August 2025 — New Filming Location Photos Posted
On location with Fred Dryer’s hit 1980s TV series Hunter, exploring filming locations in Culver City and Los Angeles this month. And the Laurel and Hardy movie Liberty, filmed just a block away 57 years earlier.
Hunter (TV Series) — Scrap Metal (1986)
The episode Scrap Metal from the TV series Hunter in 1986 filmed on location at several locations in Culver City, California. Culver City was a popular filming location for the series. Many episodes featured an establishing shot of the exterior of the old City Hall building to indicate to viewers that this was where their police headquarters was located.
This scene, early in the episode, was filmed in front of 8564 Washington Blvd (built in 1926) about a mile from the downtown core. All the buildings seen in this scene from the episode are still standing, with just a few minor alterations.
Hunter’s partner McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) goes undercover on the rough streets of Hollywood. This scene was filmed at the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Avenue.
The Hollywood First National Bank building stands prominently in the background. Built in 1928, this building has appeared in many films over the years.
The Culver Hotel at 9400 Culver Blvd in Culver City, California, has appeared in dozens (and dozens) of movies and TV episodes since it was built in 1923/24. In fact, several films on this site show the hotel under construction!
The hotel is perhaps most famous as the place where the actors portraying The Munchkins in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz stayed during filming. This chapter of the hotel’s history is explored in the 1981 movie Under The Rainbow.
At the time this episode of Hunter was filmed, the hotel’s glory days had long passed and the building had been converted to small, cheap apartments with no doubt some dubious tenants! Thanks to a multi-million dollar restoration completed in 2014, the hotel is in great shape and a very popular place. If you’re in the area, make it a point to stop in for cocktails and a meal.
Get Chris Bungo Studios’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
More on the history of The Culver Hotel here.
This episode of Hunter gives us a rare look INSIDE the entrance lobby to the building.
Right across Main Street from The Culver Hotel sat The Adams Hotel, a building which also has appeared in numerous movies and TV episodes, from early Our Gang / The Little Rascals films and Laurel and Hardy movies, to episodes of Charlie’s Angels and Starsky & Hutch.
The entire block where the Adams Hotel used to stand had been totally cleared by the mid 1990s and sat as a surface parking lot for nearly two decades until the massive Culver Steps development was built.
Today, the section of Main Street seen in the photo from the episode above no longer exists as it’s been converted into a pedestrian mall, with a huge multi-level parking garage underneath it.
The building seen in the background is the administration building of The Culver Studios. Dating back to 1918, this movie studio was built before Culver City even existed! More on the history of The Culver Studios here.
If you have donated to the site and are a current member, you can see all the filming locations, then and now, from this episode in the TV Series Filming Locations Photo Galleries by clicking here. The complete filming locations documentary video for this film is in the TV Series Filming Locations Videos section of the site. You can view the video by clicking here and scrolling down the page a bit.
To see all the complete film locations documentary videos and photo galleries on the Chris Bungo Studios website, click here to donate now. Thank you!
Laurel and Hardy — Liberty (1929)
Located at the site of the previously mentioned Adams Hotel, Laurel and Hardy filmed scenes from their movie Liberty in 1929 here on location. This is the 9300 block of Culver Blvd.
In the first photo (from the movie) that’s the Adams Hotel on the right. The second photo was taken in 2016 and shows the entire 9300 block having been demolished with the surface parking lot now in its place, while the third photo shows the Culver Steps development that now occupies the site.
If you have made a small donation to the site and are a current member, you can see all the then and now photos from this film in the Laurel and Hardy Movie Locations Photo Galleries section of the website by clicking here.
To gain access to the then and now photo gallery for this Laurel and Hardy movie, along with the complete filming locations then and now documentary video and all of the complete film locations documentary videos and photo galleries on the site, click here to donate now. Thank you!
