Imagine you’re the production designer of a legendary sitcom so beloved that there is an entire pop-up experience devoted to it. And then try to imagine topping that. Greg Grande is the literal architect of Central Perk, Monica and Rachel’s apartment and Joey and Chandler’s across-the-hall domicile in “Friends.” (Grande put it just right: “My wife and I laugh that we never won an Emmy, but boy, that set has lived its legacy.”) But his impressive throwback Palm
Springs, California, home featured in Hulu’s “Mid-Century Modern” might win a new legion of admirers and maybe another pop-up at some point — only this one will have a grotto.
“The backstory of this set came from the Dinah Shore estate,” said Grande, speaking of one of architect Donald Wexler’s signature Palm Springs houses from the 1960s. That 1.3-acre steel-beam oasis inspires the look of the comedy,
created by “Will & Grace” showrunners Max Mutchnick and David Kohan. In the series, three lifelong gay male friends (Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham and Nathan Lane) share a home owned by the latter’s clothing-magnate mother (the late Linda Lavin).
“Back in the day, for research you literally had to go to your local bookstore and grab a few pictorial books, but now you can just press a button,” he said. “But we wanted to figure out how we can make this set believable and real in the world of multi-camera television. I loved the old sitcom days of “I Love Lucy” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” but none of us live like that anymore, right?”
“Mid-Century Modern” is full of unabashed visual references to the comfort watches of the post-Gen X era, namely a famous sitcom about some girls who can best be described as golden. In this case, it includes hot tubs and tennis courts in addition to the common areas we get to know so well, right down to the central, ubiquitous bowl of tomatoes in the bright blue kitchen where everyone gossips.
“Being so close to Palm Springs is always a nice thing, so you can experience what that’s all about. My folks had a house there when we were growing up,” said Grande of the strangely trapped-in-time quality of the mid-century homes with the hybrid-decade interiors, many of them owned by celebrities like Shore, Elvis Presley and Bob Hope. (Leonardo DiCaprio apparently even owns a Wexler home.) “They haven’t ripped down a lot of stuff there, they’ve just reinvented it.”
Grande said that sharp-eyed viewers will notice subtle nods to classic TV comedies. (For instance, the sunken living room and a large “B” strategically placed on a wall are direct tributes to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and the “M” that Mary Richards proudly displayed in her living room.) “There are little Easter eggs here and there, obviously. A few pieces on the set were from Max and David’s “Will & Grace,” odds and ends,” said Grande, who with decorator Peter
Gurski likes to put small unseen pieces into drawers and shelves for actors to potentially play with, a trick he learned on “Friends.”
“And we have a picture of Linda Lavin upstage in our little piano room (painted by her husband, Steve Bakunas),” which is now sentimental for Grande, who recalls Lavin’s passing while filming the show’s first season. “Her Sybil is
such an important character for the scenic design, because one of the very cool things about the show is that you’re seeing a purposeful clash of generations. The house is obviously hers and decorated her way, but you start to see Nathan Lane’s Bunny character filtering through her aesthetic.”
There’s still no word on Season 2, but Grande is hopeful it will happen, because we’ve seen only a fraction of the possibilities. “There’s so much opportunity for the upstage parts of the set, even the backyard,” he said. “The beautiful thing about this set is we’ve created this opportunity for the cameras to roll back up into the set and look back in through the back windows, almost creating a fourth wall, because we shoot in front of a live audience.”
And Grande promised Lavin’s Sybil will be deeply felt, right down to the last chip of terrazzo floor. “In Episode 9, when we’re in her bedroom, it’s chock-full of memories of how beautiful her life was. Now we can add even more Easter-egg items into the set in homage to her.”
This story first ran in the Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
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