Favorite Movie or TV Kitchen

[daveamkrayoguy]

Hey, I never saw a harvest gold gas cook top in the Brady kitchen!!!!

What episode was it in? In face I always remember an electric w/ a griddle & electric wall oven...

Then, the first episode has a free-standing gas range peeking out through the kitchen door when Mike & the boys are discussing his new marriage he's about to embark on w/ Carol & the boys dislike 'it coming w/ GIRLS!!!!'...

-- Dave

 

[danemodsandy]

First Episodes.....

....That's another thing that's common on TV shows: Seeing stuff in the first episode you never see again.

On the first episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, titled "Love is All Around," the famous letter "M" Mary had on her wall was a flat cut-out, not the more dimensional "M" seen on every other episode. And the draperies on the big window were grey, not the floral ones seen from the second episode on.

 

[appnut]

First Episodes.....

Dick Van Dyck had a Westinghouse kitchen complete with 30" wall oven and wash-well rollout dishwasher with heat boos switch feature. 

 

[danemodsandy]

That Brady Kitchen....

....Is full of things which your eye accepts as real onscreen, but which you wouldn't be likely to see in real life. One of the areas I write about is movie sets (I'm working on a book about a Hitchcock movie, but can't say more at the present time), and the tricks used in the movie/TV business are interesting.

The first thing is that avocado-and-orange color scheme - you might see that in real life, but it would have been a brave housewife who picked it out, even in the '70s. It's there to look colorful on - what else? - color TV.

The cabinets, if you'll notice, are extremely dull in finish. This is to keep them from reflecting lights, cameras and crew members.

The floor is Armstrong Montina Corlon in a neutral beige, probably laid right over the composition floor of the soundstage. It's a very smooth surface, allowing camera dollies to roll without vibration. If you run over a gum wrapper on the set, the vibration to the camera looks like an earthquake on the film. It's also not patterned, so viewers won't tend to look down at the interesting floor instead of at the actor's faces.

The brick wall looks as if it could be real, or could be plaster (my money's on plaster). But one thing about it is movie-special: the grill. If you'll look, there's light coming down from where the exhaust fan installation would be in real life. If there weren't, that recess would just look like a black hole in the wall. Light makes it pop.

If you'll look at the smalls that are chrome-finished, you'll see that their finishes have been dulled down. Again, this is to prevent reflections.

The color range is very controlled, with almost nothing that doesn't conform to the orange-and-green scheme. This prevents a "busy" look that would distract from the actors.

And look very closely at that island counter - it's not resting directly on the floor. That means it's on wheels, to get it out of the way easily when needed for a particular shot.

This is old-school sitcom set design; the Brady house looks new and catalog-perfect. Most sitcom sets were designed this way the first twenty years or so of the form. In the '70s, new shows like All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show ushered in a new era of design, where things were much more realistic and had subtle touches that added to the show, like Edith Bunker's older appliances and Mary Richards' thrift-store furniture. [this post was last edited: 12/16/2012-22:11]

 

[applianceguy47]

Changes to sets- Sometimes based on viewer responses. Other times based on sponsors who want to have their products shown.

 

From the biggest details, like the house itself and actors playing a part, to the smallest details like how much cleavage and make-up on various actresses.

 

Fav. kitchen- Green Acres. I loved the contrast between the modern 1960s, and the Victorian architechure of the late 1800s. In the 1950s through the 1970s, the contrast was obvious with the Victorian era showing so strong, moral, and even eco-friendly to an extent. Even by TODAYs standards, thats true.

 

This compared to the superficial, materialism that Lisa represented in GA. Of course, in real terms, 50 years later, our country has paid a BIG price with that blatant materialism, greed, and destruction of our society for the sake of the fly-by-night corporatists. Look at how many shopping malls built in the 70s and 80s are now abandoned. People are catching on and with each horrific accident or natural disaster, the message is slowly wringing through, I hope it isn't too late.

 

Still, I loved her P~I~N~K appliances. (tee-hee) ...the pink Maytag washer. The pink GE Dishwasher that .... how many things did she try and wash in there that weren't dishes?

How many different concoctions did she come up with? Her Coffee, for example!

 

As dysfunctional as Lisa was as a housewife, she loved Ol-E-Vir. And even when she could have gone back to NYC, she decided to stay in god-knows-where, in down state Illinois or Indiana. lets see, NYC, down state Illinois, NYC, down state Illinois,... in 1966. hmm, back and forth, which would I choose?

 

 

Sandy- I didn't know that about the set of Rosemarys baby. I'd be willing to debate that. If it's true, the details were VERY WELL played. Perhaps, like Sex and the City. Actual NYC apartments are just too tight, and unavailable to make filming in actual locations practical.

 

Brady Kitchen- That burnt orange really doesn't go well with anything. And with the picture shown here, they had dark simulated wood sliding doors beneath the stove? Yes, I said simulated wood which means plastic over chip board. We had burnt orange as a semi-gloss in our kitchen with matching plaid wallpaper. It was oppressive. The favorite of the Bradys was their laundry room and the TOL Avacodo Whirlpool set with the wood panel fronts.

[this post was last edited: 12/16/2012-23:38]

 

[danemodsandy]

Erik:

"I didn't know that about the set of Rosemarys baby. I'd be willing to debate that."

There are references to the sets in Paramount studio head Robert Evans' autobiography (The Kid Stays in the Picture), and there are numerous photos taken during production showing the tops of the sets, where the walls end, there is no ceiling, and lights and catwalks are up above.

The production designer for the film, Richard Sylbert, specialized in creating aged and distressed sets that looked highly realistic at close range, yet were built for filming with the bulky cameras used in the '50s and '60s. 1962's The Manchurian Candidate is also his work.

New York's Dakota Apartments were used for exteriors, the courtyard, and the lobby. That cost Paramount $1000 a day, and the wealthy residents of the Dakota griped the whole time the movie people were there, plus campaigning to get them kicked out - it was simply not possible to film the whole movie there.

In 1967-68, when the movie was being made, Paramount still had some of its old-time craftspeople who really, really knew what they were doing; their Classic Era expertise was put into the service of a thoroughly modern movie. The result was a movie that comes very close to looking like an all-location job; only a bit of process work (filmed backgrounds projected behind the actors) and subtle things on the sets give it away.

Here's a shot taken on the set showing a tiny glimpse of the overheads. Also note the kitchen cabinet on the left that does not sit directly on the floor, meaning it was on casters to get it out of the way when needed. And as is usual for movie sets, the walls are much taller than real walls, so the camera can get far back without revealing that there's no ceiling:

 

[applianceguy47]

The first thing I saw, with your picture, was that gap under the cabinet. It looks like the stove even has large wheels that lift it off the floor 6 inches.
Of course, I love the sunshine yellow appliances you pointed out.

I remember watching episodes of Eight is Enough, and seeing their avacodo kitchen, which had a Westinghouse (fingers crossed) double wide Avacodo refrig.  It too, could be seen to have wheels on the bottom (that weren't factory equipment), from some camera angles.  ... and no DW ?  Were newspaper editors, who had a family of 8 children, that underpaid?  They could afford a new Electrolux Golden Jubilee, why not a DW?

 

Your writing a book..... about movie sets?....  Hollywoods various techniques for making reality on film?  ....

 

 

 

[danemodsandy]

Sorta:

"Your writing a book..... about movie sets?.... Hollywoods various techniques for making reality on film? ...."

About the process of creating the reality of one particular film of Alfred Hitchcock's.

I'm not at liberty to say more.

The reason things like ranges are sometimes raised on wheels or platforms is that they otherwise might not show in a close shot. If you're doing a shot of Mia Farrow cooking on that Dixie range, and the camera is close to her, the top of the range is not visible, and the audience cannot tell what she's supposed to be doing. The solution is to raise the range so that its top is visible above the bottom of the frame. It looks weird on the set, but it makes visual sense in the completed scene.

Just FYI: Not only the Woodhouse apartment was built for the film, but the Castevet apartment "next door" was built as well, and all the apartment-house hallways except the lobby, which was the actual Dakota lobby. The hallways and all the detailing of the apartments were based on the Dakota. [this post was last edited: 12/17/2012-00:11]

 

[applianceguy47]

 

Hitchcock was a GREAT Director.  He was so thorough.  The details just in filming the shower scene in the original Psycho, were mind numbing and took a month, just for that 3 minutes of film.

 

I live within bike riding distance of where he filmed The Birds, and can't wait to see the school house and other landmarks.

 

When will your book be complete?  How will it be released?

 

[alr2903]

Alex I'll take "The Beverly Hillbillies" for $2

I am surprised no mention of Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies.  I loved her kitchen, my only complaint, I wish she would of been more progressive in use of cookware.  BH,  had a kitchen change, when the built in china cabinets swapped sides with the twin refrigerators.  Poor ole Granny with her soap kiiiiittle, nowdays Ms. Drysdale would call out the EPA.  alr

 

What kind of stove was in "Abilenes" kitchen in "The Help",  the big old stove "Minnie" cooked breakfast on?

 

[jakeseacrest]

I'm a Hitchcock fan also. Would love to buy your book when it comes out.

 

[danemodsandy]

Book:

We're probably still about two years out on the book; a lot of research at A.M.P.A.S. remains (the first pass just showed us how much more material there was than we ever dreamed), and some crucial interviews are yet to be conducted.

Trust me, I'll say more when we're closer!

Erik: If you're going to be tooling around Bodega Bay looking for The Birds locations, there are some things you should know:

1) The Porter Schoolhouse where the birds attacked the children was real, and is still there. It still looks very much as it did in the movie. It is NOT close to town, as Hitchcock's editing makes it seem to be - those schoolkids would have had to run several miles.
2) The schoolteacher's house close to the school (where Suzanne Pleshette's character lived) was not real, though it was built close to the school as it appears to be located in the movie. It was a false front, with nothing inside it; the interiors were soundstage sets back at Universal. It was demolished after filming. Today, someone has a vacation home on the site, and that home looks very vaguely similar, so some people think it's the house from the movie, only remodeled. Not true.
3) The Tides Restaurant is totally remodeled and unrecognizable from the movie, though it's still around.
4) The Brenner farm where Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy and Veronica Cartwright's characters lived was also false fronts, built on rented property. The set burned some time after filming; nothing remains.
5) Much of "downtown Bodega Bay," where Tippi Hedren rents the boat, was Universal's back lot, not the real Bodega Bay. Only a few shots are the real place. [this post was last edited: 12/17/2012-09:39]

 

[davey7]

I've always been partial to the Leadbetter's kitchen on "The Good Life" or "The Good Neighbors" (depending upon country) - mod 70's cabinets, striped venetian blinds and spotlights overhead.

But I don't think Hootersville was in Illinois, too hilly and dry (the two parts of Illinois that are hilly are fairly lush). I've been watching the first season, Lisa was actually pretty sneaky on it - conning farm women into making friend chicken!

I've attached a Norwegian 50's kitchen video, just for fun.

Mens familien er borte, danser husmora på kjøkkenet

Og lærer bort hvordan du lager Pavlova.

www.dagbladet.no

 

[davey7]

Could the Brady Brick have been z-brick or equal (a thin brick which just gets grouted onto the wall like tile) - I looked an apartment once which had polystyrene brick up yikes!

Here's an old roper with wheels (I ended up with the bigger place with smaller kitchen and an O'Keefe & Merritt).

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2641/4128272242_1441bc4f88_b.jpg

 

[danemodsandy]

Davey:

I don't think that's Z-Brick; that stuff wouldn't have fooled anyone.

Studios used to have plaster workers who could produce brick-look surfaces very quickly; they had molds on hand that they could use to turn out sections, which were mounted and then had their gaps filled with more plaster. Very skillful painting followed, with the result that you really couldn't tell it wasn't real. I've seen this kind of work, and you have to be very close before you see the little telltale signs that it's fake - movie set people really know what they're doing.

For very large expanses of brick - say, the outside of a building - papier-mache was used, in big sections about two by four feet. These were also made in molds. They were tacked to the skeletal framework of the "building" in question, and if kept painted, could last for years. Most major buildings on studios' "New York Streets" were made this way, and so was Tara in Gone With the Wind. Here's a shot of Tara made in 1959, after the set had been sitting in the weather without maintenance for twenty years; you can see the papier-mache panels of fake brick. Not too long after this shot was made, the set's remains were sold to an Atlanta entrepreneur, dismantled, and trucked to Georgia (a few bits are on display at two Atlanta GWTW museums; the rest is beyond restoration). Within a few more years, the site was turned into Stalag 13 for Hogan's Heroes. Now, this area is an industrial park; no movie filming is done here now.

 

[westingman123]

*shudders*

Z-brick-Ugh! At some point, a former owner of this house (a craftsman-style bungalow) installed Z-brick in the kitchen. Let me add the walls of this old girl are plaster. That Z-brick would have survived a nuclear attack. It took me weeks to get it off and repair the damage to the original walls.

Yeah, it wasn't foolin' anybody, even before I took to chipping it off! *LOL*

To add insult to injury, I found fragments of the original vitrolite underneath. It's too bad I got here years too late.

 

[appliguy]

Dick Van Dyck had a Westinghouse kitchen

that was only in the pilot episode Appnut. For the rest of the run of the Dick Van Dyke Show they had a Caloric Ultramatic Gas wall oven and cook top and a RCA Whirlpool Gas Fridge and for a while had one of those Electro Sink Centers but NO dishwasher what so ever...PAT COFFEY

 

[appliguy]

The favorite of the Bradys was their laundry room and the TO

The Brady's laundry room NEVER had the avocado paneled TOL Whirlpool Mark Series Washer and Dryer. They had a MOL avocado Whirlpool pair of which the dryer had a side swinging door verses the full length pull down hamper door. FYI The stainless steel Thermador Electric Cooktop and wall oven were in the Brady Kitchen for the first 4 seasons. The Harvest Gold Gas Cook Top and what looks like a Roper Gas Wall Oven were not added until the last season of the show.....PAT COFFEY

 

[1952crestwood]

I guess my favorite movie kitchen would be....

the one in which Debbie Reynolds cooks for Dick Powell in 1954's "Susan Slept Here". I could just move right into that apartment as is, but the kitchen was particularly "me". I'm no expert but I think the appliances were Western Holly and maybe a Servel fridge? Experts, please clue me in.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

I think I liked the GOOD TIMES kitchen, myself! It had a round-top single door fridge (and in AVOCADO GREEN?!), and in the island was a sort of drop-in range where the Evans family did their cooking...!

I could never understand why that apartment was done w/ cinder block walls either, 'cept for realizing it was a south-side Chicago tenement place, and that sort of thing would be the norm for 'subsidized housing' for low income families & gaining more 'cultural corollary', there...

The Jefferson's harvest gold GE sideXside fridge was borrowed (& that looked like a portion of their kitchen; may have been a common prop among a few others, courtesy of Norman Lear)) for one episode where JJ got involved w/ some high class people (selling drugs--oh, no!) and actually put the stuff down the garbage disposal (while hiding in a broom closet from the bust going on)...

And I wonder why George & Weezie's little gas stove in their de-luxe penthouse was one Florence had to clean the oven of, too...! (George to Florence: "Clean That Oven!")

-- Dave