For most, the idea of serving as a juror conjures up a cluster of bad feelings, potential excuses and overall dread. But Freevee’s new show “Jury Duty” is a welcome departure from such sentiments. Crafted from the minds of comedy stalwarts Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, the hilarious mockuseries, which centers around a fabricated civil trial, is part “The Office,” part “Borat,” part “The Truman Show.” As the title cards at the beginning of each episode explain, “The following series explores the American judicial process as seen through the eyes of a jury. During a normal trial, jurors are forbidden from discussing the case. But this is not a normal trial. It’s fake. Everyone involved is an actor. Except for one person . . . ” That person is Ronald Gladden, an overwhelmingly affable 30-year-old San Diego contractor who fell into his T.V. gig via a Craig’s List ad seeking participants for a court documentary.
Of the unique premise, executive producer Todd Schulman tells Collider, “‘ Jury Duty’ originated with a question: Was it possible to make a sitcom like ‘The Office’ about a trial, populate it with brilliant comedic performers, and put a real person at the center of the show who doesn’t realize he’s surrounded by actors? We honestly had no idea but when we pitched it to Freevee we pretended like it was a sure thing. Thank God, we pulled it off.” Considering the massive fanfare and accolades the show has garnered since its debut last week, “pull it off” is an understatement. “Jury Duty” truly knocks it out of the park!
Shot in Los Angeles over 17 days in 2022, most of the series’ action occurs at Huntington Park’s former Superior Courthouse, a handsome Spanish-style building with a bell tower and stuccoed arcade at 6548 Miles Ave. that has been shuttered since 2013 and used in recent years as a haunted house attraction. As such, the production team had their work cut out for them getting the place camera-ready. Executive producer Cody Heller details to USA Today, “There was no electricity. There were just spider webs and fake zombies. Our crew went in there to rehab the entire thing. Within weeks it was a functioning courthouse again.”
During the faux trial, Gladden and his fellow jurors also visit a warehouse at 1617-1619 E. Adams Blvd. in L.A.’s Nevin neighborhood, grab a meal at Universal CityWalk’s Margaritaville restaurant and are forced into sequestration at one of Los Angeles’ most historic hotels. Though referred to onscreen as “The Valley Lodge,” the group actually checks into the fabled Sportsmen’s Lodge at 12825 Ventura Blvd. in Studio City.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt A true San Fernando Valley icon, the hotel started life as a rustic fishing destination for locals back in the 1880s. While its history is somewhat murky in the years following, per a City of Los Angeles report, by 1938, the site was known as the Trout Lakes & Lodge and consisted of a collection of “naturally-fed man-made lakes,” as well as a bait and tackle store. A small restaurant with a bar and seating for 50 was added to the premises in 1941, but the property did not become the famed Sportsmen’s Lodge until five years later when Ben B. Bross, M.L. Milcovich and Carl H. Warnack stepped in and revamped it into a fine-dining establishment helmed by German chef Karl Stockl.
Outfitted with “trout-filled lakes, rustic bridges, stately groves and waterfalls,” the Valley Times heralded the eatery as offering “the finest of European cuisine in a quaint Old English atmosphere.”
Complementing the refined menu, guests were also invited to provide their own surf and turf, with the Historic-Cultural Monument report stating, “In keeping with the ‘Sportsmen’s Lodge’ theme, patrons could ‘catch their dinner’ in the trout ponds and have it served to them in the restaurant. Local hunters regularly brought their game to the chef and he would gladly prepare it for gracious presentation.”
Sportsmen’s Lodge was a success from the get-go, with local papers fervently reporting on the comings and goings of the many A-listers who frequented it, including Mickey Rooney, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Clark Gable, Doris Day, Spencer Tracy and Bud Abbott.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt The restaurant was expanded several times over the years as it continued to grow in popularity. As part of the development of the eight-acre site, the lakes dotting the property were eventually phased out, though a series of picturesque ponds and waterways were left intact. Shrouded by mature oaks and towering pines, the eatery provided a unique pastoral setting in the midst of the bustling city being built up around it.
In 1962, a five-story, 190-room inn was added to the premises. Completed at a cost of $2.5 million (about $25 million today), the Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel offered “the finest conveniences and guest services of any of its size in the Southern California area,” according to the Valley Times.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Throughout the decades, the venue remained one of the San Fernando Valley’s most popular spots for weddings, parties and fundraisers, with the restaurant eventually transitioning into a special events/banquet center with its own lobby (pictured above), multiple ballrooms, meeting spaces, outdoor gardens, two eateries and a capacity for up to 2,200 revelers.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Long beloved for its rustic appeal, Sportsmen’s Lodge nonetheless underwent a massive renovation in 2014, with Susan White of Whitespeed and Rocco Laudizio of Slick + Design replacing its familiar cozy vibe with one favoring a midcentury aesthetic, complete with bright orange accents, a streamlined entrance portico and a bright open lobby. While The Hollywood Reporter decried the revamp as “feeling a wee bit dated,” most considered the antiquated look a significant part of the hotel’s charm.
Incredibly, just one year later, then-owner Richard Weintraub shocked locals by announcing plans to demolish the events center portion of the property to make way for a massive 94,000-square-foot shopping center. Despite some initial pushback, with preservationists hoping to have the site declared a historical landmark, the project was ultimately green-lit. The celebrated venue was demolished in September 2019, thereby marking the end of an era. The reimagined site, now known as the Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge, opened to the public in December 2021.
And now, Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel, which has been shuttered since the early days of the pandemic, is facing the same fate. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Midwood Investment & Development is gearing up to raze the property to make way for a new $500 million, 520-unit housing complex dubbed the Residences at Sportsmen’s Lodge. While the publication notes that the company could potentially reopen the hotel during the lengthy approvals process, that has not come to pass, and the once buzzing site currently stands quiet and vacant.
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Image Credit: Amazon Freevee -
Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Despite its location over 20 miles north and a good hour’s drive from the Huntington Park courthouse, the closure made the lodging an ideal and thoroughly convenient spot to film “Jury Duty,” allowing the production team to take over the entire premises for the duration of the shoot.
It is at the hotel that half of the show’s jurors, including Gladden, are sequestered throughout the two-week trial, beginning in episode two, titled “Opening Arguments.”
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Image Credit: Amazon Freevee The series makes copious use of the property, capturing scenes outside the hotel, in the lobby and in several rooms, including Room 637, where Ronald checks in and later helps fellow juror James Marsden (playing a heightened version of himself) prepare for an upcoming audition in episode five, “Ineffective Assistance.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures “Jury Duty” is hardly the hotel’s only claim to fame. In fact, Sportsmen’s Lodge has been featured so frequently onscreen, it would be impossible to chronicle its many appearances in a single article. But a few highlights include the 2002 Britney Spears vehicle “Crossroads,” in which the pop star’s character, high schooler Lucy Wagner, attends her senior prom in the events center.
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Image Credit: ABC Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) briefly moves into the hotel with her three children upon leaving her husband in the season two episode of “Desperate Housewives” titled “Remember.”
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Image Credit: ABC Doctors J.D. Dorian (Zach Braff) and Dr. Christopher Turk (Donald Faison) head to a surgical conference there in the season six episode of “Scrubs” titled “My Conventional Wisdom.”
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Image Credit: NBC The events center appears as the interior of Niagara Falls’ Red Coach Inn, where the Dunder Mifflin gang checks in for Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert’s (John Krasinksi) wedding in the season six episodes of “The Office” titled “Niagara: Part 1” and “Niagara: Part 2.”
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Image Credit: CBS Julie Finlay (Elisabeth Shue), Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) and Morgan Brody (Elisabeth Harnois) visit the hotel for a forensics conference in the season 15 episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” titled “Girls Gone Wilder.” To sell the place as a Sin City location, digital imagery of the Las Vegas Strip was superimposed behind the Lodge during post-production.
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Image Credit: ABC The Pritchetts attend a family wedding on the premises in the season eight episode of “Modern Family” titled “Sarge & Pea.”
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Image Credit: Netflix And Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) hang out by the Sportsmen’s Lodge pool while at a grief retreat in the season one episode of “Dead to Me” titled “I’ve Gotta Get Away.”
Those lamenting the hotel’s upcoming demolition can at least take comfort in the fact that its charming architecture has been preserved for the ages via both the big and small screens.