Courtesy of FOX
"That’s what makes live TV exciting -- the unknown," executive producer Marc Platt tells THR about the probability of rain during Sunday's live show, which is set to film select scenes outdoors.
Greased lightening with a chance of rain and thunder?
Fox is finally set to unveil its three-hour Grease: Live telecast – a portion of which is set to film outdoors – on Sunday, the same day meteorologists are predicting a 100 percent chance of rain and "possible" thunder. However, executive producer Marc Platt isn't letting the forecast dampen his spirits.
"We're going live rain or shine and we're excited to do so," Platt tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We won’t do anything that isn't safe, ever. Safety always comes first, but I'm sure we'll be fine to do the outside portions."
Although rain is obviously not a frequent occurrence in Los Angeles, Platt says the possibility of bad weather "has been part of our thinking for many months." He points specifically back to early fall when reports first started flooding – pun intended – in about the return of El Nino, which causes rainfall.
"Obviously, we try to be smart about how we prepare because we did want to be outside, rain or shine, and we've been preparing this for many months," he says. "We hope that we've planned intelligently."
Platt says the early warnings about rain never deterred him and the rest of the creative team from venturing outside for the show.
"We said, 'Alright, there's certain portions we're happy to do whether it's raining or not outside,' so we're sticking to that and looking forward to Sunday," Platt says. "Sometimes events at high schools like at Rydell happen outside just like they do in the real world and we're fully prepared."
If anything, Platt hopes that questions surrounding the weather will attract viewers.
"That’s what makes live TV exciting – the unknown! So we're going for it," he says. "It is live TV, so if you're interested to see how it looks rain or shine, tune in."
Grease: Live airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on Fox.
