Better Off Dead Locations

Locations Manager(s): Huw Davies

Better Off Dead Filming Locations:

Here is a screen shot for 1636 Virginia Avenue, the exterior of the Meyers' home. Street view on Google Maps is not available for this address. [Thanks to Mountain Mike]

The French foreign exchange student lived in the house across the street at 1633 Virginia Avenue. This is at the top of Virginia Avenue near Cumberland Road. [Thanks to Steve Taylor]

Lane's High School is the Hollywood High School, 1521 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA

Pig Burgers was filmed at the former Sandy's Char Burger at 6223 Lankershim Blvd. Sadly now closed and shuttered, today the vacant property's parking lot is being used for car sales, despite the burger signage still in place!

The school dance sequence (exterior) was filmed at Clark Junior High School, which is now called Clark Magnet High School, located at 4747 New York Ave., La Crescenta, CA 91214. [Thanks to Bill Cook]

The street with the mountains in the background where Lane is consistently harassed by the two Howard Cosell-voiced Asian brothers in their car, is located near the foothills of an L.A. suburb called Monrovia, right next to Pasadena. An even smaller suburb known as Duarte may also have been used.

The scene where Lane is drag racing the Asians with Monique and ends up in the mud puddle is heading North on Baldwin Avenue in the city of Sierra Madre. It's odd that they would drag race up hill, but that's how you can view it on Google maps. The nuns are crossing the street from the right at Bethany Christian and up the tree on the right is St Ritas Catholic church. This all takes place north of Sierra Madre Blvd. Where if you look closely you can see the movie truck rigs parked to the south of Baldwin on Sierra Madre Blvd intersection. [Thanks to Dave]

The high school in the film was mostly shot at Hollywood High, Hollywood, CA. However, some extraneous shots were executed both at a Thousand Oaks Jr. High and some fifty miles away from there in San Bernadino County in the city of Upland (i.e. the scenes where you can see the snow-capped mountains in the background).

Verdugo Hills High School, 10625 Plainview Ave, Tujunga, CA also claims that they were used for exterior shots, with one particularly great shot of the senior lawn and campus tower early on. Can anyone confirm the actual situation?

And, of corse, "Dod-gey Sta-di-oom" (home of the Brooklyn Dodgers) was portrayed in the film by Dodger Stadium. [Thanks to Haji for these locations]

Alta, Brighton and Snowbird Ski resorts near Salt Lake City, Utah were used for skiing action scenes. Also, the scene where Lane and Charles DuMar are in line at the grocery store was filmed at Dan's Foods at 3900 S. Wasatch Drive in Holladay, Utah. [Thanks to Jerry]

The "Mid Gad" lift in the background of the ski pole duel at the end of the film is located at the Snowbird ski resort in Utah, just a few miles west of Alta [Thanks to Steve]

The Camero exits the ski resort at Big Bear ski resort in California.

The part when the news boy wants his two dollars and he gets cleaned off the roof, was filmed in Burbank at "In-N-Out Service Ctr", 1420 N San Fernando Blvd. [Thanks to Michael Biggs]

The scene where Lane jumps off the bridge and lands in a garbage truck was filmed in the area of the 110 Fwy in between Atwater and Downtown LA. [Thanks to Gary Coleman]

The scene where Lane Meyer gets sick of hearing breakup songs and throws his radio out of the car starts southbound at 169 N Baldwin in Sierra Madre. If you watch closely enough, you can see the address on the curb near the beginning of the scene. Curb addresses ordinarily have only the number but for some reason (and thankfully) the entire address was there. Perhaps whoever lived there knew in advance that a movie was going to be filmed in front of his house. [Thanks to "Mountain Mike" Johansen]

The lake scene and the fogged out scene with all the crazy paperboys was filmed at Malbou Lake in Agoura, California. [Thanks to Dan]

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