Favorite Movie or TV Kitchen

[danemodsandy]

We're Forgetting a Great One....

....The kitchen from Roseanne. It wasn't the most beautiful kitchen, and it wasn't the fanciest, but the Conner family managed to do a whole lot of living in it. The producers of the show gave this set a lot of attention, working to collect just the right middle-American touches for it. A viewer found placemats that matched the potholders she'd seen on the show, sent them in - and they were put on the set, just as Roseanne Conner would have if she'd found them.

The Conner kitchen was nothing anyone aspired to, but it was much more familiar to many people than they probably wanted to admit, LOL.[this post was last edited: 12/22/2012-05:29]

 

[retromania]

The icemaker in our Frigidaire was great for a few years before it mal-functioned. Mom had it repaired a couple of times befire finally telling our appliance service person to remove it. The other complaint was that it didn't make ice as fast as we used it. We had a large family and would have benefited from an under counter icemaker. Living here in the sultry south, we used ice constantly.

 

[danemodsandy]

Color Work:

The Roseanne kitchen is a great example of the use of color in production design. It was primarily a very warm yellow-beige with browns, and small touches of blue were used in accessories, from dishtowels to the paper napkins on the table.

I wish I could find a shot of it, but just to the left of this photo was something very interesting on the window sill - a grenade. In all the years of the show, it sat there, never referred to or explained that I'm aware of.

I think that range is a BOL or lower MOL Tappan - anyone else know?

 

[philr]

Their refrigerator

 

[philr]

And right next to their kitchen, their laundry room... With the washer and dryer arranged as if they were Maytags!

 

[philr]

A better view of it (1978 Imperial or 1979 Custom Imperial set).

 

[philr]

I guess that's because there used to be Maytags there!

Just like in Bewitched, after the first few episodes, the Maytag set was replaced with a Frigidaire set! But in this case, they didn't move, so I'm wondering why they did that!

 

[tomturbomatic]

It was a bol Tappan range. I remember that later, there was a GE top loading portable DW just sitting to the left of the sink. I never saw where it was supposed to be parked.

 

[philr]

Tom,

Maybe they stored it in the laundry room (see 3 posts above yours!).

 

[rp2813]

Back Lots and Back-up Plans

My sister has been a member of the DGA for many years.  She has worked on some movies most here would remember, but a lot were losers or intended to go straight to video, or nowadays DVD. 

 

One of the lesser known films, Jack the Bear, was set in Oakland, CA and there was a need to create a working class neighborhood street.  I presume the perfect scenes on the various studio back lots wouldn't work for this, so instead an entire street with facades of homes was constructed, complete with weedy yards, unswept gutters, junk cars etc. on the soccer field of a private school just east of Hollywood.  I went to work with her one day and was amazed at how real it all looked, even in person.  Her dobie mix Willie even got some fleeting camera time being walked down the sidewalk in one scene.

 

Regarding the Ozzie's Girls references made above, there were changes to other programs as kids grew older.  The Donna Reed Show created a young girl's role, some sort of orphan who just showed up one day, as characters Jeff and Mary grew too old to get into the right kind of trouble anymore.  I think My Three Sons also brought in a young boy at some point, possibly through the adoption of one of the son's friends, but I could be getting that show confused with another.   MTS also had some poor acting from Mike's wife, as I recall. 

 

 

 

[applianceguy47]

I can see where they would switch out Roseannes W&D.

Maytag (like Kenmore, WP, & GE) was too mainstream. It would have detracted from here character.

That would explain their other appliances choices, as well.

 

[twintubdexter]

from the current "Hot In Cleveland"

Some nice vintage appliances in a spacious eat-in kitchen that most folks would kill for. Kudos to the set designers.

 

[tomturbomatic]

My Three Sons

After the little neighbor boy who was Stanley Livingston's real brother moved in to make a third son after Mike Considine left, Robbie got married, lived at home and his wife gave birth to triplet sons which was sorta jumping the shark for that show. It was near the end of the run when they lost the GM deal for cars and Frigidaire appliances, also.

 

[danemodsandy]

"Roseanne" W & D Switch

If I had to guess, I would say that someone might have thought the consoles on the Frigidaires had a little more "personality" and were a tiny bit more photogenic than the ones on the Maytags.

Even in real life, a lot of people didn't "get" the simplicity of Maytag styling and controls. I wasn't a Maytag fan back in the day - the glamorous keyboard Lady K's were what got my attention.

I'm not saying that glamour was an issue on Roseanne - far from it. I just think the Frigidaires might have had a little more photographic "oomph," just a bit more noticeable.

The only other possibility that occurs to me is that someone found out that Maytags were premium-priced machines, and could hold on to a price differential even when re-sold as used. It might have been that someone figured that was a bit above the Conner family's means.

 

[ptcruiser51]

Wowser!

I forgot that at the time, I had the same kitchen floor as Roseanne! Peel & stick tiles, they were! Always liked her poppy-red fridge.

 

[danemodsandy]

"Hot in Cleveland" Sets

Joe:

You might like to know that last year, Hot in Cleveland's sets of Elka's house won an Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series.

Set decorator Maralee Zediker and production designer Michael Hynes shared the award.

However, you have to admit that the greatest thing on the set of Hot in Cleveland is Betty White!

 

[twintubdexter]

In 1966's "The Glass Bottom Boat"...

...aerospace research labratory head Rod Taylor has an ultra-modern kitchen. Bruce Templeton (Taylor) demonstrates to girlfriend Jennifer Nelson (Doris Day) just how advanced the kitchen is. He tosses some dirt on the floor and immediately a small floor-level door opens and a robotic vacuum proceeds to suck up the debris and then retreats back into it's home.

 

[abcomatic]

Munster's kitchen

I think Lilly's range was made by the Majestic Stove Co. A very good range in its day too, even with a rack to dry wet towels.

 

[davey7]

I want the kitchen from the Glass Bottom Boat! Those translucent doors are fabulous.

I remember an episode of Roseanne where a yuppie family moved in next door (shades of Jeopardy Lane perhaps?) and they put in a dishwasher and Roseanne was angry about it because Dan had told her one wouldn't fit. I think the houses were fundamentally the same and had the same cabinets.

 

[xpanam]

Married With Children

Hey great stuff ! What about Pegs kitchen? I think she had Kenmore copperton appliances?