302 | Tommy Avallone (The House From…)

My Summer Lair Chapter #302: Which Famous Pop Culture House Do You Wanna Visit?

To spark this My Summer Lair episode let’s try a visual exercise.

Close your eyes and see if you can picture the Home Alone house. The big empty house where poor Kevin was left all alone as hapless criminals (the Wet Bandits) battle to break in and steal everything.

Chances are you can recall certain details or you can picture particular elements of the Home Alone house. For some of you, I’ll bet your memory of the Home Alone house is stronger than even your own childhood home.

Now: what if…the Home Alone house really was your childhood home? Like…what if you were Kevin?!

Fame is fascinating. In popular culture, we elevate actors, writers and bands, all kinds of distinct and creative individuals. They’re so well known based on their work that they become famous. And yet…oddly fame is not only limited to people. We also elevate many pop culture objects.

I’ve met the Knight Rider car. I’ve met the ’66 Batmobile and the General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard. All three celebrity car encounters were thrilling.

When I show people a photo of me and KITT the people that know that stuff adore that stuff. They’re like whoa. That is cool. It is a viable celebrity encounter.

And strangely, those celebrity encounter with objects is no different from seeing famous houses like the Home Alone house. Which, yeah is a real house, just outside of Chicago.

Here’s the bizarre thing. A real family actually lives in the Home Alone house. See, to us all of us that is just the Home Alone house. Yet to the family that lives there that is a…home. They have birthdays and they grieve when relatives or close people pass away. They have to remember to take out the recycling on Wednesday. They do their homework on the dining room table. They host Thanksgiving dinner and sleepovers for the kids. It is a home. They have built a life out of that home. However, you define home.

Home for them…is the Home Alone house.

And yet every Christmas Home Alone fans come and they stop and they stare at the Home Alone house. They take photos and they slap their cheeks like Kevin in front of the Home Alone house. Those twin experiences run through the documentary The House From… directed by Tommy Avallone.

The House From… focuses on memorable homes from movies and TV shows and includes interviews with residents of such properties who share the unique and weird experience of living there while dealing with fan attention.

The documentary includes homes from Full House, The Golden Girls, Breaking Bad, Twilight, Home Alone, Friday, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Old School, The Outsiders, The Silence of the Lambs, Family Matters, The Goonies, A Christmas Story, Mrs. Doubtfire and Halloween (the John Carpenter classic from 1978).

And while that’s an impressive list…I’m curious about the houses that got away. What’s an iconic house Tommy would have enjoyed exploring. I wish he spent more time with The Wonder Years house…another vital house with a Kevin in it.

During my conversation with Tommy I mentioned that recently somebody bought the Poltergeist house. I wanted to know if there’s a difference between owning and living in The Golden Girls house vs a horror house. You know those famous houses connected to Halloween or Poltergeist. You know?

And we also get into Tommy’s previous doc: a 2022 Barney doc called I Love You, You Hate Me; streaming on Peacock. Yes a documentary that explores the harsh and occasionally violent backlash to Barney the dinosaur. That’s a doc about why we hate things. The House From… is a doc is about why adore things.

This is a fascinating perspective of fame and celebrity…you know these houses. You’ve spent time in these houses, especially if they were a TV sitcom.

Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl) narrates the documentary and The House From… is executive produced by Ryan Reynolds.

Here’s my charming conversation with Tommy talking about The House From…

Following a screening at the Smodcastle Film Festival October 24th – 27th 2024 (a Central Jersey showcase of cinema hosted by the guy who made Clerks.) The House From… will be digitally released via Premium Video On Demand (PVOD) outlets such as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play etc.

As well The House From… can be viewed on The Maximum Effort Channel: #SetTheVCR

Maximum Effort @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Wednesday October 23, 2024 at 12:00 pm (EST)

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