Exterior shots of the Davis apartment building

[maire]

do not match the scenes from inside the apartment.

That building has little balconies with railings. No sign of the spacious, elegant terrace with stone wall (I think) the Davis family enjoys.

[PracTz]

Originally Posted by maire

do not match the scenes from inside the apartment.

That building has little balconies with railings. No sign of the spacious, elegant terrace with stone wall (I think) the Davis family enjoys.

And what's even stranger is that in the early years, they always zoomed to the top of a building to show it (to emphasize that this was supposed to be a penthouse apartment) but in the later years they seemed to show it as though it closer to the street. Did they think that somehow implying it was on a lower level would get the viewers to think that this family with a spacious Manhattan apartment and a fulltime live-in 'gentleman's gentleman' was middleclass and not rich?!

[maire]

Originally Posted by PracTz

And what's even stranger is that in the early years, they always zoomed to the top of a building to show it (to emphasize that this was supposed to be a penthouse apartment) but in the later years they seemed to show it as though it closer to the street. Did they think that somehow implying it was on a lower level would get the viewers to think that this family with a spacious Manhattan apartment and a fulltime live-in 'gentleman's gentleman' was middleclass and not rich?!

Interesting observation. I remembered that they sometimes zoomed in to the middle of the building, but I hadn't linked it to any particular seasons. The top of the building in the photo does have a sort of wall, so it was at least remotely possible that the Davis family had the nice terrace and their downstairs neighbors had balconies. However, in the episode where French accidentally drops Mrs. Beasley onto the terrace downstairs, I think we got to see the neighbor's terrace, and it was just as spacious. So that doesn't work either.

I don't think the series ever shied away from the fact that Bill Davis was very wealthy. Lots of the episodes seem to focus on the privileges the Davis children enjoyed compared to many of their classmates. One of the things I really liked about the series was the consistent messaging about how important it was for Buffy and Jody and Cissy to interact with and understand/have compassion for all people, not just rich and privileged people.

[LisaB61367]

The apartment building where the Davis family resided was set in Manhattan, New York. The exterior images of the apartment building seen during the series was actually in Westwood, CA.