Often when a popular American show finishes it’s run you hear of some familiar prop being donated to the Smithsonian (e.g. Captain Kirk’s command chair; MAS*H’s signpost; Seinfield’s diner booth; etc.)
Well, having visited the Museum of American History twice in the past 5 years, I have yet to see the hundreds of props/sets that have been donated over the years (on the last trip, my girlfriend and I did see the aforementioned Archie’s chair, along with Fonzi’s jacket and a few other thing in a small glass display case on the third floor - but that all we found).
So, where is everything else at? We couldn’t find any exhibit halls with this stuff. Is there a mysterious hidden 4th floor with a stuffed Benji on top of the Cheer’s bar? Do they cycle the props thru that glass case every so often (“ha ha, you can’t see Jim Rockford’s answering machine till 2075, but we can!”). Is everything just rotting in a forgotten warehouse in Anacostia (“Yeah, OK, throw the Friend’s couch over by Frasier’s broadcast booth”)
BTW, the Smithsonian site (www.si.edu) didn’t seem to shed much more light on this topic.
It might help if those curators actually watched one of the shows- They have the chairs reversed. Archie’s chair is suppose to be on the right.
or the photo got flipped
I actually saw the chairs in person at the Smithsonian. They are correctly in place there, or at least they were when I viewed them.
The temptation to tell you where Archie’s chair is, in spite of the fact that you clearly say you saw it and are really asking about the many other things you didn’t find, is just awful. But I must resist.
The other stuff is stored away in areas closed to the public. Like many museums, the Smithsonian has an enormous quantity of stuff stored and just puts a fraction of it on display at any time. In fact I think I heard the Smithsonian in particular typically only shows about 2% of their items, though I’m not sure I remember this figure correctly.
You kind of confirmed my fears about most of those show props not being viewable by the public.
I guess I assumed that they’d have a whole exhibit hall for the props and sets (which I think would be a big draw) ala the Information Technology display or the Modern Materials display (with the cool restored 1950’s kitchen, living room, etc.), but the small showcase they had (containing those famed chairs) couldn’t hold the diner booth from Sienfeld, let alone the bar from Cheers.
I also see I must work on my thread titles so I don’t set myself up for a fall.