A Mere Coincidence?

    Possibly. Others might say probably. I guess there isn’t any kind of synchronicity at play here but it still fascinates me because I think to myself, what are the odds that this seemingly meaningless, silly thing occurred?
    Like everyone I’ve been watching a lot of TV. I have a lot of the streaming services and can pretty much watch most anything. One evening I came across the show Monk starring Tony Shaloub, which ran for 8 seasons. I remember when it came out back in 2002 but had never watched it. I like Mr. Shaloub so I figured I should give it a go. I’ve watched a lot of different series the past year. I call them filler, not in a negative way but just something easy to watch to fill in the time here and there or in between movies since they’re usually an hour or under. Some of these shows I had seen before and others were new to me. A few shows I’ve watched are: Twin Peaks, Community, Ozark, How To Get Away with Murder and The Twilight Zone(the original version. I do want to see Jordan Peele’s version but I don’t have CBS all access; you can’t have them all) And again like everyone, I tend to binge on these multiple episodic shows. You can watch just one(most likely not) or as many as you want and because of Covid you don’t have to feel bad that you are avoiding life by binging on several hours of TV because this is life right now. So watch ten episodes in a row guilt free. Unlike Netflix, which will throw up an entire season of their shows in one shot, channels like HBO, Showtime or AMC still follow the old way and release an episode a week. I tend to wait till shows on these channels have finished their seasons before beginning to watch them. I don’t want to wait a week between episodes. I can’t. I won’t. Let’s get back to Monk.
    Monk takes place in San Francisco, which was another, although minor selling point. The show is good by the way. It’s pretty humorous and absurd at times. Some of the crimes and the way Monk solves may seem ridiculous but that is not the point. The character of Monk as brought to life by Mr Shaloub is superb.  He's funny, maudlin, brilliant and kind of a jerk sometimes. And some of the episodes have been really good. I also have formed a crush on actress Traylor Howard. So there was an episode in the 4th season titled “Mr Monk and the Big Reward” (I’m into the fifth season now, so I still have plenty of episodes left) There is an establishing shot where we see a car driving up a hill. In the background, down the hill we can see the Palace of the Fine Arts rotunda building and San Francisco Bay beyond that. It’s typical to have shots like these in movies and TV that highlight the city or that make it obvious you’re in a particular city. In this case we have what is unique about San Francisco which are it’s hills and then an iconic piece of architecture in The Palace of the Fine Arts, constructed in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. So that’s the shot. I watched the episode and that was that. The very next evening I watched the 1974 movie The Towering Inferno by the “master of disaster” producer Irwin Allen and I was astonished to see that very same establishing shot.

The same establishing shot used in a Monk episode and The Towering Inferno

    It could very well be this particular shot has been used a bunch of times in movies and tv taking place in San Francisco. It’s probably been used in a chase scene from a Dirty Harry movie or from the television show The Streets of San Francisco. It could be a standard shot for all I know. There are certainly plenty of movies and tv shows that have used the same type of shots. One that comes to mind is the shot of the Manhattan Bridge taken from the Brooklyn side. It’s usually used to convey toughness and grittiness. We see part of the Manhattan bridge and one of its towers with buildings in the foreground on either side. One movie of many it was used in was Once Upon a Time in America. So it comes down to the odds of seeing the same sort of establishing shot in 2 pieces of entertainment shot over 30 years apart. How did I choose The Towering Inferno?

How many times has this shot been used in a movie?

    These days it sometimes can take me a long time to choose a movie. I’ll stand in front of the tv clicking through, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu unable to choose something because I’m so indecisive. I do end up putting a lot of stuff on my watch list for later but for some reason I just can’t watch it at that moment. I’ve got commitment issues. So when I saw The Towering Inferno thumbnail, I said “Fuck It”. Probably more for nostalgia than anything else. I can’t remember the last time I saw it but I did actually see it at the theater when it came out. I was only 6 or 7 at the time. My parents never did seem to shy away from taking me to these types of movies or letting me watch them at home which a lot of other parents would have never let their young children watch. I should tell you about my experiences with watching The Exorcist and Death Wish as a child sometime. I guess when you compare it to these movies, The Towering Inferno is not that bad, it did have a PG rating after all. But it did also have people being burned alive and falling from high above and hitting sides of the building before finally hitting the ground. Anyway I saw it when it came out. I clearly remember walking into the theater near the end of the movie at the scene just after the water tank exploded at the top of the building(which was 138 stories by the way) The scene has Fred Astaire sort of coming to while lying in about 6 inches of water and trying get out from under a small metal column. We seemed to do that a lot back then, walk into a movie theater at any time during the movie. Then when it was over we’d wait for it to start again and then leave at the part we originally came in. This seems absolutely insane to me today but that’s what we did.
    I love the opening shot of the film with the helicopter flying over San Francisco and eventually landing on top of the building. Also It has some cool 70’s decor, especially the floor that housed the offices of the developer played by William Holden. If I ever build my own house I will be sure to incorporate this design. The establishing shot that was also used in Monk is pretty much the same here. We see Paul Newman’s character drive up the hill, with The Palace of the Arts building in the background. And in both shots they use the same house for a location. In Monk it’s used as a museum that houses a very expensive diamond that gets stolen and that Monk eventually finds(sort of). In The Towering Inferno it’s the home of Bill Holden’s son-in-law played by Richard Chamberlain. Paul Newman has come there to confront him on some of the shoddy electrical work, which is what eventually leads to the Inferno and demise of the building some 12 hours later.

Dig that funky Towering Inferno design. William Creber was the production designer

     It was fun figuring out where the actual location was. I love sleuthing locations from film and photographs. I’m kind of good at it and I do it all the time. In this case it was very easy. There’s the landmark Palace of the Fine Arts building in the background, which I’ve been to, and and the San Francisco bay beyond that, there’s not too many places it could be. Google maps and street view is a necessity of course. This establishment shot is located in the north area of San Francisco at the cross streets of Vallejo and Baker. The house, mansion really, is at 2898 Vallejo St. If you have $16 million, it could be yours. Go check it out. There are some photos of it on Zillow. It’s a beautiful place.
    Some marvel at all the wonders and complexities of the universe. All it takes for me is to see the same shot from two different shows on consecutive nights. What can I say? But you have to admit it’s a little weird, right? On some level. Maybe not to the extent of a 1500 word essay, but dammit it deserves to be acknowledged. If you think of all the shows I could have watched. I chose a show that had a very specific shot, the same shot from the different show from the night before. Could it be a sign? Is the universe telling me something? Is my destiny at Vallejo and Baker Streets? Maybe I’m supposed to buy that $16 million house.