The Valley Observed: San Fernando Valley history and sense of place

"Los Angeles is surrounded by valleys, but there's only one Valley..."
Hush Money, by Peter Israel

The Valley being observed

Moloney On the hit Fox TV show "The O.C.", a running story line has the young, attractive and mostly spoiled Orange County kids watching a soap opera called "The Valley." The joke is that the characters and plot lines in "The O.C." are just like those "The Valley." (In an episode of the latter, a character complains, "I just don't feel like I fit here in Tarzana!") It's just the latest in a long line of TV series, movies and songs that play off the Valley's fame. For a longer treatment of the subject, see the pages on The Valley in literature and the Valley image.

Newly observed: The bi-monthly magazine Calabasas: Life At Its Best, which launched in 2004, has a cover feature on actress Janel Moloney, who plays former White House aide Donatella Moss on NBC's "The West Wing." She recalls her childhood in Woodland Hills and attending El Camino High:

"As a teenager, basically all I did was go to the Topanga Plaza. The 7-Eleven on Ventura and Hobart was a big hang-out [too]. Very glamorous. And the Carl's Jr. on Platt was where we went after school to smoke cigarettes and sit in our cars. And then we went to the beach. Ultimately, it was all about the beach..."

Jillian at home The magazine also does a big spread inside on the home of Fox TV's "Good Day L.A." host Jillian Barberie. The ex-wife of retired major league baseball player Bret Barberie lives in the hills of an unidentified West Valley neighborhood, and claims to the magazine that she loves Calabasas—but first had to be converted into a Valley girl:

"I didn't want to necessarily move to the Valley, but now I would never move back to the beach. I love the Valley. I love the feeling of heat in the summertime. The people are real, and I also like that it's secluded....I love the Commons [in Calabasas]! I see movies there, and across the street, I go to Howie Mandel's wife's store, Magnolia, all the time. I don't do Encino, I don't do Sherman Oaks. I'll go to Studio City for dinners and stuff sometimes, but Calabasas, from the Sagebrush to Fins to Marmalade, is where I gravitate."

Posted February 1, 2006 05:10 PM


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"Los Angeles is surrounded by valleys, but there's only one Valley..."Hush Money, by Peter Israel

"Los Angeles is surrounded by valleys, but there's only one Valley..."
Hush Money, by Peter Israel