Filming Locations

The scenes in and around Lane’s home were all filmed at 1636 Virginia Avenue in Glendale, California. This is a corner lot with a circular driveway in the Glenwood neighborhood. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice sandbags stacked inside the dining room to minimize damage from the explosion when Mrs. Smith lights up a cigarette. Gee, I’m real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.

Directly across the street from the Myer house, fans will find the residence that was used for the Smith home: 1633 Virginia Avenue. This house was built in 1926 in a Mediterranean style with a terracotta-clay tile roof. To be respectful of the current owners, please refrain from throwing lemons in the front yard.

The high school exterior shot that appears immediately before Lane’s math class was filmed at Verdugo Hills High School, 10625 Plainview Avenue in Tujunga, California. Watch the 1978 movie Corvette Summer to see many other views of this high school, along with an almost identical establishing shot appearing at 1:38:06.

Clark Magnet High School at 4747 New York Avenue in La Crescenta, California provided all the environments for Lane’s math class, the cafeteria, the dance, and Lane meeting Monique on the steps outside. The scene where Beth rolls past Lane while riding in the math teacher’s car, plus the scene where Lane parks his station wagon and releases some ducks were filmed here as well. In addition to Better Off Dead (1985), the film Return to Horror High (1987) was filmed at Clark Magnet High School. In the scene with Principal Kastleman from around 19:00 to 23:00, viewers return to the same room where Lane’s math class was filmed a few years earlier.

Many of the crowd scenes around the base of the ski area were filmed at Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah. These include the ski tryouts, Lane and Roy crossing the finish line, and the ski-pole duel between Lane and Ricky. Snowbird’s “Mid-Gad” ski lift is visible in some of these scenes, and it’s still there today.

As Lane drives from place to place in Better Off Dead, he stops his car for a red light exactly four times. And every time, the Cosell Brothers are there, eager to race him in their orange Ford Falcon. These racing scenes were all filmed in Sierra Madre, California, in the area that surrounds the intersection of North Baldwin Avenue and East Highland Avenue. In the 1st, 3rd, and 4th races, the cars are traveling north on Baldwin Avenue. In the 2nd race, the cars are pointing south on that street.

The grocery store where Charles De Mar complains that he can’t get real drugs was filmed inside Dan’s Market in the Olympus Hills Shopping Center at 3981 S Wasatch Boulevard in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dan’s Market is gone now, but a different grocery store still operates in this location. The cans of whipped cream are in the back, near the milk.

The flashback scene where Lane meets Beth for the first time was filmed at the Malibou Lake Mountain Club, 29033 Lake Vista Drive in Agoura Hills, California. Johnny the paperboy and his evil gang also chased Lane through an eerie fog at this location.

They say that breaking up is hard to do. And after hearing one too many break-up songs, Lane tosses the car radio out of his station wagon at 169 North Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre, California.

The only location where Lane contemplates suicide while outdoors was filmed on the South Avenue 60 Bridge in Los Angeles. This bridge has multiple arches and a distinctive concrete railing as it passes over six lanes of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, a bike path, a river channel, and a smaller road named Via Marisol. In the movie, the stuntman playing Lane falls into a trash truck traveling southwest along Via Marisol, approaching Hermon Park. This section of road is now closed to vehicle traffic, making it easier for fans to make a pilgrimage to this site.

The summit and the first big drop of the K-12 were filmed in Snowbird, Utah. The real name for that run is the “Great Scott” and it’s on the frontside at Snowbird Ski Resort. You make a gnarly run like that, and girls will get sterile just looking at you.

Okay, pal. Let’s get something straight. The scene where Joanne Greenwald cut her blind date short with Lane was filmed at 901 West Kensington Road in Los Angeles, California.

The Pig Burgers scenes were filmed at 6223 Lankershim Boulevard – a North Hollywood restaurant that did business for a time as Sandy’s Char Burger. In recent years, this building has been vacant. Anyone who opens up a new restaurant on this site should remember: You gotta have pride and class in this business.

During the 3rd car race, a group of five nuns crosses the street in front of Bethany Church, located at 93 North Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre, California. Nuns can run pretty fast, even when they’re carrying a 1980’s ghetto-blaster.

This stunt was performed in Sierra Madre, on the west side of the street at 93 North Baldwin Avenue, halfway between the two church buildings.

Lane exchanges a broken ski for a new one inside a ski / spa / pool business that was operated at 1303 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank. The Whiskey Bend Bar did business next door at the 1221 address. Johnny the paperboy’s ambush from atop the station wagon began in the parking lot between those two buildings. Lane’s near-misses with a dumpster-diving bum and some dock workers were also filmed here, in the rear parking lots along Scott Road.

With Johnny the paperboy clinging to the roof of his station wagon, Lane speeds east on Amherst Drive in Burbank. He then makes a hard left at the intersection with North San Fernando Boulevard, which nearly causes several cars to crash. The War Memorial at McCambridge Park can be seen in this shot.

Still trying to escape from Johnny the paperboy, Lane drives his station wagon into an automatic car wash at the In-N-Out Service Center, 1420 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank. This defeats Johnny, at least temporarily, and the station wagon is sparkling clean in the next scene.

Hellgate Cliffs is a rock-climbing area near Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah. Known for its limestone formations and climbing routes of up to 500 feet, it’s also the location where Johnny the paperboy takes a major fall.

The shot of Lane and Monique driving away from the ski area was filmed at Big Bear Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. Donald Haflich, a Transportation Captain on the film, drove the Camaro in that shot. He said that he nearly crashed into a bus filled with skiers as he continued driving beyond the camera’s view.

Countless TV and movie scenes have been filmed inside Dodger Stadium, but only one has a shot from a helicopter featuring two young lovers, a saxophone, a black Camaro, and an evil paperboy on a BMX bike.