Santa Monica Pier

The pier contains Pacific Park, a family amusement park with its solar panelled Ferris wheel. The brightly lit wheel can be seen from a distance and has been turned off during the Earth Hour observance.[4]

It also has an original carousel hippodrome from the 1920s, the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium operated by Heal the Bay, shops, entertainers, a video arcade, a trapeze school, pubs, and restaurants. The pier's west end is a popular location for anglers.

The pier is a venue for outdoor concerts, movies, and other activities.[5]

In the popular book series The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare, the fictional Los Angeles Institute overlooks the Santa Monica pier. Most of the major plot is set in this vicinity.

• Kay Kyser's Campus Cowboys - "When Veronica Plays the Harmonica (On the Pier at Santa Monica)" (1946)
• Noel Harrison - "Santa Monica Pier" (1968)
• The Beach Boys - "Strange World" (2012)

The Santa Monica Pier has been used as a filming location for many decades. The amusement park attractions as they existed in 1930s are seen prominently in the Our Gang short Fish Hooky (1933).[18][19] It also appears prominently in Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), Quicksand (1950), Elmer Gantry (1960), 1941 (1979 film), The Opposite of Sex (1998), They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Night Tide (1961), Bean (1997), The Sting (1973), Farewell, My Lovely (1975) with Robert Mitchum, Her (2013), A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Mighty Joe Young (1998), Miracle Beach, Forrest Gump (there is a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant on the pier), Not Another Teen Movie, Iron Man, Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, Dark Ride, Cellular, The Hottie and the Nottie, Falling Down, Ruthless People (the pier is the site of the movie's climactic final scene), Love Stinks, Hancock, the indie romantic comedy She Wants Me, and Hannah Montana: The Movie (the scene with Lilly's birthday party). During the earthquake in the movie 2012, the pier can be seen sinking beneath the waves. The Natalie Wood film Inside Daisy Clover (1965) features the pier in the beginning of the picture. The pier was also featured in the 2012 film version of Rock of Ages. The Glenn Miller Story with Jimmy Stewart has a sequence toward the beginning where he goes to the "La Monica Ballroom" for an audition. The pier is also featured in the 2018 film Pacific Rim Uprising, starring John Boyega, where a kaiju attack destroys the pier, as well as the entire city. Jack Dawson in Titanic referenced the pier, which would have been just three years old in 1912, when Titanic sank.

• The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., "The Mother Muffin Affair" (1966), though set in London, climax features action scene on the carousel, the arcade room, and several pier locations.
• The Mod Squad, "Home is in the Streets", Season 4, Episode 3 (1971).
• The Rockford Files Season 1, episode 1. In the series' opening scene, a city bus pulls up alongside the pier in the adjacent parking lot.
• Columbo, in "The Most Crucial Game", the private detective Dobbs goes to meet Columbo at a restaurant ("Ocean Side East Cafe") at the end of the pier on the lower deck.
• Charlie's Angels episodes "The Sandcastle Murders" and "Angels in Waiting".
• The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series) episode "King of the Beach" was filmed there.
• Three's Company, in the opening titles of the fourth and fifth seasons.
• Star Trek: Voyager features an episode in which the pier is in the 20th century Los Angeles.
• South Park episode "Fishsticks" ends with Kanye West jumping off the Santa Monica Pier to begin a new life as a gay fish.
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno commercial bumper
• South of Nowhere, in the opening credits and in the episode "Girls Guide to Dating",
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody episodes The Suite Life Goes To Hollywood Pts. 1/2.
• Life After People episode "Waves of Devastation"
• Rocket Power features a pier very similar to the Santa Monica Pier.
• The Amazing Race this place was the Starting Line for the fifth season.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, when Cromartie tries to track down John Connor on the Pier, who steals a pair of sunglasses and a cap from a Pier vendor to disguise himself
• NCIS: Los Angeles, when the pilot begins with Agent G. Callen waking up in his small apartment overlooking the pier.
• 24, when Jack tracks Fayed to the pier, Gredenko gets shot and dies under the pier.
• Gilmore Girls, when Jess goes to California to find his father. His father works at the pier.
• Flashforward, when Olivia and Charlie are out at the pier without Mark. In the final episode, it also appears briefly in the background in one shot.
• Castle, in Season 3 Episode 22, "To Love and Die in L.A.", when Beckett takes down Ganz.
• Chuck, when Chuck defuses a car bomb rigged by Laszlo underneath the pier (he first meets Laszlo while playing in one of the arcades on the pier).
• The fourth season of Hannah Montana Forever takes place in Santa Monica instead of the Malibu setting of previous seasons, and the pier is frequently shown as Lilly works at a game booth.
• 

  A distant view of the Santa Monica Pier at sunset, 2014
  90210, where several scenes are shot at the pier throughout the series. The pier is frequently shown whenever the characters visit the pier or the Beverly Hills beach club.
• Welcome to the Family, in Season 1 Episode 1, Pilot
• Grey's Anatomy episodes The Other Side of Life Pts. 1/2.
• Private Practice, where there has been several scenes shot at the pier throughout the series.
• Keeping Up with the Kardashians, where Kris and Khloé met with the BG5 girls.
• Monk, in the episode "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees," where detective Adrian Monk chases a criminal throughout the park, in which he tries to get rid of evidence that could prove him guilty. Eventually, he is arrested after being caught on the pier.
• Eva Luna, in the last episode
• America's Next Top Model, in Cycle 17: All-Stars for episode 5.
• Big Time Rush "Nickelodeon TV series".
• Criminal Minds, in Season 8 Episode 7, "The Fallen", in season 5, episode 12 "The Uncanny Valley" the Carousel was where the first body was found.
• The Mindy Project, where there were scenes shot only at the pier from episode 13, "LA".
• Touch, where there were several scenes shot at the pier throughout the series.
• Drop Dead Diva, where there were several scenes shot at the pier throughout the series.
• Californication, where there were several scenes shot at the pier throughout the series.
• The Lying Game, in Season 1 Episode 1, Pilot
• Modern Family, where there were several scenes shot at the pier throughout the series.
• New Girl
• Hart of Dixie, where there were scenes shot only at the pier from episode 16, "Carrying Your Love with Me".
• The Great Food Truck Race, in Season 6, Episode 1, "All-American Road Trip".
• Goliath, the series is shot in Santa Monica and throughout the series the pier and Pacific Park are prominently featured among other Santa Monica landmarks.
• Stitchers, in Season 1, Episode 3, "Connections", and Season 1, Episode 10, "Full Stop".
• Lucifer, in Season 2, Episode 18, "The Good, the Bad and the Crispy".
• 9-1-1
• She Spies, where there were several scenes shot at the pier throughout the series.
• Gossip Girl, where there were scenes shot only at the pier from episode 1, "Yes, Than Zero".
• Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Season 1, Episode 3, "Wicked Old World"

• Rush
• Midnight Club: Los Angeles
• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
• Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[20] (as the basis of a similar pier)
• Grand Theft Auto V[21] (as the basis of a similar pier)
• LEGO City Undercover (in the district Paradise Sands)
• Mario Kart Tour (as part of the racetrack “Los Angeles Laps”)