When the decision was made to move The bold and the beautiful´s settings from Chicago to Los Angeles shortly before the series´ premiere, it was a production designer’s dream. Los Angeles is practically the resort capital of the world. It is the home of Hollywood, the movies, and the fantasies that everyone dreams of. It’s the land of beautiful people, beautiful places, and everlasting sunlight. For a production designer, the chance to portray the glorious, glittery city of Los Angeles is irresistible. It rivals any pace in the world for vistas and panoramic views. Los Angeles boasts villas – Spanish and Italian – quaint houses, and grand estates. There are skytop restaurants and coffeehouses. The show has them all.
Most of the show's interiors would reflect L.A.'s sunlit, spacious feeling. Spaces would open onto other spaces so that there were endless plains, creating a sense of infinity. Light and shadow would be the main theme in the design. As for color, the palette would be a subtle one that would enhance the clothes, costumes, and fashions that were a central part of the show's theme. Everything had to be BEAUTIFUL.
More than patterns, the show boasts wonderful varied textures and materials that more than make up for the understated design coverings on the furniture and walls. The settings' drama comes from the architecture, the lush furnishings, and the lighting that creates patterns, highlights, and rich shadings of bright and dark (Sy and Jack swear that the lighting directors are their closest allies and they work very closely with them on the settings). Sy Tomashoff and Jack Forrestel have been doing the show together since its inception and have never lost their enthusiasm and zest for the challenge of creating bold and beautiful sets. Sy Tomashoff offers a fascinating, and rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse at how several of The Bold and the Beautiful's most notable sets were created.
THE FORRESTER LIVING ROOM AND FOYER
Visiting the set of your favorite soap can often be a letdown, at least when it comes to getting an up-close view of the spacious living rooms and expansive kitchens you've previously enjoyed seeing on our twenty-inch television set. A chic penthouse apartment that looks palatial on your home television screen suddenly seems dramatically diminished in stature, as if it's nothing more than a cramped collection of furniture and three chintzy plywood walls, struggling for space in an overcrowded furniture store.
An in-person tour of the Forrester living room, however, would be far from disappointing. When Sy Tomashoff and Jack Forrestel were creating the sets for The Bold and the Beautiful, they designed them with an eye toward making the rooms as large as possible, even matching the actual size of a living room or a kitchen in a real house. "The Forrester living room is eighteen feet high," says Sy, "which is not humongous, but it's as big as you can get into the studio."
When The Bold and the Beautiful took over the CBS studio space where the defunct soap Capitol was shot, Sy had hoped that several of the mainstay sets, such as the Forrester living room and Eric's office, would remain standing on a permanent basis. "But we were told that the network wanted to use the studio on the weekends for game shows," Sy reveals. "So we had to build the Forrester living room in such a way that it could easily be moved out of the studio. Now, the stairway unit in the foyer is eighteen feet high, so it had to be framed in steel and put on wheels, along with the walls in the back of the foyer, so they could be rolled out of the studio. We did, however, have to hoist pieces up onto the second floor of the stairway, where the landing is seen. On, and around, the stairwell was also tricky. But the carpenters and steelworkers created a masterful solution to our problem. It was built in large units, which could be easily moved."
A distinct feature in the Forrester living room, which is fashioned after the actual house where Bill and Lee Phillip Bell live in L.A., is a very large window situated on the back wall. Initially, Sy says, he was worried about placing a window with a vista of the world in such an unusual location. "It hadn't been done before on soaps,” he explains, "and I was a little timid about having up-stage center such a huge backdrop behind a very dominant window. But everybody was happy with it."
Sy proudly notes that in the ten seasons that The Bold and the Beautiful has been running, the Forrester living room set has not changed. "Once in a while, someone will say, 'Don't you think you should bring it up to date with contemporary furnishings?' But the producers haven't asked for any changes. I think the Forrester living room still holds its style," he observes. "It's timeless. Whenever we create a set, we're always planning ahead." Sy also believes the room's subtle color and clean lines have also discouraged any misguided attempts to update the set. “I think the setting needs to be subtle," he says. "The interest should come from the architecture, the forms, the shapes, and the light." One of the most striking qualities of the Forrester living room is the way the intense Southern California sunshine seems to literally spill through the windows. "The light is such an important element," Sy stresses. "That's the other reason for the windows and the vistas: the lighting director can create a pattern of the window on the wall. That immediately gives life to a picture and makes it feel real.
Even in the case of the Forrester swimming pool, which was a challenge. How do you give something situated inside a studio the feeling of outdoors?" Sy solved the problem by designing an open logroof and covering it with plants, such as sprawling vines. "The first thing I did was make a sketch for the lighting director,” says Sy. “A single source of light needed to come through so that there would be strong shadows, which would simulate the shadows of the sun coming in from that direction. Somehow, that design really worked for us."
When Sy was planning the Forrester living room a cornerstone for the show, he recalls bringing photos of proposed interior styles to William J. Bell. "Bill told me he wanted it simpler, very simple," reveals Sy. "That gave me a good direction. There aren't any antiques in the Forrester living room, nor is there a lot of frou-frou. It's all very strong. The set is interesting because the architecture works. Everything is subtle, which is the key to what I feel is good design. You don't need to have strong colors in your sets, or even in the furnishings. They need to be subdued so that what you're really watching is the story."
THE FORRESTER OFFICES
Sy's experience living in New York, and walking through Manhattan's fashion district, paid off when he was designing the fitting room and offices at Forrester Creations. "When we first started to tackle the Forrester showrooms, the image that came to me was of Ralph Lauren, particularly his shop on Madison Avenue, which is in a landmark building. It's a fabulous building, in the style of a French chateau built of stone." A highlight at Forrester Creations is the floor in the reception area. "There's a wonderful marble floor, which is actually painted on the back of linoleum," Sy reveals. “I just wanted to do something unusual in the reception area. I had seen a photograph in a book of a fabulous-looking floor and I simply adapted it. I asked the scenic artists to paint on linoleum and it's a winner."
Facts from SoapCity´s B&B set special
The Forrester living room was the first big set that Sy Tomashoff (former B&B production designer) and Jack Forrester created. Jack told us that he spent a full week just design drafting this set. The Forrester living room is fashioned after the actual house where B&B creators, Bill and Lee Bell, live in Los Angeles.
The style of the Forrester mansion is a Spanish and Hacienda type of house. The production design team actually went to the Bells' home for the establishing shots of the house; they even initially matched the front door to the house.
Jack Forrester chose timeless furnishings when decorating the Forrester mansion: "A lot of the time when you're decorating trendy, trends change so regularly that a couple of years down the road you say, 'Why did I do this?'"
When the production team was creating the sets, they designed them toward making the rooms as large as possible, even matching the actual size of a living room or a kitchen in a real house.
The Forresters' house looks the same as it did in the beginning of the series. Jack Forrester explained: "There is a reason for that, Brad [Bell, executive producer and head writer] identifies the Forresters with their environment and so do the fans. If you make radical changes in terms of the characters' domicile, then I think you can confuse the audience. We have redecorated the Forrester living room a couple of times. We've made some moderate changes, but still keeping it in the same style."
The Forrester pool reflects the Spanish, Hacienda-style motifs, which are typical of many Southern Californian homes.
The Forrester guesthouse is exactly like the Bells' guesthouse. In relation to the main house, it's right across the courtyard from the Forrester front door. Rick and Amber just moved out of the guesthouse, and it is currently empty.
Eric's office is very traditional. "We kind of were kind inspired by designer Ralph Lauren and his offices at the time. They were very similar to this," Jack explains.
Ridge's office is a little more contemporary and not quite as woody as Eric's office.
The reception area is located right between Ridge and Eric's offices. The floor is made of faux marble, painted on the back of linoleum that gets rolled up every night when the production design team strips the set.
