Making television is quite expensive and any chance to save some money in the budget is always welcomed. Building new sets can be an expensive part of production and even the most successful shows on TV have to cut corners.
When studios build sets they are often reused over and over again through the decades for all sorts of productions. Some of TV's biggest shows such as Gilmore Girls and Star Trek have all re-used sets from other shows and passed them off as something new.
Quantum Leap And Pushing Daisies
The classic sci-fi series Quantum Leap and the cult classic comedic drama Pushing Daisies have little in common with one another. One tells the story of a man who can travel through time and into people's bodies, while the other follows a man who can bring dead things back to life. Though they are very different shows, they do share an integral location: the Bradbury Building.
The historic building in Downtown Los Angeles has been the site of dozens of film and TV productions and appeared briefly in the Quantum Leap episode "Play it Again, Seymour". Fans of Pushing Daisies however will recognize it as Ned's apartment building and it was featured in many episodes of the series.
Star Trek The Next Generation And Alias
Science fiction often calls for notable and quirky settings to add to the ambiance of the story and locations are frequently re-used. Star Trek The Next Generation and Alias are two shows within the sci-fi genre, though Alias focused more heavily on action and suspense.
Located within Los Angeles' Japanese Garden, the Tillman Water Plant, with its unique architecture, has played many parts in movies and television. Most notably, it was heavily featured as Starfleet Academy in TNG and the production used clever tricks to pass it off as San Francisco. Meanwhile in the Alias episode "Doppelgänger", the plant's main building substituted as a factory in Germany.
The Munsters And Desperate Housewives
Backlot sets are often so recognizable that they become a permanent part of the fabric of TV history. The Munsters is an influential classic TV show of the 1960s, while Desperate Housewives put a more modern spin on domestic drama and ran for many seasons.
Surprisingly, Desperate Housewives' Wisteria Lane is actually the same exact street that features The Munsters' house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. The Colonial Street on Universal Studios' backlot has been the home to numerous productions since it was built. Though the production avoided featuring the Munster mansion early in the series, according to Studio Tour, it did eventually appear in Desperate Housewives with a significant facelift.
The Waltons And Gilmore Girls
Though set in different time decades, The Waltons and Gilmore Girls both deal with similar issues of family and community. The similarities go beyond just premise and both shows were largely filmed on the same backlot at Warner Brothers Studios, several years apart from one another.
The most important location in The Waltons was the family home and it featured in nearly every episode. Interestingly, according to Cheat Sheet, the fictional home used in The Waltons was re-used as the exterior set for the Dragonfly Inn from Gilmore Girls.
Arrested Development And My So-Called Life
Though both were considered TV series that were canceled too soon, Arrested Development made a comeback and has run for several more seasons. My So-Called Life, on the other hand, is a cult classic that fans still hope could make a return.
Both shows feature characters in high school and thus there was a need to find a suitable location to film. The real-life Balboa High School in Los Angeles was the stand-in for My So-Called Life's Liberty High in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Arrested Development opted to leave the school untouched and even kept the name to reflect its California setting.
MacGyver And Star Trek Voyager
Some locations are so iconic and visually striking that it is rare that they pass as anything other than themselves. MacGyver and Star Trek Voyager have very little crossover appeal but they have both paid a visit to one of Los Angeles' most famous icons.
Both shows filmed at the famous Griffith Observatory for vastly different reasons. The episode "Future's End" finds the Voyager crew in modern-day LA, where a researcher uses the Observatory to detect the passing starship. Meanwhile, in the pilot episode of MacGyver, the Observatory's exterior is used as MacGyver's house. Though the production eventually picked another location to serve as the character's home base, it is odd that they ever tried to pass the stunning Art-Deco building as anything other than what it was.
Beverly Hills, 90210 And Buffy The Vampire Slayer
The seminal teen classics Beverly Hills, 90210 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer showed just how versatile the genre could be. Though the plots differed immensely, they both utilized real-life locations as central settings for their productions.
West Beverly High and Sunnydale High were both filmed at Torrance High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance, California. Though used for different purposes, the school's unique architecture and convenient location has made it a frequent hub of film and TV production.
Scrubs And The Office
Scrubs and The Office were both work-place comedies that defined their era of television. The two classic bingeable TV shows had very little do with one another and featured different styles of comedy that set them apart.
Though the bulk of The Office took place within the walls of Dunder Mifflin's offices, the crew did occasionally venture out into the world and additional locations were needed. In the episode "Company Picnic," Jim and Pam make a heartwarming discovery at the hospital. According to Episode 104 of the Office Ladies podcast, the location is the exact same medical center in North Hollywood, California that served as the main setting for Scrubs.
Gilmore Girls And Pretty Little Liars
Throughout its run, Gilmore Girls utilized much of the Warner Brothers backlot and many of the sets have become Stars Hollow staples. The teen drama Pretty Little Liars was also largely filmed on the Warner Bros. lot and it was commonplace to see familiar landmarks in the series.
According to Bustle, some of Stars Hollow's most important locations like Luke's Diner appeared in PLL with minor cosmetic changes. Though the shows were set in different parts of the country, the versatile backlot sets were generic enough to pass off as something else.
The Andy Griffith Show And Star Trek
Like many other TV staples, The Andy Griffith Show's setting of Mayberry is as iconic as anything else in the show. Because the show spanned across all of Mayberry, it was necessary to construct much of the town on a backlot set so that it could be re-used when needed. Occasionally though, other shows came calling and Mayberry was tasked with pulling double duty.
The original series of Star Trek used many sets as well as real-life locations around the Los Angeles area to substitute as extraterrestrial climates. According to MeTV, in the episode "Miri," the familiar set of downtown Mayberry was transformed into an abandoned ghost town that the Enterprise crew has to explore in search of lost colonists. Despite the cosmetic changes, many of Mayberry's iconic set pieces are recognizable.