Damn, I wish I had thought of this.

Artist and writer Dan Meth has created a series of cool pop culture charts at his web site, and the one on the right is a handy guide to sitcom homes. Sense a pattern? The shows in the top half all have kitchens on the left and living rooms on the right (how we see them via the camera angle), and the ones on the bottom have the living room on the left and the kitchen on the right.

I guess there are only so many things you can do on a sitcom, especially if it's filmed in front of an audience as many of these were.

I'll have to disagree with Dan on one of the houses, though. I think Major Nelson had a more complex home than that. If I recall correctly, when you walked in the front door, his bedroom was on the right, the stairs were right in front of you, and the living room was on the left. The kitchen was behind the staircase, with the living room sort of around it, which makes the left-right setup of the diagram a little off.

He has other charts at his site, too, including this handy map of sitcom cities. Though some of the shows (Lou Grant, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, Grey's Anatomy) aren't sitcoms.