Production Designers Clash With Nostalgia on Craft Panel

IndieWire’s Craft Roundtables brought together production designers from The Bear, Euphoria, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Scrubs, and more to talk about the hardest part of building TV worlds: knowing when to preserve what fans love—and when to evolve the look without

For production designers, the job isn’t just making sets look good. It’s deciding what stays. what changes. and how far a show can stretch its visual identity before fans feel the shift. At IndieWire’s Craft Roundtables. that pressure was on full display—especially when the panelists talked about whether a beloved aesthetic can survive new technology. new palettes. and the pull of nostalgia.

The panel convened production designers from a range of series. including Merje Veske (“The Bear”). Matthew Flood Ferguson (“Monster: The Ed Gein Story”). Francois Audouy (“Euphoria”). Roger Fires (“Scrubs”). Susie Mancini (“The ‘Burbs”). Jen Chu (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”). and Claire Bennett (“Nobody Wants This”). The conversation centered on one recurring question: when a show modernizes, who gets to decide what “too much” looks like?.

On “RuPaul’s Drag Race. ” Chu said she joined the production about three years ago and immediately faced the challenge of updating a format that’s “so beloved by so many people.” She described the internal effort to modernize while still anticipating what fans would and wouldn’t like—particularly as the production value expanded over recent years.

Chu said her goal wasn’t to let new tools replace the show’s visual soul. “Our lighting designer really pushed for the LED screens. ” she explained. but Chu said she still wanted a “scenery element and not just be negative space of lights and screens.” She pointed to a specific reference point for that balance: a company headquarters in Hollywood housed in a “beautiful Art Deco building. ” with “formal architectural detailing” that’s “really ornate and really pretty.”.

“When I drove into the office to meet with some of the owners of the company, I thought ‘Hmm, let’s start from there.’ It was something vintage that could be incorporated with our more modern technology,” Chu said.

Fires faced a different kind of pressure with the “Scrubs” revival—one built around the sets that fans already know by heart. He said the show’s original run included beloved locations at the Sacred Heart Hospital. and revivals can be designed with nostalgia in mind. But Fires didn’t want to overhaul anything iconic. Still, he said he convinced the rest of the creative team to accept “some natural evolutions.”.

“There were so many iconic pieces that Zach [Braff] and everyone said ‘We don’t want to change too much,’” Fires said. The turning point, he explained, came when the team presented branding and a new color palette—and tied those visual changes to what the show would communicate.

“When we presented the branding and the new color palette and how that would effect the philosophy and the communication between the patients and the staff, they were like ‘OK, yes, we have to evolve,’” Fires said.

The thread connecting Chu’s story to Fires’ was the same: it’s not just about aesthetics. It’s about what the design choices are meant to do—whether that’s keeping a space grounded in something vintage while adding modern technology. or updating a familiar environment while preserving its emotional function.

The full conversation from IndieWire’s Craft Roundtables is available in the video above. IndieWire’s TV Craft Roundtables is now streaming on @PBSSoCal and the PBS App, as well as IndieWire.com and the outlet’s social channels.

IndieWire Craft Roundtables production designers RuPaul’s Drag Race Scrubs Jen Chu Roger Fires The Bear Euphoria The ‘Burbs Nobody Wants This Susie Mancini Merje Veske Francois Audouy Matthew Flood Ferguson Claire Bennett Zach Braff LED screens Art Deco