EXCERPTS | 'Sitcom Style'

Tidbits from the new book "Sitcom Style: Inside America's Favorite TV Homes":
Martin Crane's striped recliner ("Frasier"), including duct tape, cost $1,500, as much as the glass-and-stone dining room table situated directly behind it on the set.The chairs on "All in the Family" were bought for less than $20 each at a secondhand store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Both pieces now rest in the Smithsonian.The living room on "Roseanne" cost production designer Garvin Eddy $5,000 to create in 1988. The plaid sofa and side chairs came from Sears. Trophies, pillows and other knickknacks came from sidewalk sales and even Eddy's own garage.Two programs, "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," were originally set in New York. But producers changed their minds. It actually was cheaper to shoot the Clampetts in Beverly Hills. And Mary Richards of Minneapolis was deemed a more sympathetic character than Mary from Manhattan.
Newsday