The sets of some TV shows are Potemkin villages, just realistic enough to pass muster with the cameras on one side. Others are incredibly detailed simulacra: the most impressive ever, for my money, was the sprawling installation at Cinnecitta Studios for the HBO show Rome (more on which some other time soon).

When I visited the 30 Rock sets for my Q&A with Tina Fey, which you may recall from last week, I was gobsmacked by how faithfully the show had replicated the NBC corporate offices. The detail went all the way down to the fake magazine clippings on the walls. So I went back a few weeks later to take more careful notes on the set design, and wrote a short article on it (and how it reflected the realities of modern HDTV viewership) for the March 2007 issue of Wired, which they have archived on their website here.

posted 3 November 2008 in Articles, Outside and tagged 30 Rock, Tina Fey, Wired. no comments yet