‘Kenan’ production designer Gary Kordan on striving to ‘redefine the genre of comedy’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]
Emmy nominated production designer Gary Kordan had a huge task in front of him with his new NBC sitcom, “Kenan.” The series stars Kenan Thompson as a single father living with his two kids, father-in-law and brother, in a house he used to share with his now-deceased wife. The challenge for Kordan was figuring out how to design a house that reflected that sense of history. “How do you show a family that is obviously living in a house that was designed by their mom a year ago?” says Kordan in an exclusive new webchat for Gold Derby. “And then how do you show how the space has fallen apart in the last year?” Watch the full interview above.
Rather than borrow from the look of other single-cam family sitcoms, Kordan started from scratch, hoping to build something beyond what we typically see on television. “It has to look cinematic,” explains Kordan. “There has to be layers of paint and age and fingerprints and post-its and thumbtacks and realistic junk.” He asked friends with kids to share photos of their houses in disarray to try and recreate that sense of a disorderly house.
The other side of the show is Kenan’s workplace, a morning show in Atlanta. Kordan used his past experience working on Joan Rivers‘ daytime talk show to create a warm studio setting. He was also cognizant of Thompson’s appearance and personality and having that reflect the set itself. “You have to make sure that the backgrounds and the color palette make him look great and he pops and he looks fantastic and feels at home on his set,” notes Kordan. The production area of the set is two stories with a staircase and glass paneling, which the designer reveals was an homage to the film “Soapdish.” He likens his team’s approach to designing “Harry Potter” or Nancy Meyers film rather than a traditional TV comedy. “I want to help redefine the genre of comedy and what people expect for the way comedy should look,” he states.
Kordan will be returning for the second season of “Kenan” and he cannot be happier to have Thompson as a collaborator. “He is such a fan of what we do,” remarks Kordan, noting that he and his team thrive on the attention given to them by the cast and crew. This is especially meaningful in lieu of a studio audience. “The people who are loving it are your co-workers, so if we can make Kenan and Don Johnson and the girls and the gaffer and the DP go, ‘Oh my god, I saw that little detail, I love how you guys did that,’ that’s where our energy comes from.”
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