On With The Story

My second full day in Southern California began with a trip to the Farmer's Market in Studio City. What's cool is that it's located across the street from CBS Studio Center on Radford Avenue, which is where a lot of great TV series were filmed, including THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SEINFELD. THAT '70S SHOW recently shot on the MTM stage. The Radford facility was also the home of hundreds of Mack Sennett comedies and a ton of Republic westerns and serials.

I saw my first star of my vacation upon entering the Farmer's Market: Kyle Secor, formerly of COMMANDER IN CHIEF and HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS. He was there with his family. More surprising was Ed Begley, Jr., who presumably drove his electric car over. But he wasn't shopping, oh, no. Ed has a regular booth there where he shills his own cleaning solution: Begley's Best. You would think Ed would have better things to do every Sunday, but you gotta give him credit for walking the walk. My friend Sara actually bought a bottle from him, and damned if the stuff doesn't actually work pretty well. Very impressive.



This is the beautiful beach at Point Dume, near Malibu. If it looks somewhat familiar, it's because the climax of the original PLANET OF THE APES was shot here, the scene where Charlton Heston finds you-know-what. Here I am in front of that cliff at the end of the beach:



To be entirely accurate, I believe the APES climax was actually shot on the other side of that jutting cliff. You have to traverse the sharp rocks to get over there, and there's a small beach bookended by two cliffs. My friend Chris and I went partway over the rocks, but weren't really prepared or dressed for rockclimbing and returned. At any rate, it's a gorgeous beach, and we had perfect weather for it.

I fell in love with Malibu, in fact, though the weather surely had much to do with it. We drove past "beautiful Pepperdine University," the setting for over a dozen BATTLE OF THE NETWORK STARS competitions. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the Olympic-sized swimming pool or the track area where Bill Shatner once captained his ABC team to victory, Gabe Kaplan schooled Bob Conrad in the 100-yard dash, and Heather Thomas' gorgeous curves plunged into the baseball dunk tank. We also drove by Paradise Cove, where Jim Rockford's trailer once parked, just behind the Sandcastle restaurant, which often was a ROCKFORD FILES location itself.



Recognize it? Yep, it's the famous Vasquez Rocks, home of hundreds of TV shows and movies over the decades, but predominantly famous for the STAR TREK episode "Arena," in which Captain Kirk fought a man-sized lizard called a Gorn on and around this spectacular rock formation.



Yes, James Kirk himself once ran up to the point of that rock to battle the Gorn. Me? Well, maybe if I was a little younger or a little lighter. This is about as far as I got. Vasquez Rocks is actually a county park and is a really nice place for a picnic.

We got back to the city around sunset and stopped for supper at the Mulberry Street Pizzeria in Encino, which is owned by actress Cathy Moriarty (RAGING BULL). Cathy wasn't there, but sitting at the table next to ours was actress Amy Brenneman (JUDGING AMY) and two small children (presumably hers).

A busy day, no doubt, and one that tuckered me out. I passed out on the couch around 10pm...an extraordinarily early evening for me.