There are a lot of things that inspire Michael Strahan, and now the Hall of Fame football player, TV host and entrepreneur will share some of them with the world.
At 10 p.m. ET Tuesday on ABC, Strahan will star in the first segment of a three-part series called “Iconic.” The first episode will be centered around fashion and will feature the “Good Morning America” cohost sitting down with four people he considers trendsetters in the fashion industry: Tommy Hilfiger, Heidi Klum, former NBA star Dwyane Wade and costume designer Molly Rogers.
The series, coproduced by Strahan and Constance Schwartz-Morini’s SMAC Productions, will then tackle television and music in the next two segments.
Strahan said the idea for “Iconic” started when he was pondering the things that inspire people in different genres. “Every time you hear a song or you see a show or an outfit, it reminds you of a place and time — especially if it’s something that stands out,” he said.
“And there have always been people in each one of those genres that have stood out and defined the moment. That’s when we got the idea for ‘Iconic,’ and it’s been a lot of fun to shoot it and get to delve into their thinking behind what made them iconic and what we know them for.”
Strahan said the decision to start with fashion was because it’s a category that most people can relate to. “Music is going to be insanely great, and television is going to be insanely great. But I think that fashion is just a perfect way to kick it off. We all wear clothes — at least I hope you do when you’re out and about,” he said with a laugh.
He said the four subjects influenced him personally and culture in general. “I’ll never forget being a young NFL player and finally getting my first Tommy jacket and then my first oversize jersey sweatshirt sweater. It was just a moment for me,” he said. Then he said he considers Dwyane Wade to be “a defining athlete when it comes to fashion and the choices that he made. As an athlete you really didn’t dress like Dwyane was dressing at the time — he was ahead of the game.”
Rogers, who was responsible for the wardrobes in such acclaimed fashion films and shows as “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Sex in the City,” “changed the whole fashion landscape when it comes to television,” Strahan said. “The way people dress in the street now is more in tune with what we saw Molly create for television and for movies.”
Klum, who was able to transform a career as a model into a TV star with shows such as “Project Runway,” even gave Strahan some tips on walking a runway on the episode.
Strahan admitted it was hard to narrow down his subjects to just four, and he hopes to continue the conversations in the future. “So many people made an impact; there’s room for more episodes and more interviews with more people. Hopefully, if the show does well, we have an opportunity to tell more stories and highlight more people who are iconic.”
As a former NFL star, it begs the question of why Strahan didn’t opt for sports heroes in the series. “I think there’s room for that, but I didn’t want to just do the obvious,” he said. “Everyone thinks I came from sports so that’s my only interest, but I’m so interested in everything. I’ve always been curious. I’ve never just been a guy who played sports. I came to sports late in my life. I didn’t play football until my senior year of high school, so football was never the job that I thought I was going to have. It was something that I found that I was actually good at that became a job. That was some of the thinking behind not just going straight to sports icons.”
In the future, he hopes to also home in on watch design, car design and “everyday people who just become iconic for one reason or another. I feel like we can sit here and film episode after episode after episode and never get tired of it. There are so many stories that we can tell in those genres that would keep us busy for years.”
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