SCOUTING
FIELD NOTES

Stopping By Archie Bunker’s House in Queens

02/05/2013

Last week, I was scouting in the Middle Village/Glendale area of Queens when I realized I was close to an address I’d been meaning to check out. Only thing was, as I pulled up to the house, I couldn’t remember why I’d written it down.

Over the years, I’ve saved up a number of Google Maps bookmarks of New York sites I should stop by if I ever happen to be scouting in a particular neighborhood. But what was so special about the non-descript house at 89-70 Cooper Avenue?

And then it hit me like Edith Bunker hitting the high notes in “Those Were The Days…”

89-70 Cooper Avenue was Archie Bunker’s house, featured in the opening credits of All In The Family.

The footage was shot in the early seventies, and it’s neat to see the similarities over 40 years later. I love that the flag pole has survived. Also, note how the little tree on the left has become a much larger tree today.

Archie often identified his address as 704 Hauser Street in Astoria, but the Queens of All in the Family was clearly an amalgam of several different neighborhoods. And in a way, Cooper Ave was the perfect choice, with its lot-to-lot rows of cookie cutter housing that could pretty much be Anywhere, Queens.

Funny that the show never mentioned Archie’s view off the front stoop: a graveyard across the street!

In the later spin-off Archie Bunker’s Place, Archie opens a bar, featured in the opening credits after some neat exterior shots of 1970s Northern Blvd. But where was it?

No one seems to know. The shot cuts away from the busy streets just before it’s pictured, so this could very well be on a soundstage in California. Then again, I’ve read some claiming online that the building did exist, but was torn down.

Either way, good to know that a little bit of Archie Bunker can still be found in Queens.

-SCOUT

Many more posts in the archives!

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JC

04/07/2014

Hi,

By chance does anyone know where the exterior house shots in the opening and closing credits for “Maude” are? Assuming somewhere in NY as the series was based there.

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1. al goneb
  
  10/02/2015
  
  “Maude” supposedly took place in the Village of Tuckahoe in Westchester County.
  
  Reply
Ed

07/27/2014

The exterior shot ofchie Bunker’s Place has one clue that might lead to the theory that it is on a soundstage. In the foreground is what appears to be a US Mailbox, the top portion of which is red. The Post Office stopped using those mailboxes in the late 60’s and early 70’s when they reorganized and went with the all-blue design still in use today. A LOT of tv shows filmed on studio lots continued to use the old boxes,possibly unaware of the change or too llazy to make the change. Same goes for shows filmed in Canada (very common today) where you see they place the old mailboxes to give a more US appearance not realizing they are the old design).

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joedator

08/11/2014

I’m going to go ahead and say the exterior shot of Archie Bunker’s Place is definitely a backlot. The montage of shots leading up to it are of what appears to be Steinway St in Astoria in the late 70s/early 80s, but the final shot that ends on the facade doesn’t match up at all. Aside from the aforementioned mailbox and trees behind the alley, the sign “Truck Lettering” seems very un-authentic. When you watch it a few times the final shot seems very awkwardly tacked on to the real footage.

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1. Jim M.
  
  05/20/2016
  
  What you wrote makes sense. Of course with all the studio trickery at their disposal (even in the pre-CGI era), Tandem Productions could have done whatever they wished, including a combination of shots from reality mixed with soundstage shots.
  
  Anyway, to most viewers of the 1970s and early ’80s the illusion was created we were watching scenery from Queens, Long Island in New York.
  
  Reply
doug gerard

10/15/2014

Actually the exterior footage of the house may have been shot in 1968 or 1969 as there were two pilot episodes that were made to introduce Archie to tv audiences. The first pilot was actually called “Justice for All” and showed a doormat at the front door with “justice” emblazoned on it. The show wasn’t picked up by the networks so another pilot was shot. Again, the show wasn’t brought to the air-waves…not until 1971. During all this time there were also two different Mike and Gloria’s played by different people on the first two pilots. Check them out on YouTube

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Charles Moore

10/20/2014

The Jefferson’s house was originally two doors down not next door.they changed it to being next door sometime in the later episodes.Also Archie’s mother was still alive according to one of the early episodes.her name was Alma the same as my mom.

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1. mitch
  
  03/12/2015
  
  Didn’t the jefferson s say they were moving 2 doors down in one if the episodes?
  
  Reply
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12/17/2014

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Curb Appeal

01/04/2015

The exterior shot is definitely a backlot. The blue building may be real, but the “Truck Lettering” is not. A few things stand out: 1) The curb that curves around “Archie Bunker’s Place” intersects the middle of the door. 2) The door is partially open and doesn’t look solid. 3) There is a mini alley between the white building and Archie’s Place and appears to be a bus stop sign or something, plus the obvious palm tree in the back. The closest building I could find that makes sense is one that was on the “40 acres” backlot.

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karl greenblatt

03/11/2015

The episode I just watched said they lived in Astoria. I have always heard the address was 704 Houser St but that WAS JUST A TV ADDRESS.

I grew up nearby where there are many homes that look like the one you have posted.

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Peter Carey

04/07/2015

Those houses are not the same. He mentions small tree in the openings credits that is now bigger but the tree in the credits is rooted near the curb and the one in the later pics is in the side yard area. Also th are several episodes that showed the bunkers had a front porch yet in the opening credits the house had no porch.

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Scott

05/21/2015

Here is something to ponder. Near the end of the AITF opening credits, as the camera pans toward Archie’s house, there is a kid in red shorts and with knee-high socks and tennis shoes that pops out from the edge of the driveway and then hides in the shadows. I’ve always wondered if this kid knows that he is in the credits and what he now looks like.

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1. Crystal
  
  07/26/2016
  
  Omg I wonder that too! I don’t think we’ll ever know.
  
  Reply
Scott

05/21/2015

Oh and one more point I’d like to make. When Carroll O’Connor passed away I read an interview by the lady who actually lived in this house in the opening credits. From what I remember, she grew up in that house but was now in her early 90s. Her parents bought that house in the early 1900s and she stayed in it all her life. She would say that she’d get visitor’s all the time asking her about whether this house was the actual house used in the t.v. show.

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screwedoverGenX

05/22/2015

Sad thing that Archie Bunker worked on a loading dock and he could afford a house. His wife didn’t have to work. Today there is no way that a guy working in a warehouse could afford that same house. Yet we have record profits on wall st. Maybe we should return to livable wages, pensions and good quality heath insurance that most of the WW2 generation enjoyed. Really makes you think.

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1. Richard Pattinama
  
  08/30/2015
  
  I thought Archie had another job as cab driver.
  
  Reply
  1. david orenge
    
    12/31/2015
    
    his job changed over the course of the show culminating in his owning a bar
    
    Reply
  2. Helen
    
    02/12/2016
    
    Archie drove part-time for his pal Munson.
    
    Reply
Richard Pattinama

08/30/2015

All in the family was on Dutch National Television, in the seventies.
It was a family tradition, after the sport reviews, to watch it. Great characters, very well written,
and far ahead of it’s time. I still think it is one of the best sitcoms ever made.
On the 21st of September, my wife and I are coming to visit New York, and this house is definately
one of the places on my list to visit.

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Will Smith

10/10/2015

A few problems, the show always had a front porch on the house were they filmed many conversations. Irene and Frank Lorenzo lived across the street, (In the cemetery?), The Jeffersons lived next door, the attached house or across the walkway? the show indicated a one family building., The episode with the Puerto Rican family indicated they were buying a single family home that the Lorenzo’s ended up buying across the street? The house also appears to not have a side back kitchen door? Many discrepancies from the actual house and the set house.

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1. Jim M.
  
  05/21/2016
  
  “Frank & Irene Lorenzo” are stated to have lived “down the street” from “The Bunkers” in the profile of the fictional couple in television’s “All in the Family.” I am curious to know how you ascertained “The Lorenzos” lived not only “down,” but “across the street,” in what is a cemetery in the actual Astoria, Queens neighborhood where the house used for exterior shots of the “Bunker” house is located.
  
  I am also unsure about your statement “The house also appears to not have a side back kitchen door?” Do you mean the home of “Archie & Edith Bunker?” Because the back door from the kitchen of “704 Hauser Street, Astoria, Queens, NY” was shown many times in the eight years’ run of “All in the Family” and its four seasons’ spin-off “Archie Bunker’s Place.”
  
  Reply
  1. Deanna
    
    10/11/2016
    
    JIM, THEY PLAYED ON A LIVE STAGE SOMEWHERE IN CALIFORNIA! NOT IN A REAL HOUSE!, THEY ONLY FIXED THE STAGE UP LIKE A REAL HOUSE! THE LIVE AUDIENCE WAS JUST ACROSS THEIR LIVING ROOM!, WHICH IS WHY WE HEARD THE AUDIENCE LAUGHING AND CLAPPING, AND THE HOUSE SHOWN AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF EACH EPISODE, IS NOT THE HOUSE THEY PLAYED IN! IT WAS SHOWN JUST FOR THE THEME! TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE IT WAS THEIR HOUSE! THAT HOUSE IS REALLY A HOME IN NEW YORK! AND AGAIN, IT WAS NOT REALLY THE HOUSE THEY PLAYED IN!
    
    Reply
Tom

11/08/2015

Check out the pilot to All In The Family–there was an enclosed front porch which led to the livingroom–had they kept the set like originally seen the house would have matched–they used this exterior (along with additional footage of the block) for the pilot.

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Sarah

02/10/2016

Love this show, intact I’m watching it now. Thank you for sharing those pictures!

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John Hunter

02/17/2016

Thanks for all the info about where AITF was filmed and the pictures. I’ve been looking for filming locations from all those great 70’s early. 80’s TV shows like the Jeffersons, Good Times, Maude, Sanford and Son, etc for awhile.

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Yoli

09/02/2016

Thank you for all the information as well. I just started watching All in the Family this year, or was it last? On Antenna TV, ugh such a great show! Definitely on my top five. Wish we could go back to how simple people’s lives were back in the 70s.

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Roman Presley

09/24/2016

Where is the house that was used for the show Maude? They showed it on the opening and closing credits. It was on a corner

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Deanna

10/11/2016

I think all in the family’s set was in california! somewhere in california, Hollywood i guess, they didn’t play in a real house! it was just a live stage! they fixed it up like a house! as we know that the live audience, was just across their living room! which is why we heard the audience laughing and clapping! and of course the house shown at the beginning and end of the theme, is absolutely not the building they played in,! as the front of the house did not match what we see on tv!

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