# Why does every TV show house have the same layout? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716 "2006-12-11T19:16:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/1 "2006-12-11T19:16:31Z")
Why is it that every sitcom TV show has the same basic house layout? Going from left to right it’s always: front door, living room (with stairs to second floor), then some kind of door to the kitchen (usually with more stairs to second floor) and then a dining room area with a door back out of the house. Why has this become the standard layout for seemingly every TV show house I can think of? Just to name the ones off the top of my head that follow this layout: Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Roseanne, Grounded for Life, Boy Meets World, etc… Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/2 "2006-12-11T19:29:09Z")
I’m not sure that they all do have the same layout. In _Married With Children_, for instance, the front door was on the right. In _Seinfeld_ the door to the apartment is to the right of center. I’m sure there are other counter-examples. I’m not convinced. ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/3 "2006-12-11T19:37:12Z")
The premise is fairly sound. Lots more TV houses and apartments have visible stairs than they do in real life. Most real life stairs are in hallways, as seen in BBC shows, which are partly shot in old real buildings. I think the stairs just add an opportunity for dramatic entrances. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/4 "2006-12-11T19:39:52Z")
I’ve always thought that _All in the Family_, _Married with Children_ and, _The Cosby Show_ just used the same set. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/5 "2006-12-11T19:45:09Z")
Might it have something to do with ease of camera blocking? If you have a fairly standard kind of set, you can light it and shoot others like it in the same way. Maybe this is the reason sets are reminiscent of one another. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/6 "2006-12-11T19:46:40Z")
Whle they don’t always have the front door on the left (Everyone Loves Raymond, Married with Children, All in the Family, Brady Bunch all righties) the “linear” setup is just the nature of the beast when setting up the set for camera and studio audience convenience. Some odd ones I can think of are Happy Days (front door and kichen are both on the right) and Home Improvement (garage on left, backyard on right, front door in the rear). ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/7 "2006-12-11T19:50:50Z")
Set re-use is certainly a possibility, though I’d be surprised if the studio kept the All in the Family set long enough to be re-used for Cosby. Were they even produced by the same company? Much more likely is that the rowhouse/shotgun layout described above is easy to put together without needing much architectural thought by the scenic carpenters and it works well for TV production - just truck the cameras to the left or right to follow someone from the front door to the kitchen. To do a move like that in my house would involve tight corners and even a u-turn - it would be hard to do unless one camera shot entrance to hall, one shot in-hall, one shot hall to kitchen entrance and the fourth camera shot in the kitchen. Oops…almost all sitcoms are thee-camera shoots, so you’d need to break to move a camera. Plan B would involve a good Steadicam operaton to follow along that path. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/8 "2006-12-11T20:39:58Z")
I always thought All in the Family and Mama’s Family were the same set, ditto What’s Happening and Sanford & Son. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/9 "2006-12-12T00:52:22Z")
Weren’t all the apartments of the various characters on _Night Court_ basically the same? Cheap bastards… ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/10 "2006-12-12T01:26:33Z")
Star Trek was notorious for reusing sets from the starship to show ex. an alien ship or underground complex. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/11 "2006-12-12T01:37:18Z")
Front door on the right in: The Nanny Laverne & Shirley I Love Lucy The Simpsons Family Ties The Facts of Life Mad About You The Jeffersons The Love Boat (Guests were seen entering from the boarding ramp at stage right) I Dream of Jeannie The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Brady Bunch Maxwell Smart’s place Mama’s Family Three’s Company The Ropers Murphy Brown All in the Family Martin Lawrence’s sitcom (forgot the name) Will & Grace The Mary Tyler Moore Show The Honeymooners Married with Children Archie’s Place (the bar) Designing Women Ellen Welcom Back Kotter (the classroom) Family Affair Herman’s Head WKRP in Cincinnati Probably many more… ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/12 "2006-12-12T04:13:57Z")
_Friends_ has both! 😉 Then again, it’s an apartment not a house. Worthy of mention is the fact that on _Seinfeld_, “Bizzaro Jerry”'s apartment had the door on the left. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/13 "2006-12-12T04:19:45Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture] Front door on the right in: The Nanny Laverne & Shirley I Love Lucy The Simpsons Family Ties . . . (Big long list mostly deleted) . . . WKRP in Cincinnati Probably many more… [/QUOTE] **Patty** , honey, turn off the television, and step out of the living room. There are some things you just don’t want to be that much of an expert on. Tris ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/14 "2006-12-12T04:24:31Z")
Door on the right: The Simpsons That 70’s Show It would seem weird to me to shoot from the door toward the living room, or to see a living room with the main door behind it. If a show were shot in my living room, it would be door on the right rear, stairs going up, but evidence of stairs going up another level to be had if one were to look a little higher. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/15 "2006-12-12T04:26:53Z")
Oddly enough, most of those shows listed seems to be older shows while the few I listed seem to be relatively more recently. Must be some modern conspiracy to move sitcom doors to the left; **obviously** a doing of the liberal media. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/16 "2006-12-12T04:32:16Z")
Family Guy: The door is behind the vantage of the living room. The stairs are somewhere to the right. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/17 "2006-12-12T05:34:22Z")
[QUOTE=BrandonR] Oddly enough, most of those shows listed seems to be older shows while the few I listed seem to be relatively more recently. Must be some modern conspiracy to move sitcom doors to the left; **obviously** a doing of the liberal media. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Dick Van Dyke Show, door was left, no staircase. Child’s bedroom to the rear, master bedroom to the far left (usually not seen), kitchen to the right, entrance to backyard from kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/18 "2006-12-12T09:17:27Z")
Most sitcoms are like most other sitcoms anyway. Every once in a while a sitcom with a unique premise comes along–Frasier and Seinfeld come to mind–and then every sitcom that comes after it copies its formula (even Frasier, which I consider a pretty creative sitcom, feels like a highbrow Three’s Company remake at times). The use of similar sets is probably just symbolic, and hell, maybe it’s subconscious on the set designers’ part. Then again, sometimes a set is just a set. > [@Hampshire](#): > > Whle they don’t always have the front door on the left (Everyone Loves Raymond Quick note: Everyone Loves Raymond may not have had the front door on the left, but Ray, his wife and his brother always seemed to come in through the door on the left anyway. I always thought of that door as practically the front door for dramatic-entrance purposes, with the front door relegated to the status of “Unwelcome Guest Entrance”. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/19 "2006-12-12T13:23:28Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Quick note: Everyone Loves Raymond may not have had the front door on the left, but Ray, his wife and his brother always seemed to come in through the door on the left anyway. I always thought of that door as practically the front door for dramatic-entrance purposes, with the front door relegated to the status of “Unwelcome Guest Entrance”. [/QUOTE] I never did understand that…isn’t his parents’ house across the street? In front? So why do they all go around the house to come in the kitchen? ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716/20 "2006-12-12T15:39:28Z")
The Seinfeld set changed from the pilot to the show. In the pilot, Jerry had an atrium-style bay window, which would have put him into a much newer, much pricier building in a different part of town. Also, I don’t think you could see the bathroom door in the hallway, and no hanging bike. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-every-tv-show-house-have-the-same-layout/383716.md?page=2)