From "Friends" to "Sex and the City," here are a few of our favorite TV and film locations in New York City. Lights, camera, action!
LessGhostbusters: Located at 14th North Moore Street in Manhattan, NY, the Hook & Ladder Company 8 (FDNY) fire station's exterior has become the iconic headquarters of the "Ghostbusters," representing the supernatural comedy film franchise of the same name.
Friends: The show was filmed in Burbank, but Monica and Rachel lived in this apartment on their modest salaries, benefiting from rent control. In real life a comparable space would fetch quite a sum. At least $4,500 per month in rent, and well over $2 million if purchased! Even without an elevator, their nice 1,125-square-foot pad would be quite a find in fashionable Greenwich Village.
Seinfeld: Tom's Restaurant is a diner located at 2880 Broadway (on the corner of West 112th Street) but it is best known as the diner shown in some Seinfeld episodes. Early episodes actually showed the entire neon sign but later shows cropped out the "Tom's" portion and showed only the "RESTAURANT" wraparound. The restaurant has gone through minor remodeling since the show but the sign has remained the same.
Joker: Finding these stairs was an exercise in patience for director Todd Phillips. He needed a staircase that would be perfect for his new movie. You might be disappointed to find that the staircase in real life is not as dark or as creepy as the staircase that exists in the parallel world of Gotham City. Still it is amazing to see how lighting and special effects can turn a seemingly innocent structure into the perfect backdrop for Batman's archnemesis.
Zoolander: Derek Zoolander and his mates from the catwalk shared an apartment on Greene Street in SoHo. The same building was again used in 2005 as Eva Mendes' home in the Will Smith comedy, "Hitch."
Paul's Boutique: The iconic Beastie Boys 2nd album cover, released in 1989, featured a fictional clothing store called Paul's Boutique - the fake clothing store's location was in Manhattan's lower east side at an existing clothing store location (Lee's Sportswear) on the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets. The album cover front featured the clothing store but the cover folded out to reveal a panorama of the entire intersection photographed from 99 Rivington Street.
Cloverfield: The Greyshot Arch was built by Vaux in 1860 and today is very popular with bikers and runners. This arch is 80 feet long and 10 feet high. The arch is made from white-gray gneiss and the arch's balustrade was crafted from New Brunswick sandstone and decorated with fleur-de-lis carvings. The arch has been in many movies including the 2008 monster film, "Cloverfield".