I *think* it was the Donna Reed show that had the type of house I liked. It was an older two-story affair, with the front door opening into an open area with the curved staircase directly in front of it, and the living room over to the right of the door as you come in. I think the dining room and kitchen were over to the left of the entry as you come in. This seems like it was a very common layout in film and tv homes of the 30's, 40's, and early 50's. Nothing spectacular, just quite livable and to a certain degree, comforting.
For some reason the low slung slab foundation homes of later times have always seems a bit grungy to me, with a musty odor. Maybe it's the fact that they get less air circulation by being on a slab directly on the ground, without a crawl or basement underneath. And because they are on a slab, they usually have carpeting over cement, instead of wood flooring. And that carpeting can get fairly nasty after a while.