Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536054
about our color palette and the overall look of the show, aiming for a '70s feel without being strictly bound by it. We also wanted the show to resonate with a new and fresh audience. So, while there's definitely a layer of nostalgia, we didn't want to be slaves to it, for lack of a better word. We didn't want to be crushed under the weight of what the '70s sort of means cinematically. PROP CULTURE: I especially appreciate the focus on CB radios for communication, a stark contrast to today's iPhones and texting, offering rich narrative possibilities through that period-specific prop. LATOYA MORGAN: Yes, absolutely. And I personally loved delving into the world of CB radio chatter. It was fun to do the research and listen to some of the old conversations. Most people today aren't familiar with the constant flow of traffic and call signs that truckers used. For me, it was also refreshing to depict a time when people in the same room actually had conversations. Part of the show's tension comes from finding ways for characters to have secret conversations and stay under the radar, and the limitations of the technology of the time really added to that thriller aspect of the show. PROP CULTURE: Do you ever find yourself conceiving of a specific prop, because you're personally intrigued by the object itself, and you're driven by a desire to bring that particular piece to life visually within the show's universe? LATOYA MORGAN: Yes! And there's a ton of that in Duster. One of the things that J.J. and I were really excited about is creating props and things inside the Duster Universe. Luna is our little kid character on the show, and I'm a big fan of Saturday- morning cartoons. So we thought, "We have to have a cereal!" I was obsessed. Creating the Hooks and Ladders Cereal, including designing the box and the little character, was something I truly loved. Getting into the details—like, as Pixar puts it, "sanding the undersides of the drawers"—those are my favorite things. PROP CULTURE: I'd love to delve into the heart transplant scene, set in a 1972 hotel room! Even in a contemporary setting with modern equipment, depicting a heart transplant in a hotel room would be challenging on any budget. So, there again when you wrote that scene, did you consider the potential logistical difficulties and whether you were pushing the boundaries of what was feasible? LATOYA MORGAN: Well, we came up with that concept and we were like, "Yeah, we have to see this through." So, there was never a point where we considered not doing it. But I think the challenge of getting all the equipment right was met. Our team did such an excellent job, and we, of course, had a couple of cardiac specialists, heart transplant doctors, and people who had actually been doctors in that time period, the late '60s and early '70s, who were our consultants. My hat is off to the team who was able to do it, and no one raised their hand and said, "We can't do that." They were like, "It may take us a minute to find something like that, or we're going to modify it, so it looks more like the actual thing from the time." But everybody on the team just really jumped in with both feet to help us create this wild and crazy world. PROP CULTURE: Are there any smaller, more understated props from this