GLOW is an American comedy-drama television series created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch for Netflix, running for three seasons from 2017 to 2019. Set in 1980s Los Angeles, the series stars Alison Brie as Ruth Wilder, an unemployed actress who auditions for a new women’s professional wrestling programme called Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. The production is run by struggling filmmaker Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) and wealthy young producer Sebastian “Bash” Howard (Chris Lowell). Betty Gilpin plays Ruth’s former best friend Debbie Eagan, who becomes one of the show’s leading wrestlers. The series is loosely inspired by the real Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling television programme, which began broadcasting in 1986.
GLOW was filmed primarily in and around Los Angeles, particularly the San Fernando Valley, where many of its streets and buildings retained features associated with the 1980s. Locations included former motels and restaurants, private residences, historic theatres and entertainment venues. The first two seasons take place largely in Los Angeles, while the third moves the story to Las Vegas. Despite the change of setting, filming remained in Southern California, with studios in Los Angeles and exterior locations in Ontario used to recreate the Nevada resort city.
Several locations in Hollywood appear during the opening episode, “Pilot” (2017), as Ruth struggles to find acting work. The Hollywood Offices building at 6464 Sunset Boulevard was used for the scene in which Ruth confronts a casting director in a restroom after an unsuccessful audition. Completed in 1968, the eleven-storey office building had previously housed music industry businesses, including Motown Records. Another early scene was filmed at City Ballet of Los Angeles, at 1532 West 11th Street in the Pico-Union neighbourhood. Here, Ruth attends an aerobics class with Debbie, played by Betty Gilpin. The production converted part of the dance school into the exercise studio seen in the episode.
The pilot also features El Big Taco, formerly located at 7427 Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys. The restaurant’s car park appears when Ruth is confronted by three young boys who steal her handbag and food. Another Hollywood location is the former Samuel French Theatre and Film Bookshop at 7623 Sunset Boulevard, where Ruth attends an acting class in a room behind the bookshop. The Spanish-style building had housed the specialist theatre bookstore since 1947. The Hollywood branch eventually closed in 2019, two years after the series premiered.
The central location during the first two seasons is Chavo’s Boxing Gym, where Ruth and the other women learn professional wrestling under the supervision of Sam Sylvia and trainer Cherry Bang (Sydelle Noel). The gym’s exterior was filmed at the San Fernando Masonic Lodge at 1112 North Maclay Avenue in San Fernando. The production primarily used the back of the building and its parking area, which served as the entrance and surroundings of the fictional boxing facility. The location appears in the early episodes as the women arrive for auditions, attend training sessions and gradually begin preparing their wrestling characters.
The gym’s interior was constructed on Stage 3 at Riverfront Stages in Atwater Village, Los Angeles. Production designer Todd Fjelsted created a complete training facility, including a wrestling ring, wooden spectator benches, changing areas, showers and an elevated office overlooking the ring. The set was designed with working entrances that allowed the characters to move between the gym and exterior surroundings. It was named Chavo’s Boxing Gym after Chavo Guerrero Jr., the professional wrestler who trained the actresses for the series. During the second season, the gym becomes more directly involved in the production of the fictional television programme, with the wrestling ring also used for filming the women’s performances.
Another major location is The Pink Motel at 9457 San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, which became the fictional Dusty Spur Motel. The motel first appears prominently in the fourth episode, “The Dusty Spur” (2017), when Sam and Bash arrange accommodation for the wrestlers during production. The real motel dates from 1946 and consists of a row of single-storey rooms surrounding a courtyard and an unusually shaped swimming pool. For GLOW, the production repainted the normally pink building in more subdued colours and added period vehicles and decoration. The motel’s exterior walkways, rooms, swimming pool and surrounding grounds appear throughout the first two seasons as the women live together, rehearse and deal with their personal disagreements. Although the building resembles a functioning roadside motel, it had already ceased operating as regular accommodation and was primarily being used as a filming location.
Standing beside The Pink Motel is Cadillac Jack’s Diner, also at 9457 San Fernando Road. Originally established in 1949, the restaurant closed in 1989 but retained much of its original appearance and furnishings. In the second episode, “Slouch. Submit.” (2017), Ruth joins Melrose (Jackie Tohn), Carmen Wade (Britney Young) and Rhonda Richardson (Kate Nash) for lunch at the diner during a break from wrestling practice. The exterior ordering window appears in the sequence, while the restaurant’s interior was used repeatedly throughout the first season. It can also be seen in “Debbie Does Something,” “This Is One of Those Moments” and “The Liberal Chokehold.” The proximity of the diner and motel allowed the production to use both buildings as neighbouring locations within the same fictional environment.
The third episode, “The Wrath of Kuntar” (2017), introduces the luxurious Malibu home of Sebastian Howard. The property is Circles on the Point, a modern residence at 29377 Cliffside Drive overlooking Point Dume. The house appears when Bash invites the wrestlers to a party at his mansion, where the women explore the expansive interior, swimming pool and entertainment facilities. The house’s distinctive curved architecture and large windows were incorporated into the scenes, emphasising the contrast between Bash’s wealth and the modest surroundings in which the wrestlers normally work. The property also appeared in the thriller Color of Night (1994).
In “Debbie Does Something” (2017), several additional Los Angeles businesses appear as the wrestling production searches for sponsors and new opportunities. Sam and Bash visit Patio Town, a fictional garden furniture retailer represented by Universal Patio Furniture at 11055 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. After securing the sponsorship, Sam takes Ruth and Rhonda to a Fosters Freeze restaurant in Atwater Village. The programme also visits a real wrestling venue when Debbie, Carmen and Melrose attend a professional wrestling match. These scenes were filmed at American Legion Post 308 at 7338 Canby Avenue in Reseda, a veterans’ meeting hall that has also hosted wrestling events. Watching professional wrestlers in action gives Debbie a better understanding of the physical performances expected of her in the ring.
Another private residence used during the first season is the Victorian house at 1234 Fedora Street in the Pico-Union neighbourhood. In “Live Studio Audience” (2017), Ruth and Debbie visit Carmen’s family home to receive additional wrestling instruction from her brothers, both experienced professional wrestlers. The backyard is used for their improvised training session, with Ruth and Debbie practising moves under the brothers’ supervision. The residence dates from the late nineteenth century, and its wooden exterior and garden provide the setting for the family scenes.
The episode “This Is One of Those Moments” (2017) features the Regency Event Venue at 401 West Colorado Street in Glendale. The building’s ornate ballroom was used for a family celebration attended by Ruth and Gregory (Ravil Isyanov), the Russian manager of the Dusty Spur Motel. Ruth accompanies him to the gathering hoping to learn more about Russian culture and improve her wrestling character, Zoya the Destroya. The ballroom’s elaborate interior decorations, including gilded architectural details, appear prominently during the party. The venue was subsequently renovated, changing several of the interior features visible in the episode.
Two of the series’ most recognisable entertainment locations appear in “Maybe It’s All the Disco” (2017). One is Moonlight Rollerway at 5110 San Fernando Road in Glendale, where the wrestlers organise a birthday party for Sheila the She-Wolf (Gayle Rankin). The roller-skating rink first opened in 1956 in a building that had previously been used for aircraft manufacturing. Its original wooden skating floor and longstanding recreational use made it suitable for the series’ 1980s setting. The skating scenes were filmed inside the real rink, with relatively few modifications necessary beyond the removal or replacement of more modern fixtures.
The same episode features The Mayan at 1038 South Hill Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Opened in 1927, the theatre was designed in an elaborate Pre-Columbian Revival style, incorporating architectural details inspired by ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Sam and Ruth visit the venue while searching for a suitable location to film the wrestling programme. They inspect its ornate auditorium, decorative balconies and stage, although the theatre is ultimately rejected. The Mayan had already appeared earlier in the series: its interior was used for the imaginary wrestling sequence in the pilot, where Ruth envisions herself performing in the ring. The building became a nightclub after ceasing regular theatrical operations in 1989.
The first season also uses the Bundy House at 1365 South Oakland Avenue in Pasadena, which represents the home of Bash’s wealthy mother, Birdie Howard (Elizabeth Perkins). The large Classical Revival mansion was built in 1914 for businessman Harlow E. Bundy and is surrounded by landscaped grounds. In the series, the wrestlers attend a charity fundraiser at Birdie’s home, hoping to raise the money needed to complete their television production. They present themselves as members of Wrestlers Against Drugs and attempt to persuade the guests to contribute financially. Both the mansion’s exterior and interior were used for the scenes. The same property previously appeared as the Governor’s Mansion in the television sitcom Benson (1979–1986).
The climactic wrestling performance in the first-season finale, “Money’s in the Chase” (2017), was filmed at the Hollywood Palladium at 6215 Sunset Boulevard. The historic entertainment venue, opened in 1940, became the ballroom of the fictional Hayworth Hotel, where the women finally perform before a paying audience. In the series, the location is identified as the Howard Family Ballroom, secured through Birdie Howard’s connections. The production used the Palladium’s main dance hall, with a wrestling ring installed in the centre and spectators gathered around it. The elaborate wrestling event brings together the characters’ developing personas and the storylines created during their training.
The Hollywood Palladium also appears in a different role during the same episode. Its exterior was used as a cinema where Sheila and Melrose approach people waiting to see Back to the Future (1985), attempting to convince them to attend the wrestling show instead. The production therefore used the building to represent two separate fictional venues, with the interior becoming the Hayworth Hotel ballroom and the exterior serving as a movie theatre. Designed by architect Gordon Kaufmann, the Palladium retains much of its original Streamline Moderne architecture and underwent a major restoration in 2008.
The second season opens with “Viking Funeral” (2018), which includes an excursion to a shopping mall. These scenes were filmed at Westside Pavilion, formerly a major shopping centre on West Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles. The mall opened in 1985, matching the period in which GLOW is set. The production took advantage of its surviving 1980s architecture, including the multilevel interior walkways and large central shopping areas. To recreate a period shopping experience, the crew redesigned the food court and approximately ten shopfronts, replacing contemporary signs and furnishings with brands and displays appropriate to the mid-1980s. The sequence shows the wrestlers visiting the mall together as they prepare for another round of television production. Westside Pavilion was subsequently redeveloped, ending its use as a conventional enclosed shopping centre.
Other second-season locations included the former Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona, which was used for hospital scenes. The large institutional complex had operated as a state-run care facility for decades before closing in 2015, making its buildings available for film and television production. The series also used The Gentlemen’s Club in San Fernando for scenes involving Yolanda Rivas (Shakira Barrera), a dancer who joins the wrestling programme during the second season.
For the third season, released in 2019, the story relocates to Las Vegas after the wrestlers secure a residency at the fictional Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino. Despite the Nevada setting, the production remained in Southern California. The Fan-Tan’s elaborate casino, hotel interiors and main performance theatre were constructed at LA Center Studios in Downtown Los Angeles. The fictional resort was partly inspired by the Riviera Hotel and Casino, where the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling television programme had filmed during the 1980s. The Riviera closed in 2015 and was demolished the following year, so the production recreated elements of a period Las Vegas resort rather than using the original building.
The exterior of the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino was filmed at an existing hotel in Ontario, California, east of Los Angeles. The building’s older architecture was adapted to represent the fictional Las Vegas property, while additional studio sets recreated its guest rooms, casino floor and entertainment spaces. The Ontario hotel was selected partly because it retained features associated with an earlier period of hotel design. Through the combination of the real building and the purpose-built interiors at LA Center Studios, the production established the main setting for the third season without filming in Las Vegas itself.
Foster’s Freeze Atwater Village
Foster’s Freeze in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, has appeared in both "Pulp Fiction" (1994) and "GLOW" (2017–2019).
The Mayan
The Mayan has appeared in many films and television productions, including Sally of the Scandals, Refinements in Love, Save the Tiger and many more.
The Pink Motel & Cadillac Jack’s Diner
The Pink Motel & Cadillac Jack’s Diner has appeared in many films and television productions, including The Rockford Files, Grease 2, Mischief, and many more.