How Our Home Became Famous in Movies, TV Shows and Commercials

Today I am sharing how our home got involved in filming movies, tv shows, and commercials. It’s been an incredible experience and I think you will be surprised to learn how much filming we have done in our home!

I guess you could say that our home is famous. Kind of like a movie star. Ever since we moved into our home in 1998, filming has been a big part of our lives. So today I thought I would share with you how our home got involved in filming movies, tv shows, and commercials.

Shortly after we bought our home in 1998, someone left a flyer in our mailbox asking if we would be interested in filming a movie called “Thirteen Days” with Kevin Costner. Unfortunately, we were out of town and by the time I saw the flyer, it was too late. But it got me thinking. Could we make additional income filming in our neighboorhood? I had seen movie trucks all of the time in South Pasadena so I thought we might be able to do it.

Two years later we did a major remodel on the back of our house. This included our family room, back porch, and kitchen and it looks exactly as it is now. When we were done I talked to some of my friends who had done filming and they suggested I reach out to location scouts and rep companies who basically represent your home to anyone interested in filming. I printed up a flier and mailed out 100 of them to a list of location scouts which the Los Angeles film commission provided to me.

And I guess you could say, from there it was history.

Things got kind of crazy in the first few years. When a new home becomes available in the filming market, everybody wants to film at the new location. So we filmed a lot in the early years. And it we have filmed every year since.

We have filmed mostly commercials at our home for companies such as: Blue Bunny Ice Cream, Skittles, Ballpark Franks, Home Depot, Williams-Sonoma, Schwab, Donato Pizza, Gogurt, Osteo BiFlex, Pillsbury, Nestle, Bank of America, Bounty Paper towels, Leap Frog, Clorox, Lands End, Wells Fargo, Sunny Delight, Linens & Things, Visa, Kelloggs, Safeway and many more.

The TV shows were have filmed include Mad Men, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, CSI Cyber, Back When We Were Grownups, American Dreams, Judging Amy and the pilot for Disney’s Andi Mack.

Movies filmed here include The Way Back, Raising Helen, A Mighty Wind and Fired Up.

In December of 2018 we filmed a Ben Affleck movie at our home called The Way Back. It was released on March 6, 2020. The photo above was filmed upstairs in our home! And it’s on pay per view if you want to see it. The scene filmed in our home actually appears in the first five minutes of the movie.

To be honest, I have probably forgotten half of what we have filmed here. But the thing you have to remember is that in the film industry, they do crazy things. They often use more than one home to film a home in a movie. In the movie Father of the Bride (which was not filmed at our home), I have been told they used three different homes. One for the front, one inside and one for the backyard. I have links to a lot of commercials and in some cases, you might not even recognize our home! They build strange things, add fake walls, paint strange colors and add all of their own furniture.

Look how ugly our living room looks in this scene from Mad Men (season 5, episode 8). Those curtains!

Our family room is painted a beautiful gray-green color. Look what color they painted it for the movie “A Mighty Wind”. Electric blue! And that is our family room, not our dining room!

And look at the raised deck Home Depot added to the back of our home. That tree isn’t there either! It’s fake.

I think these animated blue bunnies running around in our kitchen are pretty cute! Not to mention, the fake doggy-door!

We only moved out of our home a few times when they were filming. We tried really hard to stay upstairs or on the third floor if they weren’t using the entire home. As glamorous as it sounds to stay a the Ritz-Carlton, just imagine trying to get your car out of the valet to take your kids to school, four athletic practices and play practice. It is not fun. Not at all.

Here is a scene from Raising Helen filmed in our living room. This funny red hat scene is in our living room and the room behind the french doors with the curtains is my craft room!

raising helen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WM0mhCpePA

My favorite commercial they ever filmed at our home was the Paper Airplane Commercial. I laughed so hard when I just watched this because I had forgotten they had used our sectional. The one with the ugly flowered slipcover!

paper airplane commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mojTLSIMPBQ

In 2017, Skittles aired a commercial during the Super Bowl that was filmed at our home. You will recognize the outside of our home right away!

skittles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=530CN430IkQ

Here are some links to more commercials filmed at our home.

blue bunny ice-cream https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wLVf/blue-bunny-ice-cream-bunny-snacks-in-the-house

Home Depot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzq-cBHyJcE

osteo bi flex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W40AfbhYv8

pillsbury https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHYQvtyc4eA

hallmark (different exterior) https://vimeo.com/245625278

jc penny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHZJaBjbBY

B of A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPiEbDYtLDs

I could go on and on but I promise I won’t. We have really enjoyed the filming we have been able to do at our home. I am glad I could share it with you today!

Keep your eyes open. Someday you just might see my hundred-year-old home on your TV!

For more real-time updates, follow me on Instagram @My100YearOldHome