For years, Brian Koppel has traveled the country finding his favorite film locations and TV locations. This week, the founder of Reel2RealLocations is my guest on the Reel Travels podcast. Brian’s website includes stories and photos about his travels to film locations from Halloween, Fresh Prince, WKRP, Friday the 13th and more. On this episode of Reel Travels, Brian shares how he got started in his travels and gives tips on how you can too. It’s a ton of great information and a great interview!
Here are some excerpts from the podcast.
Lisa: So what have I been watching? On Hulu, I caught the movie Palm Springs, which stars Adam Sandberg and Cristin Milioti. I gave it a solid 8/10. It’s funny. It’s weird, but definitely a good hour and a half of your time. So Adam and Kristin find themselves trapped in a time loop at a wedding and when Kristen’s character finds out about it, she wants out. Side note that Kristen was in a movie in 2015 called It Had to Be You, a smaller, independent film that I saw at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2015. It became my favorite movie of the festival. It’s hilarious. I found out that it’s on Amazon Prime videos.
So a couple of weeks ago on Reel Travels, I introduced you to Missy Kay who I met in a Facebook group, and she talked about her incredible adventures on the show. Today, I’m introducing you to Brian Koppell, who I met on Instagram. Brian calls himself a film location junkie. I love that title. And he runs his blog, which is called Reel2reellocations. Brian, welcome to the show. How did you come up with the title?
Brian: I studied TV production in college, and back then they were still doing the reel to reel. You know, audio and video editing. So that’s how I came up with that title. It’s kind of old school.
Lisa: What was it about the older shows from the 70s and 80s that got you hooked into getting to see these film locations? .
Brian: As a kid, there was so much good stuff on TV back in the 80s that is now being rebooted even today. So, you know, I just was always watching movies and TV shows. As I got older, I was curious as to where some of these places were. And back when I was in college, I spent a semester in LA. And that was the very first time that I actually visited director John Carpenter’s house, the director of Halloween, which is my all-time favorite movie. So I went out to South Pasadena one day to find his house and Jamie Curtis’s house and ever since I’ve been trying to track these houses and schools and everything.
Lisa: How did you find these houses and locations?
Brian: It wasn’t until actually 2003, which was the 25th anniversary for Halloween and I knew the convention in Pasadena. And I’ve always been curious about the hospital and they happen to mention it during one of their panel discussions, so I drove out right after the convention was over to visit it. And then that kind of jump-started the whole like, okay, let’s see where the Brady Bunch house is, let’s see where the Happy Days house is. At that point, you know, there’s a little bit more information out there on the Internet.
I moved out there permanently after I graduated from college. I just got in the car one day, and took off.
Lisa: Now when you find one of these film locations and you find that house or you see that building, as a fan, what do you feel like when you get there?
Brian: Yes, I totally play the soundtrack or the theme song as I’m pulling up. And, you know, you just kind of like escape real life for a minute.
If you want to listen to the entire episode, click here.
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