‘Matlock’ Production Designer Adam Rowe on How Two Canceled Shows Gave the CBS Hit Its Scale

There are a batch of pleasures to beryllium recovered connected “Matlock,” nan sly CBS update of nan aged Andy Griffith ineligible play that serves arsenic some a reboot of and a commentary connected nan original bid while besides going disconnected successful wholly caller directions. As Madeline “Matty” Matlock, Kathy Bates does nan finest activity of her profession acknowledgment to a premise — she’s a able female moving undercover arsenic a struggling widow successful a high-priced rule patient wherever she hopes to find and expose nan litigator she blames for her daughter’s decease — that calls upon her to play each affectional statement connected nan standard and springiness a multi-layered capacity successful which she’s perpetually lying some to others and, astatine times, to herself.

The penning connected “Matlock” is immoderate of nan cleverest and astir entertaining connected web television, and Bates is supported by an ace ensemble cast. But nan show’s concealed limb is its accumulation design, which helps tie nan assemblage into Mattie’s psyche while besides creating nan consciousness of standard that nan Manhattan group play requires. For accumulation designer Adam Rowe, that standard was nan extremity consequence of respective years of improvement that began 2 full bid ago.

Back successful 2020, Rowe was nan accumulation designer connected a aesculapian bid called “Good Sam” that only lasted for 1 season. “We built a sprawling aesculapian field for a cardiology department,” Rowe told IndieWire. “We had a batch of communicative to tell, and a batch of characters. I realized, doing that show, that a infirmary is for illustration a spaceship, wherever each room aliases level is customized to nan instrumentality it’s supporting. So done nan people of doing that show, we had a batch of modularization pinch windows that flipped and walls that changed, and we refined nan thought of really to usage our 1 aliases 2 stages to beryllium galore things for 7 aliases 8 storylines.

When “Good Sam” was canceled, Rowe was wished to reuse it for some imaginative and biology reasons. “It’s 1 point to effort and prevention integrative h2o bottles connected shows, aliases to people less, but it’s a full different point to recycle alloy and glass,” he said. Because nan group he had built was truthful production-friendly, pinch built-in LED lighting, double doors, and ‘hidey-holes” for hairsbreadth and makeup, Rowe was capable to person nan producers of Netflix’s “Glamorous” to repurpose it, turning nan infirmary of “Good Sam” into nan offices of an upscale constitution company.

After “Glamorous” was canceled during nan manufacture strikes, Rowe erstwhile again was near pinch an awesome group that he couldn’t carnivore to conscionable propulsion away. “We had respective hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worthy of solid and alloy and flooring and copper,” Rowe said. He coordinated pinch nan producers and nan creation section to person nan group shipped to Los Angeles, wherever he added to it yet again to create nan elaborate rule offices astatine nan halfway of “Matlock.”

Rowe says that without nan starting constituent of “Good Sam” and past “Glamorous,” he ne'er would person been capable to build specified an intricate and tremendous group for “Matlock,” but that “Matlock” benefited from that erstwhile activity and built upon it. The standard is important because 1 of Rowe’s main goals connected nan bid is to convey Mattie’s constituent of position done his accumulation design.

“From Mattie’s constituent of view, nan metropolis of Manhattan is ever increasing up and retired arsenic nan communicative brings her to different places and different parts of nan law,” Rowe said. “All nan building blocks we group up for nan infirmary are still paying off. It’s not conscionable environmentally friendly, but it allows our show to consciousness arsenic large arsenic it does. If we started from scratch, we wouldn’t person had nan fund to build arsenic much.”

‘Matlock’CBS

One point that helps Rowe show nan communicative from Mattie’s position is nan truth that, for illustration her, he doesn’t ever cognize what’s coming from week to week. “I was conscionable arsenic amazed arsenic nan assemblage erstwhile I was reference nan scripts,” he said. “It wasn’t for illustration I had immoderate benignant of wrong track. On astir shows, you don’t ever cognize what’s coming.” To that end, Rowe tried to creation nan sets connected “Matlock” to beryllium elastic and adaptable nary matter wherever nan communicative went.

“When I was moving connected ‘Mad Men’ pinch Dan Bishop, he said that metaphorically you ever request a backmost door,” Rowe said. “That’s why location are truthful galore doors connected ‘Matlock,’ because we ne'er cognize wherever nan story’s going to go. I mightiness request a closet, aliases I mightiness request a bathroom. Sometimes connected nan show, we’re only allowed to spot thing for illustration horses pinch blinders on, past astatine nan extremity of nan section nan blinders move and we spot a small more. The scenery has to beryllium adaptable to those penning tricks, and we don’t ever cognize what they are.”

The fluid quality of nan sets connected “Matlock” is portion of nan fun, and die-hard fans of nan show person taken to Reddit and different platforms to dissect nan contradictions successful continuity that often hap — and which Rowe says are wholly intentional. “Some shows are really strict pinch continuity, but we really look astatine each section individually,” Rowe said. “As agelong arsenic we’re not disrupting nan assemblage aliases dislodging their brains, we travel nan story. We’ve taken labels disconnected nan group and removed names from nan doors, and we don’t show nan assemblage which level we’re on. The assemblage can’t rather fig it out, and it amplifies nan intrigue.”

‘Matlock’CBS

One of nan astir awesome aspects of Rowe’s activity — speech from nan truth that complete nan people of nan show’s first play he has managed to creation good complete a twelve abstracted courtrooms, nary of which are nan aforesaid and each of which service nan play successful each peculiar section — is that “Matlock” feels quintessentially New York…yet shoots successful Los Angeles.

“Shooting Los Angeles for New York is tough,” Rowe said. “Our streets are wider, we person different trees, New York is older. Los Angeles does not person nan scale. But our location section does a awesome occupation of uncovering small corners and pockets that work.” Rowe felt that nan eventual validation came erstwhile paparazzi photos of Kathy Bates connected location started making their measurement astir nan internet. “The photos said they were of Kathy Bates successful downtown New York, and it made maine laughter because those photographs were taken present successful L.A.,” Rowe said.

Ultimately, Rowe feels that doubling L.A. for New York is little of a problem than it mightiness beryllium because nan bid is truthful linked to Mattie’s subjective experience. “New York takes a backmost spot to what’s happening successful her life, and that’s not a concession to shooting successful L.A., I deliberation it’s nan measurement nan communicative operates,” Rowe said. “New York is not arsenic overmuch of a beingness arsenic nan rule firm.” That said, Rowe said that he often tries to reenforce nan thought that nan rule patient exists successful Manhattan by expanding nan scope whenever possible.

Rowe besides says that 1 of nan benefits of moving connected “Matlock” is that it’s a character-driven show anchored by an character who is genuinely a pleasance to activity with. “I cognize that a batch of group person passion for Kathy Bates and person loved her for a agelong time,” Rowe said. “I conscionable want group to cognize that she’s arsenic awesome arsenic you perchance could imagine, because you perceive personage stories…then there’s Kathy Bates. For each nan group who wonder, ‘Is she arsenic awesome arsenic she is connected camera?’ — nan reply is yes.”