What 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' 'The Black Hamptons,' more homes would cost in real life
Fictional Newsday sports columnist Ray Barone's three-bedroom house in Lynbrook from "Everybody Loves Raymond" would go for at least $700,000 in today's market, local real estate agents said — yet Ray, with a stay-at-home wife, manages to pay the mortgage on just one salary that also has to cover raising three kids. Real-life Rays might have trouble doing so...
But then, TV Land, USA, is a place that doesn't follow rules, where previously unseen and unmentioned rooms suddenly appear as plot requirements dictate and the laws of physics don't always apply. Still, it's fun to imagine what it might be like to buy and live in one of those TV Long Island homes.
(Almost) everybody knows the "Everybody Loves Raymond" houses are, in real life, in Merrick. But fictionally, they're across the street from each other in Lynbrook.
Donna O'Reilly-Einemann, manager of Douglas Elliman's Rockville Centre office. said the listing price for Ray and Debra Barone's expanded Cape Cod would depend on "if the home has been updated or not. But let's say it's still in its original condition as it appeared in the show. With that in mind, the list price could be $699,000," a figure she believes could trigger a bidding war.
"This beautiful three-bedroom, two-bath home in the Lynbrook School District features a large eat-in kitchen perfect for family gatherings," her fictional listing would read. "Spacious open-concept living room/dining area is ideal for holidays and cozy evenings. Comfortable master bedroom designed for restful nights. Semifinished basement offering extra space for hobbies or storage and an entertainment backyard with one-car garage for convenience."
The three-bedroom, two-bath home of Ray's parents, Frank and Marie Barone, would go for more. "An all-brick Colonial in Lynbrook, in its original condition, would list for approximately $750,000," O'Reilly-Einemann said. Citing its two-car garage, eat-in kitchen and "cozy, family-oriented layout and warmth galore," she added appreciatively, "This would be a beautiful listing to rep!"
Like "Billions" or "Succession," this soap-operatic drama focused on the uber-wealthy. Two bayside mansions in a historically Black section of Sag Harbor encapsulate an old-money/new-money conflict.
The venerable Britton family, presided over by Carolyn Britton (Vanessa Bell Calloway), controls the nation's largest minority-owned bank. Three generations have lived in their mansion estate. Its architecture is traditional, exuding wealth in an un-flashy way.
Nearby are the new-money Johnsons, headed by Anthony Johnson (Lamman Rucker), CEO of Sydney Tech. His family has summered at their mansion only for five years, and while a powerful presence, are still considered outsiders. Their ultramodern estate is an architectural marvel, a veritable spaceship on land, with big, red, eye-catching abstract sculptures adorning its grounds.
Neither mansion is on Long Island but in Southern California, where the show is produced. What would they sell for in Sag Harbor? "Whether modern or traditional," said Mala Sander, an associate real estate broker with The Corcoran Group highly familiar with Sag Harbor, "waterfront homes like these would likely sell for $13 million to $15 million."
In this semiautobiographical seriocomedy, Beth (Amy Schumer) is a successful but unfulfilled wholesale wine agent in Manhattan, approaching 40 and dispirited by her relationship with her boyfriend. When her mother dies, she impulsively returns to her childhood home in Rockville Centre — Schumer's real-life hometown — seeking a fresh start.
The single-story matchbox at the fictional 954 Levinson St. is a two-bedroom with a nondescript kitchen and living room. Shoved shoulder-to-shoulder between other houses, it's the kind of place where the electricity meter is mounted in front. There's a detached one-car garage.
Yet for all its muscatel modesty, it would fetch a Champagne price, O'Reilly-Einemann said.
"A two-bedroom, one-bath home is much more affordable" than the median price for a single-family home within the Rockville Centre School District, "yet a rare find," she said. "Based on the interior condition, location and lot size, the average sale price would be between $620,000 and $650,000."
The turreted two-story house may have been a back lot construct — specifically, at the northwest corner of Warner Bros.' Midwest Residential Street in Burbank, California — but for seven seasons it was the Huntington home of Jason and Maggie Seaver (Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns) and their three and later four children (five, counting an adopted teen played by Leonardo DiCaprio) at the fictional 15 Robin Hood Lane.
In addition to, clearly, many bedrooms — plus, later, an apartment above the garage for teenage Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) — there is a home office for psychiatrist Jason, with dark wood and built-in bookcases. A cozy kitchen with an island and lots of shelves sits adjacent to a dining room. The large living room has a fireplace, and the exterior has a front porch and a white picket fence. Series creator Neal Marlens knew the milieu — he was raised in Huntington's Audubon Woods section.
The exterior set has a storied pedigree. It was Plato's (Sal Mineo) home in "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955). With parts masked off, it was Lane Kim's (Keiko Agena) apartment on TV's "Gilmore Girls." It has appeared in films including "Gremlins" (1984) and "The Monster Squad" (1987), and such TV shows as "Hart of Dixie" and "Pretty Little Liars."
"I can see this Victorian-style home with its picket fence existing in Huntington Village, where property sizes are small and pretty homes vary in historic architecture," said Kim Bullis-Byrd, an associate real estate broker in the Huntington office of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. "While this home offers the classic and expected fireplace, dining room and spacious living room, what makes it stand out are the dedicated office and [garage] apartment. Both are extremely desirable."
What might it sell for? If the apartment has a certificate of occupancy, making it a legal place to live, with the likes of a kitchen, a bathroom and any necessary windows, "I'd price the home in the $1.3 million to $1.5 million range," she said. "The two-car garage makes this house unusual for the village and command the top of the price range."
Most of this romcom about a tight-knit group of friends took place in New York City. But in season 7, the grandparents of Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) move to Florida and give her and her husband, Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), their house in East Meadow (where two of the show's writers, Craig Gerard and Matt Zinman, were raised). Lily and Marshall hesitate to move to the suburbs, but do so the following season.
The Cape Cod-style home, with a front yard of old-growth trees, has a large living room boasting a fireplace and built-in bookcases. The expansive eat-in kitchen has space enough for a six-seat table with facing restaurant-booth banquettes.
“A Cape-style house typically has two bedrooms on the main floor and two upstairs, with slanted roofs in the upper rooms; one bathroom; and a full basement,” details Peter Frizalone, of Signature Premier Properties.
“While the interiors of the house on the show don’t match this description, the exterior clearly depicts a Cape-style home. In today’s [East Meadow] market, depending on the condition of the house, I would say the list price would be $649,000 to $699,000 and it would probably sell for $725,000, $760,000.”
The only show on our list not only set here but also produced here, this sitcom starred Mineola-born and Stony Brook-raised comic Kevin James as Kevin Gable, a Nassau County police officer newly retired at 45. Set in Massapequa, the two-season series shot its interiors at Bethpage's Gold Coast Studios.
When the series premiered, Kevin lived with wife Donna (Erinn Hayes) and their 14-year-old daughter, Sara (Mary-Charles Jones), and 10-year-old son, Jack (James DiGiacomo). Collegiate daughter Kendra (Taylor Spreitler) had moved back home and lived in her parents' garage apartment with her fiance, Chale Witt (Ryan Cartwright).
The house appears to be a three-bedroom with — as most such sitcoms have — a large eat-in kitchen. Off the living room is a dining area with a fireplace and a table that seats six. The dormered top floor of the three-story home likely contains an attic rather than a fourth bedroom, because Kendra and Chale must live in the apartment above the garage. There's a modest patio in back, outside a laundry room sitting to one side of the kitchen.
Calling the fictional home "a gem," Coldwell Banker real estate salesperson Ron Starrantino lauded its "meticulously crafted details" and "inviting open floor plan where natural light floods every room." He noted the kitchen has "stainless steel appliances and ample cabinet space," and that "the second floor features a large primary bedroom with an en suite bath and walk-in shower and two nicely sized bedrooms."
Noting that "Massapequa has become a highly sought-after town," he estimated Kevin's house would sell for "$900,000 to $1.1 million, based on the interior condition, location and lot size."
While produced at Brooklyn's Steiner Studios and Queens' Kaufman Astoria Studios, the domestic drama "The Affair" took place largely in Montauk and environs, with Amagansett's landmark Lobster Roll restaurant a frequent location.
Two houses epitomize Brooklyn teacher and struggling novelist Noah Solloway's (Dominic West) push-pull poles: the regally understated Hamptons mansion of his father-in-law, bestselling author Bruce Butler (John Doman), who feeds Noah's insecurities; and the modest beach home of waitress Alison Bailey (Ruth Wilson), representing the married Noah's dream of a more carefree life.
You reach the Butler mansion past a stately stone fence and manicured grounds, on a long driveway leading to a porte cochere. The number of bedrooms is sufficient for the visiting Noah and his wife plus their four kids — two young sons who could share a room, plus a young daughter and an adult daughter.
The kitchen looks state-of-the-art. The backyard has a pool and expansive grounds, with a water view displaying a small land mass in the distance. The locale is given as Montauk for both that mansion and Alison’s beach house, but that may be shorthand for the area.
“The location looks like Shelter Island to me, or Amagansett’s Broadview,” said real estate broker Sarah B. Minardi, of the East Hampton office of Saunders & Associates, "given the bay views." Either way, she estimated it might sell for around $14 million, "given the large, lush property boarding the serene bay and the sunrise views. This is an estate worthy of a significant price tag.”
Alison’s beach house is said to be in Ditch Plains, but the real-life locale is on Marine Boulevard in Amagansett. Minardi describes the oceanside A-frame on stilts, with an open-air pavilion underneath and steps leading down to beach grasses and water, as an “authentic Amagansett Dunes bungalow with weathered paneling and a small, efficient kitchen.” Calling it an “oceanfront relic with unobstructed views of the Atlantic,” she estimates it would sell for $5 million.
This single-season mystery-thriller followed Southold police chief Jo Evans (Allison Tolman) and the mysterious, amnesiac girl (Alexa Swinton) she adopts as a foster daughter after the tyke is the sole survivor of a nearby plane crash. A nefarious tech organization hounds them both.
The divorced Jo lives in a modified American foursquare of at least four bedrooms, housing her father (Clancy Brown), her teen daughter (Ashley Aufderheide) and now the girl, Piper, whom she nestles in a top-floor loft. The large house with a front porch, a driveway and a modest front lawn sits on a lovely tree-lined street (in actuality, Summit Avenue in Montclair, New Jersey).
"The classic American foursquare became popular in the early 20th century as mail-order kit homes," noted Erin Kaelin, of Signature Premier Properties. "This modified version is most often found along our main roads near the village or train station. A charming, classic home like this one with four bedrooms and two baths on half an acre in Southold would sell in the $925,000 to $999,000 range."