Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474575
9 6 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 When I was asked to step in and design this third installment of Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "The Facts of Life" and "Diff 'rent Strokes," I was simultaneously honored and intimidated. The first two installments were so well received, the first one winning the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special in , and both previous installments having received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Production Design. Those episodes featured recreations of sets from the iconic s series, he The effer and Te, acted by "List" stars like oody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei. Their Production Designer, ernie yzga, had delivered spoton replicas of those original sets. That's a lot to live up to. When I heard that the episodes we would be recreating were from ff re re and The e, I thought, "hat you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" While I was certainly aware of the original popularity of ff re re, I don't recall ever having watched it. nd I know I had never seen The e, although I somehow knew that George Clooney made an early career appearance on it in the mids. I first reached out to rt Director Raf Lydon, with whom I had recently worked with and to set decorator erie elter, with whom I had recently completed a pilot. efore we could get started, another bigger obstacle reared its ugly head the I strike was looming, and Sony did not want to green light this project if the strike was going forward. I pushed forward, working alone, hoping the strike would be averted. nd luckily it was. fter a week on hold, we got the green light and started ocially working from home and meeting daily on Zoom. efore I could begin, I had two main questions first what episodes were we going to recreate, and second who were they going to cast in these iconic roles, which were originally played mostly L i v e i n F r o n t o f a S t u d i o A u d i e n c e : ' T H E F A C T S O F L I F E ' A N D ' D I F F ' R E N T S T R O K E S ' B Y S T E P H A N O L S O N , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A