Livin’ in a TV Dream Home, SUPERSIZED EDITION
Speaker 1 0:00
This is John Davidson saying if you don't listen to the pop culture Preservation Society, you are missing something.
Unknown Speaker 0:05
Now that's incredible.
Michelle Newman 0:11
Welcome listeners to yet another super sized summer rerun. This time we are throwing it way, way back to Episode 56. Which I don't think we've ever replayed. Do you guys I don't think we have. I don't
Carolyn Cochrane 0:25
have my favorites.
Michelle Newman 0:26
I know it's a really fun episode is called Living in a TV dream home. And in this episode, oh my gosh, not only do we share all of the different great TV homes and sets that we remember growing up, each share our very favorite. So that's we're sticking around for right. And they're, they're really different to live in.
Kristin Nilsen 0:48
They are they're totally different. And I think this is significant because and I'm sure we say we do say this in the in the episode. But what we never stopped to think about is that our TVs contain so many different examples of home. Right? It's so interesting. It's not like reading a book or going to a movie you don't think about homes from books you've read or homes for movies that you've seen. It's really unique to TV, because so much of what we were watching were shows about families, and we have a show about a family they have to live in a house. And that becomes sort of a like a little shopping spree for us. We get to imagine ourselves in different homes. There's an article a very cool article that I found called the homes of characters we love or love to hate remain places that we visit over and over again by Fanny Montalvo. She's actually a real estate broker. I just think this is some really interesting information. And she points out I'm going to quote her here. Since the earliest days of television homes on a small screen from the suburban ranch with its white picket fence to the loft with its views of the city skyline have shaped our reality and our desires. No joke, right? So yeah, we start imagining what kind of life we want to lead based on the homes that these characters live in. And she points out that even the different styles of TV lend itself to different styles of homes. And the first one, of course, is the classic family sitcom. And she said it started really with I Love Lucy. I Love Lucy red blue because Lucy and Ricky lived in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan until they moved to the suburbs of Connecticut, which is also what everybody was doing at that moment in time when all of New York started moving to Connecticut, so did Lucy and Ricky. But people realized advertisers realize that people were starting to analyze Lucien Ricky's apartment and a furniture company actually made a replica of Lucy and Ricky's bedroom set and offered it for sale in an advertisement during I Love Lucy. Wow, brilliant did
Carolyn Cochrane 2:56
that many couples sleep, sleep in separate beds back then?
Kristin Nilsen 2:59
That's a really good question, Carolyn, because they make it sound like it's one bed. Oh, okay.
Michelle Newman 3:04
I thought this article was interesting. And that she was talking about how the different decades influenced it like in the 70s. That was very messy and real and imperfect. So you get something like all in the family, or Sanford and Son or something like that was the reality? Yeah, it was and then the 80s, we move into the 80s being defined by Glamour and access, like Dallas and Knott's landing. And then we go into the 90s. And that access has become a punchline, she said, and viewers wanted to see homes where real people might live like ordinary people of all realities. It could be gay characters, or single parent families. And then as the decade moved on groups of single friends, like friends, right, so the homes and the places they gathered all reflected that so there was much more to that. You know how the sausage was made than we were just seeing were like, Oh, I love that house. But actually, it was very intentional, I think is what
Kristin Nilsen 3:57
I think so and so influential. I remember in the 90s What was my favorite color? It was Periwinkle. And I had never in my life had a favorite color so hard. I love that color. So
Michelle Newman 4:12
look at her fingernails right now.
Carolyn Cochrane 4:13
Oh my god, I love fingernails.
Kristin Nilsen 4:17
Well, why do you think I had? Why did I Why do I love periwinkle so much? Because because of the friend's apartment, of course. And everybody's style was sort of leaning into that sort of Bohemian chic right? And we didn't know we could have purple walls until RACHEL Oh, do you
Michelle Newman 4:33
remember I remember watching TV with my kids. And so I'm talking about a lot of the Disney shows like The Hannah Montana is or the, you know, Wizards of Waverly Place and all these kinds of shows and everything was an explosion of color. Like cabinets were teal and the wall was green. And the and I was so into that I was like I never could. I never would do that myself. But I loved looking at it. and pausing the TV and being like, how does that all go together? But that looks so cool. So it's kind of an escape for you to especially getting out into your style.
Kristin Nilsen 5:10
It's also our norm of your own creativity. Even if you're not adopting it yourself. You're allowed to embrace it, or somebody else's home. Right, right. I even love even talking about Star Trek in this article. So fascinating. They said it, as we all know, in the mid 60s was we know that as the Atomic Age, and we had TV shows to reflect that like Star Trek and lost in space. And they she says the awe inspiring prospect of space travel was brought into daily life with these TV shows and made it familiar and fun. And again, I'm quoting here on television spaceships became a shinier version of their traditional sitcom living room. Yes, I
Carolyn Cochrane 5:51
remember Lost in Space was one of my favorite shows when I was little, so I couldn't tell you much about any of the plots of any of the episodes, but I can tell you how cool I thought it was that they had this like flying saucer spaceship that they lived in. It was just so cool. And I can still see it like them standing outside of it. I'm closing my eyes listening
Michelle Newman 6:15
is concentrating so hard.
Carolyn Cochrane 6:18
But yeah, and we just kind of said that but yeah, we've talked about the I Dream
Michelle Newman 6:23
of Jeannie bottle to how much we think that oh my god. Star
Kristin Nilsen 6:27
Trek in particular, she says the interior of the Starship Enterprise, the bridges, swivel chairs and blue plastic and the captain's imposing black leather arm chair, the bold flat colors, the orange upholstery and the captain's quarters embodied a particular mod chic modernity that soon found its way into interior design. It was and it was pushing out all of the things from the 50s the plat and the flounces. Star Trek was changing interior design.
Carolyn Cochrane 6:54
What do you think about that?
Michelle Newman 6:59
Carolyn is gobsmacked. So I have to ask you guys, do you have any influences or specific items in your own homes right now that you can attribute to homes of TV shows you've watched? Oh
Kristin Nilsen 7:14
my gosh, I'm sitting in one right now. Like if you buy my my podcasting studio, my office, my attic? Studio here is a combination of Mary Tyler Moore. apartment and Greg Brady's attic bedroom. That's
Carolyn Cochrane 7:33
are what I know
Kristin Nilsen 7:35
it really is. I've got orange. I've got an orange carpet. I've got an orange beanbag. I've got Orange County up here. I have an orange couch. Yes, I do. It's all swirly and psychedelic.
Carolyn Cochrane 7:47
Oh, yeah.
Kristin Nilsen 7:48
I wish I hadn't.
Michelle Newman 7:52
Well, I was going to share with you guys we have several things that we own be specifically because of a television show. We watched and I googled and Googled until I found the exact thing. All of them are vessels to drink out of years ago and Two and a Half Men, the OG when it was like in its first few seasons, Brian and I loved Two and a Half Men that was appointment TV for us. And Brian fell in love with a coffee mugs that that they were always drinking out of Charlie was always drinking up and it's a striped coffee mug. And I found them and got them for him for Christmas and was so funny as this was years ago. But when you Googled two and a half man coffee mug, they all came up and they were selling not like not like from the you know, not like from the CBS store that you know, then it says two and a half moon on the bottom. But it's like it's kind of like a I don't know, it's the ceramic mug. I'm gonna you know, I should put a picture and then pick the reader this week. Please do because I still have. We still have these coffee mugs and they're still some of our very favorite coffee mugs. Two of them have little chips out of them and it kills us. But I was watching a rerun not that long ago, a few months ago. And I was like, they've got our coffee mugs. The second is then when we got into scandal like millions of other people we had to have the Camille red wine glasses from Crate and Barrel because that's the wineglass Olivia Pope always drank from at the end of the night. It's a giant globe. It's like a fishbowl. And she would glug glug glug like her wine in it at the end and there you can still buy them at Crate and Barrel. I never drink out of them because they're giant. And then the third one I just gave to my husband for Christmas like year before last. I rewatched the entire series of madmen with him because he had never seen it and I love madmen. And my husband's a whiskey drinker and one of the glasses that Don Draper always drinks his whiskey out of that he keeps in his office I found a set and they're just like a small little globe and they have like silver around the top so I narrated you know about Yeah, kind of very 60s looking and what's on his IMAK I've stolen two of them and I drink I use them as wine glasses but Yeah, so three things specifically that we were like, We must have those, it's not as much the style, but it was things that we saw, you know them using that we don't have.
Carolyn Cochrane 10:09
Well, and now it makes me think of, especially as a kid watching these shows and looking at the TV homes, and observing those kind of items, like the things that were on the dresser, or hanging on their walls. They weren't part of the storyline, but you felt like it was you were learning something was kind of intimate. And I think my little brain when I was younger, I mean, I knew the Brady's weren't real people. But at the same time in my brain, they might have been kind of religious people.
Kristin Nilsen 10:38
Oh, did we know? I don't know. I mean, maybe, right,
Carolyn Cochrane 10:41
exactly. So you felt like oh, my gosh, I'm looking at that poster on the wall, or, you know, particularly in their rooms or in the bathroom, sometimes not even paying attention to what was happening in the screen with the characters, but looking around and feeling like I was getting this extra level of intimacy with these characters and knowing you know more about them, and I just loved doing that.
Kristin Nilsen 11:05
But I think I think you have a really good point, Carolyn about it adds another level of intimacy, you get to relate to these characters on a more intimate level by understanding all of the cookbooks that they use, or the toothbrush that they use, or the books on their shelf. And that's something that takes place subliminally, you don't even know that you're doing it really. And so that elevates the importance of the set designer. Yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 11:29
it really does. And that's why those people go to school for that. I mean, there is a whole science behind behind the whole set design world. And that's why they have categories in the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards specifically for set design. And it's everything from those little things that we don't like you said, Kristen, it's almost subliminal, we don't even know that we notice. But we are absorbing it and then kind of helping us flesh out who these characters are a little bit more and
Kristin Nilsen 11:59
who we are in relation like yeah, once once Michelle said, when you ask the question, do you have anything and I was like, looks up for my attic? No, I don't think so. But then when you said glassware, all of the glassware they used on friends I had in my home. Literally, the tumblers that had the blue the Mexican blue. Oh gosh, yeah, those the tall water glasses that were all cobalt blue. Everything was everything
Carolyn Cochrane 12:23
was That was where all my wedding gifts. But here's my question. Chicken or the chicken or the Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 12:30
one of our followers recently posted about finding the mugs from Brady Bunch.
Michelle Newman 12:35
It's Susie, who is helping me who's helping?
Kristin Nilsen 12:39
Yes. And it was such a coup. And these mugs are so we had them in our home too. So to find the Brady Bunch of mugs would be so important on many levels, not just from a Brady Bunch standpoint, but from my own personal standpoint. I want that mug too, right? Yeah. All of these things make us feel at home, both with our TV characters and in our own homes. And so I hope you enjoy this episode where we're really talking about the TV homes that meant the most to us and we hope to hear from you to let us know which ones you like the best.
Michelle Newman 13:10
So here we go with episode 56 Living in a TV dream home
Speaker 1 13:18
is a very very very fine house with two cats in New York. But
Michelle Newman 13:24
I have the perfect idea. I say we have a PCPs meet up and sleep over there. Right we're not itching powder though. No one's paying Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 13:35
my brother's not allowed anywhere. Yes, that's
Michelle Newman 13:36
right. We're gonna we're gonna like there's gonna be like ghosts out in the trees
Speaker 2 13:45
is a song that was saying come on get
Unknown Speaker 13:54
we're gonna be breaking will make you
Kristin Nilsen 14:00
welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society. The podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who's saying dingdong Avon every time the doorbell rang.
Michelle Newman 14:09
We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images. And if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition.
Carolyn Cochrane 14:20
And today we will be saving the houses of our TV families. The ones we dreamed of living in ourselves. Which one was your favorite? I'm Carolyn.
Kristin Nilsen 14:31
I'm Kristen.
Michelle Newman 14:32
And I'm Michelle. And we are your pop culture preservationists. You guys have any plans this weekend?
Kristin Nilsen 14:43
I've been playing by my kids.
Carolyn Cochrane 14:47
Make plans to stay home by yourself. Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 14:49
and I couldn't be happier. I'm loving it. Next, I have that next weekend is going on. A little, a little up north vacation to do some skiing and I heard it. I just I couldn't go. So you know, I'll just have to stay here by myself with the whole house to myself, I guess. Gosh, I'm sorry. Wait,
Michelle Newman 15:09
you know what I have that next weekend? Well, it's just my husband and I know anyway, but I have that next weekend. And I started watching a movie just a little silly. Netflix rom com. The other night, you know, it's like a new movie. I'm like, Oh, this looks cute. I started watching it. And I immediately got no, save it. Save it for your weekend. Yeah, girls weekend. I mean, just alone.
Kristin Nilsen 15:32
That's, you know, so that's so funny, because that's exactly what I think of what am I going to watch? I don't have to negotiate with anybody. I don't have to try and marry or two TV watching philosophies, which are vastly different. And I just feel like fine, we'll watch this again.
Carolyn Cochrane 15:49
We'll have fun. I'll be putting my nose to the grindstone editing. And now I
Michelle Newman 15:55
feel bad. Yeah, tiny violin never stopped.
Kristin Nilsen 15:59
Although that is true.
Carolyn Cochrane 16:02
It doesn't know. Yeah, my nothing stops from me, not my brain, not my I don't know, urine sometimes.
Kristin Nilsen 16:12
Well, that's interesting, Carolyn, that you say that? Is that actually true? Like, could this non stop editing is does this work well with the way that your brain operates?
Michelle Newman 16:22
Yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 16:23
I mean, I think I think so when I was actually just talking to my chiropractor of all things about this, because we were commenting on how long I sit sometimes. And I said, Well, what happens is I get in this groove. So I'm editing, it's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle kind of thing. And if I haven't shared before I, my brain has a little add going on. And so I can, I can either be totally everywhere, or I can hyper focus and just be in the zone. But once I kind of get out of the zone for a sec, it's really hard to get back in the zone. So when I'm editing, I could be sitting there for two and a half hours. And I don't even know that two and a half hours have gone by. But of course, that's not really healthy to sit when you got lower back pain. And you're going to the chiropractor say you can't sit for two and a half hours. And I was explaining gosh, well, it has to be a really little moved so that I don't my brain doesn't even realize I'm doing anything differently. Or I'll get out of that. Out of that space. That's really a productive space for me. Yeah.
Michelle Newman 17:21
What about those standing desks? Have you ever seen those? Well, I
Carolyn Cochrane 17:24
do have. I don't have the actual standing desk, but I do have a little setup that I do that's like that. And then she said, maybe I could sit on. She said, Do you have an exercise ball? I know. And I said I think I do in our basement? I don't know if it's still inflated. Yeah. And she said, Well, you can sit on that because even just you know, you use bouncing. Yeah, but then what if I hit the wrong thing and delete something or
Kristin Nilsen 17:51
well, but I think thinking about that might that might work because you know how for some people it's easier to pay attention when you're doing something else like knitting or embroidery or something like that. And it could be that stabilizing yourself on the ball is the doing something
Michelle Newman 18:06
for you me on the violin love video though of Carolyn trying to edit while she's on the ball. She just keeps rolling off to the side. Backwards her feet
Carolyn Cochrane 18:18
sorry, some bad words as I'm toppling over and then the computer falls over and I'm gonna experiment with a few things because yeah, I've had some back issues and I got this thing called a wobble chair. I almost pulled it up, but I'm not going to move. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it probably could be a little more than Yeah, it will not for me. I mean, not even that I curse when I am I kind of fall off and it's kind of a pain. But anyway, I digress. I remember
Kristin Nilsen 18:49
in college, did you have those chairs at your word processors? Were you it was like a chair that was slanted forward and then your knees would go on little pads in front of you.
Michelle Newman 19:02
My daughter has one. We just got it for her. They still make Yeah, they still make it it's there's no back to it. It's just yet and it slants forward and the reason we got it for her is during COVID When she she goes to college just for those of you listening my daughter is a oh god she's a junior in college. That's crazy. And everything was remote. So she was at home for basically a year. So sitting at her desk taking classes all day long and her back was killing her and the way that she realized that she sat on her chair was with her knees drawn up a lot to her like up that's what she said like and so her back was killing her and so we got her that chair and she loves it. And so you almost sit and your knees you're like Wait is kind of on your knees all over and it sketch we got up on Amazon.
Kristin Nilsen 19:50
I am totally getting one. I'm totally getting one because I cannot find a good way to sit and I was shopping for slouch really and either you can't slouch
Carolyn Cochrane 19:59
All right All All right, well, we'll try one of those. We
Kristin Nilsen 20:01
should I'm just going to come borrow yours. And we'll see how you
Michelle Newman 20:05
try to hear she doesn't she didn't take it to college with her. So let's hear.
Kristin Nilsen 20:08
We'll pass it around. We'll each try it. And then we'll we'll give our grade sounds will help the 1986 word processor chair. Yeah. Okay, are you guys ready to talk about your TV dream homes?
Carolyn Cochrane 20:20
Oh my gosh,
Kristin Nilsen 20:20
horse. Let's do it. Buckle up. Bob.
Unknown Speaker 20:28
Is a very, very, very buying house.
Kristin Nilsen 20:30
Every time you watch TV, the people in the show have to live somewhere. And it's only natural that after spending time with them each and every week, sometimes for your entire childhood, that the homes those people lived in start to become as familiar as the characters themselves. Did you have a TV house you loved a place you yourself wanted to live? Possibly with the TV family still in it? If you did, it's cool to know that someone agonized over that set. They decided what style it should be they picked out the furniture they toiled over the exact right accessories. That was someone's life's work. And it was important, because the result could be that it would live in someone's heart forever.
Carolyn Cochrane 21:11
And it does. What a fun job too, don't you think?
Michelle Newman 21:16
Oh, yes. But really stressful. I don't know that I could handle that kind of stress, I would be agonizing over like two accessories, you know, do I do as much last grapes? And blue or green? You know,
Kristin Nilsen 21:30
that is an actual situation that happened? Should I get the glass grapes in the wind? Or the guy
Michelle Newman 21:34
that wasn't I chose from my mind, because it literally just happened when the three of us were in a vintage store. Late fall. And Kristen could not decide on a set of glass
Kristin Nilsen 21:45
raised. And the orange was the proper choice.
Michelle Newman 21:48
It was the proper choice, especially for your house, I think. But yeah, I think the home is so vital to our memories of these TV shows. You can't separate them really. Because I don't know about you guys, but I often remember details of the homes way more clearly than I do. The series like if you say a series went on for eight years that we loved. Sure, I might remember an episode here and there. But I'm gonna remember everything that was in that kitchen, or everything that was in that on that coffee table. Yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 22:21
those homes, kind of like you said, Kristen, they're almost like another character. I mean, that's how they almost breathe, they live so much in our memories that way. And again, like you said, the time and the effort that go into choosing everything from the exterior, what it's going to look like to the interior shots to every little thing that's hanging on the wall. It is an enormous task. And so right now I'm gonna just do a quick little evolution of TV homes with you guys. And how what we see now has kind of come to be because originally shows like I Love Lucy Dick Van Dyke, those were filmed as we remember, in front of live audiences often in a studio. So those were all sometimes within like a big building, there would just be different little studio sets within those. But then during the 50s, some of the film production companies out in LA started to realize that this TV thing was maybe going to take off, and they wanted to get in on it. So they developed kind of television arms out of their movie studios. And because of that, they had large studio lights, because they'd been producing films on there. So now they could have these television shows, produced also on these big lots, and they could in turn have exterior shots. They could have outside shots before that. Everything was inside, and now we can be outside. So think
Kristin Nilsen 23:44
about that. We don't know. We're Lucy and Ricky lips, right? We never saw the outset. Whereas when you watch Friends, they show the outside of the building before every scene begins. We never saw the outside of Lucien Ricky's building. We
Michelle Newman 23:56
didn't and did we ever see the outside of the Dick Van Dyke Show house? No, never we did.
Carolyn Cochrane 24:01
No, we didn't. And so now these large studios, they could even have a whole neighborhood a whole of suburban streets that they could incorporate so now all of a sudden Leave It to Beaver doesn't have to take place just in a studio with interior shots we can go walking down the sidewalk with Leave It to Beaver we can go into town with Leave It to Beaver. Hazel was another one of the first shows that was able to have exterior shots. And because the studios basically had space to create the scenes, so some of the studios you might recognize the name that we had Columbia films, which is now Warner Brothers, and they were one of the first studios that incorporated a television arm. Their huge backlot is known as the ranch the ranch features such iconic TV homes as Darren and Samantha Stevens house from Bewitched, the houses from I Dream of Jeannie and the Partridge Family and also The ranch has probably what is the most famous water feature in TV history? I know. Well, it's that fountain from the opening of friends that is located Oh, the ranch lot. So they did reuse a lot of the sets, especially the exteriors. Another backlot that we're probably all familiar with, is the universal Yeah, backlot. So that was another film company in the 50s that had started to produce television shows. And they're kind of suburban street where their houses are located. It's called colonial Street. And this is where you'd find the homes of The Munsters. The cleavers?
Michelle Newman 25:39
Well, one thing that's so interesting about when you do those tours, because we also have done the universal tour, and it's so interesting that it's just it's truly just the shell. It's just the front of the house. It's just the exterior. It's almost it's not a cardboard cutout of a house. But it almost is like if you walk through the front door, it's there's nothing in there. But they're just they're just facades. Yeah. And yet
Kristin Nilsen 26:03
people still have to come out the door, right? Like a lot of the exterior scenes are people coming out of the house, so they're just going through a facade. I swear I can I can see Keith Partridge coming out? Well,
Carolyn Cochrane 26:14
you can, I'm gonna say because they would put up what they called an L wall. The Stephens house is another example of that, and probably the Partridge Family. So it was just behind the front door. So it looked like there was something beyond that. So you could open the front door. Truly, there wasn't the rest of the house. But there was this kind of makeshift wall that made it appear that there was like
Kristin Nilsen 26:36
there was a mountain in there
Carolyn Cochrane 26:38
are a bunch of cars. Yes, there are a lot of facades, and then they do have some of the homes where they'll have like the other three walls and a roof, but there's nothing inside. They use it for storage of like light fixtures and that kind of thing. So they don't actually feel bad. I don't like that. There. You learn to make you feel bad
Michelle Newman 26:57
a little bad. drive you crazy though, when you would see like an exterior establishing shot of the house. I'm just thinking right now of like the Cosby Show. So you'd see like the exterior, the, the Huxtables, almost like a brownstone. And then you would immediately be inside and they're all in the living room. And I would always be going okay, so that window, it so wait a minute, like I would be picturing what I just saw as the exterior, and then I'd be trying to figure out where everything was. And if it didn't match up, drove me crazy. And it didn't match up often, like in house it was you would be you would see the exterior, and then when it would be the interior, you're going wait, that's not where that window is. Or that doesn't make sense. There's no way the upstairs could go that way. And you think someone's job is, that's all they had to do. All they had to do was to build the fence. If this was if they say this is the outside house, this is what we want their house to be. Now someone needs to make the inside set look like that could actually be inside that house. And they failed, right?
Kristin Nilsen 27:54
Like a person housing for reset whose job it was to say braids, when Laura's braids were in front when they were supposed to be in back. They should have had a person who could pick that out, right? I
Michelle Newman 28:05
think it was Karen Grassley told us was the script supervisor because I was like, I want to be that person. I want to be that person who says you guys if this is the outside, there's no way that window then needs to be on the other side of the room, or whatever you
Carolyn Cochrane 28:17
think people not notice. don't notice that. And for the the two studios that we just talked about that had the you know, they were obviously creating the facade, why can't they just you know, create the home behind it to correspond. They had that option. But Paramount Studios, again, another film studio in the 50s that develop television shows. Their lot was not that big in LA that they had. So to create these exterior scenes for homes, they would actually go to surrounding neighborhoods and find a home that they thought would represent the Brady Bunch, for example. So that home is not located on a lot. That's a real person's home. It's located on 11 to 22 dueling Street. The Cunninghams home is another one that's just a few blocks from Paramount. And that's obviously from Happy days. We've got the Clampetts the Clampetts mansion from Beverly Hillbillies is in Bel Air real? Yep, that goes.
Kristin Nilsen 29:11
That's interesting. So there's an address for the Clampetts. house there is.
Carolyn Cochrane 29:15
And I think there's a website that gives you all of those addresses that you can go if you want to do actual tours. I tried to look up because family was another one because you've stood in front of that house, Kristen. I was trying to see if it was a paramount production. And I couldn't find that before we met today. But that's another example that home was not very far. Obviously you were there. And people still go like Kristen and stand in front of some four families home that's just eat their breakfast.
Michelle Newman 29:43
Do it Yeah, do that.
Kristin Nilsen 29:46
Oh, I actually went up to a house that did not go in the Cosby set. And I went up to the door and had my picture taken opening the door just because it looked like the Cosby house. It wasn't even the Cosby salesman like it's close enough. There's the lady there. funny. That was me that creepy lady.
Carolyn Cochrane 30:01
It's funny you bring that up because perhaps one of the most iconic homes is located not very far from us. It is Mary Richards home from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and that was in Minneapolis and still it.
Kristin Nilsen 30:18
So many of us dreamed of living in some of these houses, and we decided to ask our society members which TV house they would want to be their dream home. And without even counting the votes, we know, we know exactly which classic TV home you all want to live in. If you grew up in the 70s, or the 80s. The TV home you fell in love with a new so intimately was the Brady Bunch house. We know because we feel exactly the same way. We all wanted to live in that house. Absolutely.
Michelle Newman 30:48
Of course. Yeah. The Brady Bunch house is so beloved. And we have so much to say about it. And it is just such an icon of 1970s architecture and design, that it deserves its very own episode. And don't worry, you guys, it will have one and an upcoming season. You guys at this rate, I think we're gonna have like 187 seasons.
Kristin Nilsen 31:10
I know it's true. We keep
Michelle Newman 31:13
finding all these great ideas. And we have already like planned a season and we're like, Well, next season next season. And then we think of other things. Anyway, but the actual house at 11 to 22 dwelling street actually did get its own series on HGTV just a couple of years ago. And I'm sure I'm speaking to the choir with our society. But for those of you who don't know, when that actual house, the one that was used for all the exterior shots, went up for sale. It looked like Brady Bunch super fan, and NSYNC singer Lance Bass, which I think that surprised a lot of us so much he was gonna buy it. But HGTV outbid him and bought the house for $3.5 million in August 2018. And yes, Lance Bass was terribly disappointed. But it made me love him so much. I know.
Kristin Nilsen 32:03
Yes, like he's one of us. We can
Michelle Newman 32:04
be like my child, I think. But it all worked out for him, because I think he ended up being like some sort of producer on the show. So he still has a connection to it. And he's still, you know, teaching made some money from that so. And then, in November of 2018, HGTV began production on a very Brady renovation, where all six Brady kids came together and worked alongside some of HGTV stars to transform that home into the replica of the original Paramount stage five set. And they did it was insanely detailed. And just so impressive. They completed that renovation. It was that was just in May of 2019. And the show premiered in September of 2019. You guys watched it right? Oh, god, yes. I couldn't wait for that. I know. So excited. both
Kristin Nilsen 32:51
Mike and me. I mean, it's so funny when somebody that is not normally as nostalgic about the same things, as you are, is right on the couch. They're like we have to see if they got the bathroom done. Like he's just so excited.
Michelle Newman 33:03
That show appealed to everybody though, because he had to actually reconstruct that house. Like I was just saying before, drives me crazy how many exteriors look nothing like it's not possible for the interior to match that exterior. The Brady Bunch house was one of them. And it wasn't possible for everything that was in that house to belong to the same exterior. But by GM HGTV did it and they did it with a whole bunch of construction. But it's so fascinating. So yeah, each episode of featured a different pairing of Brady kids working with HGTV designers and builders and they went out searching for the exact props or recreating the fabrics. That one was so interesting with Marcia with Maureen McCormick recreated the fabric for the sofa. Or they even they even like I just said they had to build sections of the home to make it exact, even the backyard. And it's crazy how perfect it ended up. If you happen to not watch it. Don't worry, you can follow very Brady renovation still on Instagram for the fun videos and all the reveals are still there and you can still stream it on a variety of streaming platforms. And as for that the new completely replicated breed out house. It's kind of sad. Its future kind of remains unclear. One woman won a contest and got to stay there for a week with her husband. And that can you imagine what would you do? Would you like which I would dress the part? I just want seven days close. Oh, I would I would like want to use the little tiny coffee cups like their coffee cups have like four sips of coffee in them
Kristin Nilsen 34:37
because they're green I've looked for them online I want them they're green with those little like ovals on them.
Michelle Newman 34:42
Yeah, I would sit on those like those two chairs you know in the in like in the living room and read the paper or I would like needlepoint like Carol did like I would do everything they did I think if I was gonna anyway, they've given some celebrities private tour sense but you guys they can't really open it to the public because of all the zoning laws in the neighborhood. Because it's a neighborhood, so they can't make it an Airbnb. They can't make it like a museum. It's a neighborhood. So it's kind of unfortunate, but I have the perfect idea. I say we have a PCPs meet up and sleep over there.
Kristin Nilsen 35:20
Right? We're not itching powder though. No one's paying. My brother's not allowed anywhere near this. We're
Michelle Newman 35:25
gonna we're gonna like there's gonna be like ghosts out in the trees. We're not going to charge anybody. We're just going to say come on over. We just have to we just got to arrange it with HGTV but I think that would be like a really, really low
Kristin Nilsen 35:39
rate some records and your transistor radio. Well, maybe
Carolyn Cochrane 35:42
if no
Michelle Newman 35:43
playing ball at the house, though. Everyone know
Carolyn Cochrane 35:48
if we did charge, we could do like a fundraiser and then maybe HGTV would feel good about it like yeah, let's let them come everyone pays $150 To have a PCPs sleepover and then we donate whatever to some worthy cause.
Michelle Newman 36:02
Somebody out there has to have a connection. So hear us now you know what you guys a couple episodes ago we talked about our vision boards. I'm putting this I'm adding this to mine. Something will happen PCPs related in that replicated Brady
Kristin Nilsen 36:15
I want to be inside a picture outside will not suffice this time. No don't I have to dry inside? Yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 36:21
we will be inside for a long time. We will sleep Yeah.
Michelle Newman 36:25
Well Can the three of us get the nylons night go everybody else can. Can the three of us get the girls rooms. Can I have Cindy's bed over? Yes. The wall? Yeah, thanks. Okay, thanks. Yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 36:32
And I will lean out. I don't want to be Jan. But
Kristin Nilsen 36:36
I'll be Jan.
Carolyn Cochrane 36:39
When you look out you know when you dropped your necklace, and you were looking for the bear fluffier and I wasn't looking
Michelle Newman 36:46
for fluffy. Oh, you were looking at the sky? Like a
Carolyn Cochrane 36:50
constellation or they were looking at a constellation. Okay, that's their solar. Yeah. And then she recreates the evening and she screams when she realizes
Michelle Newman 37:02
she doesn't? Yeah, she doesn't just scream. It's like a howl. It's like it wakes everybody up. Everybody comes running from all around the house. The boys come in. Of course when the boys come in, though. They're tying their bathrobes because you don't go for you can't
Kristin Nilsen 37:20
come out to your room without your bathrobe. Brady's
Carolyn Cochrane 37:23
robes I tell you I thought Yeah, really? Bathrooms those were a big thing in that show everyone knew bathroom but then to their bed.
Michelle Newman 37:32
Well I bet it was censorship stuff because you know they couldn't should there couldn't be a toilet in that bathroom because our sensor because of the sensor so there couldn't
Kristin Nilsen 37:41
because people don't know what toilet
Carolyn Cochrane 37:43
no peeing well I love that what do you call it the TV room you know that room off the kitchen where are they? Okay yeah. Mics Oh, that's
Michelle Newman 37:53
Yeah Mike's did You're right. I just happen to like the family room that which to me was that's like a fan like, you know what there's like a fan like the living room is always more like the formal living room. The family room. Family hangs out and watches TV in our house at least so yeah, I always think my dad really? Plaid
Carolyn Cochrane 38:10
that's what I like one of those plaid l couches that. Like I think they actually became single size twin beds, like you could pull them out. Here was in the
Michelle Newman 38:19
US a lot of space for pizza. Yes, people.
Carolyn Cochrane 38:22
Oh, this is true. That's right. And they can sleep outside because the weather is always nice. You know? The astroturf? Yeah, on the astroturf and a pup 10 Tigers dog bring your own apps or Tigers dog house? Yeah, that would work.
Kristin Nilsen 38:34
Did you know that the pop culture preservation society's on Patreon. Patreon allows you to support our work by becoming dues paying members of our society. We are an independent women run endeavor with a commitment to delivering the highest quality listening experience to our community. And so we've taught ourselves how to record edit and produce a podcast in midlife. A time when most of us are asking our kids how to read Graham a tick tock so that we can deliver episodes that truly speak to you. Support from PCPs patrons means that we can devote more of our time and resources to the content sources, equipment, software hosting and research that you've come to depend on without worrying about how to pay the bills. So thank you. We appreciate you from the bottom of our bell bottom tarts.
Carolyn Cochrane 39:23
Okay, you guys now it's time to share our favorite TV home with our listeners. You know the one that you could imagine yourself living in and waking up in an eating breakfast. So if you were going to come and knock on my door
Michelle Newman 39:41
it's not that someone can't see me repeating it.
Carolyn Cochrane 39:46
I can't sing that thing. But I'm going to come and knock on my door of the My Favorite TV home you would be at 1164 Morning Glory circle at the home Samantha and Darrin Stephens from
Michelle Newman 40:08
bed. I love that house.
Carolyn Cochrane 40:09
I have loved that home my entire life. And I never really knew why I just knew I wanted. As I said, to wake up in there. I wanted to eat breakfast in that kitchen. I wanted to be friends with Tabitha. It gives me this warm feeling this just warm, comfy feeling every time I think of it. And it wasn't until we were doing research for this episode that I thought I need to dig into why I feel that way. So I watched some episodes, look through some videos. And I gotta say, I think one of the big selling points was that this home had not one, but two sets of stairs. And you live in a ranch house in Houston, Texas. All you want is stairs, you think that you have made it you have an upper floor. So the fact that you could go upstairs from not only the entryway, but also the kitchen. Oh my gosh, this was over the top house.
Kristin Nilsen 41:08
Carolyn, can I just tell you that I had the same experience because I lived in a ranch house in California. And when we moved to Minnesota, not only was I getting stairs, I was getting two sets of stairs. I mean, it was almost too much. It was too much.
Carolyn Cochrane 41:21
It and I think
Michelle Newman 41:22
like you guys were like super wealthy, like I would have Oh like oh my dad. Are you president? Yeah. Mayor of Minnesota.
Carolyn Cochrane 41:30
Mayor trying to so glad I'm not alone with that. Because somehow I thought that stairs equaled wealth, like stairs. You were rich and didn't have the world salutely Yeah, it was. It was wonderful. So that second set of stairs, you guys mean stairs came down in the kitchen. Okay, you could just come down from your bedroom, and come into that Fun, fun kitchen. So that is another place. I think I fell in love with that home. Not only it had these really cool like shuttered bifold doors that separated kind of the bar pass through into the dining room. And I thought that was really neat. Like, you could have a really messy kitchen, but shut those and you could entertain and no one would have to see that your kitchen was messy. I mean, that's pretty cool.
Kristin Nilsen 42:15
That's pretty ingenious. Yes, I
Carolyn Cochrane 42:16
really love that. But that we're just going to take a moment. We're just gonna sit for a second. We're gonna talk about that kitchen. Because it was pretty darn cool. Okay, it had well, obviously the magic that she would do in there, but almost a magical appliance.
Kristin Nilsen 42:30
You know, the magic, the magic.
Carolyn Cochrane 42:32
There is the coolest oven range setup in that kitchen. That looks magical. But it is real. It is the Frigidaire flair electric range. You found it? Oh, yeah. And you too could find one and buy it for your kitchen if you want to now for a little over $12,500 Oh, okay. But at the time, this was indeed a product and product placement was actually a big deal on on B which so Frigidaire is getting a nice little plugin. But do you guys remember this? The range stove situation?
Kristin Nilsen 43:08
Was it like was it one on top of the other? Is that right? Okay,
Carolyn Cochrane 43:11
well it was really cool in that it had the oven part had these like window doors that kind of opened up that was on the top. Yeah. And then it had like storage for all your pots and pans kind of underneath. So they didn't have a built in oven into the wall like we might see in another favorite TV home. But you could see everything it was at eye level and then you could be cooking down right below it. So everything was kind of in this one place. And then they also had like this. They had a fireplace in their brick fireplace in their kitchen, which again talk about cozy and homey and maybe little housing chips.
Kristin Nilsen 43:48
It's kind of witchy well there you go. Yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 43:51
And there was like she could have cooked the on it but I never actually saw her using it to cook it to me. It was just kind of
Kristin Nilsen 43:57
a fun when Mr. Tate was coming over. Yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 44:01
So kitchen I loved and then above all of that though, as I really went back and looked. I think it was the exterior of that home. They did spend a lot of time outside the backyard had a gazebo in it. It looked like a fun place to hang out. There was a really nice patio with some really nice patio furniture and that point in my life. I mean, I loved my my home growing up but we had like those lawn chairs that were kind of webbed. I didn't even know you could have a cow and
Kristin Nilsen 44:30
nylon. Yeah,
Michelle Newman 44:31
maybe they make those impressions on the back of your thigh,
Carolyn Cochrane 44:35
your thighs. And that was our outdoor furniture. So the fact that you could have like a couch and some chairs and a table blew my mind. So I was very sweet. I loved that and I loved the front yard. Because that neighborhood because we would see the neighborhood we see the Kravitz house, we'd see the driveway and they're convertible in the driveway and there were trees that were big and when you grow up in a He kind of track subdivision where all the homes are like the one three doors down. And they're newly built. So there's just new sod in the, in your front yard, little sapling trees, a few bushes, nothing has matured yet. You can't climb a tree in my neighborhood growing up because you would have broken the tree. There were no branches or anything, all the way to the ground. Yeah. Like, you know, a tree swing. What is that, like? All of those things could not have happened where I grew up at this home, it had all of that mature landscaping. It just felt like a place that I wanted to open the front door and say I'm home. And I wouldn't do it today. I love like
Kristin Nilsen 45:37
so much of what we have what we like is what we didn't have. Yeah, isn't that interesting? It's often the opposite of what we had.
Carolyn Cochrane 45:48
And so that is my favorite home. I love it. What is yours?
Kristin Nilsen 45:54
So when I, when I moved to Minnesota in 1975, one of the first things that my dad did when we arrived, was drive us by 2104 Kenwood Parkway, which is The Mary Tyler Moore house.
And which that's somebody's actual address. Somebody lives there right now. And I just advertised it to all of podcast land all of the peoples out there. But it doesn't matter. Because it's such a well known address. All you have to do is Google Mary Tyler Morehouse, and 2104 Kenwood Parkway comes up. So I've revealed nobody secrets. But it's a it's a beautiful, it's a big, beautiful Victorian house that was built in the late 1800s. It's on one of the most beautiful streets, and one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city of Minneapolis, just a mile or so from my house right now. And I can drive by anytime I want. And I do I do it all the time.
Michelle Newman 46:57
Those of you who are Patreon supporters, thank you so much, by the way, and we're so excited about some of the bonus content that we're starting to put on Patreon and one of them is going to be our little field trip to that very house, where we have some fun pictures and videos available for our patrons Patreon supporters.
Kristin Nilsen 47:17
Chad now we got to do it. Yeah, who's gonna make me do that? Why I said it. We
Michelle Newman 47:21
you guys, how have we not done it? We've got to do it. I
Kristin Nilsen 47:23
know. We
Michelle Newman 47:24
all wear our brace right now. It's like 30 We'll find a day that it's like 30 It's
Kristin Nilsen 47:29
gonna look good in the pictures though. So it's not that I don't want to go outside is it's gonna make sure it shows up. So I drive by a drive by all the time even when I'm not in the neighborhood. I'm like, I'm just gonna turn right here instead of left and go by Mary's house. I do it all the
Carolyn Cochrane 47:43
time. Yeah, any whenever we have company from out of town. I mean, that is a stop never fails. That's one of the places we take them. Yep.
Kristin Nilsen 47:50
And watch their jaws drop. Yeah, so here's what the producers of the show wrote in the script outline. After the location scouts found 2104 Kenwood Parkway. They said this is in the script outline. A room actually an entire apartment a single large room. There are some mostly of the Working Girl variety who would consider this a great find 10 foot ceilings pegged wood floors, a wood burning fireplace and most important a fantastic ceiling height corner window. Right now the room is totally empty, but it won't be for long. It will be the main setting for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. So God bless it
Carolyn Cochrane 48:32
I just got the chills.
Kristin Nilsen 48:34
I know I can do this like the first time I've read it. Isn't that great? And here it is. And we can go look at it. So Mary's fictional address is 117 North Weatherly apartment D and you guys want to know what I did last night. I bought bras letters that say apartment D and I bought them and I'm gonna put them on my attic door. Like doesn't don't tell you. This is what happens when you're up researching for an episode late at night. You're like I think I need some letters on my attic door. This apartment D really my attic is much more like Rodas apartment than Mary's but it's the spirit of apartment D that I want up here in my attics. Oh, so when I graduated from college, I went apartment hunting with my roommate and we found an apartment that we called The Mary Tyler Moore apartment. It just stole our hearts. And it was just a few blocks away from the actual Mary Tyler Morehouse. Although on the sketchier side of the neighborhood, we were totally in love. And we wanted to live there and be merry and Rhoda. But we were also trying to be good adults. We were this was our first act of adulting we were getting our new apartment and we really wanted to make practical decisions and show our parents that we could make good decisions, not decisions based on TV shows from our childhood. And so we passed on The Mary Tyler Moore apartment because the rent didn't include heat and We calculated that that would be like $60 a month maybe divided by two. And so we thought the practical decision would be to go with the good times apartment and not The Mary Tyler Moore apartment. And I have been kicking myself ever since. I cannot believe we didn't take the Mary Tyler Moore apartment. So in the past, some owners, you know, because people live there at 21 04 Kenwood Parkway. In the past, the people who have lived there have been pretty cool with people driving by and taking pictures, but some not so much. Because back in the heyday, there were bus loads of people that would come by every single day, and they would all unload and take pictures of the house, they would walk on the lawn, they would look in the windows, they'd ring the doorbell and ask if Mary was home, it was really bad. And so some people were not. Not Michelle, Michelle, or the person who walked up to a random person's home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn to get her picture taken when it did not, in fact, involve the Cosby's. So in the early 70s when this was happening, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was coming back to Minneapolis to shoot some more exterior shots of the home. And the person who owned the home famously put up a giant banner across the front of the house that said impeach Nixon so that they couldn't film any shots there. And that is when Mary moved to her high rise apartment in downtown Minneapolis. Is that why? Yeah, that's why because they couldn't get any outdoor shots. I also drive by that apartment all the time to cutting
Michelle Newman 51:31
them just use old outside shots.
Kristin Nilsen 51:34
You would think? Yeah, you would think but then she moves through her dirty apartment in the city. It's supposed to be really nice and modern, but I assure you right now does not doesn't matter. No, no. Okay, so let's talk about the inside of the apartment a little bit because that's also what we love so much right? When you look at the front of the house, Mary lived behind the big Palladian windows. Phyllis lived down below and then wrote a lived in the turret that is to the right. And it was a studio apartment, which as a kid I thought was so charming. I was like, why do we need all these rooms, you can have everything you want, you would never have to leave your room, it would be fantastic. And it was furnished with what was supposed to look like thrift store finds because of course Mary was newly single. She may have been living with their parents. We're not exactly sure she was trying to make it on her own. And so she had to cobble together some pieces. So in particular, the the oak dining table and the upholstered chairs are supposed to look sort of thrifty. Like she has some budgetary constraints. She had a sunken living room. That is where she slept on the pullout couch and you stepped down into the living room via two steps that were flanked by bookshelves. So essentially your bookshelves were on the ground. Oh my god. And then her stereo sat on the ledge of the sunken living room, which would have been the floor for the rest of the apartment. So you have everything you need right there in your sunken living room with your your your books, and you've got your music and you can reach it off from your bed. It was just too good to be true. So her kitchen was behind a sliding screen that looked like stained glass and a pull down like a roll top desk. And she had a fridge that fit under the counter so she had to bend down to get things out of her fridge. That was so exciting to me because everyone knows that things are much cuter when they're tiny. So this tiny fridge was really exciting because
Michelle Newman 53:26
every time she came home from this happens all the time and so many episodes, she comes home and she comes in and she's carrying two bags of groceries and they always stuffs coming up the top like you can see the tops of carrots or a thing of bread or and she can barely carry them because you know they didn't have grocery bags with handles and she's
Kristin Nilsen 53:44
so sorry to interrupt you but why did they have handles? Why did she never handle
Michelle Newman 53:47
but all I was ever thinking was where she had to put all that
Unknown Speaker 53:53
as a child no
Michelle Newman 53:54
no no I've no idea I don't even have a memory of watching Mary Tyler Moore as a child I'll my memories of watching Mary Tyler Moore from when I was in like college and up but where is she going to put all that? That's a very proud because Jen I
Kristin Nilsen 54:06
will get it I would like it bags of groceries in that tiny fridge. Well, there's not
Michelle Newman 54:11
even a there's not even a because if she you know you'd see your open cabinet doors to get out like some cops and some plates. So that's not where she keeps her food.
Kristin Nilsen 54:18
And the booze. There was booze in there in that cupboard so there's no room for food. That's
Michelle Newman 54:23
these are the things that I think of when
Carolyn Cochrane 54:25
I watched what I thought of watching that growing up. It's chilling Um, now I get very uncomfortable that there wasn't some kind of Bannister by those steps that go down like oh, it's dangerous is dangerous and carrying those two heavy bags of groceries to like you can take a tumble, right? Yeah, that me
Kristin Nilsen 54:43
but you can make a ban how the banister would be like 12 inches long.
Carolyn Cochrane 54:47
I know. We got balance on if you needed to get your balance and really twisted ankle.
Kristin Nilsen 54:55
Do you guys remember the cookie jar that was on her counter? So there's a cookie jar that is shaped like a pumpkin. And apparently this is very popular with the internet's people love the pumpkin cookie jar. Did you know that the cookie jar was actually full of real cookies?
Carolyn Cochrane 55:10
No. Oh, I bet I do No. Big store. Yeah.
Kristin Nilsen 55:14
But they were always full of real cookies so that between scenes, they could have a little snack. Oh, nice. Keep
Carolyn Cochrane 55:20
their blood sugar up.
Kristin Nilsen 55:21
That's right, you got to worry about that. Okay, so over by her door, there was the sweetest little vignette, it was a tiny little table with a white electric typewriter on it that I want very badly. Mike for Christmas. I want that way.
Michelle Newman 55:38
Fresh. So that's Yikes.
Kristin Nilsen 55:41
It takes him a while to listen to these episodes. So he might get it in time for next year. And then you would sit at the tiny little table on a little wicker stool, and you would type your letters. And then when you were done, you would reach into a tiny cabinet that hung on the wall and you pull out a tiny drawer. And that's where you get your stamp. Yes, I love the stamp for it was so cute. And we know this, from the time that Lou Grant came over drunk and somehow needed to write a letter and he sat on that tiny wicker stool and typed out letter and married.
Michelle Newman 56:14
Oh, what's his wife? Yeah, I
Kristin Nilsen 56:15
think I was trying so hard to remember what that was. And he looks so funny. Balancing on that tiny stoolie like an elephant sitting in a school desk or something. And his tiny little desk. So then to the left of her amazing arched floor to ceiling windows. Is her closet slash bathroom? How much were you dying to go through that door always and see her bathroom?
Michelle Newman 56:40
It never going to serve me though that she had that big of a closet like a walk through walk in closet and bathroom. But no bedroom bedroom, but no bedroom? Because I used to think why couldn't you just like sleep in that closet? Like in there? Yes.
Kristin Nilsen 56:55
I thought that you really have that many clothes. I that also the bounce did not
Michelle Newman 57:00
again, these are the things we're thinking of. And it really wouldn't have worked well for the television show they were shooting. I mean, you needed Mary to sleep out there in the big open space where the cameras could fit. And they didn't need to, you know, construct a little tiny set that looked like her closet.
Kristin Nilsen 57:14
Well. And these were the days when we all have the one closet with the bifold doors, right? That's the era in which we're living. And so the idea that she had a closet that she could walk into was unheard of. I get why wouldn't you just put your bed in there. So no, we never got to see the bathroom. And that drove everybody crazy. And then last, but not least, I save the very best for last. The most famous part of Mary's apartment is the letter M on the wall. It's the m that inspired an entire generation of people to put initials on their wall, including me and me. Did you have one too?
Carolyn Cochrane 57:50
Oh, gosh, well, mine. It wasn't wood, though. It was kind of cork. So it could be a bulletin board. But I have a picture of it. And I mean, the only reason I ever who Oh, I mean, of course you have to have an initial on your wall. That's like yes,
Kristin Nilsen 58:01
you do. Yes, of course you do. Yeah, I got mine for my birthday from my friend Kristen. And her father made it for me in his woodshop Oh, I have a handmade K. And now that I'm thinking about it, it's in a box somewhere, I'm gonna get that out and put it in my attic. This is apartment D,
Carolyn Cochrane 58:16
I think you need to I'm gonna do it.
Kristin Nilsen 58:19
Okay, so that I need a little place for stamps. Okay, and then we can teach we got a whole like a webinar for children on where to put the stamp. On the set designers, I need to tell you about that letter M the set designers had a very specific purpose for that M that M is there for a reason. And that is to signify that that apartment is hers and hers alone. She doesn't share it with anyone else. She takes full ownership of it and responsibility for it.
Carolyn Cochrane 58:48
Wow. They really think through stuff. Don't say those design
Michelle Newman 58:52
woman make an eye or she really is.
Kristin Nilsen 58:55
So I've not given up on my Mary Tyler Moore house dreams yet. So right now it's it's a 9000 square foot house with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms. But long ago, it was divided into condos. And this is my retirement dream. I want somebody to go back and turn into condos again. And this is where I will live out my golden years. And Mike can take the target apartment and be my Rhoda.
Carolyn Cochrane 59:25
Well, I think we have the makings of a hot place series. Don't we ask Don't you think? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because it takes forever whenever that place goes on sale. It's on the market over a long time.
Kristin Nilsen 59:37
It's news every time it goes on the market. It's big news. Last time it sold it sold last sold in 2017 for one and a half million dollars, which is half of what it was on the market for 10 years prior. So somebody bought it for 3 million and sold it for one and a half. Oh,
Carolyn Cochrane 59:53
yeah. What a bummer. Well, Michelle, where are you going to take us? Where are we in a visit you in your
Michelle Newman 59:59
favorite? Oh Hello, Ohio.
Kristin Nilsen 1:00:02
We lived in Ohio. We're
Michelle Newman 1:00:03
gonna go to Ohio. Hey, you guys seriously, this was a near impossible task for me to pick one TV home. And honestly, I feel like I'm still wavering. But now I feel actually I feel really good about my choice. I was going between like for TV home. So I want to tell you how I came to my decision of which one to pick and share really quickly. So instead of picking a TV home because I was in love with its decor, and vibe, and felt like I could happily move in there today. Like with it looking as is like Advantix living room are the Gorgeous colonial exterior, the Bradford Bradford tome are Kate and Ali's cozy basement New York apartment. I'm picking the TV home of probably my favorite TV family. And I know that wasn't necessarily the purpose of this little exercise. But let me explain. While I don't particularly love the decor of this home today, or feel like I want to move right into it today. I did love it, love it in the 80s and I still get a feeling every time I picture it or see a photo of it, I get a feeling of warmth, a feeling of happiness and a feeling of family. And that's why I'm choosing the home from family ties.
Speaker 2 1:01:19
I've been we've been together for a million years. And we'll be together.
Michelle Newman 1:01:29
So we never saw the exterior of the Keaton's home. But we spent almost all our time in the living room and in the kitchen. And the kitchen was my very favorite room and that house I loved I don't know if you guys can remember but I loved had a really big island with a bulletin board and a kiss the cook sign that was kind of hanging lower. I love the floating shelves which I think you didn't see a lot of in the early 80s And so all their dishes and glasses were on floating shelves so you can see they had the little orange juice glasses with the oranges on them that I love. Yeah, they did.
Kristin Nilsen 1:01:59
They did drink a lot of orange juice they
Michelle Newman 1:02:01
did and milk Yes. And they had an I like an episode I was just recently watching. They pour the milk out of a pitcher like obviously when they get their milk then they pour it into a pitcher. Like also another thing I loved about it is I love that they kept to their cereal. Do you guys remember that their cereal was always in those tall Tupperware containers which I thought were the coolest things I wanted all my cereal and Tupperware containers. They had that standalone water cooler by the back door. They had a walk in pantry back there. The kitchen was just full of plants plants with IV everywhere they had shelves above like really high like an open shelf above the the like that back room with the fringe doors which I loved was the laundry room and there's a shelf really high that they have a lot of like tchotchkes and like old mugs and stuff like that but lots of plants with Ivy and everything. They had that round table you know by this by the the door that they all set squashed on one side of obviously, you can see all of them. Elise's drawing table was pushed over by the phone she worked in the kitchen, such the epicenter of the home. And then they had this giant commercial grade wolf oven and stove and behind it was this exposed brick wall and it just almost looks like a restaurant over in that section of the kitchen which I loved and then the living room now the living room was very 80s and it was peppered with some serious Victorian flair like the Tiffany lamp which is iconic and an iconic family ties set piece and I believe it's Tina yeah others who played Jennifer who has that currently. And then there's that yellow Camelback Victorian sofa, but that and it was really kind of small and cluttered. But I feel like it was just so warm and it just totally reflected that family. You know, every wall in that house has frames like collages of frames, and oh my gosh, the The living room has that beautiful carved mantle, over the fireplace and then behind that Victorian Camelback sofa. There's a little alcove with a window seat that I don't remember ever seeing anyone use in that that area of the living room. But one thing I did love is all the windows in that house are leaded glass. Even the front door has a leaded glass window. But you can see in that little alcove almost looks like a leaded glass slash stained glass type of situation going on. And then Alex's room it looks like Alex's room might be like in a little turret. I can almost picture what the outside of that house looks like. Even though we never saw it.
Kristin Nilsen 1:04:36
We never show exterior on that one.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:37
One
Michelle Newman 1:04:39
thing that always baffled me though and those of you that are big family ties fans listening please let me know if you know the answer to this. Why was there a full on table and chairs for for in the entryway? I know the answer I know that you might be saying well because they sat at it sometimes of course they did but who has a table with it looks like it could have been like another table that went in a kitchen And, or something and it was right in the entryway. And I have seen episodes recently where Steven and Elise are sitting there and they're having cheese and crackers with some guests. And that's because, you know, Alex, Mallory and Jennifer are in the living room. So obviously they all all the actors in the scene can't fit in that tiny living room. So that's a purpose. But it just seems like an odd. Does that seem like an odd decor? Because it
Kristin Nilsen 1:05:22
was full size? It was like, it wasn't a table where you put your keys? No, it was a full size table, right.
Michelle Newman 1:05:29
And a lot of people that have bigger homes have big round tables in their entry that they might put a beautiful arrangement of flowers on, or something I don't know. Yeah, this is one it's a small house. And two, it has four chairs around it. Anyway, so because family ties and the Keaton's were just so impacted for me in the early 80s. I mean, that was my show. I loved it. And so that home actually feels a little bit like home. To me. Anyway, a fun fact, it was modeled after exactly after the childhood home of executive producer Garry David Goldberg, who very familiar alien sitcom history. And he not only modeled that home after his, the commercial grade Wolf range, an oven big contraption in the kitchen. He put that in because he had one of those in his home, like at the time, and so he wanted that.
Kristin Nilsen 1:06:18
Yeah, those are all very purposeful choices, like you're not going to put that oven and stove combination in a kitchen without having a reason to do so. And also, I think that house was very unique. So also, you wouldn't make those, you know, those Victorian things that I was gonna say, the humpback couch. That's not what it is that Camelback cabbage. That's a very purposeful decision. That's the kind of thing you saw on TV that often. So those are all you know, there's a reason for all of it.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:43
That's right.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:43
I think it helps us learn more about the character of the family. I mean, all of those choices tell us things that you don't have to spell out. But we get that, that vibe from. So yeah, those are all excellent choices. Ladies, I give you a thumbs up for those
Unknown Speaker 1:07:04
is a very, very, very fine house.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:07:08
And thanks to all of you for listening today and coming along with us into our favorite TV homes. Make sure to come back next week for part two of this fun conversation, when we'll share the Favorite TV homes from our Instagram society, as well as talk to a graphic architect who designs unbelievable replicas of all of those homes we've been talking about, and walks you through them on her YouTube channel. Yeah,
Michelle Newman 1:07:32
she is incredible. And it was so fun to talk with her. And as always, thank you for all your support and for sharing our podcast and page with others. If you'd like to take your support to the next level, check out our patreon page@patreon.com. And then just search for pop culture Preservation Society. You can help us keep this society truckin and get fun, exclusive perks in return. And this week, we would like to give a special thank you to patrons Gail, Melissa, Elizabeth, Dina and Jennifer. The PCPs is honestly made possible by people like you.
Kristin Nilsen 1:08:12
Yes, they are. And now it's time for a toast courtesy of the cast of Three's Company to Happy Days target times.
Michelle Newman 1:08:20
The Little House on the Prairie
Kristin Nilsen 1:08:26
the information opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs solely to Carolyn, the crush geologist and hello Newman and are no way representative of our employers or affiliates, and that we truly believe we are always right. There's always a first time the PCPs is written produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota Home of the fictional w j m studios and our beloved Mary Richards nananana who keep on truckin and may the Force be with you.
Speaker 2 1:08:52
spread love it. Something always happens will never weave together.