“Cougar Town:” The Houses of the Cul-de-Sac Crew

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on MARCH 15, 2011

Thanks to everyone who responded to my “Big, Scary Blog Crisis” post yesterday! It was fun learning where so many of my readers live, and to realize it is truly a global community here at Hooked on Houses. Love that.

It sounds like most of you can see my blog now, so I think it’s safe to resume regular programming…starting with what should have been yesterday’s post about the sets from “Cougar Town.”

When the Courteney Cox sitcom premiered in 2009, I refused to watch at first because of the terrible title. I assumed it was about older women hooking up with younger guys, which didn’t really appeal to me. When I finally caught an episode, I was surprised by how much I liked the show. It’s really, really funny. And the sets totally won me over.

Courteney Cox plays Jules Cobb, a single mom to a teenager named Travis. She works as a real estate broker, so score another point for the show–we get to go along with Jules when she shows houses!

Jules lives in Florida, surrounded by friends dubbed “The Cul-de-Sac Crew.”Those are her best buds shown above–Laurie (Busy Phillips) and Ellie (Christa Miller). Laurie works with her in real estate, and Ellie is her next-door neighbor.

Even her ex-husband Bobby (Brian Van Holt) is part of the group. He lives in his boat (called “Jealous Much?”) in a parking lot and seems perfectly happy there. (Or at least he did, until Jules decided to surprise him by getting the boat back in the marina…and it sunk.)

Courteney Cox has had a lot to deal with over the past year, between (apparently false) rumors that she was dating her co-star (Van Holt), her separation from husband David Arquette, and Arquette’s public meltdown and trip to rehab.

They have been married for over 11 years and have a 6-year old daughter named Coco.Arquette told Oprah he still loves Courteney and hopes they might be able to work things out.

Ellie’s husband Andy walks into Jules’s house with baby Stan in his arms. No one ever knocks in this neighborhood.

The episode when they got so comfy in their Snugglies that they didn’t want to take them off cracked me up:

Here’s some of the source info I found in a comment left on a post about the show onThe Little Big House blog:

• Living room lamps are from Pottery Barn.
• Entry way lamp is Crate & Barrel’s Jolie Lamp ($189).
• Blue bird barstool fabric is Aviary Robin at Calico Corners.
• Wicker chairs at the kitchen table are at Crate & Barrel ($269 each).
• Living room side table (driftwood base with round glass top) is Driftwood End Table from Crate & Barrel ($399).
• TV stand in the living room is the Monterey Console from Crate & Barrel ($1299).

I also found this comment written by set decorator Archie D’Amico on The Little Big House in response to some reader questions:

“The coffee table is custom made from an iron worker to match the one in the pilot episode. The painting is a rental from Omega Cinema Props. Cabot McMullen is the production designer, Gary Warsaw art director, Doritt Oberman and Derrick Hinman buyers for the early episodes and I’m the set decorator, Archie D’Amico.”

D’Amico worked on “Ugly Betty,” too, another show where the sets stole the show.

We don’t see these shelves very often, so I was excited to finally get a photo of them when the camera turned that way:

Entertainment Weekly featured the set design last year in a nice two-paged spread. For some reason they took the photos off their website, so here are scans of the pages as they appeared in the magazine (which happens to me my favorite, can’t-live-without-it publication):

Production Designer Cabot McMullen wanted a neutral base for the walls in her living room, so he went with Benjamin Moore’s ”Bleecker Beige” in eggshell.

Co-creator Kevin Biegel felt it was important to have some floral decor like the fabric on the chairs. He says, “In Florida there are flower prints on everything.”

Thanks to A Blog About Things for these scans, which saved me from having to do it myself!

The EAT sign on her kitchen wall is a fan favorite, created with “Flares and Fountains” fabric letters from Anthropologie. I think they’re about $14 each, but I’ve heard these letters are frequently on back order.

Looking at the breakfast table and EAT sign from the dining room around the corner:

In this shot you can see the hat rack in the front hall:

The glass pantry door has frosted glass in the center:

CasaSugar wrote an interesting article about this show for people who want to “Get the Look” of these sets.

For the first few months of Season One, I was always trying to figure out what room that was off the entry, but we only got a few little glimpses of it, like this:

Then Ellie walked by it once and I tried to get a clear shot of it, but the camera moved so fast, it was blurry. You can see it looks like a living room with a fireplace, though:

On the Thanksgiving episode, we finally got to see the entire room, which was now transformed into a beautiful dining room:

I love the buffet behind Jules:

The show was recently reviewed by the Washington Post, which says, “In fictional Cougar Town, Fla., nobody ever misses a beat. It’s an idealized world in which one always has a drink and a retort handy.”

Her bedroom is probably my least favorite set. I mean, it’s okay, but I don’t get excited about it:

After Travis goes to college in Season 2, they turn his bedroom into a “Jam Room,” which was pretty hilarious:

Jules remodeled her master bath and hosted a “Bath Warming Party” for her friends:

She even has a special new toilet that barks orders at you in Japanese:

Things start to be a problem when Jules refuses to leave her beautiful new bathroom (but who can blame her?):

Her friends eventually stage an intervention and carry her out of there.

There are a couple of other characters who live on her cul-de-sac.

There’s Grayson, her Season 2 love interest, whose house screams, “A man lives here!” with the brown plaid wallpaper (reportedly from Graham and Brown).

And Ellie, Jules’s acerbic best friend who lives with her husband Andy and their baby Stan:

Everything is pale green and pink in their place, maybe to show that Ellie rules the roost? It doesn’t look like a man lives here, really.

It was an interesting choice to have Ellie’s house looking so soft and feminine, when there’s nothing soft about her personality. I would imagine her living in a more modern space with lots of sharp edges.

Ellie is played by the hilarious Christa Miller. She used to be on “Scrubs,” another sitcom by writer-producer Bill Lawrence. Did you know that they’re married in real life and have three children together? I heard her say in an interview that the character of Ellie is an exaggerated version of her, and things from her real life sometimes get written into the scripts.

Ellie’s husband Andy is played by Ian Gomez, who is married to Nia Vardalosin real life. Ian and Nia starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding together in 2002, which was based on their real-life courtship and wedding. Nia played herself. John Corbett played Ian. And the real Ian played Ian’s best-friend Mike (hope you followed all that!).

Do you know how annoying it is to watch a TV show or movie with me? I can’t stop spouting off trivia like who is dating whom in real life, and what other productions the key players have been involved in. It’s a sickness. My husband thinks it’s good that I have this blog as an outlet for all that trivia that’s floating around in my head…

I have really missed the show this winter while “Mr. Sunshine” took its place.It’s slated to return to ABC for a special post-”Dancing with the Stars” slot on Monday, April 18, and then goes back to its regular Wednesday night time (9:30 ET).

Apparently I wasn’t the only viewer put off by the title of the show. Last year they seriously considered changing it to something for Season 2 that better described what it was about. Bill Lawrence joked about going with “Friends and Neighbors” as a nod to Cox’s former hit show. But in the end, they couldn’t come up with an alternative, so they left it.

As a running joke, the writers began mocking the name of the show each week with a tiny headline above the title card: “It’s okay to watch a show called . . . Cougar Town.” And “Titles are hard.”

Any other fans of “Cougar Town” out there? What’s your favorite house in the cul-de-sac?

This month we’re taking a look at the sets from our favorite TV shows. Last week I featured the charming Vermont inn from “Newhart.” Next up: “Modern Family” and “Mad About You.”

Go to TV/Movie Houses to see more sets like the ones from Samantha Who? and Brothers & Sisters!

You might also like:

Courteney Cox’s Malibu Home & More

The Braverman Family Homes on “Parenthood”

The Addams Family House, Where Every Night is Halloween

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“Auntie Mame:” Rosalind Russell’s 3 Beekman Place

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

The 1958 movie Auntie Mame is considered a classic, and it’s a kick to watch for the constantly changing, over-the-top sets and costumes. It was based on a popular stage play starring the fabulous Rosalind Russell, who reprised her role in the film.

It opens in 1928 when her young nephew Patrick arrives at her doorstep as an orphan, in need of a guardian. His Auntie Mame isn’t the model parental figure, however (*understatement*).

When Patrick and his caretaker Norah arrive at Mame’s apartment for the first time, they’re a little startled by the “unique” hallway decor:

Norah remarks that the hallways resembles “The ladies’ room at the Oriental theater.” When they ring the doorbell, steam shoots out of the dragon’s nostrils and the eyes move:

Inside the apartment, a party–which in 1958 may have seemed wildly hedonistic, but by today’s standards looks kind of stuffy with mostly older people standing around in suits and hats– is in full swing:

Mame makes her appearance at the top of the stairs:

When they shot the first scene with her running down the curved staircase, Rosalind Russell tripped and broke her ankle. Filming was delayed until she recovered.

Auntie Mame has lots of memorable lines, including the famous, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!” (It was voted as the #93 movie quote by the American Film Institute.) It was adapted from the stage play, in which she said, “most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death”–but the language was deemed too racy for film.

The play and movie were based on a popular novel by Patrick Dennis, who was reportedly inspired by his own real-life Aunt Marian.

Mame takes Patrick to the dining room where a buffet has been set up behind an ornate set of metal doors:

The bedroom she gives Patrick to sleep in is called “The Marie Antoinette Room:”

Mame’s Bedroom:

Mame’s habit of sleeping past noon is disrupted now that she has a child to care for. Patrick wakes her up by opening the blinds.

Norah complains that in the 14 days they’ve been living there, Mame has thrown 13 parties (one was canceled “because the bootlegger didn’t show.”

Mame’s apartment is redecorated at least 6 times. Even though the majority of the action takes place in the same set, it is constantly changing–just like Mame’s fabulous wardrobe.

After the initial party scene, the living room has undergone a transformation. Now it looks like this:

The walls are now gray. The furniture, pillows, and lamps are in shades of blue and purple.

The staircase is even different with a new metal railing. It’s fun to try to spot all the little changes from scene to scene.

I got a kick out of how they painted Mame’s radio and cart to match the rest of the room:

Makeover #3:

The new entry is flanked by fake palm trees:

The mantel has gone from being sleek and modern to ornate and traditional–as have the window treatments:

Russell was nominated for a Tony Award in 1957 for her role in the stage play and was nominated for an Oscar for the movie version. She also had a scene-stealing turn as Sylvia in The Women (you can see my post about the sets in that movie and its remakehere), but my favorite Russell movie has to be the hilarious screwball comedy His Girl Friday with Cary Grant.

Apartment Makeover #4:

This version of the apartment is very sedate and traditional with shades of brown and tan:

Even the books in the bookshelves have been given brown and off-white covers to match the rooms:

And Mame, as always, is dressed to match her decor. Even her hair changes colors with each apartment (it was red during this period).

Remember those ornate doors leading into the dining room at the beginning of the movie? They’ve been replaced by traditional French doors:

When Patrick tells Mame he’s going to bring his future in-laws to her house, she goes all out on the apartment, redecorating it once again. This time, she’s got an ulterior motive behind it. She doesn’t like his fiancee or her snooty parents, so she decides to shake them up a bit–starting with the odd fishbowl light fixture in the hall:

Patrick’s fiancee Gloria was played by Joanna Barnes, who you may recognize from The Parent Trap (you can see my post about that movie here).

The movie was remade in 1974 as a musical starring Lucille Ball. I haven’t seen that one, though, have you?

The beautiful woodwork has been taken down and the stairs now have brown carpet on them. Ugh.

Mame feeds the fish that swim under the new sculpture (my daughter thought this was really cool):

Imagine her guests’ surprise when Mame shows them that the benches they’re sitting on are adjustable!

The movie ends with Patrick and his wife visiting Mame with their son who is now the age Patrick was when he came to live with her as an orphan. Her apartment has been transformed again–this time with a Far East vibe:

This set was used countless times for different movies. It’s fun to play “spot that staircase.” A reader named Richard actually compiled a video with clips of the set from various films that you can see here. He says that during World War II materials were so scarce that they were unable to build new sets for every movie, so they got creative with “recycling” them.

Do you love old movies like these with great sets and costumes? What are some of your favorites?

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page to see more!

You might also like:

For Sale: The London House from “The Parent Trap” Movie

The Original “Parent Trap:” Two Sisters, Two Houses

Movie Monday: The Perfect World of Stepford, Connecticut

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