Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/834282
etc.) so that each detail reflects an individual choice. It was a labor-intensive process, but I think the level of detail makes the space feel deeply personal. One of the most successful features of the house is the large courtyard filled with live trees and greens. In the older beach house, the ocean brings in fresh air; in Robert and Sol's house, the lush landscape of the courtyard brings in new life. It was my first experience creating a fully developed outdoor space onstage and it's been great to see it in action. For a sense of flow, the rooms of the house are laid out in a continuous loop so the camera can follow the actors freely through the set without stopping. From any room, you can see two or three other spaces and feel the depth of the whole set. Before starting the working drawings, Set Designers Randy Wilkins and Julia Levine built a digital model of the space and we all played with things like ceiling heights and archway shapes. Each choice impacts sightlines, depth, camera angles and the emotional feel of the space. Netfl ix and Skydance provided the rare luxury of time, ten weeks in fact, to put as much thought into the design of the set as the writers put into developing the story. I can't say enough about the impact of that support on the outcome of the design. Apart from building the new house, the most exciting design challenge for me is that Grace and Frankie is the first comedy I've worked on. I'll never forget the phone call I got from the producer after my first interview for the show. He said, "We all really like you and love the look you presented, but the show runner isn't sure you're funny enough. Can you come back for another meeting and be funnier?" Needless to say, I was pretty nervous going in for round two. The challenge to be funnier turned out to be a huge gift because I wound up mining my personal experiences for comedic design ideas. I'm pretty sure the idea that ultimately got me the job was penis pottery. In the 1970s and '80s, my mother, also an eccentric artist with boundary issues, made explicit prints of vaginas and penises. Drawing on memories of wacky vagina art, I pitched the idea that Lily's character makes penis- and vagina-themed pottery. In the meeting, the idea got a big laugh and I got the job. Watching my idea grow with the storyline over the seasons has been really fun. What started as penis pottery in Season One turned into Frankie concocting a yam lube sex product for older women in Season Two and wound up in Season Three with Grace and Frankie coming out of retirement to invent the Menage a Moi, a vibrator designed especially for women of a certain age. I love that Above, left to right: In Grace and Frankie's beach house, the open fl oor plan and airy blues and creams give a sense of the ocean and bring a breath of fresh air into their lives. Shown here are the dining room and kitchen. Below: Jane Fonda plays Grace Hanson, and Lily Tomlin plays Frankie Bergstein, two women who move in together when their husbands decide to marry each other. The beach house, where the exteriors were fi lmed, is on Broad Beach Road in Malibu. "Frankie and Sol, children of the '60s, let it all hang out. Their house is richly layered with warm colors, full of personal effects. Menorahs intermingle with erotic art and family photos. The irony of the story is that even a warm comfortable home can hide dangerous secrets."