Darling, Be Home Soon
It's that time again! Today we are going to review the portrayal of a fictional designer from television. It's not uncommon for screen writers and TV producers to add a little zest and character development by giving a main character an interesting job. Being an architect or an interior designer is definitely on the menu, but the accuracy with which these character’s occupations are demonstrated varies wildly. We've looked at movies like “Where Did You Go Bernadette?” that was pretty on the nose in terms of exactness, or shows like “How I Met Your Mother” that cherry pick only the more glamorous elements from the full spectrum of experiences that being a designer encompasses, leaving out important truths. Today’s show, I can safely say, is one of the most unique portrayals of an architect I have ever seen, and even thought it’s one of the least authentic, it’s also one of the most endearing.
If you were a child of the 90’s with access to cable television, you may have heard of a show called “Clarissa Explains It All” starring Melissa Joan Hart. The show featured a creative, whip smart teenager, Clarissa Darling, and her standard suburban family, as they navigated life, growing up, and family dynamics, with plenty of laughs and awkward moments. This show was an absolute goldmine of iconic 90’s style; from Clarissa's DIY checkerboard walls, hubcap collection, Keith Herring prints, to her crystal clear landline telephone, and who could forget her out of this world fashion sense, with a layering game to envy. While I could do an entirely separate episode just on the nuances of Clarissa's bedroom (where the majority of the show took place), today we are looking at the character who inspired Clarissa's creativity, genetically speaking. After all, she does have a bright yellow hardhat hanging on her wall. Her father, Marshall Darling, was very much an archetypal father figure; he had the quintessential dad bod, he always called Clarissa “Sport,” and he would often begin nostalgic stories with a dreamy look in his eyes only to be interrupted by the chaos of his own family. But Marshall was also a practicing architect. We saw much of Marshall’s work life as subplot lines in many episodes, but how realistic was this? Let's look through some of the shows highlights and breakdown the accuracy of Marshall Darling, Architect, and how his style emphasized the show’s narrative of an independent, non-conformist, 90’s teen queen.
But first, let’s talk about the Color of The Week, or should I say colors. This past week Ukraine has gone through so much, fighting to keep the country’s sovereignty and defend against devastating Russian military attacks. This week we stand with Ukraine, and the colors of the week are the colors of the Ukrainian flag, Pantone 2935 and Yellow 012. These colors have shown up all around the globe in marches of solidarity and moments of silence. Originating from the coat of arms for the city of Lviv (luv-vive), with a gold lion and a blue shield. In 1918, the current flag design came about with a horizontal band of each color. The blue is intentionally over the gold, to symbolize a blue sky over golden wheat fields. We hold these colors dear in our hearts.
“Clarissa Explains It All” aired on Nickelodeon for five seasons, from 1991-1994. We are introduced to Marshall in the very first episode by Clarissa herself. She says, “dad’s an architect, which means he makes lots of drawings and visits empty lots in his jeep. Usually he builds houses in weird shapes. He’s a modern architect.” She mentioned he loves to watch “This Old House” and reads the fictional magazine Architect’s World.
Looking at Marshall’s basic aesthetics, in terms of his physical appearance, he certainly has glasses that would be commonly worn by architects. They are a pair of thin wire frames, as opposed to the more classic black acrylic thick rimmed spectacles that are so iconically architectural, but thin wire glasses were the thing in the 1990’s. His hair is always a little shaggy, which is probably a nod to his past life as a flower child when apparently in his hair was way past his shoulders. Rather than the traditional all black architectural uniform, Marshall is usually dressed in earth toned business casual or head-to-toe denim. Nothing about him really screams “architect,” his look is much more focused on the 90’s dad vibe, but it isn’t off putting in any way.
Marshall’s age is not explicitly stated, but based on the actor’s age (Marshall was played by Joe O'Connor), at the beginning of the show he would be only 32 years old. This is still fairly young for someone in the architectural profession. It is also a little bit of a mind trip for me personally that I am now older than Clarissa Darlings parents, but I digress.
Marshall is either self employed or a freelancer, the show doesn’t dive too deep into his business structure. He works in a corner of the family’s living room, where his drafting board can be seen, along with a classic black task lamp, a basket full of rolled up drawings, and several scaled models of different projects. We see a variety of models peppered through out the entire series. Marshall really loves models, and seems to make one of almost every project. Similar to the powderpuff cosmetics factory we see in “The Brady Bunch”, and the cowboy hat shaped Rib Town restaurant in “How I Met Your Mother,” Marshall’s building designs are a distinct style. These include a building that looks like a dill pickle, later identified as a drive-in restaurant for sweet and sour pickle lovers called Gerkins-A-Go-Go, which is clearly a precedent for the Norman Forest skyscraper in London. There’s another one that looks like a flying saucer. There’s also a project that looks exactly like a clothing iron. In Season 5 we see a barbecue restaurant that looks like giant pig’s head. There’s a hair Salon that looks like a giant curler. All of these designs are what designers refer to as “literal” interpretations of their functions, and what historians call Novelty or Mimetic Architecture.
Allow me to explain. Most buildings follow the basic principal of form follows function, which means that the structural and functional devices used in the building often inspire the aesthetic look of the building. This is where we get basic architectural vernaculars such as beautiful stone walls, brickwork, traditional Greek columns, mid-century modern roof overhangs, window shutters, and pitched roofs. These are all aesthetic components of architecture that stem from functional means. Much of the architectural design we see on TV bucks this concept for something more eye-catching, and rather than using traditional architectural devices, relies on literal sculptural interpretations of the client or use of the space - mimicking the purpose of the building. So rather than a restaurant that looks like a building, with Mimetic Architecture we see a restaurant that looks like a cheeseburger. This is very rare in reality, partially because this type of building almost never turns out nice looking, but also because they require unconventional building techniques and materials, and tend to be costly to bring to fruition. The most dense concentration of real-life Mimetic Architect can be found along the strip in Las Vegas Nevada. Here, nothing is as it appears, and everything it mimicking something else; from the Egyptian pyramids to a giant hot air ballon.
Mimetic Architecture can also be found in the heartland of America, at the Longaberger Basket company’s headquarters in Ohio. This building looks exactly like a giant woven basket (the company’s only product), and has been the butt of many jokes both in the architectural world and amongst fans of the company. This building cost $30 million dollars to build - and that was in 1997. The basket building has giant, larger than life size handles that extend into the sky, almost doubling the height of the building, and they have to be heated in the cold Ohio winters to prevent ice from forming. The company only stayed in the building until 2016, when it was sold to a luxury hotel developer. The plan was to convert to the building to a hotel, but this failed to get off the ground, and the building was put it back on the market for a measly $16.5 million in 2020. The hotel project had been cancelled, along with everything else that was planned for 2020. Presently, the building is unused, one big empty basket.
There’s also the Kansas City Public Library - this is arguably a more practical novelty approach, with the facade of the building mimicking spines of classic books that only a giant could read. This is a fairly rectilinear and applied graphic approach to Mimetic design, and the rest of the building is more straightforward and even includes some adaptive reuse. There’s also the Piano House in China, which looks like a giant grand piano with a clear glass violin vestibule at the front. Overall, this style was most popular in the 1920’s and 50’s, especially in the road side attraction world. If you’re curious, look up the Long Island Roadside Duck.
Now, in the world of designers, Novelty Architecture is pretty frowned upon, but regardless of anyone’s personal taste, there isn’t a huge market for these types of buildings, so the idea that Marshall could provide for his family requires a leap of faith, even considering that his wife Janet works full time at a museum.
One deviation we see from this style is in the Season 1 episode “The Addition”, Marshall passionately draws a nicely done perspective of the new game room that the Darling’s plan to add to their home. This gets neither a model nor a Novelty theme, but shows Marshall’s breadth of style.
A few other episodes that focus on Marshall’s career include Season 1 Episode 11, “Cool Dad.” Clarissa’s school is having a career night, and Marshall is planning on speaking. He says when he went to college he saw his very first t-square, and that's what drew him into the world of architecture. He mentions he’s obsessed with the miniature fake shrubbery that represents landscaping in his many models. Clarissa gets nervous that her dad is going to embarrass her with his goofy ways, and tries to dissuade Marshall from saying something cringey. She insists her classmates are so rowdy that they bang their heads against a wall for fun, but Marshall takes the leap that this is a primitive human desire to relate to one’s surroundings, and he should use that as his angle for his speech. He also wants to open with some jokes that are distinctively the subgenera of dad architecture humor, which is pretty niche, but I laughed. He says “did you hear the one about the blue print that turned green? It ate too many bidding costs and it got sick.” The episode takes a sharp turn to pure cringe when Marshall toys with the idea of rapping and dancing for his presentation, but luckily Clarissa talks him out of it, and Marshall takes the approach of speaking from the heart, and is a crowd favorite. This episode was great because we get to see Marshall’s creative side and his loyalty to his family, but someone saying a t-square drew them to the architectural profession is not convincing.
In Season 5 Episode 7 “The Firm,” Marshall joins the big fancy architectural firm in town. Even thought Clarissa quotes her father as saying “those monolithic generic structures are an insidious blight on the urban landscape,” Marshall is lured by the promise of money and a corner office. In the meantime, Clarissa is trying to write an essay for a scholarship, one that her father was awarded years ago, but he doesn’t have time to help her because he has too many corporate political actives like dinners, company picnics, and getting to the office before 6:15am to beat the boss into work. In the end, Marshall finds out that the firm only wanted to bring him on board to poach his client list prior to a major merger with another company, and rather than doing creative work, he’ll be leading the merger transition team. He worries if he quits, he’ll lose his clients, but Clarissa and Janet insist that his clients will be loyal to him, so he quits. This episode storyline was the most in-depth regarding Marshall’s career and was super on point and realistic. From the corporate politics to the merger negations, I was on board for this whole episode. At the end, Clarissa digs up Marshalls old scholarship essay and he reads a quote from it. It says “The rules of architecture were made to be broken. Buildings must be seen not as inanimate objects, but as a living breathing form of life, each with a distinct personality. They have feelings, memories, and appetites.”
Marshall’s buildings are off-the-wall, literal, and in some cases would be exorbitantly expensive to build. A major suspension of disbelief is required to watch this architect on TV. But his whimsical take on buildings fits right in in the unconventional world of Clarissa Darling. Despite her father’s unrealistic portrayal of an architect, it adds to the overall narrative of her being a unique, free spirited, and individualistic person. It also serves to make Marshall’s character feel approachable, warm, and a lovable goofball. The Darling household is not run by a domineering parent. It's a story told from the point of view of a strong minded, ambitious young person.
Did you watch this growing up? It’s not super available int he downloading world, but I watched some episodes on Paramount+. What is your favorite example of mimetic architecture? Let me know by writing me a review in Apple Podcasts with a sweet five star rating attached to it. I hope you have a great week, and I’ll talk to you next time.
