Hollywood’s Best Sets Never Really Retire
Television can make a place feel inseparable from one series, but studios know a useful set is too valuable to waste. Houses, schools, diners and entire streets have been repainted, rearranged and sent back before cameras as someplace new. Sometimes viewers barely noticed.
Screenshot from The Brady Bunch, Paramount+
Mayberry Beamed Into Star Trek
Mayberry was not confined to The Andy Griffith Show. The 40 Acres backlot town later appeared in Star Trek episodes including “Miri” and “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Storefronts were redressed for science-fiction stories, though pieces of Mayberry remained recognizable underneath.
Screenshot from Star Trek: The Original Series, Paramount Global (1966-1969)
The Brady Living Room Became A Mannix Crime Scene
Paramount reused parts of The Brady Bunch home on Mannix, including the living room, patio and backyard. With new dressing, the same architecture that framed family comedy could suddenly belong in a private-eye drama. Sharp-eyed viewers could still spot familiar Brady features.
Screenshot from Mannix, Paramount Global (1967-1975), enhanced
Mission: Impossible Also Invaded The Brady House
The Brady residence had another unexpected television life. Its living-room set was redressed for the Mission: Impossible episode “Double Dead,” with alterations helping disguise its sitcom origins. A space associated with family meetings became part of an espionage story without requiring an entirely new room.
Screenshot from Mission: Impossible, Paramount Global (1966-1973)
Roseanne’s Living Room Got A Mike & Molly Makeover
Viewers who thought Mike & Molly’s Chicago home looked familiar had good reason. The production recycled Roseanne’s living-room set, changing furnishings, doors and angles. The underlying layout preserved the bones of one of television’s best-known working-class sitcom homes.
Screenshot from Mike & Molly, Warner Bros. Discovery (2010-2016), Modified
Sacred Heart Checked In On The Office
Scrubs used the closed North Hollywood Medical Center as Sacred Heart. The same facility later appeared in The Office’s fifth-season finale, when Jim and Pam visit a hospital. One sitcom’s defining workplace became another sitcom’s temporary setting.
Screenshot from The Office, NBCUniversal (2005-2013)
Smallville Borrowed The West Wing’s Oval Office
For Smallville’s first-season episode “Hourglass,” Michael Rosenbaum traveled from the show’s Vancouver production to Los Angeles. Lex Luthor’s vision of himself as president was filmed on The West Wing’s Oval Office set, giving the superhero drama an unusually authentic-looking presidential backdrop.
Screenshot from Smallville, Warner Bros. Discovery (2001-2011), enhanced
Stars Hollow Turned Into Rosewood
Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars had very different moods, yet both relied on Warner Bros.’ Midwest Street. Stars Hollow’s cheerful facades were later redressed as Rosewood. Some structures received new identities, turning familiar small-town scenery into the backdrop for a much darker series.
Screenshot from Pretty Little Liars, Warner Bros. Discovery (2010-2017)
Stars Hollow Also Became Bluebell
Midwest Street had another life after Gilmore Girls. Warner Bros. also identifies the backlot as Bluebell, Alabama, on Hart of Dixie. New signage, dressing and camera choices moved the same studio geography from fictional Connecticut to the fictional South without leaving Burbank.
Screenshot from Hart of Dixie, Warner Bros. Discovery (2011-2015)
The Waltons’ Virginia Became Gilmore Girls’ Connecticut
Long before Stars Hollow, Warner Bros.’ Midwest Street had played another beloved television community. The studio says it represented rural Virginia on The Waltons before later becoming the Connecticut world of Gilmore Girls. Decades apart, the two hometowns shared Hollywood real estate.
Screenshot from Gilmore Girls, Warner Bros. Discovery (2000-2007)
Merlotte’s Bar Became The Rammer Jammer
A wooden structure on Warner Bros.’ jungle area became Merlotte’s Bar and Grill on True Blood. The same structure was later transformed into the Rammer Jammer on Hart of Dixie. Supernatural Louisiana and small-town Alabama therefore shared the same physical building.
Screenshot from Hart of Dixie, Warner Bros. Discovery (2011-2015)
The Rammer Jammer Became A Pretty Little Liars Resort
The recycling did not stop with Hart of Dixie. The structure that played the Rammer Jammer later appeared in Pretty Little Liars as the Lost Woods Resort. Redressing turned one building from an Alabama hangout into an ominous Rosewood destination.
Screenshot from Pretty Little Liars, Warner Bros. Discovery (2010-2017)
Bayside High Graduated To That’s So Raven
Saved by the Bell’s school set outlasted its original students. ABC News reported that the set was not simply destroyed, and portions were later used by other productions. That’s So Raven was one of them, giving Bayside’s television infrastructure another generation of teen comedy.
Screenshot from That’s So Raven, The Walt Disney Company (2003-2007)
Bayside High Then Enrolled In iCarly
The Saved by the Bell school set also found its way into iCarly. ABC News included the Nickelodeon series among later productions that used the surviving set. The teenagers, network and era changed, but parts of Bayside were still getting screen time.
Screenshot from iCarly, Paramount Global (2007-2012)
Growing Pains’ Living Room Housed Mr. Cooper
The pilot of Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper made economical use of a recently available sitcom home. It reused the Seaver family living-room set from Growing Pains, which had ended earlier in 1992. Production changes helped turn the familiar family room into a new sitcom space.
Screenshot from Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Warner Bros. Discovery (1992-1997)
The Seaver House Hid In Gilmore Girls
Discover Los Angeles notes that the Growing Pains Seaver residence survives on Warner Bros.’ backlot. The northern edge of that structure later appeared as Lane Kim’s apartment during Gilmore Girls’ fourth season, hiding part of one sitcom landmark inside another show’s town.
Screenshot from Growing Pains, Warner Bros. Discovery (1985-1992)
Leave It To Beaver’s House Became Marcus Welby’s Office
The Cleaver house kept working after Leave It to Beaver wrapped in 1963. Starting in 1969, the Colonial Street facade was substantially altered to serve as Marcus Welby’s home office on Marcus Welby, M.D., giving the famous suburban house a new professional identity.
Screenshot from Marcus Welby, M.D., NBCUniversal (1969-1976)
The Kravitz House Became The Partridge Family Home
Classic-TV viewers had seen the Partridge residence before the musical family moved in. Parade reports that The Partridge Family used the same set associated with the Kravitz family, Samantha and Darrin’s neighbors on Bewitched. The suburban facade simply received a new fictional household.
Screenshot from The Patridge Family, Sony Pictures Entertainment (1970-1974)
The Partridge House Became The Life Goes On House
The Partridge house kept evolving after that sitcom ended. For Life Goes On, producers modified the existing Warner Bros. Ranch facade to recreate the Thatcher family home used in the pilot. The structure had also been altered for Scarecrow and Mrs. King in between.
Screenshot from Life Goes On, Warner Bros. Discovery (1989-1993)
Matlock’s House Found A Place On Wisteria Lane
Universal’s Colonial Street had decades of history before Desperate Housewives. The house occupied by neighborhood gossip Mona Clarke on Wisteria Lane was the same backlot property previously associated with Andy Griffith’s title attorney on Matlock. Courtroom drama scenery had become prime-time suburbia.
Screenshot from Desperate Housewives, The Walt Disney Company (2004-2012)
The Munsters’ Mansion Moved To Wisteria Lane
The Munster home eventually received a dramatic makeover. On Desperate Housewives, the same facade became the Applewhite house and later housed other Wisteria Lane residents. Its history stretched back before The Munsters, but that spooky sitcom gave the structure its best-known early television identity.
Screenshot from Desperate Housewives, The Walt Disney Company (2004-2012), enhanced
Providence’s Family House Became Bree Van De Kamp’s
Bree Van de Kamp’s immaculate home had a prior television identity. The house had been rebuilt for Providence, where it served as the Hansen family residence. Afterward, the facade became one of Wisteria Lane’s most recognizable addresses on Desperate Housewives.
Screenshot from Desperate Housewives, The Walt Disney Company (2004-2012)
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