The
filming of an episode of "Rescue 77" on Verdugo's
front lawn in August, 1998. The technician on the ladder in
the center of the picture is the sound effects "sniper."
Through
the magic of set design and camera angles, Verdugo Hills High
School became Parkmont High School for "Dangerous Minds,"
the 1996 television series spin-off of the feature film of
the same name. |
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The following TELEVISION SERIES
were shot on location at Verdugo Hills High School. The dates
in parentheses after the title indicate when the series first
ran.
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- American Idol (2006, November)
- Promo for the new American Idol series. It features
Simon as a toddler, young boy and teenager, showing his
characteristic "nasty" personality at a young
age. Apparently, it has been in his genes for a long time.....
-
- Monk (2005, May)
- USA network. Monk is a neurotic private detective's
last name. The epsisode filmed at Verdugo deals with Monk's
childhood. He has a flah back, thinking about his High
School days, where he got teased a lot.
-
- Summerland (2004, October)
- WB series (channel 5). Located between Santa Barbara
and Ventura, the series is about a lady who takes care
of a couple of children whose parents passed away.
-
- American Dreams (2002: October & December.
2003: January & March. 2004: July)
- Small town U.S. family life in the sixties, when values
used to be simple. It's set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
in 1964. The scripts that are given to the actors contain
real events that acutally occurred in and aournd Philadelphia
in 1964. This makes the show not only entertaining, but
educational as well.
Verdugo was chosen beacuse "achitecturally it is
like the time period and it is also very truck friendly,"
according to the set dresser.
American Dreams airs on NBC every Sunday at 8:00
P.M.
- Miracles (2002, December)
- New ABC T.V. series, X-file type of show.
- MTV (2001, December)
- One half hour comedy spoof, based on a teenage movie.
-
- Lifetime (2001, November)
- Network T.V. show, featuring all female cops, set in
San Francisco.
-
- C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation) (2001)
On January 6 of 2001, several scenes for this television
series were filmed at Verdugo. The scenes involved a bomb
being hidden in a locker and security guards running in
to rescue the situation.
C.S.I. airs on Fridays on CBS,
but will be moved to Thursday nights shorly. It was also
nominated for a Golden Globe Award in January 2001.
- Get Real (1999)
- The marvelous cast and crew of Fox Television's series
"Get Real" have become a favorite at Verdugo
during various shoots at the school throughout Fall 1999
and Spring 2000.
The show chronicles the lives
and foibles of the Green family and stars Jon Tenney (as
the father, "Mitch Green"), Debrah Farentino
("Mary Green," the mother), and Christina Pickles
(the grandmother, "Elizabeth") in the adult
roles and, in the teen roles, Jesse Eisenberg (as 15-year-old
"Kenny"), Anne Hathaway (17-year-old "Meghan"),
and Eric Christian Olsen (16-year-old "Cameron").
Interior and exterior scenes featuring
Verdugo can be seen in various episodes of the series
revolving around the teens' adventures at Truman High
School. Look for it on Wednesday nights.
- Once and Again (1999)
- October 5, 1999, was the first air date for an episode
of this new series from Disney/ Touchstone Television
that was filmed on the VHHS campus in September, 1999.
This Golden Globe-nominated series
about the romantic and marital entanglements of several
Baby Boomers with teenage children stars Sela Ward ("Thirty-Something,"
"Sisters," etc.), Billy Campbell, Julia Whelan,
Meredith Deane, and Jeff Nordling.
The series airs Monday nights
on ABC.
- Court TV (1999)
- The VHHS campus was used as a narrative background for
Martin Sheen who hosted a CourtTV channel special exploring
the issues surrounding school violence that first aired
in June, 1999.
- Rescue 77 (1999)
- In late August and again in October, 1998, Verdugo Hills
High School became Langworth High School for two incidents
of an episode of "Rescue 77," a Spring, 1999,
replacement series created for Spelling Television by
former firefighter Greg Widen. The show ran a single season
before being cancelled.
The series starred Michael Bell
(I Shot Andy Warhol), Christian Kane ("Fame
L.A."), and Marjorie Managhan (Regarding Henry)
as paramedics attached to Station 77 of the Los Angeles
Fire Authority. Richard Roundtree (Shaft) starred
as the station captain. The series debuted on March 15,
1999, on the WB Network and the episode containing the
resuces at Langworth aired the following evening.
The first incident, filmed in
August, revolved around a sniper shooting from the library
window onto the senior lawn below and showed extensive
shots of the front of the school, the senior lawn area,
a shot of an interior staircase in the main building and
the interior of the library.
In October, after Verdugo erected
the stadium lights, the show's writers penned an episode
entitled "The Dummy" in which the Rescue 77
paramedics had to save a student who got stuck high up
on one of the light standards after attempting to hang
a pep rally banner for the school's "Cougars"
football team.
Clips of both incidents appeared
as part of the beginning credits of each weekly episode.
- Hyperion Bay (1998)
- The Verdguo student body was abuzz as Mark-Paul Gosselaar
(Zach, on the popular series "Saved By the Bell")
and company came to campus in September, 1998, to film
an episode of "Hyperion Bay," a new series which
began airing on the WB Network with the Fall 1998 season.
Gosselaar played a young executive
who moved his successful computer company back to his
home town, a small community struggling with the after-effects
of the recession.
In the episode filmed in the boys'
gym, Verdugo doubles as Gosselaar's former high school
and has Gosselaar's character attending a homecoming dance.
The episode first aired in November, 1998. The show was
cancelled after its first season.
- Felicity (1998)
- The high school graduation scene for the pilot episode
of this popular television series was filmed on Kersey
Field during a one-day shoot on February 27, 1998.
Starring Keri Russell ("Malibu
Shores"), Scott Speedman, Scott Foley and Amy Jo
Johnson, this series follows the adventures of a high
school grad who decides to set out on her own at NYU instead
of following in her parents' footsteps by remaining in
Northern California to study medicine.
The show premiered on the WB network
in September, 1998, and is currently in its second season.
- Beyond Belief (1998)
- On April 21, 1998, Verdugo Hills High School was suddenly
transported back in time to December 5, 1941, for the
shoot of an episode of Dick Clark's "Beyond Belief"
television series entitled "Graffiti."
The episode, starring David St.
James, Nathan Adams and Larry Gelman, revolved around
the eerie circumstances at Ambrose Pierce School where
the words "Remember Pearl Harbor" mysteriously
appeared around campus as graffiti a day prior to the
fateful historical event.
The production company did an
excellent job creating the "time warp" in the
principal's office and the school exterior, props and
extras really made our main administration building look
like it might have looked had the building actually been
around in 1941! The episode aired for the first time in
July, 1998, on the Fox Television network.
- Moloney (1997)
- This CBS primetime show was about an LAPD police psychiatrist
played by Peter Strauss. Exterior school scenes in a number
of episodes featuring his on-screen daughter were filmed
at Verdugo. Moloney aired Thursday nights during the 1996-97
season.
- Dangerous Minds (1996-97)
- Verdugo Hills High School was transformed into Palo
Alto's Parkmont High in this television series spin-off
of the successful movie of the same name.
The television series starred
Annie Potts ("Designing Women," Ghostbusters,
etc.) who previously filmed Corvette
Summer at Verdugo.
"Dangerous Minds" aired
on ABC on Monday nights during the 1996-97 season and
featured a variety of Verdugo location shots in its episodes.
The series pilot also included several VHHS students as
extras.
- TV-101 (1988-89)
- Did you know that before Matt LeBlanc became a star
on the TV sitcom "Friends" and before anyone
ever saw Stacey Dash as the marvelous "Dionne"
in both the movie and TV sitcom versions of Clueless,
they were students at Verdugo?!
Well, actually, they were students
at the mythical Franklin D. Roosevelt High School (home
of the Fighting Kangaroos!) featured in this television
series filmed at Verdugo Hills High.
But, this particular show was
more than just another project using the school as a scenic
location; this was art imitating life. The show revolved
around a group of high school students and their on-campus
television station and was inspired by the real-life VHTV,
Verdugo's own cable television channel.
VHTV was founded at Verdugo by
Mr. Monty Hart in 1972 and was one of the first —
if not actually the first — television production
facilities on a high school campus anywhere in the country.
The TV 101 cast also featured Darren Burrows, Andrew
Cassese, Alex Desert, Teri Polo, Sam Robards, Leon Russom,
Monique Salcido and Brynn Thayer.
- My So-Called Life (1994)
- The popular one-season show starring Claire Danes —
reruns of which later found a perpetual home on MTV after
being cancelled by the networks — featured an episode
with a dance filmed in the boy's gym at VHHS.
- Beverly Hills 90210
- Verdugo Hills High School shared some of the duties
for exterior shots on the series with Beverly Hills High.
- Quantum Leap
- Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) leaps into the body of
a football player in one of the earlier episodes of this
1989-93 television series. Episode ends with a game on
the VHHS football field. A house adjacent to the school
on Irma Avenue was also used in the filming of this episode.
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