MOVIE TOWNS AND SITCOM SUBURBS

MOVIE TOWNS AND SITCOM SUBURBS

SCREENING SPACES Series editor: Pamela Robertson Wojcik Screening Spaces is a series dedicated to showcasing interdisciplinary books that explore the multiple and various intersections of space, place, and screen cultures. Cinema, Gender, and Everyday Space: Comedy, Italian Style Natalie Fullwood The US-Mexico Border in American Cold War Film: Romance, Revolution, and Regulation Stephanie Fuller Movie Towns and Sitcom Suburbs: Building Hollywood s Ideal Communities Stephen Rowley Cinematic Geographies and Multicultural Spectatorship in America Amy Lynn Corbin

Movie Towns and Sitcom Suburbs Building Hollywood s Ideal Communities Stephen Rowley

MOVIE TOWNS AND SITCOM SUBURBS Copyright Stephen Rowley 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-50161-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The author has asserted their right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN 978-1-349-56711-9 ISBN 978-1-137-49328-6 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137493286 Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rowley, Stephen, 1973 Movie towns and sitcom suburbs : building Hollywood s ideal communities / Stephen Rowley. pages cm. (Screening spaces) bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-56711-9 (alk. paper) 1. Suburban life in motion pictures. 2. Suburban life on television. 3. Suburbs in motion pictures. 4. Suburban life United States. 5. City and town life in motion pictures. 6. City and town life on television. 7. Cities and towns in motion pictures. 8. Cities and towns on television. 9. City and town life United States. I. Title. PN1995.9.S74R69 2015 791.43962 dc23 2015016088 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments vii ix Introduction Visions of Community 1 Chapter 1 Movie Towns 19 Chapter 2 Sitcom Suburbs 51 Chapter 3 The Bad Suburb 77 Chapter 4 The Fake Town 115 Chapter 5 Constructing the Movie Town 151 Chapter 6 Deconstructing the Movie Town 175 Conclusion The Perpetual Suburb 203 Notes 215 Bibliography 249 Index 263

Figures I.1 From material context to notional place (adapted from Hunt, Representing Los Angeles ) 8 1.1 Residential streetscape from Meet Me in St. Louis 32 2.1 Universal studios backlot as seen in collage of frames from All I Desire 64 2.2 Warner Bros residential backlot 73 2.3 Revised Colonial Street, Universal Studios backlot 75 3.1 Somewhere That s Green, Little Shop of Horrors 78 4.1 Main Street USA, Disneyland 122 4.2 Outside Disneyland (corner West Ball Road and Harbor Boulevard, Anaheim approximately 400 meters beyond the park s edge) 145 5.1 Tupelo Street in Seaside 163 5.2 Market Street, Celebration 168 5.3 Longmeadow Street, Celebration 170 5.4 Housing in sitcom suburbs and Celebration. Top row shows the opening titles of Father Knows Best (left) and house at Celebration (right); bottom row shows house at Universal Studios (left) and house at Celebration (right) 172 6.1 Seahaven Town Centre, The Truman Show 190

Acknowledgments It is hard for me to adequately acknowledge the value of the contributions to this project by Angela Ndalianis. Her judicious combination of encouragement and constructive criticism has been invaluable, as has her uncanny ability to point me in useful directions. No matter what seemingly obscure intellectual byway I found myself pursuing, it seemed Angela could make informed suggestions, and I am enormously grateful for her invaluable contribution to this work. I am also thankful for the help of other scholars who provided assistance despite never having met me. Michael Kassel, whose definitive study of Leave it to Beaver deserves wider exposure, generously responded to my queries and provided useful suggestions and encouragement, while Michael Fitzgerald showed a similar academic generosity in unhesitatingly providing me some of the source data from his study of sitcoms. Similarly, the sections of the study relating to backlots would have been far sketchier had it not been for the community of enthusiasts who collate and share archival material about these sets online. In particular, Dennis Dickens, Kipp Teague, and Mischa Hof all generously responded to specific queries. When undertaking my visits to the real and fictitious places that I have discussed, I was greatly aided by the hospitality of my friends Amanthi Chandraratna, Margaret Bennett, Chris Bennett, Alisa Kahn Ridruejo, and Carlos Ridruejo. Without them my research would have been both far costlier and much less enjoyable. Going right back, Kristin Beers was my tour guide on my first trip to Disneyland, and graciously suppressed her skepticism as I mused about some day combining my interests in urban planning and film. My colleagues in the Victorian planning industry have informed this project in ways too numerous for me to ever appropriately acknowledge. I would like to collectively thank all the colleagues with whom I have discussed this work, both within the broader planning industry and amongst my colleagues at RMIT University. Phillip Priest, my boss for most of the time I was undertaking this work, deserves particular

x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS mention for his significant part in making my shift from planning practice to more scholarly pursuits possible. Similarly, Meagan Merritt was enormously encouraging as I took the early steps down the road that led me to this work. My friend Tim Westcott has contributed greatly to my planning worldview with his sharp observation of the industry going right back to our undergraduate days. Erin Baden-Smith provided vital support through the crucial phases of this project and without her I could not have realized this project in this form. Pamela Robertson Wojcik was a key advocate for this project and was vital to seeing its publication. Similarly, Jim Collins provided invaluable comments and insight after reading an early draft. At Palgrave Macmillan I would like to thank Shaun Vigil and Erica Buchman for their careful attention to the manuscript and their patient shepherding me through the process of publication. Mark Nicholls also provided useful comments upon early versions of this material. I would like to thank my family for their support of me in my occasionally quixotic intellectual pursuits. In particular, my parents Les and Merrill Rowley must be thanked for the constant encouragement and interest in my work. This work is far from their own fields of expertise, but the y were unfailingly attentive to my pontifications, long after their duty to feign interest was discharged. Yet that, obviously, is the least I have to thank them for.