Silly Question About Your State (Santa Clarita, Simi Valley: houses, landscaping, neighborhoods)

[Ilovefall]

I was hoping someone could tell me where are all of the Palm trees in the movies?

Little house was filmed in Cali...where are the Palms in that series?
Gilmore girls (all though I havnt watched that much of it) I dont see any Palms and that was done there as well.

Do they cut the Palms down to film the movies?

[Twinkle Toes]

I don't watch those shows, but a lot of movies show certain neighborhoods in Beverly Hills where the tall palms are. The only thing right now that comes to mind featuring palm trees is the Randy Newman music video for "I Love LA".

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by Ilovefall

I was hoping someone could tell me where are all of the Palm trees in the movies?

Little house was filmed in Cali...where are the Palms in that series?
Gilmore girls (all though I havnt watched that much of it) I dont see any Palms and that was done there as well.

Do they cut the Palms down to film the movies?

They film on large backlots of the studios. The houses, buildings, streets, are constructed from plywood and are just facades. They control the lighting, landscaping, weather. It's all fake. Alternatively they film in Vancouver where there are no unions (or palms) although that's mostly for films, not so much TV.

When you visit LA, take the Universal Studios backlot tour.... you'll see the "smalltown USA" and the "NYC Brownstone block" that have been in a million movies.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by Ilovefall

I was hoping someone could tell me where are all of the Palm trees in the movies?

Little house was filmed in Cali...where are the Palms in that series?
Gilmore girls (all though I havnt watched that much of it) I dont see any Palms and that was done there as well.

Do they cut the Palms down to film the movies?

Most of California's palm trees are imports. Some palms are native to CA, but the iconic tall "coconut" palms, swaying in the wind, are not natives.

Which "Little House"? Some shows, though filmed in CA, are depicted as being somewhere else, so for authenticity's sake, palms would be excluded from sets and shots.

[Roma]

Little House on the Prairie was also filmed in Simi Valley. But like others have said, it is a SET. They can make it look like a blizzard one day if they want to or make it look like the tropics the next.

[midnightbirdgirl]

There are not that many palms here.
MBG

[mhogan10010]

Originally Posted by Ilovefall

I was hoping someone could tell me where are all of the Palm trees in the movies?

Little house was filmed in Cali...where are the Palms in that series?
Gilmore girls (all though I havnt watched that much of it) I dont see any Palms and that was done there as well.

Do they cut the Palms down to film the movies?

I visited the set where Dr. Quinn was filmed. It is still in-tact and open to the public. It is in a canyon not far from Mailbu. Amazing how different the the foliage is, just a few miles from the coast.

[Collideascope]

Originally Posted by cre8

Most of California's palm trees are imports. Some palms are native to CA, but the iconic tall "coconut" palms, swaying in the wind, are not natives.

Which "Little House"? Some shows, though filmed in CA, are depicted as being somewhere else, so for authenticity's sake, palms would be excluded from sets and shots.

That, and the fact that palms - native or not - don't grow in the oak savannah where "Little House On The Prairie" was filmed. So excluding them wasn't a problem for the expansive outdoor shots. And the interior and tightly-focused shots could easily work around whatever palms might be nearby.

For what it's worth, the topography of the television show looks nothing like the prairie location where the series was set.

[Winston Smith]

This location is in the Tapo Canyon area of Simi, Big Sky Movie Ranch. Little House and Bonanza were evidently filmed there in part. Michael Landen, of course, was involved in both shows.

http://littlehouse.sphosting.com/bigsky.html (broken link) (Warning: popups!)
http://www.bigskymovieranch.com/

[jdavid93225]

Little House was also filmed frequently in Placerita Canyon, near Santa Clarita, if I'm not mistaken. There were quite a few other shows filmed there, too.

That particular location does not have any palm trees, and is also "oak savannah" as Collideascope called it. It was probably chosen due to its somewhat generic appearance, that lent itself well to resembling numerous locales.

California has such a wonderful diversity of geological variation that it lends itself quite well to resembling other parts of the country and/or world. Within a half hour drive of my home, I can be in a canyon with red rock cliffs resembling those in Utah and Colorado, or I can be in the Mojave Desert, resembling the deserts of Arizona (with the exception of the Saguaros), or I could be in the San Joaquin Valley, which is similar to the prairies of Nebraska. Also within a half hour of my home are also areas where there are farms, with cornfields (in season) similar to many across the country, which could easily be used to resemble Iowa, for instance, and rugged mountain peaks that could resemble the Rockies, the Blueridge Mountains, or nearly any other mountain range in the world (with the exceptions of the Andes and Alps, due to the limited amount of snow we get here). In fact, the highest mountain in my area is shown during the opening scene in the series "The Waltons," which was supposed to be set in the eastern U.S. Most of the episodes of "The Dukes of Hazzard" were filmed in southern California, even though it was supposed to take place in Georgia, if I recall correctly.