One of the tricks of any timeless TV show is having a set that transports the viewer to that place. Whether it’s the high school hijinks of “Saved by the Bell” or the slurry-worded conversations of aging alcoholics on “Cheers,” the set of any good show is crucial. Let’s have a look at some of the best sets in television history, excluding living rooms because that’s too easy.
A common gathering place for meals and classic “Seinfeld” banter, Monk’s was Jerry and George’s safe haven for discovering life’s mysteries and disclosing self embarrassments until the show’s finale in 1998. Elaine would join the crew at “the coffee shop” for the occasional yada yada, and Kramer would drop in with yet another classic entrance, as long as they didn’t sit up at that two-dimensional breakfast bar.
The offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce are about as well put together as it is difficult to remember its name (which is currently Sterling Cooper & Partners, we think). Set in the late ’60s and moving toward 1970 at the end of its run, “Mad Men” has had the unique ability to transport us back in time to a world of retro advertising and afternoon alcoholism in fancy suits. “Mad Men” wraps its set with part two of its seventh season in spring 2015.
The gang was always good for a few laughs at the coffee shop, a common roosting spot for group scrutiny and public sarcasm. It was run by creepy little Gunther and housed no lack of laughs from the show’s entire run from 1994 until 2004, not to mention it housed Jennifer Aniston‘s rocking body for 10 seasons.
There was no place quite like The Max, a diner that hosted dance contests, kick-off parties and even Teen Line. Not many places were so multi-dimensional as the colorful kick-back spot for Zack Morris and the gang, a cafeteria type for the ages from 1989 until the show’s end in 1993, hosted by the ever cheerful Max himself. Does it feel like that show went on for an eternity rather than five years to anyone else?
If there were ever an all-encapsulating set that you never wanted to be a part of, it was Dunder Mifflin, the paper pushing, pen-driven workplace that made people want to clock out right at five on the dot and be home in time to load their shotgun from 2005 until its sad, but successful end in 2013. Though Michael Scott is arguably one of the most hilarious bosses–on TV–you could hope for, Dunder Mifflin is no place for a real human being.
Many a drunken escapade and poorly hatched plan found its jumping off point in these Irish themed walls of our favorite foul-mouthed comedy. Mac, Charlie, Dennis and Dee have not only miscalculated, misinterpreted and started down nearly every misguided path starting in this very spot, but they’ve also managed to bring an entire city to its door out of pure, abashed hatred. Maybe it’s the beer, or maybe these lowlifes have found the perfect bar in which to burn in hell. Frank and the kids are back for their tenth season at the start of 2015.
Inspiring in its simplicity, as well as inspiring in the kind of way when you smoke too much weed with your friends, is the puff-puff-pass circle of stoner comments and retro idiocy. From 1998 until 2006, that was the smoky, backwards thinking circle at the end of each “That ’70s Show” episode. Funny how they never panned down to the belt line to disclose that it was actually a massive circle jerk.
You want to go where everyone knows your name? That sounds like high school, bro. But if you were on the set of “Cheers” between 1983 and 1992, there’s a good chance you were in the presence of great sober-drunk acting and lots of classic faces, sober-drunk laughs and a pretty sad ending.
The only thing better than a TV show inside of a TV show is a wood shop where the host hurts himself every episode and the girl who introduces him is the hottest woman you can think of. Running from ’91 to ’99, “Tool Time” was the classic set for Tim Taylor’s mishaps that would later influence his constant mishaps at home. Ar! Ar! Ar! (That was our Tim Taylor grunting impression.)
Anyone who didn’t want to spend every waking minute of their adolescence in this cozy diner-turned-nightclub in the ’90s is dead to me. Serving as the only apparent source of food from 1990 until 2000 for Brandon and the gang, the Peach Pit and Peach Pit After Dark were the first places of employment for our favorite overly entitled teens from the ’90s. What a place. Too bad it was turned into a hipster joint for the show’s CW reboot in 2008. Everything dies.
