Hello, Huxtable Residence
Playing in an adult softball league is one of the few youthful pursuits I have left. As I approach a milestone birthday, I feel like I'm showing my age more than I should. I'm married. I'm a father. I own a minivan. I have a mortgage. And now the wife and I are shopping for a bigger home for our growing family.
We've been reading lots of real estate listings and going to open houses. In shopping for homes, I've been in several different styles of abodes, from different eras and with varying floor plans. They include townhouses, ranchers, split-levels, colonials, dog houses and outhouses. They all have "master suites," "beautiful hw floors" and "custom wdw treatments." They also all have kitchens and they all have doors. But none of the kitchens have doors.
I have never lived in a house, apartment or condominium that has a door between the kitchen and the living room. Come to think of it, I've never even been in a house that has a door between the kitchen and the living room -- let alone a house with a double-hinged door.
Of course, in every single sitcom, there is a double-hinged door between the kitchen and the living room (never the dining room, which would make more sense.)
Where did this cliche originate? Is it just Hollywood imitating itself? Why not a pocket door? Or a beaded curtain? Whatever happened to a good old-fashioned pass through?
Maybe someday, I will install a double hinged door to my kitchen. Then, while guests are sitting in the living room, I can go in the kitchen and argue with my wife without having to worry that anyone can hear me. Except for the live studio audience, of course.
2 comments:
Well, I guess this is a true sign that I am of another century. Back when the Earth's crust was still cooling, the house I grew up in had a single hinged swinging door, between the kitchen and dining room, that was able to remain open if pushed to a certain catch point. All the homes in my neighborhood had them. It made sense, dinner guests didn't have to look at your messy kitchen when eating in the dining room. But you are right, no one had doors between kitchen and living room.
FYI, your sister-in-law's old house in Canton had doors between both the kitchen and the living room and the kitchen and dining room. Granted, they were always propped open every time I was there. But the home was designed to have the kitchen closed off. That's because back in the day, the help was supposed to stay in the kitchen while the people ate.
But the sitcom phenomenon has a much more obvious explanation. It's a device the writers used when they want characters to have a "private conversation". It wouldn't seem so private if there was no door separating the sets. In real life, the kitchen is probably the last place you'd want to go to have a private conversation, since it's basically an echo-chamber. But sitcom producers don't want to have to build another set representing a quiter room in the house.
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