MAD MEN Set Decorator Claudette Didul SDSA Production Designer Dan Bishop Art Director Christopher L. Brown AMC While still setting the bar for retro with its depiction of the emerging decade of the 1960s, Season 4 of MAD MEN opens with the new firm Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce floundering. Housed in a small office with limited furnishings, it’s a deep contrast to the high-end original advertising giant. Changes in the significant players’ lives are depicted as well in another intriguing season from the intense, and intensely popular, drama. Photo© All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse. [For SETDECOR article on MAD MEN, click here.]

MODERN FAMILY Set Decorator Amber Haley SDSA Production Designer Richard Berg ABC Modern times visually defined: after distinctively establishing each of the individual households of this extended MODERN FAMILY, Season 2’s sets not only take us to neighbor’s houses, stores, shops, spas, schools, hotels and restaurants, but also a full-blown Halloween extravaganza throughout the permanent sets. A spirited mélange gives the perfect backdrop for the mayhem that ensued. Photo ©ABC. All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse. [For SETDECOR article on MODERN FAMILY, click here!]

TRUEBLOOD Set Decorator Laura Richarz SDSA Production Designer Suzuki Ingerslev Art Director Cat Smith HBO The first seasons of the hit episodic TRUE BLOOD introduced the languorous yet steamy Southern town of Bon Temps and the humans, werecreatures and vampires that inhabit its environs. While travails continue to occur at home, Season 3 also travels to the antebellum plantation of the vampire King of Mississippi and makes a stop at a werewolf bar! Photo ©HBO. All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse. [For SETDECOR article on TRUEBLOOD, click here!] Outstanding Art Direction For A Multi-Camera Series The resurgence of comedies underscores the value of the current nominated multi-camera shows, which include three sitcoms and two comedic romances.

THE BIG BANG THEORY Set Decorator Ann Shea SDSA Production Designer John Shaffner Art Director Francoise Cherry-Cohen CBS A universe of possibilities exist for THE BIG BANG THEORY, where brilliant but socially inept physicists share an apartment and differing views. Season 4 of this comedy hit continued to raise the grade curve with a wide range of sets! Nominated sets include a science convention, a night club, bedrooms and a campout, all adding to the previously nominated mix of vintage futuristic furnishings and mid-west femme, cafeterias and classic restaurants, and an amazing comic book store. Photo© All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse. [Watch for an upcoming SETDECOR article on THE BIG BANG THEORY!]

HOT IN CLEVELAND WINNER Set Decorator Maralee Zediker SDSA Production Designer Michael Andrew Hynes TV Land Three Hollywood women find more welcoming Midwest environs in the surprise hit HOT IN CLEVELAND. Centered in the house one rents with a feisty older woman, the sitcom follows the forays the women make into the community, including not only local bars, restaurants and shops, but also a radio station, jail and court! Photo© All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse.

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER Set Decorator Susan Eschelbach SDSA Production Designer Stephan G. Olson CBS The range and depth of the design and decoration for the romantic comedy HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER belie the half-hour time slot. This love-story-in-reverse maintains a fresh, creative energy that is translated immediately through its richly layered, award-winning sets. A Museum of Natural History created for an episode in Season 6 includes animal dioramas, a multi-room Egyptian wing, a Bug Room with mounted collections of actual rare insects & butterflies, fund-raising party and a security room…all of this for one episode! Photo© All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse.

MIKE & MOLLY Set Decorator Ann Shea SDSA Production Designer John S. Shaffner CBS The new sitcom MIKE & MOLLY steps into the working class lives of a Chicago police officer and an elementary school teacher who meet at an Overeaters Anonymous group. Establishing sets include her home and classroom, and the diner the cops frequent, all of which immediately bring the viewer into their world. A slice of life in big bites! Photo© All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Set Decorator Jerie Kelter SDSA Production Designer Bernard Vyzga CBS A half-hour comedy with the look of a much larger episodic, the popular RULES OF ENGAGEMENT explores relationships through the viewpoint of two couples, their womanizing friend and his beleaguered assistant. Extensive sets take us into the many aspects of their worlds, from work to play to abodes. Some of the stand-out sets of Season 5 are an annoying friend’s apartment, a gym, a start-up office, the bull-pen for another, a cruise ship and a coffee shop with its own stage. Photo© All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse. [Watch for an upcoming SETDECOR article on RULES OF ENGAGEMENT!] Outstanding Art Direction For A Miniseries or Movie The vast span of this category includes a classic drama centered in the 1930s.

MILDRED PIERCE WINNER Set Decorator Ellen Christiansen-De Jonge SDSA Production Designer Mark Friedberg Art Director Peter Rogness HBO The sets made the heartbreak of MILDRED PIERCE bearable. Viewers who tuned in five different nights saw 1930’s Glendale, California, the class-structure of the time, and the effect of the Great Depression on everyone. From grand houses to diners & coffee shops, the details, the elements and ephemera of the time, were depicted with great attention to both accuracy and art. Photo© All rights reserved. Not for reprint or reuse.