Series
Sunnydale HighNo reflection
Dark glass.
The WB & UPN · 10 March 1997 to 20 May 2003 · and the 1992 film
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
An empty mirror. Breathe on it.
Asked by Gail Berman to turn Buffy into a series, Whedon thinks of high school as a horror movie, and the metaphor becomes the show. Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins on The WB as a mid-season replacement, with the two-part “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Harvest”. Its town, Sunnydale, was never anywhere: hold up a mirror to it below and see the real places.
Sources
Stewart Street and Exposition Boulevard
Sunnydale was
a warehouse lot.
The warehouse
One hallway
In the first season the show has one school corridor and uses it over and over, in a lumber warehouse with no lighting grid.
The Bronze
A door to the outside
The Bronze, Sunnydale’s club, is a set built in a Santa Monica warehouse, with a real door to the outside.
Maple Court
Downtown Sunnydale
A parking lot behind the stage becomes downtown Sunnydale, one facade at a time, starting from an Espresso Pump drawn from an Edward Hopper diner.
The graveyard
Grass on tarmac
A small parking lot is kerbed, filled with earth and grass and dressed with headstones: the Sunnydale cemetery for most of the run.
The heart of production was a warehouse lot in Santa Monica, where Stewart Street meets Exposition Boulevard, not a studio backlot.
The crew built sets in a converted lumber warehouse that was not a professional soundstage; the show was given it instead of room on the Warner Bros. lot.
In the first twelve episodes one school hallway stood in for the whole school.
From the third season the crew built a whole downtown street, Maple Court, on the lot, with the Espresso Pump, Sun Cinema and the Magic Box.
This was a working production lot, never a place to visit, and the buildings are not identified here, so nothing is pinned.
Sources
27 minutes without dialogue · 14 December 1999 · the only Emmy writing nomination
Joss Whedon writes and directs an episode in which 27 minutes pass without dialogue, after reading that the dialogue was the show’s best feature. It is the series’ only Emmy nomination for writing.
Sources
No reflection
Hold up
the mirror.
In Sunnydale, a vampire casts no reflection. Neither does the town. Hold a mirror up to each haunt and the glass shows the real place that played it.
0 of 10 held up
Ten mirrors, ten Sunnydale haunts, nothing in the glass.
Series
1630 Revello DriveNo reflection
A private home: only its street will show.
Series
The BronzeNo reflection
Dark glass.
Series
Sunnydale cemeteryNo reflection
Dark glass.
Series
The Crawford Street mansionNo reflection
Dark glass.
Series
UC SunnydaleNo reflection
Dark glass.
Series
The new Sunnydale HighNo reflection
Dark glass.
1992 film
Hemery HighNo reflection
Dark glass.
1992 film
The senior danceNo reflection
Dark glass.
1992 film
Merrick’s ballroomNo reflection
Dark glass.
Discover Torrance
Torrance film tour
Torrance · Free · self-guided · come outside school hours
The city’s own self-guided film tour, with Torrance High School, Sunnydale High to Buffy fans, among its stops.
Plan the tour
Hotel Covell
Hotel Covell
4626 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Feliz · Rates from the hotel
Not a filming location: a small Los Feliz hotel whose suites are numbered as chapters. A short drive from the Ennis House and John Marshall High. The photograph is the Ennis House, not the hotel.
See the hotelBefore Sunnydale · 31 July 1992
Hemery High
came first.
In the film, cheerleader Buffy Summers goes to Hemery High in Los Angeles; John Marshall High School plays it.
The film’s school dance is shot in the University High School gym. In the 1992 film, Merrick lives and trains Buffy in the ballroom of the Park Plaza Hotel.
20th Century Fox releases the film; it takes a different direction from what Whedon intended, which leads him to make the series.
A working public high school of about 2,000 students. Look from Tracy Street, outside school hours.
Sources
The film is shot in five weeks to fit round Luke Perry’s Beverly Hills, 90210 schedule.
It is the same high school used for Beverly Hills, 90210. Sunnydale High and West Beverly High are one building in Torrance.
Unzip the Beverly Hills, 90210 World
Sources
18 April 2003
The wrap party.
In the 144th and final episode, the whole of Sunnydale drops into a crater; the real places that made it are still standing.
Sources
Torrance High School
Still standing.
Sunnydale went into the crater. Its school did not.
The early seasons’ courtyard scenes were filmed in the school’s own courtyard, also seen in She’s All That.
The school opened in 1917 and has more than 100 classrooms; its Renaissance-style architecture is a big reason film-makers choose it. It was Torrance’s first building to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A working public high school. Look and take photographs from the pavement on West Carson Street, and come outside school hours.
Sources
Shore Hotel
Shore Hotel, Santa Monica
Santa Monica · Rates from the hotel
At 1515 Ocean Avenue, across from Palisades Park: the Santa Monica base for the lot’s old corner, UCLA and University High. The photograph is the Exposition line nearby, not the hotel.
See the hotel
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Los Angeles film and TV location tours
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for film and TV location tours around Los Angeles. None is about Buffy; check which stops each one makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhere it is now
8 places you can visit. The schools and campuses are working places: look from outside. Buffy’s house is a private home, named only by its street, and the Santa Monica lot is a corner, not a building, so neither is pinned. The Ennis House is private: see it from Glendower Avenue.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public high school. Look and take photographs from the pavement on West Carson Street, and come outside school hours.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working university campus; walk the quads and keep out of teaching buildings. The pin is Royce Hall, the campus’s best-known front.
Site reference · Restricted access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public high school: look from the street, outside school hours.
Torrance High School’s 1917 main building, on the National Register of Historic Places. Photographed in 2008. Los Angeles · CC BY-SA 3.0 Torrance & the Westside · 2200 W Carson St, Torrance, CA 90501
Torrance High School
Exterior scenes of Sunnydale High were shot at Torrance High School, at 2200 W. Carson Street, through the first three seasons.
A working public high school. Look and take photographs from the pavement on West Carson Street, and come outside school hours.
Sources
Royce Hall on UCLA’s Westwood campus, 2019. Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0 Torrance & the Westside · Westwood campus, Los Angeles, CA 90095
UCLA (UC Sunnydale)
Some exterior shots of UC Sunnydale, Buffy’s college from season four, were filmed at UCLA.
A working university campus; walk the quads and keep out of teaching buildings. The pin is Royce Hall, the campus’s best-known front.
Sources
University High School on Texas Avenue, West Los Angeles, 2024. Jengod · CC BY-SA 4.0 Torrance & the Westside · West Los Angeles
University High School
The 1992 film shot its school dance in the gymnasium of University High School in West Los Angeles.
A working public high school: look from the street, outside school hours.
Sources
Stay
Sleep near the places.
A small hotel in Los Feliz and one on the Santa Monica shore.
Hotel Covell
Hotel Covell
4626 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Feliz · Rates from the hotel
Not a filming location: a small Los Feliz hotel whose suites are numbered as chapters. A short drive from the Ennis House and John Marshall High. The photograph is the Ennis House, not the hotel.
See the hotelShore Hotel
Shore Hotel, Santa Monica
Santa Monica · Rates from the hotel
At 1515 Ocean Avenue, across from Palisades Park: the Santa Monica base for the lot’s old corner, UCLA and University High. The photograph is the Exposition line nearby, not the hotel.
See the hotelGo there
Go and see.
Torrance’s own film tour, and marketplace tours of film locations and Wright houses.
Discover Torrance
Torrance film tour
Torrance · Free · self-guided · come outside school hours
The city’s own self-guided film tour, with Torrance High School, Sunnydale High to Buffy fans, among its stops.
Plan the tourViator · Ad / affiliate
Los Angeles film and TV location tours
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for film and TV location tours around Los Angeles. None is about Buffy; check which stops each one makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursViator · Ad / affiliate
Frank Lloyd Wright and Los Feliz architecture tours
Los Feliz
Live marketplace results for architecture tours of Los Angeles. The Ennis House is private: tours see it from the street, if at all.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Nothing dated yet.
No current events tied to these places were found.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
Two books.
An oral history of the show and a companion from 1998.
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate
Slayers & Vampires
Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman
The oral history of Buffy and Angel that the lot stories come from.
Find the book
_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher’s Guide
Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder
The 1998 companion to the first seasons.
Find the bookDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The Watcher’s files
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 20 of 20 stories
Torrance High School
2200 W Carson St, Torrance, CA 90501
10 March 1997
Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins on The WB as a mid-season replacement, with the two-part “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Harvest”.
Sunnydale High
Torrance High School plays Sunnydale High for three seasons, courtyard and all.
High school as a horror movie
Asked by Gail Berman to turn Buffy into a series, Whedon thinks of high school as a horror movie, and the metaphor becomes the show.
Buffy’s house (Cota Avenue)
Cota Avenue, Old Torrance
1630 Revello Drive
A house on Cota Avenue, three blocks from the school, plays Buffy’s home.
The Santa Monica warehouse lot
Stewart Street and Exposition Boulevard, Santa Monica
One hallway
In the first season the show has one school corridor and uses it over and over, in a lumber warehouse with no lighting grid.
The Bronze
The Bronze, Sunnydale’s club, is a set built in a Santa Monica warehouse, with a real door to the outside.
Maple Court
A parking lot behind the stage becomes downtown Sunnydale, one facade at a time, starting from an Espresso Pump drawn from an Edward Hopper diner.
A graveyard on tarmac
A small parking lot is kerbed, filled with earth and grass and dressed with headstones: the Sunnydale cemetery for most of the run.
“Hush”
Joss Whedon writes and directs an episode in which 27 minutes pass without dialogue, after reading that the dialogue was the show’s best feature. It is the series’ only Emmy nomination for writing.
The wrap party
The cast and Joss Whedon are photographed together at the wrap party in April 2003.
“Chosen”
In the 144th and final episode, the whole of Sunnydale drops into a crater; the real places that made it are still standing.
UCLA (UC Sunnydale)
Westwood campus, Los Angeles, CA 90095
UC Sunnydale
UCLA gives the college its outdoor shots.
University High School
West Los Angeles
The senior dance
The film’s school dance is shot in the University High School gym.
Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
1831 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles
The real cemetery
Angelus-Rosedale plays the Sunnydale cemetery in the first season.
The Ennis House (Crawford Street mansion)
2607–2655 Glendower Avenue, Los Feliz
The Crawford Street mansion
The Ennis House plays the outside of the mansion where Spike, Drusilla and Angel live.
John Marshall High School (Hemery High)
3939 Tracy St, Los Feliz, Los Angeles
Hemery High, 1992
In the film, cheerleader Buffy Summers goes to Hemery High in Los Angeles; John Marshall High School plays it.
Five weeks for Luke Perry
The film is shot in five weeks to fit round Luke Perry’s Beverly Hills, 90210 schedule.
Park Plaza Hotel (The MacArthur)
607 S Park View St, Westlake, Los Angeles
Merrick’s ballroom
Merrick lives and trains Buffy in the Park Plaza Hotel ballroom.
31 July 1992
20th Century Fox releases the film; it takes a different direction from what Whedon intended, which leads him to make the series.
Oviatt Library, CSUN
California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles
The rebuilt school
Sunnydale High is rebuilt for the seventh season, filmed at Cal State Northridge.