When considering the history of the many filming locations throughout Los Angeles, we often think of neighborhoods like Hollywood, Burbank or Culver City — all of which have appeared in too many productions to count over the years. A lesser-known neighborhood, however, has provided the suburban backdrop for an even greater number of productions going all the way back to the early days of the movie industry.

Cheviot Hills, a tiny suburb in West Los Angeles remains unknown even to many Angelenos, likely owing to its small size and peculiar name. Despite its semi-obscure nature when compared to neighboring Century City and Santa Monica, the neighborhood’s history is inextricably tied to the rise of West Los Angeles’ major studios, and to this day it remains the most oft-used suburb for major films and television series that are being shot “in town”.

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A Refuge for Stars and Film Crews Alike

Not only is it likely the most-filmed suburban locale on the planet, it has been the real-life home for many of the best and brightest stars in show business, from Lucille Ball to Josh Gad to Jonah Hill. The tony enclave’s wide variety of houses, businesses and parks were not only built in large part for families working in the nearby studios, but have themselves been featured in countless movies and shows.

Founded in 1924, Cheviot Hills was developed shortly after Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios (present-day Sony Pictures Studios) began to take form about a mile down Motor Avenue in Culver City. Within a decade, construction began on 20th Century Studios (the present-day Fox lot) directly North of the neighborhood on Pico Boulevard, creating further demand for housing development in Cheviot Hills.

The neighborhood was essentially developed to house studio workers, stars and starlets in proximity to the nearby back lots, and as the demand for natural locations increased with the advent of television, the neighborhood itself became a back lot of sorts. The tudor homes, Spanish bungalows and craftsman houses provided a variety of options for filmmakers to use for the establishing shots and street scenes that studio back lots could not provide, and from that point forward became omnipresent on screens big and small across America.

It’s the Location of Many Beloved Sitcoms

     20th Television

Cheviot Hills’ heavy onscreen presence, especially in television, has not ceased to this day. Walk a few blocks through the heart of the neighborhood down Dunleer Drive, and you’ll pass Clair and Phil Dunphy’s house from Modern Family, Beverly and Murray Goldberg’s residence from The Goldbergs and some spookier homes used for multiple episodes of American Horror Stories.

Many of the homes are easily cheated for other cities, including houses that masquerade as New York’s outer boroughs for The King of Queens and Denver, Colorado for the legendary soap opera Dynasty. Nearby, one can also find houses used in many shows from the 60s ad 70s— everything from The Flying Nun and Charlie’s Angels to the original Batman series and Nanny and the Professor.

Another neighborhood feature heavily utilized is the sprawling Cheviot Hills Recreation Center, best known for when it was cheated as Central Park in the Seinfeld episode “The Understudy.” The park’s adjacent Rancho Park Golf Course has long been a playground for actors and crew members working nearby, and has been featured in many shows over the years, including the more recent Feud: Bette and Joan.

Local Businesses Often Found Onscreen

     Netflix

Local businesses up and down Pico Boulevard have also served as familiar natural locations. Head West down Pico from the golf course, and you’ll pass John O’Groats, a breakfast joint where many real-life Hollywood power-brokers meet over biscuits and pancakes, and recognizable from “The Benadryl Brownie” episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld also dined there in a particularly hilarious episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Head further down the neighborhood’s main thoroughfare, and you’ll wind up at the Apple Pan, Los Angeles’ most beloved burger joint that doubled as the original Peach Pit from Beverly Hills: 90210.

Other local businesses have also featured heavily on the Silver Screen, most notably the Westside Pavilion Mall, where Cher Horowitz goes to find sanctuary in Clueless. The mall has also played host to scenes from Christmas With the Kranks and Tower Heist, and Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” video which was on constant rotation on MTV after its 1989 premiere.

Big Stars That Lived Here

     Sony Pictures

Cheviot Hills’ real-life residents have had all the star power of its many tv shows and films. Comic luminaries Stan Laurel, Jack Paar and Buster Keaton all called the neighborhood home, and Lucille Ball’s house, a quirky Cape Cod on Patricia Avenue, still stands and is currently occupied by punk rock icon Glenn Danzig. Josh Gad is a current resident as well, and Ty Burrell is possibly the only actor to have both his real-life and tv character’s home in the quaint neighborhood.

Many A-listers spent their formative years in Cheviot Hills, as well. Jonah Hill grew up on Motor Avenue, and the neighborhood’s district public school, Alexander Hamilton High School, was attended by Rita Hayworth, Lizzy Caplan, Brian Austin Green and Emile Hirsch, to name a few.

A Hideaway for Jewish Comedians

     Paramount

The neighborhood’s other country club, Hillcrest, has a storied history as well, that in many ways mirrors the integration of Hollywood Jews into upper echelons of Los Angeles society. Jews were not allowed at Los Angeles’ fanciest country clubs for many years, leading to the founding of Hillcrest as a safe haven for Jewish Hollywood moguls and stars alike.

Studio bosses like Louis B. Mayer and the Warner brothers were original members of the club, and in the 1940s Hillcrest attracted many of Hollywood’s most famous Jewish comics like Milton Berle, George Burns, Jack Benny and the Marx brothers. Groucho Marx defied his own famous rule that he wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that would have him, and was for years Hillcrest’s most famous court jester. There was even a famous Hillcrest Comedians Round Table event wherein the day’s greatest comics would gather at the club to toast and roast one another.

While there are other locations more famous and easily recognized around Los Angeles, Cheviot Hills has left a lasting imprint on the history of television and cinema since the dawn of showbusiness.