Zoey's Extraordinary Locations

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm not sure how much they shot on location in San Francisco, but discuss any IRL places seen on the show here!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

In the pilot, Zoey is seen walking on Green Street in North Beach. You can see the signs for Gino & Carlo, Sotto Mare, Columbus Cafe, the Buon Gusto Gallery, and Caffe Sport in the background while she's talking on the phone with her mom about the earthquake.

When she goes around the corner on Columbus, you can see Barbara Pinseria at the beginning of Help before she gets on the cable car. When they're dancing in the street, you can see the Transamerica Pyramid.

The club where Mo was DJing 70s night was called the Make Out Place on the show but it's actually called the Make Out Room.

Zoey and Simon walk past Cupid's Span at the Embarcadero after getting cheesequakes (which are pretty delicious) at the Ferry Building (both seen later when Zoey meets Jessica). When they stop to talk, you can see the Bay Bridge behind them.

[RachelKM]

On 1/8/2020 at 5:16 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

In the pilot, Zoey is seen walking on Green Street in North Beach. You can see the signs for Gino & Carlo, Sotto Mare, Columbus Cafe, the Buon Gusto Gallery, and Caffe Sport in the background while she's talking on the phone with her mom about the earthquake.

Thank you.  I knew I recognized that BofA building in the background.  It was bugging the shit out of me as to where I remembered it being. 

I guess we're supposed to assume that Zoey works in the Financial District or SOMA based on how many shots of the Embarcadero/Ferry Building there are during and around her work hours. 

Question for current residents/frequenters of the City, that is seating/faux grass space where "Help" started real?  I haven't spent time in North Beach in ages and I'm just curious how much the aesthetics of the area have changed.  

Edited January 9, 2020 by RachelKM

[Dowel Jones]

I think location picking is going to be one of the interesting sidelights to this show.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

14 hours ago, RachelKM said:

Question for current residents/frequenters of the City, that is seating/faux grass space where "Help" started real?  I haven't spent time in North Beach in ages and I'm just curious how much the aesthetics of the area have changed.  

There is a parklet on Columbus where they filmed the beginning of the Help scene, but it's very small and in front of Caffe Greco. Most of the parklets in the Bay Area were designed to only take up the area of a few parking spaces. This is from Google Maps and was taken in June 2019.

The parklet seen on the show starts at the corner of Columbus and Green/Stockton (you can see the Barbara sign on the right) and goes past Caffe Greco (it looks like the parklet runs along the entire block on the show). It also takes up an entire lane of traffic. I haven't been to North Beach since around the time that Google Maps picture was taken so it's possible that they expanded the parklet since then and I just haven't seen it, but I think it's more likely that they just did it for the show so that the dancers had more room.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Not seen, but the Fairmont Hotel was mentioned in 1.3!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Not seen but Autumn mentioned going to Rose's Cafe and Alcatraz in 1.5.

At first I was going to ask what kind of person who lives in San Francisco would say, "Let's go ride the cable cars!" Then I remembered that most people who live in SF aren't actually from SF. I've lived here almost 20 years and I can count how many people I know who were actually born and raised in San Francisco. 99% of the people I know who live there moved here after college.

 

[Jeffery Winkler]

During October 2019, I was at UBC, walking to the Nest, when I noticed large physical yellow letters, about three feet tall, set up next to the window, sort of balanced on the ledge next to the grassy hill. At this point, I assumed that they were holding some conference in the Nest. They have conferences about all sorts of things, so this could be a business conference. Then I noticed something odd, which was that the letters were facing inward, so they were backwards from the point of view of someone walking outside. If they were set up to greet conference attendees, why would you position them to be unreadable? It only got more strange after that, because when I got to the other side of the letters, they read "SPQR", which of course was the insignia of the Roman Empire, so why on Earth would someone put them outside the Nest?

 

I was definitely not prepared for the sight that met my eyes when I walked inside. I will try to describe the scene but I can't do it justice. Suffice it to say, there was a ton of new stuff I had never seen before, and it was all weird. There were dozens of large fake potted palm trees. There was dozens of large brightly colored furniture I had never seen before. Their usual tables were shoved together off to the side. There were several large pieces, including a large hexagon shaped thing, of a similar design aesthetic where they were made of a large number of equally spaced thin wooden strips. There were also large piles of audiovisual equipment, with tangled webs of black rubber cables. There was a giant crane with a camera on the end of it, that had been swung over the lower level of the Nest so they could get an ariel shot looking vertically downward. At this point, I assumed they were shooting a movie. This would not be all that surprising. Vancouver is sometimes referred to as "Hollywood North", and many movies I shot here. I have often passed by people shooting a scene. Once I was at Science World, and they had thousands of people making some movie. I asked a girl guarding a pile of equipment what they were making, and she said it was "The Flash". I own a child modeling agency, and I have gotten five different girls speaking parts in ten different movies. I also know that UBC rents out their campus to make extra money. There is some Netflix show about a college for witches which is routinely shot at UBC.

 

Once I was at a photo shoot for one of my models, when her mom bragged to the photographer that her daughter had been in 20 movies and TV shows, leaving out that her daughter does background or works as a photo double, which obviously sounds less impressive. However, some movies avoid paying money to hire background by instead simply using members of the public who just happen to be there. When the Netflix show for witches is shooting at UBC, they put up signs warning you that you may appear in a shot, and you are supposedly consenting by being there. Whatever movie had currently taken over the Nest was also using members of the public instead of hiring background, so if I wanted to, I could have sat on the steps on the lower level of the Nest while they were shooting, but I did not want to be in their movie, so instead, I watched from the upper level, as they were shooting the scene in the lower level.

 

They shot the same scene over and over again. Whatever it was, it was definitely weird. It was a bunch of professionally trained male dancers in business suits and ties, dancing some sort of modern dance using the brightly colored overstuffed chairs they had brought in. They were jumping on top of the chairs, and pushing the chairs around in some intricate choreography. There was music playing in the background. They went through the same thing over and over again, about a dozen times. I watched the guys controlling the large crane with a camera suspended on the end of a long spindly arm jutting out over the lower level. After seeing the same dance sequence a dozen times, it got boring so I went outside. There was a fat guy with a beard guarding a pile of audiovisual equipment. I thought of asking him what movie this was for, but instead I just left.

 

After I got home, I tried to look up on the Internet what was going on at the Nest. I found a website made by a student at UBC which gave snide flippant guesses, but then said that it was for a new NBC TV series called "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist". This was before any trailer or public statement had been released so nobody knew what this TV show was actually about. The one scene we saw being shot was inexplicable. It was hard to imagine what kind of TV show would have a bunch of men in business suits dancing in unison with furniture.

 

As months rolled by, I did start to see ads on television for the new show. Apparently, the lead was being played by some perky redhead. The first episode aired on the day after the Epiphany. I take my Christmas decorations down on the Epiphany, January 6, and the first episode was the day after that. I have a website where I watch American television. I watched the first episode. It was about a woman who is zapped by an MRI scanner so after that, she hears people singing songs that reveal their inner most thoughts. The show is set in San Francisco but I could easily recognize Vancouver throughout the show. A lot of building have this architecture element is nerve jangling colors, where a gray or beige building as an unexpected splotch of orange or some other color, or sometimes several such colors. If you walk east from Canada Place towards Gastown, you pass a skyscraper that has an odd yellow section sticking out of the middle on one side. This is obviously the building they use for the outdoor shots of their fictional software company. There is one scene where you see Zoe running downhill, which was obviously shot in Vancouver. In Vancouver, they have parts of the street painted green. This is supposed to indicate where bicycles go. Also, many places in Vancouver, you see these outdoor lime green circular tables and chairs. You see them outside Triple O's at UBC. You see them outside the bookstore at UBC. On the TV show, they arranged the lime green circular tables on the green section of street where they would not be normally.

 

Every year, during the Christmas season, I go on the "Holiday Karaoke Bus Tour". They have tour buses that are made to look like trolleys. For the Christmas season, they decorate them with Christmas decorations inside, such as hanging up stockings inside the bus. They have a screen set up, showing the lyrics to Christmas songs that the passengers are supposed to sing along. They go to Stanley Park and the Van Dusen Gardens. One of these same trolley buses appeared on the TV show. At one point, Zoe jumps on one of the trolley buses, and hears people singing on the bus. They must have paid a bunch of money to rent that bus. I am used to small independent films shot in this city bus NBC has deep pockets. Also, they must have assumed that the audience would not notice or not care that it was not a real trolley.

 

Despite all this, one scene was obviously shot in San Francisco. At one point, they show Zoe at a giant sculpture of a bow and arrow. This is a sculpture called "Cupid's Span" and is located in the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

 

The pilot aired on January 7, 2020. The second episode aired on February 16, 2020. By that time the 12th season of "Doctor Who" had started on BBC America. It is also on Sunday, and overlaps with "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" so I did not see "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" until after 12th season of "Doctor Who" had ended. It's a British show so they have fewer episodes per season then we have. The second of episode of "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" that I saw was the 5th episode which aired on March 8, 2020.

 

By far, the most stupid thing about the show was the claim that Zoey got a perfect score on the SAT and straight A's. Obviously, the character of Zoey would be the absolute last person on Earth to get a perfect score on the SAT and straight A's. Then the writers claimed that Zoey begged for science toys as a kid, did experiments, blah blah blah. Obvioisly, anyone who "begged for science toys as a kid and did experiments" would never ever "get a perfect score on the SAT and straight A's". Obviously, anyone who "get a perfect score on the SAT and straight A's" never ever "begged for science toys as a kid or did experiments". This is idiotic. This just shows that the writers are clueless idiots.

 

In the show, you see Zoey with her brother overlooking a marina with small boats. That was obviously shot in Vancouver. I think it was shot at Granville Island. At the end of the show, you see her friend and his girlfriend. I think that was shot in San Francisco at the Embarcadero. I don't know where the inside of Zoey's work place is filmed. It is not at the Nest. It is obviously a real building unlike the other indoor shots which appear to have been filmed on a sound stage somewhere. If you look at the background of Zoey's workplace, there are X-shaped yellow brackets on the outside. I do not recognize that as a building in Vancouver.

 

[staphdude]

On 3/9/2020 at 5:31 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Not seen but Autumn mentioned going to Rose's Cafe and Alcatraz in 1.5.

At first I was going to ask what kind of person who lives in San Francisco would say, "Let's go ride the cable cars!" Then I remembered that most people who live in SF aren't actually from SF. I've lived here almost 20 years and I can count how many people I know who were actually born and raised in San Francisco. 99% of the people I know who live there moved here after college.

 

I’ve been gone a while but there is “let’s go ride the cable cars!” ( visitors in town..) vs riding them to commute. They are convenient in certain cases.

[femmefan1946]

On 3/9/2020 at 9:41 PM, Jeffery Winkler said:

By far, the most stupid thing about the show was the claim that Zoey got a perfect score on the SAT and straight A's. Obviously, ... blah blah blah. Obvioisly, ...". Obviously, .... This is idiotic. This just shows that the writers are clueless idiots.

 

A child with a strong interest is science and in doing experiments, later gets straight As in school and a perfect SAT score.

And this is idiotic how?
Noting that her father, mother, brother and SIL are all successful professionals who encouraged her STEM interests.

And that she is not the only worker who had a perfect SAT.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

During Max and Mo's, they mentioned Ella's and Outerlands

It was nice of them to mention real restaurants, but it seemed weird that they would name drop them to Max's dad since he lives in New York.

[dubbel zout]

They couldn't easily get them food from places in NYC, though.