The Star of the Show

I have come to a realization. I am house obsessed. You may have realized that from my two lengthy posts this week, but the more I think about it I recognize that this isn't just about my house. It also isn't something new. Even when I was a young girl (long, long ago in the days of black and white tv) I used to watch tv shows for the houses. To me the houses were important characters in the shows. Years later I can remember the layouts of the houses, but not any of the plots.

For example, my favorite show used to be Please Don't Eat the Daisies. All that I remember about the show is that they lived in a castle. The only plot that I remember is when they found a secret tunnel under the stairs. The reason that I remember that is because I thought of how "cool" it would be if I had a secret tunnel in my house.

What do I remember about The Mary Tyler Moore Show? It's the fact that every single girl that I knew wanted an apartment like Mary's. We all wanted our initial on the wall and a step-down living room with a built-on bookcase sort of thing. We all talked about the cute stained glass window that divided the kitchen from the eating area.

I'm from Chicago and I thought that if I lived downtown I wanted Bob Newhart's apartment. How wonderful would it be having a balcony on the lake (Lake Michigan to you non-Chicagoans).

And who didn't love the house in The Brady Bunch? That staircase was a perfect place to make a grand entrance (not that I ever made a grand entrance). I used to dream about having slumber parties in that family room. We could easily sneak into the kitchen during the middle of the night. But as much as I loved that house I could never figure out how a house with such a big main floor (living room, Mike's office, dining room area, eat-in kitchen, family room and Alice's bedroom) only had three bedrooms upstairs. Even taking into account the catherdral ceiling in the living room that made no sense. Then again Jan being upset about wearing glasses made no sense either, but that's fodder for another post (along with Laurie Partridge being embarrassed by her braces).

With few exceptions, tv houses now are relatively boring. I always feel like they are cheaping out by having just a few rooms. Think about it - Everyone Loves Raymond and King of Queens had a living room and kitchen (with a dining area in between). Eight Simple Rules (which I only watched because of John Ritter) had one big room. Did you ever watch Reba? She had four bedrooms upstairs and her downstairs was just a living room, dining room and kitchen (a big kitchen, but still just a kitchen). Shouldn't a house like that have had a family room or a great room? It looked huge from the outside.

Just in case you are wondering what my favorite tv house is, I've put a picture of it on the top of this post. It's the house (Castle) from one of my favorite shows, Monarch of the Glen. I've seen every episode at least five times over the years and I still watch it on Sunday nights on PBS. I am not sure if I've watched it so many times for the great story (it is a good story), for Archie MacDonald (yummy) or for the house. I tend to think it's all three, but especially the house.