Sunday, May 15, 2011

"DYNASTY" Filming Locations: The OTHER Carrington Mansion



The FILOLI Mansion in Woodside and Arden Villa and its lily pond in Pasadena often spring to mind when one thinks of "The Carrington Mansion." Back in seasons 1 and 2 a different property in Beverly Hills was used prominently for filming exteriors.

The swimming pool in which Steven almost drowns in early season 2, along with garages, tennis courts and a driveway were located at 1441 North Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills. 

When the brass decided to ramp up the glitz for season 3, they switched to Arden Villa (which makes its fist appearance in the 4th episode of that season titled "The Will").

I wish they could have at least come back to this property in those increasingly claustrophobic, studio-set latter seasons. The outdoor "mansion" scenes added significant quality to "Dynasty."








8 comments:

  1. where was Alexis's studio?

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  2. I've put that address on IMDB but I’ve made a mistake. It’s actually 1441 North Angelo Drive. Famous as "the enchanted hill", it was the property of the actress/screenwriter Frances Marion and husband, silent screen star Fred Thomson. It was torn down in 2000 by Paul Allen (former chairman of Microsoft).
    The house was also used on “Columbo”, “Charlie’s Angels”, “Hart to Hart” and “Matt Houston”.
    http://wikimapia.org/16506870/Enchanted-Hill
    I don’t know if Alexis’ studio was also on that property but I guess it was.

    In addition to that location and Arden Villa, three more locations were used on the show: in “the honeymoon” and “the dinner party” (season 1), the pool was not the one of the Angelo Drive’s property. Your fist picture is explicit I think (the shape of that pool is different of the other pictures). I will have the address soon.
    In “the nightmare” (season 4), the garages are not from Angelo’s Drive as one could think but from McMahon's Residence at 2 Oakmont Drive on Brentwood, Los Angeles.
    In “the Reunion”, in addition to Arden Villa, they shot several scenes at 1400 Tower Grove Drive, Beverly Hills. The awful new staircase of the Carrington is there.

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    1. The studio appears to have been a facade set up by fabricators at 20th Century Fox. There are no photos of that building ever in place before. It was set up at the base of a hill down from the original mansion. Though it’s been awhile since the property was leveled. There are no indications a building was ever present.

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  3. Thanks, Crivgilles. I corrected the street number.

    Though I'm surprised it was torn down. I didn't know that. I could've sworn I found it on Google Earth. Oh, well... It must have been a similar mansion in the same neighborhood. :)

    By the way, do you know what property they used in the season 8 episode "The Rifle" (#8.15, the scene where Krystle is reading by the pool)? In the season premiere they went back to Arden Villa for that closing scene.

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  4. The pool at the mansion at 1330 looks similar and that's why I've also thought it was this one. But on "Columbo" and some other shows the house can been seen completely and it's clear now that's it's not 1330. I was also confused because the street numbers changed at some point.

    Concerning the mansion used in "the riffle", that's 20181 Northridge Rd, Chatsworth, Los Angeles. It's the mansion of Hayley Armstrong in "Melrose Place". The room where Alexis is playing billiard is the same room where the will of Hayley is read.

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  5. Great, thank you! Boy, you do know everything, don't you? :)

    Oh, I love that room. They should've used it again for some scenes at "The Carlton." It looked more grand than the set they used (and I do love that set, which comes from the movie "Cluedo," as I understand).

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  6. In this pool scene wears Joan a jeans - and on the jeans pocket you can read a name: Joan Collins! :) I think it's so funny!

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  7. Yes, it was basically product placement for her own line of designer jeans which she had been selling in Britain.

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