On Location #9 - Small Town Double Feature

Time for another "On Location"! Crandall, TX (just southeast of Dallas) is a small town like any other where nothing ever seems to happen but it has been the filming location for at least two major motion pictures!


1967's Bonnie and Clyde tells the true story of two Texas bank robbing lovers and was filmed in and around the Lone Star State. In this scene Gene Wilder is making time with his special lady while Bonnie & Clyde steal his car:




He then jumps into action in a vain attempt to stop the robbery. You can see that the house is still there but is in bad shape. I believe it was bought by the church next door and they are making restorations.



Later on in the film the duo are on Main Street in downtown Crandall:



You can see that a lot has changed but the water tower is still in the background:



Main Street also makes an appearance in 1999's "Boys Don't Cry." The Karate School has been replaced with a Mexican restaurant but not much else has changed since then:

On Location #8 - "Serving Sara" at Pioneer Plaza

In the interest of full disclosure, I've never actually watched this movie:

But only because it looks absolutely horrible. "Serving Sara" came out in 2002 and the other day I scanned through it to pull these stills. So, with that complimentary introduction, let's get started!

Our first stop is what I like to call "the dome thingy outside Comerica Bank Tower" in downtown Dallas. In the film it was a steak restaurant:



But the most recognizable Dallas location is Pioneer Plaza (also in downtown). It's featured in a foot chase scene with Bruce Campbell and a sweaty, bloated Matthew Perry.




Campbell then runs past the Pioneer Plaza Cemetery and the Confederate War Memorial (which is in the opposite direction that he was running in the Plaza...movie magic!) on his way into the Convention Center.



And then some other stuff happens and then the movie ends. Roll credits!

In the interest of maintaining some educational content in the blog, here's a video segment we shot on Pioneer Plaza:

Dallas Heritage Village: Candlelight at Old City Park

Devin enjoys the festivities at the Dallas Heritage Village's "Candlelight at Old City Park" event! This year is Candlelight's 40th Anniversary!

On Location #7 - "The Good Guys" in Fair Park

Let's have another look at some Dallas shooting locations of the unjustly canceled Fox series "The Good Guys." This time our stop is Fair Park!

In episode #4 "The Dim Knight", an out of town chemical supplier meets with his translator right outside Centennial Hall. As they talk you can see the Hall of State in the background. (Later they go get hamburgers in a part of town that is not too far from there.)






In episode #8 "Silvio's Way" a duo of incompetent thieves target pharmacies. For some reason the producers thought that the Coliseum in Fair Park would make a great pharmacy in the episode...and it seems to work. (Later in the episode the thieves try to rob Raven's Pharmacy in south Dallas.)



In episode #12 Little Things" the guys take part in training kids for the police sponsored "Juniors Officers" program. They conduct the exercises at the Leonhardt Lagoon which is behind the Museum of Nature & Science and in front of the Cotton Bowl.




All right Junior Officers, I've only got one more episode of this show to watch so we'll see if our heroes managed to visit any other famous Dallas locations.

Highlights from the 2011 Veteran's Day Parade

Here is some video we shot last week at the Veteran's Day Parade in downtown Dallas:

On Location #6 - Raven's Pharmacy

Once again we had back to the streets of Dallas to track down another filming location for the short lived Fox series "The Good Guys." This time we end up at the semi-historic Raven Pharmacy which is in south Dallas on Jefferson Street and N. Adams Ave between Llewellyn and Bishop.



In the episode the store is robbed by some would-be thieves who botch the robbery and have to flee quickly (or else get ventilated by the clerk's shotgun). When they rush out you can see a few of the other businesses across Jefferson Street.



They quickly jump in their van and make their escape by heading east toward Bishop Ave.


So there ya have...short and sweet. I'm almost out of "Good Guys" episodes so you'll only have to put up with a few more of these and then I'll switch to movies.

Okie-pocalypse Continues!

Another day, another Oklahoma earthquake (and tornadoes). Another Oklahoma earthquake, another set of Oklahoma earthquake tweets:

Record 5.6 Oklahoma Earthquake Wrap Up

Last night Oklahoma had their biggest earthquake on record. Since we missed out on it here in North Texas we thought we'd do a wrap up of the online activity that came about from the Great Quake of 2011.

Starting off with some social networks, our own Devin Dennie was quick to express his unbridled excitement:

Oklahoma based comic book artist Paul Milligan was caught by surprise:

J.C. Chang, a Norman, OK based geo-scientist was all over the quake on twitter last night:

And he posted this picture from the Oklahoma City seismic station:

KJRH posted that there were no reported injuries (which is always good to hear) and mentioned the damage in Lincoln County:

Which was also covered by CNN they re-posted this video from KWTV:



But some of the best video may be Kirk Herbstreit's reaction as he experiences the quake on lived TV:



And finally, sometimes you just have to try to take things in stride...just like Jake the Great:

On Location #5 - Hank Hill Visits the Cadillac Ranch

We're going to give the "Good Guys" the day off and take a look another another Texas TV show...perhaps the greatest: King of the Hill!

And even though it was animated the producers still used real life locations. For example, at the end of the Season 11 episode "Hank Gets Dusted," Cotton's beloved Cadillac is buried at the world famous Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX along the world famous Route 66!


The occasion is event is even more Texas-centric with he inclusion of ZZ Top. The non-animated version of the Cadillac Ranch looks like this:


And we should know because the Cadillac Ranch and other roadside art are the work of the great Stanley Marsh and we produced a documentary short on him a few years ago. Check it out: