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Pick Up a Piece of TV's Recent Past


by Stephen Becker 10 Nov 2010 8:12 AM

What happens to all the furniture, clothes and props used in a television show when the show is canceled? Thousands of items from series filmed recently in North Texas will be sold to the public this week in a garage sale of epic proportions. KERA’s Stephen Becker reports:

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What happens to all the furniture, clothes and props used in a television show when the show is canceled? Thousands of items from series filmed recently in North Texas will be sold to the public this week in a garage sale of epic proportions. KERA’s Stephen Becker reports:

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In an episode of Seinfeld, George giddily walks through Jerry’s apartment after buying what he thinks is a car once owned by the actor Jon Voight:

A sale this week at The Studios at Las Colinas doesn’t have Jon Voight’s car. But it does have a lot of other items from the Fox series Lonestar, in which Voight played a Texas oil tycoon. The series was canceled in September after only two episodes.

Elise Graham is the Production Coordinator for the show.

GRAHAM: “This is Clint Thatcher’s desk, which is Jon Voight’s character. And this was in our Thatcher Oil set, which we shot in approximately three times … So here it is for sale, up for grabs, where Mr. Voight himself sat.”

Items from Prison Break and The Deep End, two other series that shot at The Studios at Las Colinas, will also be included in the sale, which will be held Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you want to buy a jacket or a pair of shoes that may or may not have been worn on network television, there are plenty to choose from. And an entire studio is filled with tables, chairs and other furniture used in the shows.

Graham says it makes more sense to sell the items than to ship them to Los Angeles for use in other shows. And everything is being sold at half of what it was bought for.

GRAHAM: “All these rolling chairs right here were on A stage on the main set in the conference room for Thatcher Oil. … I think they were used once. They looked really pretty on the set, which is being torn down as we speak.”

You might be able to catch a glimpse of that set, which is next door to the furniture room. And who knows? Maybe you’ll leave with a discovery like George and Jerry.

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