Alabama’s 1992 song “I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why)” figures prominently in the first episode of the new Hulu original series “The Dropout,” illustrating the insatiable drive of its lead character, disgraced former Silicon Valley CEO Elizabeth Holmes (Amanda Seyfried). The tune could just as easily apply to the show’s quick journey to the screen, though, from its 2019 origins as an ABC News podcast helmed by journalist Rebecca Jarvis, who chronicled the sordid true tale in almost real-time as Holmes faced charges after being indicted for fraud the year prior.
Liz Meriwether, of “New Girl” fame, is behind the eight-episode limited series and its fictionalized retelling of the breakneck rise and catastrophic fall of the Stanford dropout who conned her way into becoming the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire via her biotech company, Theranos, and its game-changing blood-testing device. Dubbed “The Edison,” Holmes purported the machine could perform more than 200 medical analyses on a single drop of a patient’s blood, thereby promising to revolutionize the medical industry. The only problem? The apparatus didn’t actually work. Holmes and her partner/boyfriend, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (Naveen Andrews), were eventually arrested for perpetrating the scam and defrauding Theranos investors out of millions of dollars. While the latter’s trial is just getting underway, Elizabeth’s ended in late 2021. The discredited CEO was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy and is currently awaiting sentencing.
“The Dropout,” which airs each Thursday through April 7, is a largely truthful account of the stranger-than-fiction story, though the show’s locations are proving just as conniving as Holmes herself! Set in such far-flung locales as Beijing, Houston and San Francisco, the series was filmed in its entirety in the Los Angeles area, with the production team pulling the wool over audiences’ eyes by pegging such spots as The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens in San Marino to pose as mainland China and UCLA in Westwood to portray Stanford University.
A famous Glendale pad was even selected to stand in for a Bay Area-area property on the show. Known as the Schaffer Residence in real life, the mid-century showpiece was designed by master architect John Lautner and is largely considered one of his finest works.
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Image Credit: Crosby Doe Said to be located in Silicon Valley on “The Dropout,” the streamlined one-story dwelling can actually be found nestled in a thick grove of oak trees tucked against the picturesque Verdugo Mountains at 527 Whiting Woods Rd. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
The abode was commissioned in 1949 by J.W. Schaffer, who, according to a Department of Parks and Recreation report, purchased the heavily wooded quarter-acre lot where it now stands as it was his family’s favorite picnicking spot. As such, Lautner designed the pad to showcase the mature oaks under which the Schaffers had long enjoyed dining.
A masterpiece of redwood, glass, brick and concrete, the Los Angeles Conservancy describes the house as having the feel of “a newly pitched tent or a wood cabin that provides shelter and privacy without boxing out nature.” Indeed, although the place boasts a modest two bedrooms and two baths, thanks to its glass walls, many of which pivot open to the leafy yard, it seems leagues larger than its 1,698 square feet.
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Image Credit: Crosby Doe The extraordinary living spaces include a dining room with sloped glass walls, a den and a living room with a floor-to-ceiling dual-sided brick fireplace. Exquisite mid-century detailing like polished concrete flooring, shed roofing and open slat wood walls abound throughout.
One of the architect’s earliest works, the abode is so iconic that, per The John Lautner Foundation, Frank Gehry and Frank Escher, two of his most esteemed contemporaries, are said to regard it “among their absolute favorite homes.”
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Image Credit: Crosby Doe The Schaffer Residence, which is included on the National Register of Historic Places, was last offered for sale in 2008 for $1.96 million. While undeniably a “world-class architectural treasure,” as described in the listing, the pad languished on the market for over four years before finally changing hands in late 2012 for $1,395,000. Curbed LA reckons that the home’s “very suburban and somewhat remote” setting initially discouraged buyers, but selling agent Crosby Doe contends that the smaller square footage likely had something to do with it. The limited sizing does have its tradeoffs, though. As Doe told Curbed, “It’s a place where the seasons will give you something every day, from sunrise to sunset, light changes, it has a completely unique effect on your psyche. But you do have to make a few compromises to live in it, and I think minimalism is one of them.”
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Image Credit: Crosby Doe Prior to the 2008 listing, the Park McDonald architectural firm was hired to restore the property to its original glory and bring its technological elements up to date, thereby creating a sanctuary of modern and retro living. Of the extensive reno, Doe details, “Indoors and outdoors, the entire house was stripped and refinished, cabinetry was completely rebuilt, the appliances were redone. Electronics for computers and WiFi and all of that were put into the house, the house was wired for sound, there are speakers remotely controlled in every room. It was just brought up to, I guess for entertainment standards, twenty-first-century amenities.” The result is a pristinely preserved, yet tastefully updated piece of architectural wonder.
Interestingly, the home was once owned by actor Michael O’Keefe, who is most famous for playing Danny Noonan in the 1980 classic “Caddyshack, but who also had a role in the 2021 horror film “Things Heard & Seen,” which, coincidentally, starred Seyfried.
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Image Credit: Google On “The Dropout,” the Schaffer Residence belongs to Stanford professor/Theranos board member Channing Robertson (Bill Irwin). It is there that the company’s kind-hearted chief scientist, Ian Gibbons (Stephen Fry), heads in episode four, “Old White Men,” to discuss his misgivings over Holmes’ plan to install the non-working Edison devices in Walgreens stores.
The property proved a natural fit for the series thanks to its wooded backdrop, which gives its a very Menlo Park vibe.
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Image Credit: Crosby Doe Though its appearance is brief, both the interior and exterior of the dwelling are quite memorably featured in the episode, with the striking architecture genuinely stealing the show.
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Image Credit: The Weinstein Company In fashion designer Tom Ford’s 2009 directorial debut, “A Single Man,” the Schaffer Residence once again plays the home of a college professor, this time belonging to English transplant George Falconer (Colin Firth). Of selecting the property for the shoot, Ford told Filmmaker Magazine, “I knew that I wanted him to have a modern house. He says what he likes about America is that this is a country in which you can create your future. So I feel that he would have wanted a piece of modern architecture. But since he came from England, grew up in darkness with wood-paneled rooms with a fire and scotch, I felt that he wouldn’t have wanted a cold, glass-and-steel modern house. Selecting his house was tricky; I wanted something dark and covered in wood, but also modern. The house I found was an early [John] Lautner house in Glendale . . . And it is a great house. We shot everything in the same room. It is not nearly as big as it looks. The rooms are minuscule, so we just redesigned the rooms in different incarnations and moved the walls and shot everything in the same room.”
The residence was featured prominently in the drama, serving as its central location.
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Image Credit: Lionsgate Charley Peppitone (Steve Coogan) and Gil Palmer (David Sutcliffe) also call the Schaffer Residence home in Don Roos’ 2005 dramedy “Happy Endings.”