lucas Brady Woods
covers the weather and disasters, among other climate and science topics.
Published July 21, 2026 2:37 PM
A beach vendor takes a break under the Santa Monica Pier last week. More heat is in store for Southern California this week and into next.
(
Mario Tama
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
A heat advisory is in place for much of Southern California from 10 a.m. Wednesday through Monday.
The heat: Temperatures are expected to climb steadily this week. Inland valleys in L.A., Riverside and San Bernardino counties will see highs between the mid-90s and about 105 degrees. Areas closer to the coast, including downtown Los Angeles and most of Orange County, will hit the 90s, while beaches hover mostly in the upper 70s. Humidity also continues to add to the discomfort, making it harder to cool down.
Fire risk: Despite higher-than-normal humidity, a combination of dry brush and wind will also increase the likelihood of fires sparking in some places. The risk will be concentrated in places prone to high winds, including parts of the 5 Freeway corridor in northern L.A. County, especially around the Grapevine, and southern Santa Barbara County.
Beach conditions: Forecasters expect dangerously large waves and strong rip currents to persist through the weekend along the Southern California coast.
Read on … to learn more about what’s driving these uncomfortable conditions.
We hope you’ve gotten used to the hot weather, because it’s going to be here for a while.
The National Weather Service has issued yet another heat advisory for much of Southern California, less than a week after other high-temperature warnings were lifted.
This week’s advisory will be in place from 10 a.m. Wednesday through Monday. Forecasters expect temperatures to climb steadily over the course of Wednesday and Thursday.
The San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley and other inland areas in L.A., as well as Riverside and San Bernardino counties, will likely see highs ranging from the mid-90s to about 105 degrees. Areas closer to the coast, including downtown Los Angeles and much of Orange County, will hit the 90s. Beaches will hover mostly in the upper 70s.
Humidity will also add to the discomfort. Even though it’s decreasing slightly, it makes cooling down harder, especially at night.
People who work outdoors or do not have air conditioning are especially at risk from the heat and humidity, along with people over 65, young children and other sensitive populations.
Making sense of heat forecasts
Southern Californians are no strangers to hot weather in the summer, but heat waves are getting hotter, longer and more frequent as the climate changes.
So you should know the words forecasters use to describe these weather events — and the risks they pose.
Heat advisory: Advisories are issued when temperatures are expected to be hot enough to cause discomfort and potentially lead to heat-related illnesses, especially for more vulnerable populations like young children and the elderly.
Extreme heat watch: Watches are essentially forecasts for upcoming periods of extreme heat. Forecasters say heat watches often cover wide areas and will be revised into more focused warnings and advisories as conditions become clearer over time. Watches are a good time to prepare for extreme heat.
Extreme heat warning: Warnings are issued when heat levels are or will likely become extremely dangerous. Under extreme heat warnings, it's a good idea to avoid strenuous outdoor activity, stay hydrated and help loved ones and pets stay cool.
Forecasters are warning that conditions are ripe for fires, driven by a combination of wind and dry vegetation.
Southern California hasn’t seen much rain recently, despite the humidity, leaving plants with little moisture and turning them into the perfect fuel.
“Even though the air feels kind of moist, we're in the time of season where it doesn't matter. The fuels are dry and they're ready to go,” said NWS meteorologist Ryan Kittell.
Kittel said people should take extra care with anything that could create a spark, and residents in fire-prone areas should remain aware of their surroundings in case a fire starts.
The fire risk is likely to be concentrated in a few specific areas that will experience higher winds than others, including parts of the 5 Freeway corridor in northern L.A. County, especially around the Grapevine, and in southern Santa Barbara County.
For most of the region, though, winds should stay fairly mild.
Dangerous beach conditions
Southern Californians also have to contend with some ocean-specific risks this week.
Forecasters expect dangerously large waves and strong rip currents to hit the coastline at a time when the heat may drive more people to the beach. The conditions are expected to persist through the weekend.
If you decide to head to the beach, it’s a good idea to ask a lifeguard for advice on the conditions before entering the water. It’s also recommended to swim only near occupied lifeguard stands, stay off of rock jetties and avoid turning your back to the waves.
South-facing stretches of coastline will bear the brunt of the swell, which is being driven by two tropical storms churning hundreds of miles away in the Pacific Ocean.
“Those two systems generated the winds and the waves locally that are pushing towards us, and so that's creating elevated surf and some stronger currents than normal,” Kittel said.
The swell is not expected to cause significant coastal flooding as high tides remain relatively low.
