Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546033
R O O S T E R | P E R S P E C T I V E 6 7 The title of this piece comes from our producer David Hyman. When the first reactions came in praising the look of Rooster—the New England campus, the fall atmosphere, the sense of history —David smiled and said, "We fooled them again." That line stayed with me, because it captures what production design is, especially in television. We are in the business of illusion—but not for its own sake. We are building emotional credibility: places actors can inhabit and audiences can believe before they realize they've made that decision. On Rooster, the illusion was ambitious: a new HBO comedy created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, set at Ludlow College, an old New England liberal arts institution in the fictional town of Cabot, Massachusetts. The show stars Steve Carell as Greg Russo, a father trying to reconnect with his daughter Katie, played by Charly Clive, inside a campus wrestling with its own past, future and present-day identity. The father-daughter story was personal from the start—Bill and Matt were both living through versions of that relationship, and that truth is part of what attracted Steve Carell to the project. The show may be a comedy, but like all of Bill's best work, it begins from a human place: family, generational change, embarrassment, love and the difficulty of staying close to your children as they become adults. I've worked with Bill for more than thirty years, through Spin City, Scrubs and many chapters of the Doozer and Warner Bros. Television family A. ELIZABETH STODDARD STUDENT CENTER. SKETCHUP RENDERING BY CLAYTON FORD. B. ELIZABETH STODDARD STUDENT CENTER. CONCEPT MARKUP BY CABOT MCMULLEN. C. ELIZABETH STODDARD STUDENT CENTER. FINAL RENDERING OF CONCEPT MARKUP BY CLAYTON FORD. C B