# Why do sitcom families all have the same house? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2001, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683 "2001-10-26T01:13:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/41 "2002-12-01T16:16:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by watsonwil \* > Does it matter that some of the houses in the OP are flipped? Some go left to right, others go right to left. While it’s not quite as bizarre as _Happy Days_ flipping the set between seasons, there is the oddity of the change in the hotel’s layout between _Fawlty Towers_ and _Payne_, the US remake of it. From left to right, the familiar BBC set ran bar, office, reception desk, lobby with front door at back, stairs, dining room. The US version retained this order, but reversed it - so that, for instance, the front desk is on the righthand side of the lobby. Now, of course, the remake is notoriously screwed-up; Cleese tells the story about the network executive whose early input was “We love the idea, but can we just drop the unlikeable Basil guy.” But the set is otherwise relatively faithful and someone evidently felt they had a reason for the switch. (I was surprised when I stumbled across _Payne_ being screened by one of the ITV stations here in the UK a few years back. Granted they were using it as late night filler, but it’s still a wonder they had the cheek.) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/42 "2002-12-01T17:03:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > **Was it that some very early sitcom (“All in the Family?”) did it that way and since it worked they never bothered to change it?** _All in the Family_ (1971) is a “very early” sitcom? What does that make _I Love Lucy_ (1951), _Leave It to Beaver_ (1957), _The Donna Reed Show_ (1958), _The Dick Van Dyke Show_ (1961), _Bewitched_ (1964), _I Dream of Jeannie_ (1965) or _The Brady Bunch_ (1969)? All very different homes. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/43 "2002-12-01T17:41:03Z")
Some freaking architech that Mike Brady was… 2 bedrooms for 6 kids, with a connecting bathroom. And there was NO frickin toilet in the bathroom. NADA! Maybe that explains why Jan was so… ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/44 "2002-12-01T17:59:46Z")
_Tune in Tomorrow_, Mary Jane Higby, 1968, page 125: > [@](#): > > Then there was the incident of the Model Village. The agency built a complete papier-mâché model of Stanwood, the imaginary town of [the popular 1940s U.S. soap opera] “When a Girl Marries.” It was a large and expensive construction job. They invited [series creator] Mrs. Carrington to view it and explained that, with this model on hand, any geographical errors in her scripts could be quickly detected. She admired it and went her way. A few weeks later she had Harry say to Joan, “Darling, I’m not getting ahead here in Stanwood. Let’s move.” And move they did, out of the mythical town of Stanwood to the equally mythical, but uncharted, town of Beechwood. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/45 "2002-12-01T18:19:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranger \* > **Some freaking architech that Mike Brady was… 2 bedrooms for 6 kids, with a connecting bathroom. And there was NO frickin toilet in the bathroom. NADA!** This [architectural floor plan](http://www.markmooregallery.com/ben/ben_brdy.html) of the Brady home shows a toilet bowl in the children’s bathroom. I suppose we seldom (never?) saw it because it was in an alcove of that L-shaped room. Most (photographical) bathroom activity involved standing at the double sink area, which makes up the other part of the L. The only way the toilet bowl would be photographed would be if the camera were in the doorway to the girls’ room, and it panned back from the sink area to the toilet/bathtub area opposite it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/46 "2002-12-01T19:02:50Z")
A show I always wondered about was LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Charles Ingalls was supposed to be a great carpenter, but he lived in the ugliest house in Walnut Grove. This had to really be bad after growing up at one of the most homes in TV Land, The Ponderosa. What I always wondered about with the Ponderosa was just who decorated it. There are “groupings” of porcelain figurines, Navaho wall hangings (in a non-Navaho region of the west), beautiful oxblood leather chairs, etc., all of which calls for strong judgements in taste and an intrinsic aesthete. This was a house of five men, all of whom were usually out rangling cattle and shooting bad guys or telling the story of another one of Ben’s dead wives, and I don’t think there were that many decorators in 1860 Virginia City, so who had the decorating talent? My guess: Hoss. It’s always the big burly bear types. “Hop Sing, just how the hell you come all the way from the Imperial City and have no more understanding of Feng Shuih? Pa’s desk needs to face northwest in order to encourage the flow of productive energy, and do you really think the bluebird pattern on this china is going to go unnoticed next to the pineleaf wall hanging? Think! Now go get me another mocha while I decide where to display the pre Columbian textile arrangements, and if those beans are scorched again this time you’ll be lucky to get a walk on as the waiter at the Chinese place in Mt. Pilot on Andy Griffith, capece?” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/47 "2002-12-01T19:09:11Z")
I hate houses that completely disagree with themselves from outside and inside. The Brady’s is a prime example- there is no way that house had the 14,000 square feet necessary for that interior, and the Golden Girls had 4 master bedrooms (all with brand new and highly polished furnishings) and a large lanai in a house that looked MAYBE 2,000 sq. feet from the outside. I don’t think the MR. BELVEDERE house was ever shown from the outside, but what was up with that multi-landing staircase? FULL HOUSE had a full basement, a full attic (large enough for Jesse to build a 2 BR apartment), and numerous bedrooms in the historic district yet was economical enough for a single father to buy. On THE JEFFERSONS, there were supposed to be four bedrooms. Where were they? The hallway exited to stage right- the bedrooms couldn’t be to the left because the balcony was there, and they couldn’t be to the right because that’s where Bentley’s apartment was. On HAPPY DAYS, the front and back door were both on the same side of the house, and the front wall was at an angle. And where did the stairs lead? because the celings were at least 2 stories high in the living room. Houses that agreed with themselves inside and outside: Bewitched, Dallas, Falcon Crest, and, ugly as it was, Little House on the Prairie. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/48 "2002-12-01T20:08:43Z")
> [@](#): > > On THE JEFFERSONS, there were supposed to be four bedrooms. Where were they? Right next to the four bathrooms there was also no room for. ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/49 "2002-12-01T20:26:28Z")
> [@](#): > > What bothers me about them is not so much that the design is always the same, but that they are always so freakin’ clean and perfect. Nobody ever leaves a magazine on the coffee table, or a lipstick-stained coffee mug on the counter or a pair of sneakers on the living room floor. It’s all so sanitized and artificial (kind of like the shows themselves). But didnt some shows like Roseanne, make it a point that they were slobs?:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/50 "2002-12-01T23:14:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > **What I always wondered about with the Ponderosa was just who decorated it.** That would be Grace Gregory, my wife’s grandmother. She was also up for a couple of Oscars for set decoration too. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/51 "2002-12-01T23:32:37Z")
> [@](#): > > The Simpsons house is also setup much more like your basic, modern “colonial”-type house. You walk in, and you’re in the “foyer”, with a staircase going upstairs. To the left is the living room, and theres a door in the north wall of the living room going to the kitchen/dining room. The bathroom is off of the kitchen, to the right, (maybe theres also an entrance in the foyer? huh.). Upstairs, you have a hallway plus the bedrooms, and a pull-down attic staircase in the ceiling. Come to think of it, I have no idea what is off to the left of the foyer, but seeing as the front door is in the middle of the house there should be a similarly-sized wing of the house as on the left. They’ve been shown in a dining room from time to time, so I’ll assume thats over there. You know what just occurred to me? The Simpsons has almost the same layout at Buffy’s house on BtVS. > [@](#): > > ? FULL HOUSE had a full basement, a full attic (large enough for Jesse to build a 2 BR apartment), and numerous bedrooms in the historic district yet was economical enough for a single father to buy. He wasn’t a single father when he bought it. There was a flashback when his wife was bringing baby Michelle home. Plus, he oculd probably afford it. He was a sportscaster, then had his own morning show… ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/52 "2002-12-02T03:16:37Z")
i am always amazed that all of the people who are on the edge of poverty always have huge houses with 2700 ft living rooms. iirc, the clampetts had the smallest living room of all of the sitcoms. (courtin parlor not included, natch) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/53 "2002-12-02T03:29:40Z")
What I wondered about with the Clampetts is this: they live in a 30 room mansion. Presumably one of those rooms is a formal dining room- most middle class homes built in that era had a formal dining room, so surely a rambling mansion would. However, when they had company they ate on the billiard table in the “fancy eatin’ room”. You’d think that even a hillbilly who’d never seen a pool table before would, when seeing one room with billiards and another with tables, chairs, china cabinets, etc., be able to tell which one was for “fancy eatin’” (but then you’d also think they’d know even before leaving the hills that brand new trucks were available, plus you’d think they’d know that they could buy a large spread of land in the Ozarks and live in a log mansion easier than moving to California, so you “remind yourself that it’s just a show/sit back and just relax”. Kudos to your wife’s grandmother, Grace Gregory, btw: I always thought the Ponderosa was one of the most comfortable looking houses on TV. I’ve heard that Lorne Greene copied a lot of it when he built his own house, but I don’t know if it’s true. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/54 "2002-12-02T16:27:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handsomeharry \* > i am always amazed that all of the people who are on the edge of poverty always have huge houses with 2700 ft living rooms… Gotta leave room for 3 network-sized cameras, natch. Not to mention the audience. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/55 "2002-12-02T16:56:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pepperlandgirl \* > \*\*He wasn’t a single father when he bought it. There was a flashback when his wife was bringing baby Michelle home. Plus, he oculd probably afford it. He was a sportscaster, then had his own morning show… \*\* Very good. Now rationalize how a struggling actor like Joey Tribbianni can afford a 5 grand apartment in Manhattan. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683/56 "2002-12-02T19:37:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > \*\* > Kudos to your wife’s grandmother, Grace Gregory, btw: I always thought the Ponderosa was one of the most comfortable looking houses on TV. I’ve heard that Lorne Greene copied a lot of it when he built his own house, but I don’t know if it’s true. \*\* You can actually tour the Ponderosa ranch and farmhouse if you go to Lake Tahoe. You can also have a hayride and pancake breakfast, yeeee-haw! And get hitched!! [http://www.ponderosaranch.com/tahoe/SITE/top/listing.cfm/activity/63/0/direct?c=1](http://www.ponderosaranch.com/tahoe/SITE/top/listing.cfm/activity/63/0/direct?c=1) (Warning, this site will begin blasting the “Bonanza” theme after it loads. Depending on where you work, this could be good or bad.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-sitcom-families-all-have-the-same-house/89683.md?page=2)