That… is so sweet. It really needs to be in a Hallmark card.
Another WORST SET vote: Family Matters. I can believe Urkel can travel through time and shrink himself to 2 inches tall easier than I can believe a Chicago cop can own a rambling house with two staircases, as many bedrooms as needed that particular day, and a kitchen the size of most houses.
A work set, not flashy, but I really like it: the newsroom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Sparse, and somewhat boring, but it worked. The double doors to the right for great entrances (frequently by Betty White), Mary and Murray’s desks side-by-side, Lou’s door to the left, just ready for someone go go bursting in or out. Just dynamic.
I humbly request that I be allowed to use this as a signature line.
Permission granted. For your recognition of my rockingness, you will also be granted a relatively painless death when the time comes.
Probably. I can’t promise anything. Well, I could, but who’d believe it?
I loved Lana Turner’s house in the country in Imitation of Life that she bought once she became rich and famous. Over-the-top (for the character it had to be) but beautifully done. It made sense logistically too, especially in the scenes where the front and back stairs played a part (Sara Jane slips in the back while a dinner party is going on in the front).
I also liked the Andy Griffith house: from the front porch to the back yard it was modest, befitting a sheriff’s salary, but nicely done. Of course, with Aunt Bea to stay home and keep it clean, immaculately always. I sometimes wondered if the full brick wall/fireplace was a little sophisticated for Mayberry, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. Also, any scene on the front porch in the evening just takes me right back home to dusk on our porch in Mississippi.
The house in Roseanne. It was totally believable as a midwest blue collar house.
I love Frasier’s apartment. It wasn’t all that believable as an affordable place for a radio talk-show guy, but it was very pretty and inviting. I longed to lounge on his sofa and look at the view from his balcony. The kitchen kind of sucked, though – too small.
I always thought Frasier and Niles had inherited a nice bit of change from their mother’s side of the family. They weren’t uber-rich, but neither of them HAD to work, either.
I meant to add as the second half of my last post:
I really hate the Cramdens’ apartment in The Honeymooners. There never existed a bleaker, more depressing couple of rooms than that place. If I had been Alice, I’d have slit my wrists after living there a month. No wonder they were fighting all the time!
Niles got a huge divorce settlement, and IIRC Frasier’s show was syndicated, so he probably made pretty good. (Was he in private practice at all?)
Some great ones are already mentioned but I’ll add the sets for Down With Love were incredible. (along with the clothing)
To rebut the OP the sets for The Incredibles were, in fact, incredible. Amazing some of those sets were used once and never shown again, after months and months of ‘building’ them.
Not sure if it counts but Das Boot has a great set, or maybe it just used the ‘set’ very well.
I would love to have that long tunnel/cave from the first action sequence from Raiders of the Lost Ark. That would be an awesome way to have to leave the house everyday.
Oh and I just have a soft spot in my heart for the bridge set from Star Trek (TOS)
No, Frasier wasn’t. I remember an episode or two where Niles made fun of him because his practice consisted of talk show callers.
I thought so too. It was also a neat show when that snooty Kathy moved to town and Roseanne went over and all, and, like, Cathy’s house was almost the a replica of Roseanne’s – only better’n hers was.
I’ve been watching the Australian soap Prisoner on DVD, and while I’m liking the storylines and some of the acting, the sets are really abysmal. Meg and her husband the shrink live in an apartment carved out of a cardboard box, apparently.
I’ve always loved the sets for Auntie Mame (the movie). Actually, it’s one set–her living room & grand staircase. Decorated to reflect every stage of her life, from 20’s Bohemian to Mystic India. With Rosalind Russell’s costumes & hairstyles to match. Somewhat “stagy”–but it worked.
Previously mentioned: The Serenity. LOTR: Bag End & Edoras.
Let’s not forget The Hyperion Hotel (Angel).
And the kitchen from Practical Magic. A lightweight movie made from a lightweight book. But I love the kitchen. (Actually, I covet Rachael Ray’s kitchen/set, too.)
Edited to add: The recent episode of *Doctor Who * (Pompeii on Volcano Day) used some of the sets from HBO’s Rome.
I believe Roseanne was the first TV show I ever saw that had: a clearly handmade afghan over the back of the sofa, just like our house, and random crap sitting on the stairs waiting to be carried up, just like our house.
I’ve always had a soft spot for The West Wing sets, just because you could always tell where the light was coming from. Their sets seemed to have lots of desk lamps, table lamps, etc. and lots of sets don’t really have that. Light is just. . .mystically there.
I loved the sets for My Fair Lady. I coveted Rex Harrison’s library and his mother’s dayroom, with the attached greenhouse.
StG
The best thing about the house in Roseanne is that it changed over the years realistically - Dan put on some additions, and it grew and changed organically.
Ditto to this, just seeing the set on a screen gives me the chills.
Serenity on Firefly was also very well done.
I have to agree with that. I’ll give a thumbs up to the apartment from Mork and Mindy, because it did look like a small one bedroom. The others though, meh.
It always bugged me when a set would be changed and nobody would ever mention it. The Cunningham’s house was different in the first season (possibly first two) than later, and so was the apartment in The Odd Couple. Angles were different, entrances moved, things got bigger and wider and that bothered me.
Another set I always liked was the court room in Night Court. It looked like a somewhat grungy old municipal courtroom, in a somewhat grungy old municipal building.
I have a soft spot for the Back to the Future sets. The way they changed between different eras was done very well IMHO.