Golden Oak Ranch

History

Walt Disney Productions first leased the land for the Mickey Mouse Club "Adventures of Spin & Marty" segments in the 1950s. The company bought the 315 acre ranch in 1959 for $300,000 (~$ in ). Subsequent purchases of adjacent land increased the area of the ranch to 890 acre.

A business district set and residential street set were built on the ranch by 2012. The district set has 42 stores, while the residential set has 23 houses all with separate architectural style.

In May 2013, Disney announced plans to redevelop 58 acre of the property into a new film and television production studio, consisting of six new sound stages and production offices. The site will be called Disney | ABC Studios at The Ranch.

The project was approved by Los Angeles County in August 2013.

In October 2017, a second extension for the new studio's construction permit was granted, extending the permit to January 2019.

Productions

The ranch was used to film the episodes of Spin and Marty, a popular segment of The Mickey Mouse Club and parts of Zorro. The first movie shot at the ranch was Toby Tyler. Most of the exterior scenes in Old Yeller were filmed here. The Bolton Estate scenes and several others from Disney's The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit was shot here. The town featured in Roots: The Next Generations was also built on the Golden Oak Ranch. Other films and television shows that were shot on this location include:

• The Apple Dumpling Gang
• Mame
• The Muppets
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• Pete's Dragon
• Behind the Candelabra
• Treasure of Matecumbe
• The Cat from Outer Space
• The Muppet Movie
• The A-Team
• The Electric Horseman
• Little House on the Prairie
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Fire Down Below (1997 film)
• Joe Dirt
• Parks and Recreation
• The Majestic
• Desperate Housewives (season 8, episode 6)
• Role Models
• Holes
• Camp Nowhere
• The Country Bears
• Westworld (TV show)
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• The Office
• Ten Days in the Valley

The ranch has also been used for filming Colonel Sanders commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the music video for Jordin Sparks' song, Battlefield. A covered bridge spans the man-made stream featured in Follow Me, Boys!, episodes of Bonanza, The Greatest American Hero, various episode of multiple Star Trek series and was used for parts of the music video of Amaranth by Nightwish. The exterior house featured in the original 1961 film The Parent Trap was also shot on the ranch, as was the Peabody farm from the Universal film Back to the Future. It was also used for the filming of three of the five Herbie films, including two scenes at the lake in The Love Bug and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, along with Alonzo Hawk's dream sequence in Herbie Rides Again. In 1985, Big Top Pee-wee was filmed here and part of Short Circuit was filmed here as well. According to Phil Abraham, parts of "The Hobo Code" (a first-season episode of Mad Men) were filmed here (specifically, the scenes of Don Draper's childhood). The rural farmhouse set on the ranch (known as "Olivia's House") played the part of Margaret Sterling's hippie commune in the fourth episode of Season 7 of Mad Men. It is also the setting of Dwight Schrute's farm on several episodes of The Office, and has also been used for the exterior downtown scenes of WandaVision. The official video of *Ed Sheeran'''s song *Overpass Graffiti'' was filmed there. The music video for HelloGoodbye's song "Here (In Your Arms)" was also filmed there.

References

Bibliography

References

1. Worden, Leon. (October 2005). "California's REAL First Gold". [[Santa Clarita Valley]] Historical Society.
2. Johnson, Ted. (27 August 2013). "L.A. County OKs Disney's Plans for New Studio Lot Near Santa Clarita". Variety.
3. (October 26, 2003). "Disney timeline". Variety.
4. (October 17, 2017). "Plan to develop Golden Oak Ranch extended one year - again". Paladin Multi-Media Group, Inc..
5. (2012-01-24). "Santa Clarita movie ranches corral Tarantino and other filmmakers". Company Town. Los Angeles Times.
6. Verrier, Richard. (22 May 2013). "Disney moves forward with ABC Studios project at Golden Oak Ranch". The Los Angeles Times.
7. Cieply, Michael. (19 May 2013). "Bold Growth Plans at Hollywood Studios". The New York Times.
8. "Disney {{!}} ABC Studios at The Ranch, Where Indoor and Outdoor Production Meet". Golden Oak Ranch.
9. Cunningham, Todd. (27 August 2013). "Disney Gets Greenlight for Major TV, Film Studio Near Santa Clarita". The Wrap.
10. "Filming Location Matching "Walt Disney's Golden Oak Ranch - 19802 Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall, California, USA" (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)". [[IMDb]].
11. "Westworld at Golden Oak Ranch - filming location".
12. Fischer, J. & Kinsey, A. Earwolf Productions. June 2020. 'Initiation' - Office Ladies podcast. https://officeladies.com/ {{Webarchive. link. (2021-07-08)
13. Verrier, Richard. (24 January 2012). "Santa Clarita movie ranches corral Tarantino and other filmmakers". The Los Angeles Times.
14. "Jordin Sparks – Behind The Scenes of Battlefield Video". AOL Music. [[AOL]].
15. "The Hobo Code".
16. "Mad Men Season 7 Review: Episode Four - The Monolith By Ben Skipper. May 7, 2014, ''International Business Times''.".
17. (17 January 2021). "The Hidden Secrets Behind the Locations of WandaVision".