Image via Complex Original
How often have you watched a television show and thought to yourself, "I wish I lived there," or "I wonder where they filmed that"? Most shows and films are shot on sets in Hollywood, and if you’re lucky you can tour a few of them, but seeing behind the curtain can also ruin the magic of the screen.
Some scenes and television intros, however, often feature real-world locations to sell the idea that the characters you love are real. We compiled this list of The Real-World Locations of Iconic TV Homes. See where everyone from Don Draper of Mad Men to Will and Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air lived.
The Tanner House
Location: San Francisco
TV Show: Full House
Every child of the '90s remembers the house that Danny (Bob Saget), Joey (Dave Coulier), and Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) built. Full House introduced us to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as Michelle Tanner, and we all wanted to be a part of that extended family. The show was set in San Francisco, and the building used for the exterior shots of the Tanner Family home still stands at 1709 Broderick Street. According to Zillow, the 2,484-square-foot, three-bedroom home was built in 1900 and was last sold in 2006 for $1.85 million. Bob Saget returned to Broderick Street last summer and tweeted a selfie from outside of the house. Now that you have the address, you can too.
The Murder House
Location: Los Angeles
TV Show: American Horror Story: Murder House
The first season of American Horror Story is titled “Murder House” because the plot revolves around the home that the Harmon family moves into, a restored mansion with a troubled past. Production designer Mark Worthington told the Los Angeles Times that the mansion they chose (used for exterior and interior shots for the pilot and then recreated on sound stages) was built in 1910 by Alfred Rosenheim, the President of the American Institute of Architects. There are many styles blended into the architecture, and Worthington says that “contributes wonderfully to the somewhat ominous quality it has.” The 15,000-square-foot, six-bedroom Los Angeles mansion has been on the market several times in the past few years, but buyers didn't seem to be interested in the Tiffany stained-glass windows, Batchelder tile fireplaces, or the fact that the house will be remembered as one of the creepiest addresses in pop culture history.
The Huxtable Residence
Location: New York City
TV Show: The Cosby Show
Tourists still visit the Huxtable's home at 10 St. Luke's Place on New York City tours and take photos on the stairs, but many are shocked to learn that the house is in Greenwich Village. Geoffrey Owens, the actor who played the son-in-law Elvin, said at the 2011 TV Land Awards that the home kind of has three locations: “The house that they used for the show was actually in Greenwich Village, but we were supposed to live in Brooklyn Heights, and we filmed in Queens.” We couldn't find any real estate sale history for the townhouse, but a building two doors down is currently listed for $12.5 million.
The Friends Apartment Building
Location: New York City
TV Show: Friends
The apartment building used for the exterior shots on Friends is probably in the top five of New York City TV locations to visit. The apartments on the show were very unrealistic in terms of size and layout, but no one really cared.
Carrie Bradshaw's Brownstone
Location: New York City
TV Show: Sex and the City
If you try to find Carrie Bradshaw's (Sarah Jessica Parker) home on Google Maps at 64 Perry Street, you'll be met with an image of a blurry brownstone. Around the time of the Sex and the City films, neighbors rallied to have the home removed from the route of a popular New York City tour because they were sick of the large groups forming on their street. “Visitors are fine,” said the president of the Perry St. Block Association. “We get two, three or four people taking a picture. But when we’re getting lines and lines of people, it is not.” Carrie later moved to 66 Perry, which also appears to be blurred for privacy on Google Maps. Built in 1866 by Robert Mook, the 4,104-square-foot townhouse at 64 Perry sold in 2012 for $9.65 million, so fans will just have to keep dreaming of having Carrie's life from the sidewalk.
Jerry Seinfeld's Apartment
Location: Los Angeles
TV Show: Seinfeld
Tom's Restaurant, or Monk's, is definitely the most famous location from the sitcom Seinfeld, but Jerry's apartment was also a pretty iconic place for viewers of the show. New Yorkers and tourists who go to 129 W. 81st Street in Manhattan will be disappointed because it is not the same place. The building used for the exterior shots is on the other side of the country at 757 S. New Hampshire Ave in Los Angeles.
Martin's Crib
Location: Detroit
TV Show: Martin
The WZUP radio station and Nipsey's may not exist, but Martin's apartment in the show was located in Detroit's Garden Court Apartments. Things have changed a lot since the '90s, and the building is now called Garden Court Condominiums, so don't expect Bruh Man to still be climbing through the window.
The Spellman House
Location: Freehold, N.J.
TV Show: Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
Are we the only ones who wanted to live in a big house with witch aunts and a talking cat named Salem? Besides the fact that the show was fiction, that dream isn't really possible at the Spellman home in Freehold, New Jersey because it is currently an office building, according to the Internet. As far as we know, the bank-owned 4,862-square-foot building doesn't have a linen closet that doubles as a portal to “The Other Realm,” but the Victorian architecture is still pretty cool.
Buffy's House
Location: Torrance, Calif.
TV Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
You won't find vampires and other scary creatures at 1313 Cota Ave in Torrance, Calif., but you will find a house that looks pretty creepy. The house where Buffy killed is partially hidden from view by tall trees and shrubbery, so there's no telling what goes down there at night. Built in 1914, the home is 2,296 square feet with four bedrooms and two bathrooms, but it is not currently for sale.
The Jeffersons' Building
Location: New York City
TV Show: The Jeffersons
George and Weezy's “deluxe apartment in the sky” was located at 185 East 85th Street in the Park Lane Towers, but everyone still calls it “The Jeffersons building”. There are 442 rentals in the building, but we're not sure how much it would cost you to “move on up” and live like the couple did on television.
The Golden Girls Home
Location: Los Angeles
TV Show: Golden Girls
It's not Miami, but the real-life Golden Girls house is in a nice neighborhood in Los Angeles. It's not that visible from the street, so you would probably miss it if you were just driving through, but if you set your GPS to 245 N. Saltair Ave., you'll find it. The four-bedroom home was built in 1955 which makes it younger than Rose (Betty White).
The Bundy House
Location: Deerfield, Ill.
TV Show: Married With Children
Grab your “No mam” T-shirt, put your hand in your pants, and head to Deerfield, Ill. to see the house that Bundy built (Al, not Ted). The home at 641 Castlewood Lane is easily recognizable from the opening credits because of the garage door, though the landscape has changed a bit. We can't help but sing the theme song when we look at this place.
The Banks Mansion
Location: Los Angeles
TV Show: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
If we were ranking these from least to most iconic, this would definitely be number one. Seeing the door that Jazz was thrown out of dozens of times will be difficult because the home is hidden behind tall bushes and a locked fence, but this Google Maps aerial view shows the entire property, including the legendary pool house where Will lived.
The Winslow Home
Location: Chicago
TV Show: Family Matters
The Winslow home in real-life is on the North Side of Chicago, and it looks almost exactly as it did in 1998 when the show ended. The real house is a multi-family home, but only Carl and his family lived there on the show.
The Cheers Bar
Location: Boston
TV Show: Cheers
Before you say that this doesn't belong on the list because it's a bar, maybe you should watch the show. The bar was more of a home to Norm, Sam, Diane, Carla, Cliff, and the rest of the gang than the places where they slept. The Bull & Finch Pub is located on the corner of Beacon and Brimmer, and it now features a sign and banner that says “Cheers,” so it's a lot easier to find.
Reggie Ledoux's Carcosa
Location: New Orleans
TV Show: True Detective
Enter Carcosa, the creepy bone-covered home of the Yellow King. The ruins used for the deeply disturbing scenes in True Detective near Reggie Ledoux's house are actually the Fort Macomb Ruins. Completed in 1822 as a defense post for the Chef Menteur Pass, the site was one of 42 built. It was abandoned in 1871 after a fire and remains closed to the public, so unfortunately you can't go there and reenact parts of the show…at least not legally.
The Arnold Family Home
Location: Burbank, Calif.
TV Show: The Wonder Years
516 University Avenue in Burbank was featured prominently in the opening credits for The Wonder Years, along with fake home video from the Arnold family and one of the greatest theme songs ever, “With a Little Help From My Friends” performed by Joe Cocker. According to a TV location-stalking website, the home was built in 1949 and has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and hasn't been sold since 1987, a year before the show first aired.
The Charmed House
Location: Los Angeles
TV Show: Charmed
There are a number of supernatural houses on this list because people love creepy stuff. A building known as the Innes House was used for both exterior and interior shots of Halliwell Manor on the witchy series Charmed. It was built in 1887, and in 1971 it was designated as a historical landmark, which means that all of the original woodwork and furnishing have been preserved, and it is being protected by the Los Angeles Conservancy.
The Bunker Home
Location: Queens, N.Y.
TV Show: All in the Family
Many of you are too young to remember Archie Bunker and his adorably racist ways, but All in the Family is a classic. The show ended in 1979, and according to The New York Times, its popularity among tourists has dropped significantly.
The Brady Nest
Location: North Hollywood, Calif.
TV Show: Brady Bunch
The coolest part about the Brady house was the interior because the dad was an architect, but the exterior was still pretty cool for the 1970s. According to Zillow, the five-bedroom, 2,477-square-foot home hasn't been sold since 1973, a year before the show ended and only 14 years after it was built.
The Conner House
Location: Evansville, Ind.
TV Show: Roseanne
Roseanne Conner's family was poor, but you couldn't really tell from the outside. The house was remolded with new windows and a new porch and was listed last year for $129,000, but it doesn't look like a sale was made.
The Evans Family Apartment Building
Location: Chicago
TV Show: Good Times
The projects where JJ and his family lived was hardly ever mentioned in the show, but the building shown in the credits was a part of the infamous Cabrini Green public housing complex in Chicago where there weren't many “good times” at all. The projects spanned 70 acres and were associated with a lot of crime in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. After drawn-out battles to save the buildings, the projects were finally closed in 2010, and the remaining residents were given vouchers to find housing elsewhere. The horror film Candyman was also filmed at Cabrini-Green in 1992, and the film focused on the rough environment and gang culture of the area.
Don Draper's Home
Location: Pasadena, Calif.
TV Show: Mad Men
You will never be as cool as Don Draper, but that shouldn't stop you from seeing the house where the character lived with his not-so-perfect family. The four-bedroom home is in Pasadena, not Ossining, New York, and it last sold in '02 for $999,000, according to Zillow.
The White House
Location: Albuquerque, N.M
TV Show: Breaking Bad
We don't recommend you being “the one who knocks” at 3828 Piermont Drive in Albuquerque because Walter White doesn't live there anymore (if you saw all of the show, you would know that anyway). A nice woman named Fran owns the White residence, and in a cool video interview with Machinima, she tells the story of how her home since 1973 became the home of one of the greatest fictional meth-cookers to ever grace our television sets.
The Island of Fantasy
Location: Arcadia, Calif.
TV Show: Fantasy Island
If you haven't heard of Fantasy Island, ask your parents about it…it was as awesome (and corny) as the name suggests. The real-life location of the lead character Mr. Roarke's (Ricardo Montalban) home is the Queen Anne Cottage, a historical structure that is a part of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. There are peacocks on the grounds, but it's not exactly an island of fantasy.
The Carrington Mansion
Location: Woodside, Calif.
TV Show: Dynasty
The Fioli estate in Woodside was used for the establishing shots of the 48-room mansion that the Carringtons live in on the '80s soap opera Dynasty. It was designed by Willis Polk for the Bourns between 1915 and 1917, but the gardens were still being developed through 1929. You can still tour the 654-acre estate and view sculpture exhibits and attend garden parties, or you can just pose in the courtyard and take selfies that only your grandparents will appreciate.
Minister Camden's Home
Location: Santa Monica, Calif.
TV Show: 7th Heaven
Everyone's favorite Protestant minister's family, the Camdens, lived in the fictional town of Glen Oak on the show 7th Heaven, but the real house is in Santa Monica at 527 Alta Avenue. There is a huge tree out front that hides the home from the street, but you can still recognize the second floor windows.
The Foster-Lambert Home
Location: South Pasadena, Calif.
TV Show: Step by Step
Try to look at this house without singing the theme song; it's almost impossible. What most people remember from the intro is the rollercoaster and theme park that the family visits, but real fans (and those of us who were crushing hard on Dana, Carol, and Al) remember exactly what the house looked like.
4616 Melrose Place
Location: Los Feliz, Calif.
TV Show: Melrose Place
The show Melrose Place probably wouldn't have taken off if they named it “El Pueblo Apartments.”
The Jenner/Kardashian Home
Location: Studio City, Calif.
TV Show: Keeping Up With the Kardashians
So much for “reality television.” Casual fans of Keeping Up With the Kardashians probably don't know that the Jenner/Kardashian residence in later seasons isn't actually where the family lived. In an interview withDaily Mailthis past March, Kim said that the house was used “for security purposes…My old home in Beverly Hills was really my home, and I would get people showing up at all hours ringing my gate and had to call the police on several occasions.” The fake house was apparently also used on True Blood and was listed for sale in 2012 for $6.495 million.