Just looked thrift store. Like the actors did their own hair and makeup: 'Three's Company'; 'Alice'; 'Roseanne'; 'Gilligan's Island'...

by Anonymous

reply 51

October 17, 2021 3:30 AM

Dallas, as far as Ewing Oil’s executive offices were concerned.

by Anonymous

reply 6

October 17, 2021 12:13 AM

Saved By The Bell looked like it was a high school play with a flat background

by Anonymous

reply 7

October 17, 2021 12:16 AM

Most 70s shows.

Sanford & Son.

Happy Days.

Good Times.

My 3 Sons (they had a horrible all green set)

Maude

Family Ties (early years)

Cagney & Lacey (did they even have hair & makeup?)

Married With Children (when the front door was slammed the wall would shake like a cheap set)

by Anonymous

reply 9

October 17, 2021 12:28 AM

I always thought that Paul Rauch's OLTL in the 1980's looked like SHIT. It was ratings powerhouse yet was lit like a Walmart.

However, upon further review- the show had some huge sets, beautifully done, like Stonecrest, the Waterside Inn, Holden Towers, and Michael Grande's mansion...

It looks very 80's. And there are some episodes on YouTube, where the show actually looks good.

by Anonymous

reply 11

October 17, 2021 12:32 AM

Chopped (Food Network), although I heard they changed the set recently.

by Anonymous

reply 13

October 17, 2021 12:37 AM

Jerry Seinfeld's apartment always looked cheap and dingy and boring.

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by Anonymous

reply 14

October 17, 2021 12:41 AM

The Silence of the Lambs spinoff Clarice looks cheap to me, obviously filmed in a dreary-looking Toronto. There was so much potential, but It's an awful show on many levels.

by Anonymous

reply 15

October 17, 2021 12:43 AM

Gilligan's Island wasn't easy from a set design standpoint. The whole screen had to be filled with vegetation. That's not a cheap set, even if it looked cheap.

by Anonymous

reply 17

October 17, 2021 12:49 AM

The old ITV soap [italic]Crossroads[/italic] was infamous for tick-tacky set design that looked as if it might all come crashing down at any second.

by Anonymous

reply 18

October 17, 2021 12:49 AM

It's much rarer these days, in the age of high-definition TV and CGI, when you can't get away with things looking as cheap and crappy. But it does happen.

I was shocked at how cheap and shoddy SCHMIGADOON on Apple TV looked. I realize it's an elaborate musical fantasy shot during a pandemic, but the sets, costumes, and CGI effects are really awful. (I believe it was all done in Vancouver.) I felt bad for the performers.

Jane Krakowski and Cecily Strong are both giving their all to this (not especially clever) Cole Porter-inspired song, but look at how poorly it's shot. Their makeup. Jane's poorly fitting costume. The worst SNL skit has higher production values.

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by Anonymous

reply 19

October 17, 2021 12:52 AM

Susan Slept Here

She's the Sheriff

The Girl With Something Extra

by Anonymous

reply 20

October 17, 2021 12:54 AM

What about this set, Dummy? Made people want to fight!

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by Anonymous

reply 21

October 17, 2021 12:59 AM

All of those '70s shows had cheap sets. The anomaly would be an expensive set. There was an episode of What's Happening, they were in Shirley's restaurant and there was no food on the tables. Now, that's cheap!

by Anonymous

reply 22

October 17, 2021 1:01 AM

R20 I LOVE the main set in Susan Slept here. Though they seem to use a building at the studio for a "motel" by just putting a neon sign up on it.

by Anonymous

reply 23

October 17, 2021 1:01 AM

Food Network: "Semi-Homemade (Sandra Lee)" and the Trisha Yearwood cooking shows. Compare to Pioneer Woman show, which looks expensive.

by Anonymous

reply 25

October 17, 2021 1:03 AM

They seriously needed to beam up some gay set designers.

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by Anonymous

reply 26

October 17, 2021 1:09 AM

GILLIGAN’S ISLAND was not cheap looking. How dare you?! Ginger’s gowns were by DYNAST’S Nolan Miller!!

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by Anonymous

reply 27

October 17, 2021 1:12 AM

Love Gilligan's expression. I don't think Bob Denver really liked Tina Louise.

by Anonymous

reply 28

October 17, 2021 1:13 AM

A friend of mine was the original Production Designer for the Seinfeld NY apartment set during its first year. That was the claustrophobic set with the bicycle in the apartment. He designed it this way based on his many years of living in NYC railroad flats. It was kind of gritty, but I liked it. I also thought it suited the Seinfeld characters better.

They bought in another designer in the second season and upscaled the apartment - bigger, brighter, less gritty.

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by Anonymous

reply 29

October 17, 2021 1:14 AM

Nothing was ever cheaper looking than the set of Wentworth prison in the original run of Prisoner Cell Block H. Constructed entirely of wobbly cardboard and fake bricks. The Channel 10 studios building in Melbourne served as the exterior of the prison. They just hung fake barred windows on the outside on a blank wall.

by Anonymous

reply 30

October 17, 2021 1:18 AM

[quote]R28 Love Gilligan's expression. I don't think Bob Denver really liked Tina Louise.

He detested her. She was huffy because she was under the impression when she signed up that the other characters were satellites around the movie star. The creator said, “You didn’t catch on when the script was titled GILLIGAN’S Island?”

by Anonymous

reply 31

October 17, 2021 1:22 AM

Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.

But absolutely NOTHING can top "The Honeymooners"!

by Anonymous

reply 32

October 17, 2021 1:26 AM

The "filmed before a live audience" shows (popular in the 70s) usually had the cheapest sets.

by Anonymous

reply 33

October 17, 2021 1:32 AM

Ralph and Alice Kramden's apartment in THE HONEYMOONERS looked like something in Auschwitz.

I hated that show even as a little kid. They were poor, angry, and depressing.

by Anonymous

reply 34

October 17, 2021 1:35 AM

R20, I only know Susan Slept Here as the film by Frank Tashlin. Was there a show?

by Anonymous

reply 35

October 17, 2021 1:37 AM

Currently of all the soaps, Days of Our Lives looks like the cheapest of all the remaining soaps. This year it has gotten a little better in terms of its production values but not by much. The new DiMera mansion set actually looks bigger but much more hideous looking. Sony who is their producer asked them to move into one of their studios thereby saving money. However I have a suspicion that TPTB would be pocketing that money as opposed to really spending it!

by Anonymous

reply 36

October 17, 2021 1:43 AM

God, I hate the new DiMera mansion. The other set was at least a good tie to the past. I remember when it was being used as Donovan Manor in the late 1980s.

by Anonymous

reply 37

October 17, 2021 1:54 AM

R29, is that the "before" or "after" Seinfeld set?

by Anonymous

reply 38

October 17, 2021 1:54 AM

[quote]Ralph and Alice Kramden's apartment in THE HONEYMOONERS looked like something in Auschwitz. I hated that show even as a little kid. They were poor, angry, and depressing.

I loved those old shows, as a kid. Loved Gleason's American Scene Magazine show, too (on which I'm pretty sure they also had Hoeymooners sketches - with Sue Ane Langdon as Alice). I thought The Honeymooners was hilarious. So did a lot of people.

by Anonymous

reply 39

October 17, 2021 2:03 AM

"All 39 episodes of The Honeymooners were filmed at the DuMont Television Network's Adelphi Theatre at 152 West 54th Street in Manhattan, in front of an audience of 1,000."

The Honeymooners was a blue collar comedy show. Some people find a show about poor working class stiffs repulsive, others like it.

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by Anonymous

reply 40

October 17, 2021 2:09 AM

R19 Just from that clip it appears that, that is an example of a show that would be improved by a live studio audience. It looks and has the cadence of a variety show skit or a sitcom, but without the laughter it seems cringey and the timing is off.

by Anonymous

reply 42

October 17, 2021 2:44 AM

No sitcom has ever matched the Honeymooners' apartment for squalor.

by Anonymous

reply 43

October 17, 2021 2:54 AM

The Honeymooners was on the Dumont Network, which barely existed. Of course, there was no budget for sets.

by Anonymous

reply 44

October 17, 2021 3:07 AM

[quote]All in the Family

Norman Lear productions in general...

because he was so damn cheap

by Anonymous

reply 45

October 17, 2021 3:09 AM

To this day I don't understand why there was absolutely no furniture at the Kramdens' apartment other than the barest minimum. Why couldn't they afford to buy even pictures from magazines to paste up on their walls?

by Anonymous

reply 46

October 17, 2021 3:11 AM

Happy Days. In one episode, Fonzie leans against a wall and you can see the wall shake.

by Anonymous

reply 47

October 17, 2021 3:12 AM

It's pretty hilarious to watch ROYALS after having seen THE CROWN. Since they couldn't afford to build sets or rent the right kinds of palaces to suggest Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Balmoral, and Windsor, they used some really bizarre alternatives. They would use the front of Blenheim Palace frequently to be Buckingham Palace, even though the two look absolutely nothing alike and are each pretty much instantly recognizable from the outside to anyone in the UK.

by Anonymous

reply 48

October 17, 2021 3:14 AM

The I Love Lucy set in Season 1. When they finally moved to the larger apartment with the window at the back of the living room, it looked slightly better.

by Anonymous

reply 49

October 17, 2021 3:21 AM

The weather set on the majority of mid/low-market local news shows.

by Anonymous

reply 50

October 17, 2021 3:22 AM

R46 - Gleason grew up dirt poor in 1920s Brooklyn and the Kramden apartment was a reflection of that more than the reality of how a bus driver at the time would really live.

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by Anonymous

reply 51

October 17, 2021 3:30 AM