The “Life Goes On” House

Some locations I spend ages upon ages trying to track down only to discover that, when finally found, they had been listed on another website all along.  D’oh!  Such was the case with today’s locale.  I’ve mentioned before that Life Goes On is one of my all-time favorite television shows.  It is pretty common knowledge amongst stalkers that the Cape Code-style home belonging to the Thatcher family – Drew (Bill Smitrovich), Libby (Patti LuPone), Corky (Chris Burke), Becca (Kellie Martin) and Paige (who was played by both Monique Lanier and Tracey Needham) – on the series is a façade located at Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank.  What is less common knowledge is that the Ranch residence was actually modeled upon a real life house that appeared in Life Goes On’s pilot episode.  I spent countless hours over numerous years attempting to track down that house, but could never manage to do so, mainly due to the fact that the clips of the show available on YouTube were of extremely poor quality.  Then, last month while writing my post on Warner Bros. Ranch for Mike the Fanboy, I decided to see if the series was available on DVD and, to my surprise, Season 1 was!  Figuring the quality of the episodes would be leagues better than their YouTube counterparts, I promptly ordered it.

As soon as the DVDs arrived, I popped the one featuring the pilot into my computer and was floored to see a street sign reading “12100 W Banff Ln” visible near the house during the opening credits.  I did a quick Google search for “12100 West Banff Lane, Los Angeles” and pretty much immediately found the Thatcher home at 305 North Bowling Green Way in Brentwood.  I started doing research on the place right away, as I always do upon finding a locale, and was shocked to come across this page on my buddy E.J.’s The Movieland Directory website, which listed the home’s address and mentioned its appearance on Life Goes On.  #facepalm  All those hours spent looking for the place could have been avoided had I just stumbled upon that listing years ago.  Fail!

In real life, the Thatcher home, which was originally built in 1941, boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,000 square feet of living space, a pool, a detached garage, and a 0.16-acre plot of land.

Amazingly, the residence still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the pilot first aired on September 21st, 1989, almost thirty years ago!

Not only was the exterior of the home featured in the opening credits of the pilot, but in the opening credits of every single episode throughout the series’ four-season run.  You can watch (a very poor quality clip of) those credits below.  Try not to sing along!  “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah, la la how the life goes on!”

A scene from the pilot in which Corky, Becca and Drew painted the home’s white picket fence was also lensed in the Brentwood residence’s front yard.

The real life interior of the home was used extensively throughout the pilot.  Then, once the series was picked up, that interior was re-created on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, where the show was lensed.  Several changes were made to the set re-creation, though.  Most notably, the kitchen was widened significantly, as you can see below.

The family’s eating area was also moved from a dining nook located just off the kitchen to the actual kitchen.

In a rather unprecedented move, the exterior of the Brentwood home was also re-created, not at Warner Bros. Studio, but at its sister facility, Warner Bros. Ranch.  To accomplish the feat, producers modified the façade of one of the lot’s existing houses, known as the Partridge House.  As the name implies, the structure was featured as the Partridge residence on the 1970 television series The Partridge Family.  After filming of that show wrapped, the façade was altered for its use on the 1983 series Scarecrow and Mrs. King and then again for its role on Life Goes On.

Comparison images of the Brentwood residence and its set re-creation are pictured below.  As you can see, the roofline of the real house is much taller than that of the re-creation, which makes the Brentwood home appear to be much larger than its set counterpart.

I have been lucky enough to visit the set re-creation on several occasions over the years and each time was honestly like a dream come true.  So you can imagine how exciting it was for me to finally be able to stalk the real house, as well.

And let me just say here that I think it would be about the coolest thing ever to have my house re-created on a studio backlot!  I mean, can you even imagine?!?

The Warner Bros. Ranch house did not make an appearance on Life Goes On until the fourth episode, which was titled, “Break a Leg, Mom.”  Only the garage area was featured, though.

The structure went on to appear regularly throughout the series, though typically only tight, close-up shots of it were shown.

On a side-note – Calling all Glee fans! GLEE: The Official Show Auction Part II, hosted by Invaluable and Profiles in History, will be taking place today at 11 a.m. PST.  You can find out more information about the auction and bid on the over 600 items up for sale here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Thatcher family home from the pilot episode of Life Goes On is located at 305 North Bowling Green Way in Brentwood.  The façade used in later episodes of the series is the Partridge House at Warner Bros. Ranch, which is located at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank.

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