This Is Lower Merion And Narberth

Serving the Main Line Community

Hope And Michael’s House On Thirtysomething Was At 1700 Bryn Mawr Avenue In Philly, But There Is No 1700 Bryn Mawr Avenue In Philly

by

Hope and Michael Steadman were the central characters in the iconic 1980s TV drama “Thirtysomething.” Marshall Herskovitz, one of the show’s co-creators, graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1969. He grew up in Bala Cynwyd and was likely familiar with Bryn Mawr Avenue, which traverses City Line, with  Bala Cynwyd on one side and Wynnefield (Philadelphia) the other.

The house that stood in for the one that supposedly was on Bryn Mawr Avenue was located at 1710 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. 

In 1997 People Magazine wrote – A knock on the door in the summer of 1987 was the answer to Dennis and Donna Potts’s prayers. Short on cash for their son Don’s first year of college, the Pasadena residents were preparing to refinance their home when a location scout for a new show called thirtysomething showed up.

Seems the 95-year-old Craftsman-style house was a dead ringer for the kind of suburban Philadelphia home that characters Michael and Hope Steadman would live in. The producers offered the Pottses $1,500 a day to film their house. “The exact right time, the right amount of money,” says Donna, 54, a high school biology teacher. “It was just what we needed.” Seems the 95-year-old Craftsman-style house was a dead ringer for the kind of suburban Philadelphia home that characters Michael and Hope Steadman would live in. The producers offered the Pottses $1,500 a day to film their house. “The exact right time, the right amount of money,” says Donna, 54, a high school biology teacher. “It was just what we needed.”

 

The “Real Bryn Mawr Avenue” is a pretty street on the Lower Merion side, but the homes on the city side are for the most part, more stately-Mainline-ish than those on the other side of City Avenue.