Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House: Best and Worst TV Homes

[Wiendish Fitch]

We have a thread for fictional towns we would or wouldn't want to live in, but how about we get more specific and talk about TV homes? The title comes from the childhood fortune-telling game MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House). Here are my dream homes:

Monica's apartment from Friends: Yes, it is among the least realistic homes on TV. Yes, even real life rent-controlled homes aren't that big and nice. I don't care, Monica's apartment is too cute, and it's PURPLE!! Gimme it!

Mary Richards's apartment from the early seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show: So cozy and adorable, though the shag carpet would be the first thing to go (sorry, but I hate shag carpeting). Bonus mention of Rhoda's hot pink attic apartment!

Lorelai and Rory's house from Gilmore Girls:  I'm just a little obsessed with blue houses. I also appreciated that it was on the messy side.

Eleanor's house from The Good Place. She griped about it (and I also am not wild about the clown paintings), but other than that, I thought Eleanor's house was kind of quirky and cute.

Edited Saturday at 02:25 PM by Wiendish Fitch

[Domestic Assassin]

Lately, I've been kind of obsessed with Jimmy's house on Shrinking. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

Speaking of shrinks, Frasier Crane's apartment (from the original, not that damned reboot) was too, too classy (even with Martin's ugly chair).

[JustHereForFood]

Best:

Will's apartment from Will & Grace

Aziraphale's bookshop from Good Omens

TARDIS from Doctor Who, but that might be cheating a bit 😉

The Wayne manor from various Batman TV shows

 

Worst:

Southfork from Dallas - not because of the house itself, more like the idea of living with your awful relatives.

I'll probably come back later with more.

[Affogato]

Matt Murdock’s apartment in the Netflix show. 

Tha Addams Family mansion. Bit dicey but super interesting. 

[Affogato]

Pike’s huge entertainment room on the Enterprise with the massive open cooking fire. 

[Blergh]

This sounds fun.

OK, I would have liked Mary Richards's apartment sans shag carpeting,too. However, I'm not sure that pot bellied stove would have warmed the kitchen much less then unseen attached bathroom and closet in the worst of Minnesota winters (and Mary's apartment seemed to have very tall ceilings).  Rhoda's tiny attic loft apartment with a presumed unseen attached micro bathroom with shower likely would have been better heated due to the shorter ceiling.  Ironically, Phyllis's downstairs apartment seemed more spacious (especially the living room during the few times it got show) but neither the Lindstrom parental or Bess's respective bedrooms nor any kitchens or bathrooms ever were shown.

I like the Addamses' ooky residence  including Cleopatra's atrium but I'd have preferred the Munsters' more. ..homey abode (and would have loved to have had a secret phone booth inside  a sliding door in the pre-Smartphone days) . I also  would have liked Grandpa's very deep basement dungeon lab. 

However, Lurch somehow DID keep his employers' home completely dust free with that tiny feather duster while the homemaker Lily only seemed to spread even MORE dust on every single surface of her family's home which  would have been made my living there a firm no due to asthma issues (though I might have survived staying in the sole pristine room there- Marilyn's) .

 

That's all for now!

 

[DearEvette]

When I was a kid I desperately wanted to live in the Brady Bunch house.  And really only because the kids had their own bathroom.  When I was a kid we did not have our own bathroom.

I adore the beach house in Grace and Frankie.

Another lovely beach house was Nicole Kidman's house in Big Little Lies.

I hated Walt and Skyler's house in Breaking Bad... all that wood panelling on the walls was depressing.  I am sure it was by design.

[Crashcourse]

I hate the Dutton's main house in Yellowstone.  It looks depressing.

[Anduin]

6 hours ago, Affogato said:

Pike’s huge entertainment room on the Enterprise with the massive open cooking fire. 

I love it, even though I realise fire on a ship is ridiculous.

[Quof]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

When I was a kid I desperately wanted to live in the Brady Bunch house.  And really only because the kids had their own bathroom.  When I was a kid we did not have our own bathroom.

Yes, but it was 6 kids sharing one bathroom, and stacked up to 3 deep in each bedroom, while dad had a den the size of a football stadium.  

[Dimity]

6 minutes ago, Quof said:

Yes, but it was 6 kids sharing one bathroom, and stacked up to 3 deep in each bedroom, while dad had a den the size of a football stadium.  

Eventually though Greg got the attic.  Living the dream.  What I loved was each kid got promised to have a turn living in the attic based on age of course.  Never seemed to occur to little Bobby or Cindy that by the time their turns came they'd already have their own rooms.

On 4/12/2025 at 10:07 AM, Wiendish Fitch said:

Mary Richards's apartment from the early seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show: So cozy and adorable, though the shag carpet would be the first thing to go (sorry, but I hate shag carpeting)

I wanted that apartment too!  Even if she did have to turn her sofa into a bed every night! 

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, Quof said:

Yes, but it was 6 kids sharing one bathroom, and stacked up to 3 deep in each bedroom, while dad had a den the size of a football stadium.  

Not to mention that there was NO visible commode in that solitary bathroom for six opposite gendered sibs!

[andidante]

I loved Jackie's studio apartment on Rosanne. I just thought it was so cute. 

[Raja]

Due to it being closer to folks and the neighborhoods I know the Lincoln Lawyer's house with the view over his big brother Bosch's house on stilts with his view on the opposite side of downtown Los Angeles.

[DearEvette]

4 hours ago, Quof said:

Yes, but it was 6 kids sharing one bathroom, and stacked up to 3 deep in each bedroom, while dad had a den the size of a football stadium.  

😂 I was a kid, what'd the hell did I know? 

[andromeda331]

Short answer is probably all of them?

The Addams Family house was so cool. So many different rooms. The play room  with iron maiden and other fun medeval torture devices and guest room with nail beds. Also anyone who tried to break in and/steal something has to deal with Thing, Lurch and the house and grounds themselves.

Frasier's apartment in Seattle. Niles apartment in Seattle at the Montana. 

Full House house-I've always loved Victorian houses

Castle's apartment in Castle

Maura's house in Rizzoli & Isles but Angela would have to go. 

The New Orleans house in Leverage Redemption. It's a really cool old theater. 

The Library in the Librarians-The huge library full of magic and historic items, millions of books and art and artist porfolios from everyone in history, goats, a sun room with a sun, time machines, and so much more. And a magic door.

[roseha]

Somewhere on the internet there's a color photo of the Addams family interior house set.  It looked really bizarre in color but clearly the creators knew what they were doing when they filmed that show in black and white.

It reminds me of my college teacher commenting that she didn't think Young Frankenstein needed to be in black and white but I disagree!  On reflection maybe the Addams and the Munsters would have gone to color had they lasted longer in the 1960s but the effect would certainly have diminished.  I still feel so bad that ultimate noir TV show, The Fugitive, went to color in its final season.

Edited 1 hour ago by roseha
typo