… and the niceness of television homes is more about ease of filming than plausibility. Seinfeld did a decent job compressing the soundstage so it looked cramped from most angles. Friends… not so much. Where the hell do you find a sunken living room in an apartment?
Meanwhile the downstairs in Fresh Prince was probably no larger than the Central Perk set, but it’s given angled walls that imply enormous rooms centered on the cameras. And a fancy staircase leading offscreen. And giant windows onto a hand-waved lawn. Everything is wide and open in a way the camera shows, as opposed to TV apartments, which give actors room to move but look cluttered and tight.