Here's an unusual camera angle that shows how small the Mertz' apartment really was!
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That carpet is weird. Is the room square shaped (or at least supposed to be) because the way the carpet is, it makes the room look like it is not square, it looks diagonally shaped. :lol: What scene is this?

That carpet is weird. Is the room square shaped (or at least supposed to be) because the way the carpet is, it makes the room look like it is not square, it looks diagonally shaped. :lol: What scene is this?

The room most likely is not square shaped as usually sets that are used in front of an audience (as opposed to those built for filming without an audience) have walls that extend diagonally from (instead of perpendicular to) the back wall so that people from extreme ends of the studio audience can have better visibility. If the walls were perpendicular, those members of the studio audience would not be able to see some areas of the set. Note that the Ricardo living room and bedroom are this way as well.

The room most likely is not square shaped as usually sets that are used in front of an audience (as opposed to those built for filming without an audience) have walls that extend diagonally from (instead of perpendicular to) the back wall so that people from extreme ends of the studio audience can have better visibility. If the walls were perpendicular, those members of the studio audience would not be able to see some areas of the set. Note that the Ricardo living room and bedroom are this way as well.
you are right. I am not thinking here. :D :crazy:

What scene is this?

I can't recall right now. I guess I've looked at too many scenes! :crazy:

I just noticed Fred has a light bulb in his hand and there is a lamp on the table. Damn! what scene is it? I feel like I know it but can't figure it out.

Well, I guess Fred gave up and decided to take a nap instead. Being a Landlord is not easy, LOL.

Well, I guess Fred gave up and decided to take a nap instead. Being a Landlord is not easy, LOL.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

you are right. I am not thinking here. :D :crazy: Hey, it happens to the best of us. :) But your comment made me think about some of the technical aspects of filming the show, and the show's set design. I got to thinking that all the walls on the set are diagonal, except the one separating the living room from the kitchen. And what's interesting about that is that, because of that wall not being angled, and thus obtructing the view of some of the audience members, notice how in the scenes in the kitchen, the actors are usually positioned at the front of the kitchen where they won't be hidden from the view of any audience members by that wall? The kitchen table is way up at the front. The kitchen sink is at the end of the counter closest to the audience, as is the stove. And wisely, they put in those louver shutters so that in those rare scenes where there is action at the back end of the kitchen, like the "wicked city woman" scene in the Ernie Ford episode where Lucy is hiding behind the door, they have the shutters open, aparently so studio audience members can see through to the action at the back of the kitchen. But normally, those shutters are closed. And then there's that hallway between the living room and kitchen. If you think about it logically, it makes no sense to have a hallway there. Hallways are intended to connect two or more rooms to a common room. But that hallway only goes to one room: Lucy and Ricky's bedroom. So in the real world, it would make no sense to have a hallway there because it would just be wasted space. But I figure the set designers only put in that hallway so that they could have the necessary diagonal walls in the bedroom and living room, rather than having a single, perpendicular wall separating the two rooms that would obstruct the view of studio audience members.

Oh my that is a great pic!!! What an aerial view! I love it. Thank you for providing that. That is just awesome. Can you find one of the Connecticut house? That one always confused me.

Oh my that is a great pic!!! What an aerial view! I love it. Thank you for providing that. That is just awesome. Can you find one of the Connecticut house? That one always confused me.

I haven't seen one of the Connecticut house, but will post one if I can. But I used to watch carefully as the camera panned different parts of the living room to figure out how it was laid out. What about it confuses you? As far as I can tell, at the far right side of the living room set is the wall with the door going into the kitchen. At the far left is the wall with the door leading into the den. And speaking of those angled walls, there are a lot of them on this set to make all this work. The stairway is at a bit of an angle, as is the wall with the front door; I think this wall would be parallel to the staircase if the staircase were to extend further forward). So the stairway (and thus, the wall with the front door) extends from the back wall (i.e., the wall with the fireplace) at about a 135 degree angle. The wall connecting the front door wall to the staircase (i.e., the wall with the grandfather clock), if it were to extend further to the right would, I think, run parallel to the back wall with the fireplace. Does what I'm saying make sense?

I have to wonder how much set layout mattered when this is what the studio audience was looking at anyway. Sheeesh! This is from "Lucy Hires a Maid." Notice the open shutters to the kitchen.

Here's another view from the studio audience perspective. Notice the "no smoking" sign at the bottom right-hand corner. Tell that to Philip Morris!

I know what Irene means about the Connecticut house. Something is strange. The den door is shown on the right, the same wall as the kitchen door, but they act like the den is on the left. If you watch the chicken raising episode, you can see the oddity.

The set seems to be circular or semi-circular.

They walk from the den. The den door is to the right of the front door.
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They walk passed the stairs.
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Then passed the fireplace.
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Passed the window and back door.
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Into the kitchen.
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So, they exited a door on the right hand side of the front door, walked "across" the room, and entered a door in the wall of the same side they started from! :crazy:

Then when they shoo the chicks back, they shoo them toward the fireplace side, opposite of where they came from.
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I haven't seen one of the Connecticut house, but will post one if I can. But I used to watch carefully as the camera panned different parts of the living room to figure out how it was laid out. What about it confuses you? As far as I can tell, at the far right side of the living room set is the wall with the door going into the kitchen. At the far left is the wall with the door leading into the den. And speaking of those angled walls, there are a lot of them on this set to make all this work. The stairway is at a bit of an angle, as is the wall with the front door; I think this wall would be parallel to the staircase if the staircase were to extend further forward). So the stairway (and thus, the wall with the front door) extends from the back wall (i.e., the wall with the fireplace) at about a 135 degree angle. The wall connecting the front door wall to the staircase (i.e., the wall with the grandfather clock), if it were to extend further to the right would, I think, run parallel to the back wall with the fireplace. Does what I'm saying make sense?


THANK YOU MADAME X...YOU EXPLAINED IT PERFECTLY, THAT IS HOW I SEE IT. What confuses me is that it almost seems like the set is round or oval somehow. I can't explain. Let me see, the camera pans from the door that goes to the backyard (barbecue area) and turns toward the left to the den. It really confuses me in the baby chicks episode. Can someone do a layout somehow?

I know what Irene means about the Connecticut house. Something is strange. The den door is shown on the right, the same wall as the kitchen door, but they act like the den is on the left. If you watch the chicken raising episode, you can see the oddity.

The set seems to be circular or semi-circular.

They walk from the den. The den door is to the right of the front door.
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They walk passed the stairs.
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Then passed the fireplace.
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Passed the window and back door.
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Into the kitchen.
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So, they exited a door on the right hand side of the front door, walked "across" the room, and entered a door in the wall of the same side they started from! :crazy:

Then when they shoo the chicks back, they shoo them toward the fireplace side, opposite of where they came from.
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No, no, the den door is nowhere near the door to the kitchen. They're on completely opposite sides of the set. If you're sitting in the studio audience looking at the living room set, on the right side is the door to the kitchen. On the left side is the door to the den. Think of it this way, the wall with the door to the kitchen on the extreme right side of the living room set is parallel to the wall with the door to the den on the extreme left side of the set.

Can you find one of the Connecticut house? That one always confused me.
The Connecticut house always confused me as well. One thing in particular is the staircase in the kitchen that supposedly goes upstairs. Where upstairs does it go? If you look at the staircase near the front door, it's hard to imagine that the hallway up there somehow connects to the other staircase. :crazy:

THANK YOU MADAME X...YOU EXPLAINED IT PERFECTLY, THAT IS HOW I SEE IT. What confuses me is that it almost seems like the set is round or oval somehow. I can't explain. Let me see, the camera pans from the door that goes to the backyard (barbecue area) and turns toward the left to the den. It really confuses me in the baby chicks episode. Can someone do a layout somehow?

Hmm. I'm not Madame X . . . but . . . I did a sketch of how I think the Connecticut living set was laid out.

Rick- is this what you mean? I can understand it if it's like a half octagon. The unseen wall is the one between the kitchen door and the den door. That is the opening for the audience.

This was hard to draw. I originally did it on 3D Home Architect, but I couldn't save it into a format I could use here. I ended up using Word and did it free-hand with text boxes. It is pretty crude and you'll have to click on the link just to see it.

Anyone, please let me know if this doesn't work and you can't see the drawing.

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Rick- is this what you mean? I can understand it if it's like a half octagon. The unseen wall is the one between the kitchen door and the den door. That is the opening for the audience.

This was hard to draw. I originally did it on 3D Home Architect, but I couldn't save it into a format I could use here. I ended up using Word and did it free-hand with text boxes. It is pretty crude and you'll have to click on the link just to see it.

Anyone, please let me know if this doesn't work and you can't see the drawing.

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That's close, but not quite it. I just went back in my previous message and replaced my diagram with one that I hope is easier to follow. This is not to scale, of course. I probably made the stairs too long, which makes the den set appear closer to the audience than the kitchen. But hopefully you can get the idea.

Stacy and Rick!!!! You both offered great diagrams. Thank you. Ok, now that I see those two diagrams, it makes it a lot easier to understand where the cameras were and how they filmed. I was really confused in the baby chicks episode, even looking at the screen caps Stacy provided, if you look at each frame, it made me wonder, why did the trio walk from the den to the kitchen BY WALKING THROUGH THE LIVING ROOM, PASSING THE FIREPLACE, that is a long walk when they could have just easily exited the den and walked past the dinette table and hutch. YOU BOTH HAVE MADE THINGS VERY CLEAR NOW, THANK YOU!!!! :cheers:

Oh my that is a great pic!!! What an aerial view! I love it. Thank you for providing that. That is just awesome. Can you find one of the Connecticut house? That one always confused me.

I found something. It's not the greatest, but the only thing I've seen so far. Here, Lucy and Desi are standing directly in front of the living room set. But angle from which the photo was taken is looking left towards the front door. In the first link below, you can see in the background a green wall, which would be where the door is going into the den. Immediately to the right you can see the front door. And to the right of that, you can sort of make out bottom of the stairs. On the left side, in the background, I guess that is the set for the den.

The second link below is more difficult to make out what you're seeing in the background, but I think it's the den.

http://excite.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1264/Mptv/1264/0069_2109.jpg.html?hint=nm0000789

http://excite.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1264/Mptv/1264/0069_2108.jpg.html?hint=nm0000840

And for comparison:

Thanx for those links. The photos of Lucy and Desi are just great!!!

Thanx for those links. The photos of Lucy and Desi are just great!!!

Does that give you a better feel for the Connecticut living room set? In the photo in that first link, the fireplace would be directly to Lucy's left. The direction she's looking is towards the other side of the living room, where it connects to the kitchen. And of course you can see the front door in the background behind her. And to Desi's right would be the seating for the studio audience. I'm wondering about that set to the left of the green wall. That should be the den. But it occurred to me how rarely the den was used. I can think of only three episodes: "Housewarming," "Lucy Wins a Racehorse," and "Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos." I'm wondering if maybe it doubled for the Mertzes living room? In my mind, the den and Mertzes' living room looked very different, so I don't know. I'd have to see side by side screen shots to compare (hint, hint). :)

Don't forget the baby chickens episode, where the chicks were in that den. That is the episode that started the whole confusion for me back in the days. :lol: I am so glad I had you and Stacy to post those pics/diagrams on here. I was at my wits end trying to figure out how that set was laid-out. It was crazy! :crazy:

Don't forget the baby chickens episode, where the chicks were in that den. That is the episode that started the whole confusion for me back in the days. :lol: I am so glad I had you and Stacy to post those pics/diagrams on here. I was at my wits end trying to figure out how that set was laid-out. It was crazy! :crazy:

Oh, that's what I meant, not "Housewarming." I think these darn fires have fried my brain!

Oh, that's what I meant, not "Housewarming." I think these darn fires have fried my brain!
It happens to the best of us.;)

I too have too much smoke on the brain. :crazy:

:cool:

Thanx for those links. The photos of Lucy and Desi are just great!!!

Lucy and Desi shown in color emphasized what a striking couple they were! Nice photos. :)

Oh, "Lucy Wins a Racehorse," the scene where Lucy and Ethel are trying to hide the horse. I put that on earlier today. There are several shots where you can get a really good feel for the layout of the Connecticut living room set. When Lucy goes into the den, the door is open and you can see through the door, across the front entryway to the base of the stairway in the background. When she comes out of the den and confronts an angry Ricky, Lucy is standing in the front entryway. Ricky is in the living room. In the foreground of the shot is the bottom of the stairs, behind that you see Lucy in the entryway, and behind that you can see through the door (which is still open) into the den. Then there's a camera shot in the opposite direction towards Ricky, who's in the middle of the living room. You see across the base of the stairway into the living room, and the wall with the door to the kitchen is in the background.