Wednesday 23 October 2013

Sitcom trivia - 5 locations from 4 sitcoms based in New York City !



October so far has been dragging me here and there, leaving me with disrupted internet access and little control over my time. Most of the month has gone off like this, so am not in the best of spirits. i've ended up having my finger in many pies, so disrupted plans and schedules had left me very annoyed the past weeks... theres a lot of stuff that i need to be doing before the end of october (if i dont want to end up cussing myself and suffer another bout of self-hating), so hopefully i should redeem the last week of october and try to make up for whats lost.

Moving on to other (and better) things, heres something i had managed to compile in the past weeks - and finally managed to get past the draft stage. 

Are you a sitcom fan ? Love the all-time popular shows like Friends,Seinfeld, or How I Met Your Mother ? Then this one is for you.

I love sitcoms and can watch them anytime, all the time. (I dont watch TV regularly everyday, but i loved the convenience of a dvr and watching them any time i wanted to. In the absence of a dvr, I try to catch old episodes on youtube.)

I first stumbled on the location of the "Monk's Diner" that is a regular feature in Seinfeld. All the exterior shots of Monks are of a real restaurant in New York City called Toms. The sign which says just 'restaurant' was used on the show.

image source - Panoramio
Location - 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025 (near Columbia University)

Seeing that made me curious to google the locations of some of the other popular sitcoms, and i found these :

If you are a F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan (and its very hard not to be one), you'll be excited to see this building that was used for the exterior shots of Monica's apartment building.

                                                             image source - Flickr
Location - At the corner of Bedford & Grove Streets, Greenwich Village, New York, NY 10014




Love How I Met Your Mother ? Then you might be interested to see this pub in NYC called McGees, which was the inspiration for Maclarens pub in the show. The creators apparently spent many hours there before the show was created. (Keep in mind however that this was just the inspiration for Maclarens, and was not actually used for any of the shots nor does the interior look similar.)

Mcgees Pub, How I Met Your Mother
                                                      image source - Mcgees, NYC
Location - 240 W 55th St (between Broadway & 8th Ave) ,New YorkNY 10019


And lastly, from Will & Grace - here is the building which was used for Will & Grace's apartment - 

Will & Grace Apartment Building
image source - Flickr
Location - 155 Riverside Drive, Manhattan, New York, NY


and this is the building which was used for Grace's Studio (Grace Adler Designs) - 

Grace's Studio from Will & Grace

image source - Flickr
Location - Puck Building, 295-309 Lafayette Street, Manhattan, New York, NY




These buildings were all only used for the exterior shots - keep in mind that the real shooting happened on sets in studios in California. I hope to be adding at least some of these(esp the friends one !)  to my to-do list when i make it to NYC the next time. Do you like sitcoms ? Which ones are your favs, and would you be adding any of these to your to-do list if you get a chance to be in NYC ?