When my parents were planning details of the house they had built in 1957 or '58, I was 9 or 10 years old. I suggested they get a front door with a doorknob in the middle, like they had on that one show. I was sorta kidding, and I didn’t think they’d pay any attention. They went for it, though, and when I last checked, it was still there.
So, which TV family had the oddball front door?
BTW, on our door, it was done with a Schlage lockset with an extension between the latch and the lockset.
I think I remember that and am trying to guess what I might have been watching from that time period. Was it The Adventurs of Ozzie and Harriet? I’m picturing Ricky Nelson grabbing for that but it’s quite possible a figment…
This probably isn’t what you’re thinking of, but one of the funniest skits on the Carol Burnett Show had a door with a huge knob in the middle.
It was a mansion, and Tim Conway and Harvey Korman played butlers. The doorbell rang, and Tim Conway went to answer it. The problem was, he was wearing gloves and couldn’t turn the knob. So he ends up climbing up on the knob to sit on it and tries to turn it by gripping it with his thighs and swaying his whole body from side to side.
That’s not the funny part. Harvey Korman, from what I remember, was incredibly easy to crack up. He walks across the stage, I assume in an attempt to help Conway’s character open the door, and he stops halfway. You see Korman, his face in a rictus, his eyes screwed shut, as Conway straddles the doorknob, swaying from side to side. I believe Harvey had stopped dead in his tracks because he knew, if he moved one more inch, he would have collapsed on the floor, screaming in laughter.
IIRC, the door to Uncle Bill’s apartment in Family Affair had a center doorknob, but that was the late 60s.
Could it have been The Beverly Hillbillies?
I seem to remember that The Brady Bunch lived in a house that had DOUBLE front doors… both with doorknobs in the middle.
I can even picture the door, but I can’t quite resolve that to an actual recognizable studio set, dammit!
Me too and this is driving me crazy. I remember wondering about that weird door knob when I was a kid.
My immediate thought was also Family Affair. I think they showed the front door at the beginning of every ep.
StG
I assume there were no TV sitcoms of this era set in a hobbit-hole…
That’s the beauty of it! The knob doesn’t do anything!
Wasn’t there a centered doorknob in The Wizard of Oz?
Maybe the show was My Three Memes?
It was on a show I liked at the time, which lets out The Brady Bunch and Family Affair. Maybe it was Father Knows Best or something.
It wasn’t a TV show, but in the movie Johnny Dangerously, the door to Johnny’s apartment had a knob in the middle. Oddball thing to remember I suppose, but I’d never seen one before, and it kinda stuck with me.
Shot in the dark: The Loretta Young Show?
hh
No, those were the fancy French doors.
I’m almost certain that Captain Kangaroo’s door had a knob in the middle.
I’ll admit that I don’t have an answer or suggestion, but honestly! Why are people suggesting things like The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71) or The Brady Bunch (1969-74) when he said the house was built in 57 or 58?
I don’t know. Maybe because memories can be tricky sometimes. For instance: Just the other day I thought I was only about 8yo when Conan the Barbarian came out. Turns out I was actually 12.
Either that, or maybe people are just making conversaiton. What with this being a board and all.