# How many clones of the oval office are in Hollywood studios? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 9, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816 "2017-03-09T23:19:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/1 "2017-03-09T23:19:09Z")
So many TV series display these clones. Is there one that gets rented out or are there various? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/2 "2017-03-10T16:54:28Z")
One possibility is that the Oval Office set is re-created every time they need it. I don’t see why they would have one sitting around not being used 99% of the time. Even a small version of the Oval Office would take up valuable sound stage space. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/3 "2017-03-10T17:02:12Z")
Standard procedure would be for a movie or TV show that needs an Oval Office set (_The American President_, _Scandal_, etc.) to simply build it. I suppose it’s possible that a non-presidential show in need of an OO set just once — for a fantasy sequence or something — might be able to rent one from somewhere. It would be shipped in in pieces, and your stage crew would assemble and dress it. I don’t know of any companies that do that, but I’d be surprised if there weren’t any. So to answer your question, count up the number of TV shows and movies currently in production that have Oval-set scenes (I can think of _Scandal_ and _Madam Secretary_ off the top of my head; there may be more) and then add one or two for the possible rentals. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/4 "2017-03-10T17:03:53Z")
Isn’t an Oval Office replica standard at Presidential Libraries? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/5 "2017-03-10T17:11:28Z")
[Yes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oval_Office#Modern_Oval_Office.2C_1934.E2.80.93present), it is. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/6 "2017-03-10T17:56:14Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > One possibility is that the Oval Office set is re-created every time they need it. I don’t see why they would have one sitting around not being used 99% of the time. Even a small version of the Oval Office would take up valuable sound stage space. I suspect that there is a fully dressed/redressable OO somewhere in the greater Hollywood area. Maintaining such a common, detailed set for rental, both long-term for series that occasionally need it and short-term for, say, TV ads would be a profitable enterprise. I know for a fact that there are airplane interior sets - crew cabin and passenger interiors - that can be rented and used on the renter’s studio site or delivered on short notice. Never any need for a production to build a 757 first-class cabin or a 737 cockpit. The Oval Office is probably a close second on such “standard set” lists. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/7 "2017-03-10T18:01:37Z")
When The West Wing was on, they regularly rented their Oval Office set to other TV and movie productions. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/8 "2017-03-10T18:02:37Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > When The West Wing was on, they regularly rented their Oval Office set to other TV and movie productions. Immensely likeable, educated, can-curse-in-Latin Chief Excutive, optional. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/9 "2017-03-10T18:10:11Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I suspect that there is a fully dressed/redressable OO somewhere in the greater Hollywood area. Maintaining such a common, detailed set for rental, both long-term for series that occasionally need it and short-term for, say, TV ads would be a profitable enterprise. > > I know for a fact that there are airplane interior sets - crew cabin and passenger interiors - that can be rented and used on the renter’s studio site or delivered on short notice. Never any need for a production to build a 757 first-class cabin or a 737 cockpit. The Oval Office is probably a close second on such “standard set” lists. This is what I figured. For many standardized sets, e.g. Oval office, Airplanes, I reckon there are companies who maintain studios-warehouses and rent out these sets ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2017, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/10 "2017-03-10T18:11:25Z")
There’s more than one such set in Los Angeles. This [article](http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/13/movies/oval-offices-by-way-of-hollywood.html) that’s about twenty years old mentions three Oval Office sets. One was built for the 1995 movie The American President, one for the 1993 movie Dave and one for the 1997 movie Murder at 1600. The Warner Bros studio even has a [website](https://property.warnerbros.com/) listing props for rent, including White House-appropriate furniture. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/11 "2017-03-11T00:22:30Z")
One more show that uses the OO… “Designated Survivor” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/12 "2017-03-11T15:40:16Z")
I don’t know about the Oval Office specifically, but a lot of sets are modular, and can be re-used with minor tweaks for different settings. The desk you see in the Oval Office this week, for instance, might also show up in another episode as the desk of some company executive on Wall Street. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-clones-of-the-oval-office-are-in-hollywood-studios/781816/13 "2017-03-11T18:39:02Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. Colibri General Questions Moderator