I’m so excited to write this post, despite the promise of ridicule from family and friends.
You might remember an earlier entry, in which I proudly confessed my love for the CBS TV series Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman…
The often historically accurate show centered on Michaela Quinn, a liberal lady doctor from Boston who answered a newspaper advert for a physician in Colorado Springs in the 1870s. When she arrived in the muddy, one-horse town to start work, they told her they were expecting a man named Michael A. Quinn, and that she was not welcome. Well, Dr. Quinn was not about to get back on the train for snooty Boston, so she stuck it out, learned some hard lessons, and literally kept the town alive, not to mention the area’s Cheyenne Indian tribe, which she fought to protect from the likes of Gen. George Custer.
I loved this show, and I don’t care if that makes me a huge dork! Most of the people who tease me about it have never seen an episode!
So when Ethan and I were driving along on a back road in southern California, and I saw a sign for the Paramount Ranch, as soon as I realized what it was I absolutely had to see it. Dr. Quinn was filmed there for more than 6 years, until its untimely cancellation to the dismay of its fans the world over. The ranch has a long history before Dr. Quinn, dating back to when Paramount Pictures bought the land in the late 1920s. More than 100 western films were shot on the ranch over the next several decades, including some of the classics.
We found the ranch on our sightseeing tour of greater Los Angeles. After cruising almost the entire length of Sunset Boulevard we hoped to take a sunny Sunday ride along the seashore. Unfortunately the coast was shrouded in thick fog, so Ethan found a road up into the mountains that was highly recommended by one of the driving/car blogs he reads. The site described the narrow, winding route through the Santa Ana Mountains as hog heaven, bikers’ paradise. Who knew it was also the pilgrimage route for Dr. Quinn fans?!
I never expected to stumble upon the place that had been at the center of the world I used to lose myself in on Saturday nights when I was a teenager (and again years later when I got the first season on DVD for Christmas).
My patient, caring boyfriend took some pictures for me while I explored the set. It’s changed a bit since the Dr. Quinn days, but the general layout was instantly familiar, and I found Dr. Quinn’s clinic on the edge of town.
A brief disclaimer: there were some really intense Dr. Quinn fans who were literally obsessed with the show; my enjoyment of the program was never extreme, and I never put up posters of Joe Lando in my bedroom, but I did wile away many hours watching the show during a period of unemployment after college…
This is the door to Dr. Quinn's clinic, which has changed but was still recognizable.
Maybe I loved this show so much because I preferred that exciting era of discovery to my own. My teenage years were awkward and awful, and this was really the first TV program I ever looked forward to watching every week. 
Maybe I loved it because the lead character was a strong-minded, intelligent, stubborn, outspoken, spirited, and fiercely independent woman who followed her heart and did whatever she wanted, regardless of whether it made any sense at all – and because that’s pretty much my personality in sum, I identified with her.
Maybe I loved it so much because it was created by a woman, and that was the first time I had inklings of doing the same thing one day myself. (I still hope to meet Beth Sullivan, and maybe work on a project with her one day.)
For whatever reason, I’m so grateful that this show came to be, and that it aired for so many years. Visiting this ranch made me want to curl up on a couch and watch the whole series, from the hopeful pilot to the farewell movie (which was made after much lobbying by the show’s aforementioned international fan base). The whole thing just came out in one giant box DVD set, and I’d buy it if it weren’t $230 (and if I didn’t fear that DVD technology will be obsolete fairly soon). I can’t wait to share this series with my nieces one day (whether their mom and dad will let me is another story).
In closing, what a find this was. I was truly happy to get a look at this place in person. Somehow the experience cemented my desire to one day be professionally a part of the film industry one day.
Go ahead and laugh… I don’t care.
Next Stop: Vegas, Utah… from here we turn back east.
