"40 Acres" The Lost Studio Backlot of Movie & Television Fame a RetroWeb Studio Backlots website Image Gallery and Virtual Tour (Part 1 of 4)

The tour and gallery will begin at the east end of Gone With The Wind's "Atlanta" town (east with respect to real world geography)...on the residential street...and proceed west through this principle shooting area of "40 Acres," eventually reaching the large railroad depot set built for the film. We will then explore other areas of the lot, including the location of Gone With The Wind's "Tara" mansion. The images in this gallery depict the sets of 40 Acres as they appeared primarily in the Desilu Studios era, and in such television series' as The Andy Griffith Show, The Untouchables, Star Trek, Batman, Mission Impossible and My Three Sons. Also included are a few vintage appearances on film from the backlot's RKO-Pathé years.

Near the eastern end of the 40 Acres backlot was a relatively short residential street, with a row of houses lining its north side. The street was on a slight hill which rose eastward from the midwestern town area, and one of the most notable facades on this street was a brick, flat-roofed Victorian-style two-story facade near the top of the rise which served as Aunt Pittypat's residence in Gone With the Wind. Alongside and to the left of this set (and constructed well after the filming of Gone With the Wind) were several facades of 1930's and 1940's vintage appearance. Immediately left of Pittypat's house was the house set featured in the Andy Griffith Show as Andy Taylor's residence.

It was not by chance that the principal structures along the residential street were situated on its north side, as this design allowed for frontal illumination by sunlight. Indeed, in the Andy Griffith Show, it was seldom that the camera was pointed southward across the street, but on the few occasions when this did occur, we could see the side of a single-story house facade at the east end of the street, as well as the north side of the church, including its side entrance (the front of the church faced west, into the town square). On even more rare occasion was the camera pointed eastward from Andy Taylor's residence, namely because the buildings and utility lines of Culver City were visible from this vantage point. Also, in the early 1960's, remnants of earlier sets stood in the eastern tip of 40 Acres...including a large reform school set built for the 1929 silent film "The Godless Girl," along with structures that appeared as a bombed-out European village in the films "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945), "Tripoli" (1950) and "Attack!" (1956). These sets had been razed and removed by 1965, but in at least one early episode of The Andy Griffith Show, the large reform school set is visible in the background at the top of the residential street (see Additional Images below).

The east end of the residential street, as seen in Land of the Giants. (The "Andy Taylor" house set is in the background)

Originally constructed as Aunt Pittypat's house for Gone With the Wind, the facade in the background was one of the 40 Acres residential street's earliest house sets (seen here in Land of the Giants)

The 40 Acres "Aunt Pittypat" house facade, as it appeared in November, 1961 (a RetroWeb Archives image)

The "Aunt Pittypat" facade as seen in TV's The Untouchables.

The same set, re-dressed as a haunted house in The Andy Griffith Show.

virtual view of "Aunt Pittypat" house (ray-traced rendering from 3D model)

panoramic view of residential street, including all six facades on the north side of the street. the vantage point is the east end of the street, and the view is centered on Gone With The Wind's "Aunt Pittypat" facade (from The Andy Griffith Show)

"Andy Taylor's" residence from The Andy Griffith Show... immediately to the left of the Gone With The Wind "Pittypat" facade. Counting backwards as one approaches the midwestern town area, this was house facade #4 on the backlot's residential street.

Another view of house facade #4, from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.. Evidence strongly suggests that this facade was originally constructed as a studio interior facade for the 1957 film "The Girl Most Likely," and well over a year later, was relocated to the backlot's residential street, where it retained its original, inset second-floor porch for a few more years before being modified.

view (south) from the "Taylor" house front porch, with Culver City's Baldwin Hills in the background (from The Andy Griffith Show)

view of house #4 from My Three Sons. note the earlier configuration of the 2nd floor front windows.

view of house (#3) just west of "Taylor" house (from The Andy Griffith Show)

view west down residential street (from The Andy Griffith Show)

A closeup of the next-to-last house set (#2) on the right as one approaches the town area.

This house set (#1), the last house on the right when approaching the town area, dated to Gone With The Wind, along with the "Aunt Pittypat" house several "lots" to the east. Seen here in The Untouchables, the house also made frequent appearances in The Andy Griffith Show, including as the "Mendelbright Park Apartments" where Barney rented a room.

This Gone With The Wind behind-the-scenes photo of an ox-drawn siege gun was shot in front of residential street house #1. The gun ultimately did not appear in the film.

In this high-angle residential street view from The Untouchables, one can clearly see Culver City buildings in the background.

In this northeast view from in front of the church lawn, one can see all or a portion of the five adjacent houses on the north side of the residential street (from Land of the Giants)

view east up residential street, with Culver City buildings visible in b.g. (from Mission: Impossible)

panoramic view looking back east and up residential street, in later years following removal of old reform school set from "The Godless Girl" (from The Andy Griffith Show)

If one were on foot in the latter days of 40 Acres, and descending the slight incline of the residential street sidewalk and approaching the midwestern town's main street from the east, directly ahead one would see a multi-facaded, polygonal shaped two-story structure, situated like an island in the paved square (below middle). This building had replaced what was originally a large, brick chuch/hospital in 1939's Gone With the Wind, and it was surrounded by a mix of storefront facades, sidewalks, side streets and other buildings/facades, most of which were constructed in the decade following the film. A better view of this central building is in store from the west side, but in the meantime, looking to the left and beyond the central building, one would see an unusual facade resembling an old western hotel (below left). Turning and looking to the right of the central building, one would immediately spot a familiar columned structure on the opposite corner...the "Mayberry" Courthouse from The Andy Griffith Show (below right).

view southwest through residential street intersection of Western-style hotel facade (from The Andy Griffith Show) (click here for virtual matching view)

view west of the residential street intersection, and of the east side of the multi-sided central building. this view also offers a rare Andy Griffith Show glimpse of the upper stories of the 4-story facade (background at right), usually seen only at ground level as a hotel. (click here for virtual matching view)

virtual view northwest through residential street intersection (ray-traced rendering from 3D model. click here for matching view from The Andy Griffith Show)

Arriving in the residential street intersection and looking to the left, past the church, the street would drop down out of view, leaving a view of Culver City's Baldwin Hills immediately to the south of 40 Acres (see below left). Looking to the right, one would see a short street of building & storefront facades, sometimes referred to as 40 Acres' "back street."

Culver City's Baldwin Hills as viewed looking south from 40 Acres residential street intersection (from Mission Impossible)

view north from residential street intersection (from The Adventures of Superman)

Walking across the intersection toward the courthouse and turning back, one would see a two-story brick facade adjacent to the first house on the residential street, diagonally facing the intersection (below left). Turning slightly to the right, one would see a wooden, white, steepled church (below right).

view of building/facade adjacent to residential street houses (from The Andy Griffith Show)

view of residential street intersection and church (from The Andy Griffith Show) (click here for virtual matching view)

Facing the courthouse from the residential street intersection, and looking down the short street to the right, one would see a large wooden fence blocking the view of Culver City buildings immediately to the north (below left). Further right, one would see a few storefront and other facades, including a large arched doorway with a wooden door.

a view of the courthouse and the short street to the north of the residential street intersection, with the top of a large Culver City building visible beyond the fence. (click here for virtual matching view)

view of facades at north end of short street, looking right of angle seen in previous photo (from Star Trek episode "Miri"). The leftmost facade dates to the Gone With The Wind's "Atlanta" era, in which it was located further west, on the north cross-street. (click here for virtual matching view)

One of the most familiar filming areas in 40 Acres was the portion of the midwestern town known as "Mayberry" from The Andy Griffith Show. Most of the facades in "Mayberry" post-dated Gone With The Wind's "Atlanta," but a few GWTW sets and their remnants lasted into the 1960's. The building fronts along the street were mostly facades, and were used almost exclusively for exterior shooting, with an occasional view shot looking out through one of the windows. On rare occasions, including in one early episode of The Andy Griffith Show, filming occurred on small interior sets behind the facades, with the actual exterior street visible through the window. In almost all other interior scenes, all background views through windows and doors were painted or photographic backdrops.

aerial view of 40 Acres midwestern town from early summer 1958 (from Desilu/Westinghouse sponsor film)

wide-angle view of midwestern town streets from Star Trek episode "Miri" (click here for virtual matching view)

view of shops and Courthouse from The Andy Griffith Show

virtual view of shops and courthouse (ray-traced rendering from 3D model)

north side of midwestern town street as it appeared in the early 1950's (from The Adventures of Superman)

view east of midwestern town area (from Batman)

similar angle to previous view...roughly fourteen years earlier (from The Adventures of Superman)

similar angle again, this time in 1968, from Mayberry R.F.D.

southeast view of midwestern town area (from Star Trek episode "Miri")

vintage scene in the midwestern town, from the 1949 film The Set-Up (click here for virtual matching view)

A behind-the-scenes photograph shot during filming of Star Trek in "40 Acres."

high-angle view east through midwestern town (from Land of the Giants)

high-angle northwest view of midwestern town (from The Untouchables)

virtual high-angle view of midwestern town looking west (ray-traced rendering from 3D model)

scene from rare interior set filming on the 40 Acres backlot (from The Andy Griffith Show)

Next, we will focus on some of the specific sets in the midwestern town area, beginning with the set most commonly known as the "Mayberry Courthouse"...

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