Bryan Rodgers

## External Links

**Bryan Rodgers** is property master of *The Orville*, designing and constructing many of the devices and ornaments around the show.

## Background

Rodgers started in Hollywood in the late 1970s as a set decorator, which entailed moving furniture from set to set.

## The Orville

Bryan Rodgers was one of the first to join the crew of The Orville. "The Orville is one of those shows that fell into my lap," Rodgers later recalled. "I was finishing up a show called *Roanoke*. I was on the 20th Century Fox lot, going down the hall, and I saw Tony Lattanzio who was the construction coordinator on *American Horror Story: Roanoke*. He said, 'Hey, I got word that a buddy of mine is doing a show here on the lot.'" (The Orville is filmed in the old studio space of American Horror Story.) Rodgers continues: "I go, 'What's it about?' 'It's a new Seth MacFarlane action show.' I go, 'Seth MacFarlane is doing live-action?'" Rodgers greatly enjoyed his *Family Guy* parody of *Star Wars*, and was intrigued to hear The Orville would tackle science fiction, and applied to join.

When Rodgers first joined the show, he walked the studio halls and studied concept art by Stephen J. Lineweaver hanging on the walls. He then looked over the character art by Howard Berger and costume designs of Joseph Porro. Rodgers decided that his key inspiration to design props for the Planetary Union would be the USS *Orville* ship itself and - surprisingly - the curves and soft angles of the sink faucet in his kitchen.

He designed the show's plasma weapons, a stand-in prop for Lieutenant Yaphit used while filming, and the dysonium crystals seen in *Into the Fold*. Union weapons were designed with a "beautiful curve," modeled after the curvaceous ship of the Orville. Rodgers was careful to give props like the PM-32, PM-44 and PM-488 Titan "heft" during construction, weighting the objects, and to add lights to make them seem real. All guns have micro-tappers in their triggers to give the guns a sense of pulling a genuine trigger.

For the Krill, Rodgers started with creating a Krill "pistol," which was eventually elongated and turned into the Plasma Rifle. Rodgers installed large tappers in the triggers of the rifles to make the sensation of pulling its trigger more dramatic.

## Trivia

* He is a self-described fan of science fiction. He watched the original *Star Trek* series as a child.
* He has a box in his garage with about 200 prop items from Season 1.
* His favorite prop to design was the PM-488 Titan.
* He played the puppet character of the injured girl from *Mad Idolatry* in a deleted scene alongside the makeup department head Howard Berger who played a puppet version of Kelly Grayson.

## External links

* "Ready for Launch" - Interview with the *Sioux City Journal* before the show's premiere
* The Manstalgia Podcast - Episode 1, Part 2
* Interview with the Planetary Union Network

## References

1. ↑ "PROP CULTURE Ep. 1 - Bryan Rodgers: American Horror Story, Sons Of Anarchy and The Orville Part One". The Manstalgia Podcast. Oct. 12, 2017.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Prop Culture Ep 1 Pt 2 - Bryan Rodgers Sons Of Anarchy American Horror Story and The Orville". The Manstalgia Podcast. Oct. 21, 2017.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "The Orville Fan Podcast w/ Bryan Rodgers (23)". Planetary Union Network. Dec. 6, 2018.
4. ↑ Owen, Rob. "Tuned In: Seth MacFarlane readies his own ‘Star Trek’". *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*. Aug. 7, 2017.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hughes, Mike. "Seth MacFarlane’s hopeful ‘The Orville’ ventures into space". *Lansing State Journal.* Sept. 8, 2017.
6. ↑ Miller, Bruce R. "Ready for launch: 'The Orville' gets set to blast off". *Sioux City Journal*. Aug. 18, 2017.
7. ↑ @hoops511. "Looks like the episode we did with these amazing puppets created by my pal Mike Lisa @mjl\_puppet\_design for THE ORVILLE @theorville will now show the brilliant puppeteer skills of myself and genius prop master Bryan Rodgers @bryan.rodgers106 . Make sure to watch it! @macfarlaneseth @tomtheorville@palicki.adrianne #puppets #spaceadventure#muppets #sagpuppeteers #makeup#teamwork". Instagram. Feb. 6, 2019.