Big Fancy House/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Big Fancy Houses in Live-Action TV include:

  • In As Time Goes By, Lionel's father gives him a country house in Hampshire complete with a full-time housekeeper, however most of the time he lives with Jean in her nice London home. Lionel is practically Land Poor, however, and at one point suggests they sell the infrequently used house, which leads to an awkward situation where his father offers to buy it back from him.
    • Alistair, Lionel's highly successful publisher, hints several times about his prized penthouse overlooking the Thames, but little of it is seen.
  • Gu Jun Pyo's house in the Korean Series Boys Before Flowers comes complete with many many housemaids.
  • Likewise, in The City Hunter, the house that Yoon Sung grew up in includes extensive grounds, many servants, garages filled with vehicles. Oh and a terrorist-style training camp, all paid for with drug money.
  • Collinwood Mansion featured in Dark Shadows is also known for being haunted.
  • Niles Crane, in Frasier, is shown living in two Big Fancy Houses: Maris's mansion and his later apartment at The Montana. Various jokes are made about the ridiculous size of his place at The Montana, especially for one single man, with Martin once getting lost on his way to the bathroom. It has at least three floors, a study and a library, and a gift-wrapping room.
    • Later, when he's hooked up with Daphne, they have a minor disagreement about how many things Niles should pack if he's planning on staying over with her at Frasier's apartment. It takes them a surprisingly long time to reach the conclusion that it would probably be much easier if she moved into his massive apartment with him.
  • The Banks' mansion in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - which in addition to the mansion, features both a swimming pool and a poolhouse that characters use as an apartment in later years.
  • Francis Urquhart, in House of Cards (British series), has a very nice house in London, and an impressive estate in the countryside, where he shows off some of his Conservative "Old Boy" values.
  • The Scottish estate Glenbogle plays a significant role in Monarch of the Glen. Its owners, though, are Land Poor, which is a source of struggle in the stories.
  • In Angel, the mansion of Corrupt Corporate Executive and vampire Russell Winters.
  • And Angel himself had a mansion in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though not in the typical rich guy sense.
  • Andrew Hartford's mansion in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive has a Zord bay beneath the house, 27 bathrooms on the first floor alone, and yet he can't make a security system to keep the villains out.
    • Maybe the sheer size IS the reason it's such a nightmare to secure.
  • The comedic tension in To the Manor Born focuses on Grantleigh Manor, which the Land Poor Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton sells to the wealthy Self-Made Man Richard DeVere.
    • One example of the sheer size of the place is the fact that he has a rather large room just for his antique china collection.
  • ITV's smash hit, Downton Abbey, concerns the Abbey itself (exterior shots are of Highclere Castle). The size of the Abbey requires a full time staff of almost twenty people to clean and maintain. Much of the plot frames the Abbey as an obligation and a money drain, creating tension for everyone.
  • Southfork Ranch in Dallas.
  • Drummond's Manhattan penthouse in Diff'rent Strokes.
  • Jed Clampett's mansion in The Beverly Hillbillies.
  • The beachfront Robin's Nest estate in Hawaii in Magnum, P.I..
  • On The Sopranos, a female friend of AJ's is reluctant to invite him to her home. When he finally goes there, he sees a house he thinks is normal-sized, if a bit smaller than his own. Turns out that was just the guard shack out at the gate; the house, set well back from the road, is orders of magnitude bigger than his own. It's kind of an eye-opener for him, as he had always believed his family was wealthy.
  • The Darling family of Dirty Sexy Money lives in the Imperial, a townhouse in the upper east side of Manhattan, that stands about eight stories tall and takes up an entire city block.
  • Yonk and Nicole in The Class.
  • Hodgins' mansion has popped up once or twice in the seven seasons of Bones.
  • The eponymous Sanctuary.
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