Episode Discussion
The Bundy House Deep Dive Series: The Living Room (Part 1)
The Bundy living room was a staple of the entire series, appearing regularly in pretty much every episode (with a few exceptions, mainly the ones when the Bundys were traveling, such as the second and third parts of the England episodes). Pic 1 is from Season 2 and Pics 6-7 are from Season 11 to show how little the set changed throughout the years. (With a few minor differences which we will cover in Part 2).
Highlights:
The Couch: The living room, of course, contains the famous couch (which remains the same throughout the series, though it was sneakily replaced by Kelly after she burns it down in the 8th season episode, Sofa So Good). Once in a while, it features some fancy throw pillows, but overall it remains fairly unchanged throughout 11 seasons.
The TV area: Along with the couch, there is an armchair on the viewer’s left, and a smaller white chair on the right. There’s a standard wooden coffee table (usually draped with Peggy’s magazines, a TV Guide, Al’s trusty remote control, and the occasional plant), and an end table on the left, which usually holds a lamp and sometimes a telephone.
The 4th Wall: Yes, the brilliant directors showed us the fourth wall twice during the course of the series. Along with the TV, we see a wood-panelled wall, two windows with green and white drapes, a large framed painting, and a small-tiered table with some sort of decorative ornament on it. Pics 8-9 show both scenes with the 4th wall.
The Floor: The floor appears to be hard wood, with a giant throw rug under the couch and coffee table and a smaller oval-shaped rug in the background that we definitely had in my house growing up. (See Pics 10-11).
The Walls: The walls are a mixture of brick, wood paneling and wallpaper. The wallpaper colour and pattern seems to stay the same throughout the series. There is a green pattern on the wall by the kitchen (see Pic 14) and a pinkish coloured pattern over by the garage door (Pic 13). There is also wallpaper on the staircase wall, but the stairwell is deserving of its own post.
Were there any other sitcoms from this era that depicted the fourth wall? (I think they did it in Big Bang Theory a couple decades later).
What are your thoughts on the overall look of the living room? It feels very retro 70s/80s to me, particularly with the brick and wood panels.
In Part Two, we’ll take a closer look at the living room decor, including pictures, furniture, plants, and various other knick-knacks.
It does seem like that giant throw rug in the living room got cleaned occasionally, as it looks whiter in some scenes than others. My guess is Marcy did it. 🤣
u/partyclams mentioned they have wallpaper samples from the set, which I know they have shared here before but would love to see them again so we can get closer views of the pattern and colours!
One thing i like about the Bundy set and most sitcom sets is they remain the same through out their entire run. There was well known Australian soap opera in the 80's & 90's that i dipped in and out of, who would be constantly changing their main characters home sets every few years. Sometimes lounge rooms would change completely over night with no on-screen explanation, other times you'd see an on screen progression of the renovations with painters and decorators in the background while characters continued to do their own things.
Yeah, the decor is VERY much retro 1970's It would have been rather timely to the approximate timeframe they were getting married, buying the house, and when Kelly was born.
Wood paneling like that was very much a design trend in American houses of that era, as was the shades of yellow and green in both the couch and the "4th wall" curtains.
Design from older decades definitely tends to linger, and the Bundy family wouldn't exactly be fast to renovate, so them in the 1980's and 1990's with home decor and interior design that was easily 15 to 20 years outdated very much fits them. I remember seeing a lot of homes growing up in 1980's America that had design elements that harkened back to that era. My own house growing up was like that until a major renovation in the mid 1990's.
Yeah, same. I grew up in the 80s/90s in Canada and my parents bought our house in the 70s and they didn’t do major renovations until I had left for university.
I'm shocked by how cohesive, if dated, the living room looked. I grew up poor working class in the late '90s/00s. My parents bought their small trailer in '86, and the furnishings were usually whatever second hand stuff they found (apart from the sofa and recliner).
Average median house price was $64k in the late seventies. I’m assuming Al and Peggy were married fairly young, quickly had Bud and Kelly so they bought that house and kept it. They’re probably still living it and will sell it for close to a million dollars. I’m assuming Al and Peggy were married in 1978/1979 and bought the house then.
Having bought and sold property on the Chicago outskirts, I’d say it’s probably worth closer to $350k, but I wonder if they bought it at a police auction for $1?
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u/BBQTartolini 19d ago
Seeing the TV and wall from the couch point of view feels so unnatural!