Case study · CNN Original · Austin, Texas

LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy.

A CNN Original documentary miniseries produced by Bat Bridge Entertainment. Its reenactments were built and shot on stage at Troublemaker Studios in Austin, where I headed the art department as production designer — nine-plus period environments in six weeks, on an eight-person crew, with the hero props built by hand.

Sheet no. A-205 Case study — LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy

ProductionLBJ: Triumph and Tragedy

NetworkCNN Original miniseries

ProducerBat Bridge Entertainment

StudioTroublemaker Studios, Austin

RoleProduction designer + prop fab

CrewEight, including me

Schedule4 wks prep · 2 wks shoot

StatusBuilt & shot, spring 2021

A frame from the series: the Oval Office set in low light, the president at the desk between three backlit windows with flags and wall sconces, under the CNN Original Series mark. — LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy · reenactments Air Force One and the Oval Office, built to read on camera CNN Original · Troublemaker Studios · spring 2021 Fig. 0 — the Oval

Revisions — how the sets came together

Mark	Issue	Description
	Research	Primary reference gathered — my own photographs and measurements at the LBJ Presidential Library and the LBJ Ranch.
	Prep	Four weeks. Sets designed; the Oval tech program modeled and drawn.
	Fabrication	Props built in-house — CNC, UV flatbed, laser, 3D print. Fuselage panels sourced from Arkansas and driven to Austin.
	Build	Stage sets erected at Troublemaker Studios.
	Shoot	Two weeks. Construction leapfrogged the location days between studio setups.
	Wrapped	Spring 2021. Nine-plus environments delivered for the CNN Original.

Brief

A-205 · 1.0

The series tells its story three ways — archival footage, filmed interviews, and reenactments. My department built the reenactments: the rooms where actors replay the history the footage narrates.

Nine-plus period environments. Four weeks to prep, two to shoot, one crew of eight.

The largest were stage builds — the Oval Office, Air Force One, a commercial jet, and a single bedroom that played both a Washington hotel room and the Lincoln Bedroom, restaged between scenes. Smaller settings — an FBI office, a Memphis hotel room, an airport terminal — were shot on location and redressed with period furniture.

I headed the art department as production designer — and also acted as the prop fabricator.

Program — the sets

Oval Officestage build · sect. 2.0
Air Force Onecabin + office · sect. 3.0
Commercial jetstage build
Doubling bedroomhotel ↔ Lincoln Bedroom
Location daysredressed on location

Archival footage: President Johnson stepping off a green Marine helicopter onto the lawn as a Marine salutes, with the CNN mark in the corner.

A filmed interview: an interviewee in a dark suit speaking to camera in a grand paneled room, hands raised mid-thought.

The Oval Office

A-205 · 2.0

The way the series was shot gave us a lot of freedom in some places, and required faithful recreation in others. Many shots were filmed very wide, or with the background in soft focus — we didn’t need every bust or lampshade or table matched to an archive photograph.

But certain items were important to telling the story. Those needed closeups and inserts, and they needed to be as precise as possible.

Wide vs. insert

Backgrounds could carry period character in soft focus. Anything the camera moved in on — the desk, the phone, the tech program — was matched to the archive.

MP-01 · The Oval, on camera

CNN ORIGINAL · LOOP

2.0 · The room in motion 960×540 · silent loop · from the series MP-01

Keynotes — 2.0

Re-creating the office

2.1Latitude. Wide frames and soft-focus backgrounds let the dressing read as period character — busts, lampshades, and shelves matched to the era, not to a single photograph.

2.2Precision. Anything filmed in closeup or insert was matched to the archive as tightly as it could be built — down to the button layout on the switchboard phone.

2.3The tech program. Johnson’s phone, televisions, and teletype — every one a build, not a rental.

The builds themselves — drawings, bench, and set — run in sect. 4.0.

The desk side of the Oval Office set: a three-screen television bank built into a low bookcase, a pale-green multi-button switchboard telephone on the blue leather-topped desk, the president's pale-blue swivel chair, and a white teletype cabinet with two lit angled windows. — The Oval · as built Through the open door, a built corridor. On the desk, a beagle — a set-decoration wink at the president’s dogs. Fig. 2-A · as built

A wide view of the Oval Office set under the oval cove ceiling: curtained windows with flags and a globe, the dark wooden desk with its pale-green switchboard phone, the white teletype cabinet, and the three-screen television bank recessed below the bookcase. — The Oval · as built Desk to television bank, teletype lit Fig. 2-B · as built

General notes

Production conditions

Constraints that shaped the whole build.

N1 · CrewThe project spun up just after the shutdown. A larger crew would have triggered insurer-mandated protocol changes beyond the budget, so the department stayed small — eight people, with the production designer doubling as prop fabricator.

N2 · ScheduleTwo weeks of shooting ran against ongoing construction. Shoot in studio a day or two, move to a location while the next stage set went up, then come back — a leapfrog that turned location days into build windows.

N3 · SourcingPeriod-correct hardware is scarce. Three matching CRT televisions couldn’t be rented; airliner sidewall panels wouldn’t ship. Both were solved by hand — salvaged, rebuilt, or driven home.

Air Force One

A-205 · 3.0

The flying office.

Several scenes across the presidency play aboard the plane, the swearing-in among them. The set had to work as a fuselage, a cabin, and a flying office — and the hardest part of it, the curved sidewall with its double portholes, was not scratch-built.

I found the panels at an Arkansas firm that does interior retrofits for Delta. They were outdated stock, and the company was willing to sell — but not to ship. I flew out the next day, rented a Penske van, and drove them back to Austin.

The hardest part of the airplane wasn’t built. It was found, bought, and driven home.

Sourced & recreated

The polar-projection world map on the aft bulkhead was rebuilt from period photographs and printed on my own UV flatbed. The cabin furniture came on loan from a museum’s Air Force One replica.

The Air Force One stateroom set: a presidential seal and sunburst clock on the wood bulkhead, a brass 'TO EXITS' sign, the desk with a white multi-button telephone, an ashtray of cigarettes and flowers, tan swivel chairs, and perforated ceiling bands over the porthole walls. — Air Force One · built The stateroom — seal, sunburst clock, the desk Perforated ceiling bands and luminous grid, matched to the frame at right Fig. 3-A · as built

An archive photograph stamped November 22, 1963: Lyndon Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One, surrounded by officials under the cabin's luminous ceiling grid and perforated speaker band. — Air Force One · the reference November 22, 1963 — the oath, aboard the plane The room the set had to hold up against Fig. 3-B · archive

MP-02 · Air Force One, on camera

CNN ORIGINAL · LOOP

3.0 · Archive to set to screen 960×540 · silent loop · from the series MP-02

Detail D1 — from the outside looking in

From the front it reads as an airliner. From behind it is exactly that: real, outdated Delta sidewall panels on stud framing, with worklights rigged outside to daylight the portholes through the glass.

Cross-reference: the finished wall from inside — Fig. 3-A.

The fuselage wall seen from behind the set: stud-and-plywood framing carrying real salvaged airliner sidewall panels with molded cream double-porthole surrounds, and fluorescent worklights rigged above to daylight the portholes from outside. — D1 · from behind Salvaged airliner stock, lit from outside Real Delta panels · couriered from Arkansas Fig. 3-C

Fabrication

A-205 · 4.0

Lyndon Johnson was the first president to really embrace technology, and his Oval Office reflected it. He commissioned a custom switchboard telephone from Western Electric, a custom-built coffee table with hidden communications inside, a bank of televisions, and a teletype with a live newswire feed.

In the Oval, every one of those was a build, not a rental — recreated from primary research: photographs and measurements I took on site at the LBJ Presidential Library and the LBJ Ranch, worked up into models and drawings before anything was cut.

The shop

Props built in-house — CNC, UV flatbed, laser, 3D print. The teletype: an antique typewriter rigged to run by remote, faking a live ticker on camera.

The switchboard phone mid-build on the workbench: the unpainted body with rows of clear lucite line buttons and three red ones, the cream handset cradled at the front, and the laser-cut button sheet lying beside it. — The switchboard phone · on the bench Roughly forty lucite line buttons, laser-cut to the archive layout Fig. 4-A · bench build

The finished switchboard phone on the blue desk top: pale-green Western Electric body, white face with the presidential seal, rows of lucite buttons with three red, the painted handset, and the matching speaker box behind it. — The switchboard phone · built Seal on the UV flatbed, handset painted to the body Three red buttons, to the archive Fig. 4-B · as built

A white 3D-model render of the period television: a curved-screen bezel with a side control panel and two round knobs, beside a second, narrower bezel variant. — The televisions · drawn Modeled to fit a salvaged picture tube Fig. 4-C · 3D model

A fabricated television bezel on the workbench, its salvaged picture tube and chassis electronics exposed behind the grey CNC-cut cabinet face, among drills, glue, and spray cans. — The televisions · on the bench Donor tube in, new cabinet around it Three mismatched donors, bought for their glass Fig. 4-D · bench build

The finished television bank close up: three matched fabricated CRT cabinets recessed in the bookcase with grey bezels, black knobs, and red pilot lights, beside the teletype cabinet's two lit angled windows. — The televisions · built Three mismatched donors, three matched sets CNC-cut cabinets, recessed into the low bookcase Fig. 4-E · as built

Side by side: a frame from the series with the coffee table's drawer slid open and the president on its hidden telephone, and the exploded shop drawing of the phone-holder assembly inside the drum base. — The coffee table · drawn and delivered The drawer holds a working telephone The broadcast frame beside the phone-holder assembly, exploded Fig. 4-F · frame + drawing

Credits

A-205 · 5.0

The reenactments are cut against real footage of the rooms they recreate, so the design had to be right down to the button layout on a telephone. That accuracy started as primary research — measured and photographed on site — and was carried through drawing and into fabrication by one small department. Design that knows how it gets built, on a documentary schedule.

Not pictured on this sheet

The location environments — an FBI office, a Memphis hotel room, an airport terminal, an East Wing bedroom — were shot on location and redressed with period furniture. This sheet covers the stage builds.

Stephen FayProduction designerHeaded the art department. Set design across the stage builds; fabricated the hero props — the switchboard phone, the television bank, the teletype, the coffee table.
Art departmentEight, including meAn art director, a set decorator, a set dresser, a prop master, and three carpenters — the COVID-sized crew.
Bat Bridge EntertainmentProducerLBJ: Triumph and Tragedy — a CNN Original miniseries.
Troublemaker StudiosStageAustin, Texas — set build and shoot.

Nine period environments, six weeks, a crew of eight — built to hold up beside the footage they recreate.