This is Deborah Vance's world, and we're just living in it.
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“Hacks” showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky have spent the past few seasons establishing Deborah’s (Jean Smart) visual aesthetic — it’s big, bold and flashy; production designer Rob Tokarz, who earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the Max comedy, has looked for ways to expand that vision when the opportunity arose, especially when it came to new spaces.
In episode 8, Tokarz’s Emmy-nominated “Yes, And,” Deborah is double-booked. She’s scheduled to appear at a Palm Springs Pride event and she’s getting an honorary doctorate from UC Berkeley. She’s got a tough choice to make, but she needs to create some buzz and the university is the place to do it. It’s the final push for her to land a late-night hosting gig, and there’s a lot riding on it.
Several scenes are set at a frat party, a new place for Tokarz, but he was able to draw on personal experience, going back to his time at university. “I went to paint the room that I lived in. I was so bold about this choice, and it didn’t work at all,” he admits. “I saw that color choice for this room and thought it would make the whole thing look amazing.”
