PBS "Locationland": LA's Top 10 for Set-Jetters

A new series on PBS SoCal Digital explores not only where iconic movie scenes were filmed around Los Angeles but also why and how. Locationland pairs host, author and “locationologist” Harry Medved with industry insiders who worked on those very scenes, as well as experts and fellow fans. Together, they visit places where some of Hollywood’s most beloved scenes were shot, as well as more obscure hidden gems – and all within LA.

Medved, who grew up in Southern California, became fascinated by movies at age 8 and was soon seeking out film locations both famous and forgotten. He authored 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and How They Got That Way) with Randy Dreyfuss and 2006’s Hollywood Escapes. Billed as “a show that puts movies in their places,” Locationland debuted on PBS in January.

While Medved and his guests are clearly lifelong film aficionados, Locationland has a good-natured, inclusive feel that shuns industry jargon and in-jokes so that even casual movie goers can enjoy their (quite literally) scene-setting stories. Whether it be how Grease actress Annette Charles checked herself out of hospital to perform in the LA River Basin on a 100-degree day; why a humble downtown pupuseria has twice appeared in major movies; or the truth behind horror legend Bela Lugosi’s alleged final shoot in a Sylmar cemetery, Locationland adds its own insights to LA’s movie-making lore, and in bite-sized pieces (the longest episode to date running just 14 minutes).

Here are 10 LA movie locations that Locationland can clue you in on before you plan your own walk-on part.

SIXTH STREET BRIDGE (Grease, Point Blank, To Live and Die in L.A.) 600 S. Santa Fe Ave, Los Angeles

In Locationland’s debut episode, “Grease Road Trip,” host Medved joins Randal Kleiser, director of classic 1978 musical romantic comedy Grease (as well as The Blue Lagoon, White Fang, Flight of the Navigator, and others) on a trip down memory lane to some of the movie’s many LA locations. The episode begins with the pair taking a car ride in the concrete LA River bed before Medved takes to the new Sixth Street Bridge east of downtown to survey one of Los Angeles’ most filmed locations from above. As well as the location for Grease’s climatic “Thunder Road” car race, this gray swathe through the heart of LA has appeared in classics like Point Blank, Repo Man, and To Live and Die in L.A., not to mention in countless music videos. Kleiser recalls working with stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John on a 100-degree day, with the crew shirtless and himself barefoot to create a celebrated scene that drew influence from Rebel Without a Cause and Ben-Hur.

LEO CARRILLO STATE PARK (Grease, The Karate Kid, Furious 7) 35000 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu

Kleiser once worked as an extra in beach party movies, an experience he drew upon when selecting Leo Carrillo State Park – where he’d appeared in 1965’s Beach Blanket Bingo – as the setting for the Grease’s opening “Summer Lovin’” scene. Named after LA-born actor and parks commissioner Carrillo, who helped preserve the area’s natural charms, this hugely photogenic and largely unchanged Malibu headland perfectly complements the scene’s carefree romance, with waves breaking dramatically as Travolta and Newton-John cavort at the water’s edge, build elaborate sandcastles, and kiss against a stunning sunset. Unsurprisingly, this famously beautiful beach appears in countless other productions including The Karate Kid, 50 First Dates, and the seventh Fast & Furious movie.

LAKE HOLLYWOOD PARK, HOLLYWOOD (Gremlins, Friends with Benefits, Earthquake, Halloween) 3160 Canyon Lake Drive

In the second installment of Locationland, Medved is joined by Diana Wright of the Hollywood Sign Trust, and directors Will Gluck (Easy A, Anyone but You) and Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling) to go “Behind The Hollywood Sign.” The Locationland name itself is a play on what was originally the Hollywoodland Sign, erected in 1923 to promote a nearby housing development. Right below the world-famous hillside structure is Lake Hollywood Park, where Dante co-directed his first feature film, Hollywood Boulevard, alongside Allan Arkush, and where Gluck filmed his hit 2011 Justin Timberlake-Mila Kunis rom-com Friends with Benefits. Lake Hollywood Park also appears in high-grossing 1970s movies Earthquake and Halloween.

SAN FERNANDO PIONEER MEMORIAL CEMETERY (Plan 9 from Outer Space) 14451 Bledsoe, Sylmar

In Episode 3 of Locationland, Medved explores the legend and often equally strange truths of Plan 9 from Outer Space, a cult 1957 flying-saucers-at-the-cemetery indie flick once voted “The Worst Movie Ever Made.” Alongside comedian and Plan 9 ultra-fan Dana Gould, he visits San Fernando Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, an obscure Sylmar graveyard where director Ed Wood shot what may well be the final footage of Dracula star Bela Lugosi for his famously maligned movie. Due to vandalism, the cemetery is now open only on the third Saturday of each month or for tours by appointment, although it has also hosted Halloween screenings of the unintentionally hilarious Plan 9, which also features multiple other Sylmar locations, or George A. Romero’s hugely influential 1968 zombie horror gem Night of the Living Dead.

SPRING STREET, CHINATOWN (Chinatown)

In “Film Locations 101,” Episode 4 of Locationland’s first season, Medved accompanies legendary LA location manager Robert Foulkes (La La Land, True Lies, Crime 101 etc.) on a whirlwind tour of some of the city’s celebrated backdrops and hidden gems. The episode opens in LA’s Chinatown, where Medved and Foulkes visit the brick arches near the corner of Ord and Spring Streets where stars John Huston, Faye Dunaway, and Jack Nicholson are seen in the finale of 1974 neo-noir mystery Chinatown. In the film, which was declared “the best LA movie of all time” by the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, the arches are rendered in cream plaster but today are bare brick. While retracing the steps of the stars, grab a dumpling at the nearby Mama Lu’s Dumpling House or a French dip at the similarly proximate Philippe The Original.

BUENA VISTA HILL, ELYSIAN PARK (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) 1842 Academy Dr, Echo Park

“Locations 101” also finds Medved and Foulkes on Buena Vista Hill in Elysian Park, where in the opening scenes of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has a nightmarish vision of a future apocalypse obliterating Downtown LA below. For the movie, on which Foulkes spent six months on his first major gig as an assistant, a playground and chainlink fence were erected on what in real life is a peaceful spot high above the urban din that offers scenic, rather than scary, views. Its Terminator tie-in is just another good reason to visit a landmark that already stands alone as an LA “must do.”

ANGELS FLIGHT, DTLA (La La Land, Kiss Me Deadly, Criss Cross) 351 S. Hill St, Downtown Los Angeles

Medved and Foulkes also visit the famed Angels Flight funicular railway in Downtown LA, which has been appearing in films for well over a century. The 300-foot tourist attraction is one of the world’s shortest railways and also provided a short but striking scene, part of a montage, in hit 2016 rom-com La La Land, in which Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling both ride the car and giddily dance at the upper station (which Foulkes gamely mimics in “Locations 101”!) Angels Flight also appears in classic film noirs like Kiss Me Deadly, Criss Cross, and suitably prominently in 1965’s Angel’s Flight. Today, this fun connector between Hill Street and California Plaza can be enjoyed for just $1.50 one way or $3.00 round trip.

SARITA'S PUPUSERIA at GRAND CENTRAL MARKET, DTLA (La La Land, Crime 101)  317 S. Broadway, Downtown Los Angeles

On the same day that Foulkes worked with Gosling and Stone at Angels Flight, they also shot at Grand Central Market next door. More precisely, La La Land’s stars were filmed at the market’s Sarita’s Pupuseria, where their characters have their first date in the movie. A decade later, Foulkes returned to the inherently cinematic Sarita’s for a scene in 2026 thriller Crime 101 in which Chris Hemsworth’s jewel thief character walks in to meet a fence played by Nick Nolte. With movie tourism really taking off in Los Angeles of late, as Medved notes in “Locations 101,” Sarita’s displays a pair of plaques inviting patrons to pose for a photo at the very spot featured in La La Land.

RICARDO MENDOZA MURAL & LIA'S TACOS, ECHO PARK (Crime 101) - 1625 W. Sunset Blvd, Echo Park

“Locations 101” continues to the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue in front of the “Sculpting Another Destiny” mural by Ricardo Mendoza. Here, Foulkes explains, they shot a nighttime Crime 101 scene in which Chris Hemsworth and his love interest, played by Monica Barbaro, grab a bite at Lia’s Taco’s’ having walked out of a swanky restaurant in favor of the neighborhood food stand. The larger-than-life, two-story Mendoza mural, depicting Chicano figures wrapped around the corner Pacific Alliance Medical Building, provides a colorful and very L.A.-evocative backdrop for their intense conversation. “I love this part of town,” Foulkes enthuses in Locationland. “It’s great to highlight Echo Park.”

WINDWARD AVENUE, VENICE BEACH (Crime 101, Touch of Evil, White Men Can’t Jump) Venice Beach, CA 90291
In Crime 101, Halle Berry’s character Sharon meets up with a police detective portrayed by Mark Ruffalo at Pizza Local Venice on Windward Avenue. Sharon’s yoga studio in the movie is on the same block, and Berry is seen walking the storied sands of Venice Beach near Rose Avenue, with Santa Monica Pier in the background, as she mulls her future. Windward Avenue is no stranger to the bustle of big-time productions, with the opening scenes of both Orson Welles’ 1958 Touch of Evil and 1992 sports comedy White Men Can’t Jump being filmed there, with Venice Beach also the setting for the new Baywatch series currently in production.

So, pack your selfie stick, Hollywood smile, and all your newfound Locationland knowledge to ensure that you, too, can truly put movies in their places.