Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546176
12 PROP CULTURE I FALL 2026 PROP CULTURE: I think that's true for props as well. As a Property Master, you're never choosing the backpack you would carry. You're choosing the backpack the character would carry. Every object has to reflect who that person is. APRIL BLAIR: Exactly. PROP CULTURE: Has there ever been a moment where you wrote something and later wondered how the Property Department was going to pull it off? APRIL BLAIR: One particular episode called for a black full-sized carbon- fiber cello, and that became much more complicated than I imagined. Not when I wrote it, but once we started talking about what it needed to represent. Other than that, I'm always amazed that everybody pulls it off. PROP CULTURE: Looking across your career, one thing that strikes me is that the setting always changes, but your process seems remarkably consistent. Whether it's Wednesday, The Shannara Chronicles, All American, Jane by Design or Ransom Canyon, you're still building a complete world. APRIL BLAIR: When Al Gough and Miles Millar were creating Wednesday, they already had a 50-page visual bible. Everything they wanted the world to look like. The sets. The costumes. The details. The visuals. That's just how they work. We actually wrote the entire first season before the show had even been sold. Then Tim Burton came aboard, Netflix bought it, and eventually, it got made. PROP CULTURE: Does fantasy change your relationship with props? APRIL BLAIR: Not really. You just kind of wing it. You think, "We need a codex. What does a codex look like?" Then you trust the people who know how to build those things. When we did The Shannara Chronicles in New Zealand, so many of those craftspeople came out of the Peter Jackson world. The props. The costumes. The weapons. They were incredible. Al and Miles are very visual. They collect images. They draw. They have references for everything. They work very closely with all those departments. PROP CULTURE: Then you turn around and create All American. I've always felt much closer to your own aesthetic than a football drama. APRIL BLAIR: (laughs) I'm not a football person. But All American and Ransom Canyon are actually very similar to me. They're both family dramas. Community dramas. The world of one happens to be football. The world of the other happens to be ranching. When I was creating All American, I leaned on people who knew that world. Johnny Norris would read football scenes for me. Spencer Paysinger, whose life inspired the show, was an incredible resource. I'd call him and ask, "If this happened in a game, what would really happen?" or "What would this player do?" You access people who know those worlds. That's how you build them authentically. PROP CULTURE: Throughout our conversation, we've talked about collaboration, craftsmanship, and the hundreds of creative decisions that go into building a world. AI is beginning to reshape many of those same conversations. It raises difficult questions about the future of the artists and craftspeople who bring those worlds to life. As a writer, showrunner and executive producer, how are you thinking about AI today? APRIL BLAIR: I don't know. I don't feel great about it yet. I'm fascinated by the technology, but I'm also sad about what it means. One of our editors was showing me AI that can replace ADR. It learns an actor's voice, and suddenly, you can change dialogue without bringing the actor back. Creatively, that's incredibly freeing. You can try different versions of a scene very quickly. But it also changes jobs. That's the part I struggle with. PROP CULTURE: Every technological advance has changed our industry, but this feels different because it isn't simply replacing a tool. It's beginning to influence the creative process itself. APRIL BLAIR: Change is always scary. I think what's different now is that AI reduces the number of people you need. That's new. It's exciting creatively. But it definitely changes things. I'm still on the fence. PROP CULTURE: We've talked about the importance of physical objects and the way they help actors inhabit WEDNESDAY ALL AMERICAN