Latest news with #DeborahVance
New York Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Dan Bucatinsky details his cherished bond with ‘Hacks' co-stars Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder
The curtain has closed on another season of 'Hacks.' Dan Bucatinsky, who plays Rob, the executive producer of 'Late Night with Deborah Vance,' on the comedy/drama, is getting candid on wrapping Season 4 — and the best part of filming the Max series. 'It was the relationship that I was able to form with Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder,' the actor, 59, exclusively told The Post at the 2025 Astra Awards. 'That friendship is one that I will cherish. Being able to get to know them off camera, then get to play with them on camera, was a dream.' 9 Dan Bucatinsky in 'Hacks.' Max 'So much of my job on that show was playing the guy whose job it was to wrangle these two forces,' Bucatinsky explained. 'I'm a dad of two, so I was playing dad a little bit on the show as well. But the gift really was being part of that community that felt very strong both behind the scenes and in front of the camera.' The show follows the friendship between Smart, 73, who stars as legendary Las Vegas comic Deborah Vance, and comedy writer Ava Daniels, who is played by Einbinder, 30. 'They move very, very fast, and there is so much material being shot, and they are shooting multiple episodes at the same time,' he explained to the Post. 9 Dan Bucatinsky as Rob in 'Hacks.' Max As for their downtime, the 'Scandal' alum and his costars 'would hang out in this little greenroom area' by their chairs. 'We would talk. We would keep each other warm,' he recalled. 'We would go get tea. We would go get snacks. We would ask each other advice about everything. Recommendations of movies and documentaries and doctors. And talk about our kids and our pets. And it was really an opportunity in between scenes to really get to know one another.' 'Hacks' has been renewed for Season 5, with Smart recently expressing why she thinks it's a good time to wrap up Deborah Vance's story. 9 Dan Bucatinsky shares behind the scenes photos of shooting Season 4 of 'Hacks.' danbucatinsky/Instagram 9 Dan Bucatinsky behind the scenes of 'Hacks.' danbucatinsky/Instagram 'I think we've pretty much decided that five seasons is [it], and I think that would feel right,' she told E! News earlier this month. 'You never want to overstay your welcome.' Smart's portrayal earned her three consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy and three SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series. Bucatinsky, meanwhile, also has another onscreen role in mind. 9 Dan Bucatinsky posted videos to Instagram from his time shooting Season 4. danbucatinsky/Instagram 9 Dan Bucatinsky while shooting 'Hacks.' danbucatinsky/Instagram 'I want to play a villain,' he told The Post. 'I want to play a criminal, a villain or a cop. Maybe not a cop that is a criminal or a villain, but why not?' For 'The Comeback' alum, he would love to star opposite in a criminal cop thriller with a handful of A-listers. 'I loved working with Corey Hawkins so much on '24: Legacy.' I'd love to work with him again. But Lisa Kudrow has been a friend and partner of mine for 20 years, so I always love working with her again,' Bucatinsky detailed. 'I've really been lucky to work with a lot of great, strong women, and I really hope that continues because I am a fan of so many. Kristen Bell. I'd love to work with Kristen.' 9 Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee and Meryl Streep as Kay Graham in 'The Post.' 20th Century Fox Licensing/Merchandising / Everett Collection Top-notch craft service tables are important to him, too. And his favorite was on 'The Post,' which was directed by Steven Spielberg. 'I think that he managed to make an unbelievable craft service that I had never seen before,' he said of Spielberg on set of the 2017 film that told the story of The Washington Post exposing the Pentagon Papers. 'It was like being in a restaurant every single night and every single day and at lunch! It was exciting. And you'd expect nothing less from Spielberg and Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. It better be good.' These days, when Bucatinksy isn't acting in a hit television show, he's watching Bravo's 'Housewives' franchise. 9 Miranda Otto and Dan Bucatinsky in '24: Legacy.' ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection 9 Dan Bucatinsky at the 2025 Astra TV Awards. Getty Images The 'Under the Tuscan Sun' vet weighed in on Garcelle Beauvais leaving 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' after five seasons and Rachel Zoe announcing she is joining the cast for Season 15. 'Every season is an opportunity for a new piece of chemistry that either will work or it will explode and I'm sure they are hoping it will explode,' he stated. 'I'm a big fan. I've watched for years, and years, and years. I'm friends with some of them. I'm friends with Garcelle. So, I'm rooting for the franchise, and I'm rooting for all the women.'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Hacks' Emmy Awards category submissions: Which episodes are being recognized?
Ahead of tonight's fourth season finale, the team behind last year's Best Comedy series winner Hacks has revealed its submissions for Emmy nominations, and Gold Derby has confirmed the list. Out in front is Deborah Vance herself, Jean Smart, who has won Best Actress in a Comedy Series for each of the three previous seasons, giving her six wins overall. She's currently the odds-on favorite to win again, according to Gold Derby's combined predictions. Her fellow cast members Hannah Einbinder, Megan Stalter, Paul W. Downs, and Carl Clemons-Hopkins have all also been submitted in their respective Supporting categories. More from GoldDerby Directors open up about identity, risk and emotional storytelling at Disney's FYC fest 'M*A*S*H' star Loretta Swit dies at 87, and more of today's top stories 'Maybe Happy Ending' star Darren Criss on his Tony nomination for playing a robot: 'Getting to do this is the true win' Behind the scenes, the show's trio of showrunners — Downs, Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky — are being submitted for writing the fourth season's penultimate episode, "A Slippery Slope." A win for the writing team would mark their third Emmy in the category. Max additionally put Downs down for his directing duty on the same episode. Recurring cast members Kaitlin Olson, Jane Adams, and Christopher McDonald are being joined by recent additions Robby Hoffmann, Tony Goldwynn, and Julianne Nicholson as Guest Actor and Actress submissions. Check out the rest of the below-the-line Emmy nomination submissions for Hacks below! Casting Linda Lowy, Morgan Smith Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) Adam Bricker "I Love L.A." Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour) Rob Tokarz, Jeanine Ringer, Jennifer Lukehart "A Slippery Slope" Contemporary Costumes Kathleen Felix-Hager, Keely Crum "Heaven" Contemporary Hairstyling Aubrey Marie, Jennifer Bell, Becca Weber, Marva Stokes, Sade Stafford "I Love LA" Contemporary Makeup, Non-Prosthetic Debra Schrey, Erin Good Rosenmann, Rachel Galey, Denise DellaValle, Keith Sayer "I Love L.A." Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) Carlos Rafael Rivera, David Stal "A Slippery Slope" Music Supervision: Matt Biffa "I Love L.A." Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series and Animation Brett Hinton, Daniel Coleman, Ben Rauscher, Owen Granich-Young, Jordan Aldinger, Sam Munoz, Noel Vought, Adam DeCoster, Ben Zales, Brendan Leong "I Love L.A." Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series and Animation John W. Cook II, James Parnell, Jim Lakin Best of GoldDerby 'I cried a lot': Rob Delaney on the heart and humor in FX's 'Dying for Sex' — and Neighbor Guy's kick in the 'zone' TV directors roundtable: 'American Primeval,' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,' 'Paradise' 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' Click here to read the full article.
Geek Girl Authority
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
On Location: Jewel Changi Airport on HACKS
Welcome to On Location , a weekly feature spotlighting landmarks and establishments seen on screen that viewers can visit IRL. Whether you're seeking a fun selfie, breathtaking vistas, or maybe a show-accurate treat, follow along for some bucket list destinations. RELATED: Indulge in luxury (mostly vicariously) with our previous On Location visit to the Es Saadi Marrakesh as seen in The Night Manager Season 1 The Season 4 finale of Max's Hacks , 'Heaven,' is a departure for the series in both the literal and the narrative sense. Not only does it turn a page for our protagonists' lives, careers, and relationships, it takes them to the show's first international location, Singapore, via the spectacular Jewel Changi Airport complex, known simply as 'Jewel.' Disclaimer: The following article contains minor plot spoilers for Hacks Season 4 Episode 10, 'Heaven.' If you haven't watched it yet, you may want to stop here. Photo Credit: Sam Chin/Max The Jewel Changi Airport on Hacks After publicly quitting her dream job as a late-night talk show host ( Hacks Season 4 Episode 9, 'Bulletproof'), Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) finds herself professionally hogtied by the network's non-compete clause. Since she can't perform or try out any new material on audiences, she agrees to take a vacation to Hawaii. Ava (Hannah Einbinder) goes along, excited to get her aloha on. RELATED: Movie Review: Babylon However, inspiration strikes mid-air, and Deborah reroutes their flight to Singapore instead, where she can deliver her stand-up sitting down through a translator to receptive audiences without leaving herself open to litigation. Ava, unaware of the itinerary change, soon realizes they are not getting lei-ed. Her first clue is the 40-meter-high indoor waterfall pouring through a glass-domed rainforest INSIDE. THE. AIRPORT. Photo Credit: Max The Rain Vortex The waterfall is called the Rain Vortex and is the centerpiece attraction of Jewel, the nature-themed entertainment and retail complex opened in 2019 as an extension to Changi Airport's Terminal 1. The Rain Vortex pumps recirculated rainwater to the donut-shaped roof where it free-falls through the center hole at a rate of up to 10,000 gallons per minute. At night, the waterfall is lit up at 8 and 9 o'clock (additional show at 10 pm on weekends) with a breathtaking sound and light showcase. Beautiful jewels require appropriate settings, and the Rain Vortex is perfectly showcased by the surrounding Shiseido Forest Valley. Five stories high, encompassing approximately 240,000 square feet, it houses over 2,000 trees and palms and about 100,000 shrubs of 120 species from around the world. Above that, at the top level of Jewel is Canopy Park, a 150,000 square foot recreation and leisure facility. Photo Credit: Jewel Chiangi Airport Admission to Canopy Park costs about 6 USD per visitor — under 5 USD if you're a Singapore resident — and includes access to the Discovery Slides, Foggy Bowls, Petal Walk, and Topiary Gardens. To add the other attractions — Hedge Maze, Mirror Maze, Bouncing Net, Walking Net, and Canopy Bridge — there are Bundle Deals costing about 42 USD per adult and 30 USD per child. RELATED: Peter Dinklage and Coldplay Team Up for Game of Thrones: The Musical for Red Nose Day Hacks isn't the first time North American audiences have oohed and aahed over the Rain Vortex and its surroundings. Coldplay filmed scenes from their 2024 'Man in the Moon' music video in Jewel as well as other major sites around Singapore. Image Credit: Pulse Films/Coldplay Not That Into Waterfalls? Well, Jewel's got you covered. In imagining Jewel, its creators set out to design a destination, not just a thoroughfare. Locals plan staycations at Jewel, while visitors are welcome to make it a part of their sightseeing itinerary. Jewel offers over 250 retail options for shopping, dining, and recreation. In the Changi Experience Studio, you learn about the airport's history and tech through 20 interactive programs. At 30,000 square feet, the studio contains 10 different content zones. Tickets can be bundled with a 15-minute flight simulator experience for about 50 USD. RELATED: Read our previous On Location articles The Yotelair Singapore Changi Airport is the first in Asia. It offers rooms termed 'cabins' for stays as short as four hours, a 24/7 dining lounge, free wi-fi, and several discounts and services in partnership with other Jewel businesses. Overnight stays start at approximately 115 USD. Image Credit: Courtesy of Max If you're looking to live it up Deborah Vance-style, you'll need to venture out of the airport. The Resorts World Sentosa stood in for the Sentosa Casino in Hacks . She and Ava dine with the fishes at the Ocean Restaurant in the Equarius Hotel. Marina Bay provides the backdrop for their water-level outdoor night-time conversations. Meanwhile, Deborah's sky-high dramatics are shot on the Marina Bay Sands' SkyPark Observation Deck. All four seasons of Hacks are streaming on Max. STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Season 3 Trailer Promises Romance, Action and Exploration Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Creators of ‘Hacks' Want To Know Which TV You Own
'Hacks' is now four seasons into an established comedy rhythm, even as it continues to find new ways to complicate the dynamic between standup legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder). But that certainly doesn't mean making the show has gotten easy or expected. Co-creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky have always been pretty visual writers, with a clear sense of what they want, but they search with the tirelessness of Damian's (Mark Indelicato) quest for coyote-warding bear piss to sculpt exactly the right comedy moments. So while they often aren't 'finding the show' in the edit in a wholesale way, they are searching every frame for what beat is the funniest. More from IndieWire Sarah Michelle Gellar, Allison Hannigan Say 'Buffy' Reboot Will Honor Michelle Trachtenberg: 'We'll Do What's Appropriate' Lucie Arnaz Says 'You Can't Talk to Aaron Sorkin,' Reflecting on 'Being the Ricardos' - 'It Was So Wrong' 'We do like to watch pretty much every take of everything. That is always going to be the thing we like to do,' Aniello told IndieWire on an episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. 'We always say the edit's not done, it's just abandoned. We're not really people who find it in the edit for the most part. We really know what we want. For us, it's really just about, 'Is that the best performance? Is that the best take?'' Shifting through each and every option is, of course, rather time-consuming. Aniello praised the show's 'very patient' editors, especially the assistant editors who create string outs but sometimes get asked to go back in and find moments that were between where the takes started and ended, or that weren't logged, or that were part of the pre-roll. Part of the instinct to do that comes from the very fact that 'Hacks' is a show about a standup comic. It is about performance, and while Downs is the only one of the three co-creators to appear on camera (so far), Aniello and Statsky are also performers, too. 'We all came from making alt comedy — performing it, writing it, shooting digital shorts and editing them ourselves. So we come at it from performance. We really want the performance to be just right, especially when it comes to comedic moments. We not only watch every take, we often audition them in the sequence,' Downs told IndieWire on the same Filmmaker Toolkit episode. 'If there's five takes, we'll watch all five takes in the sequence of the other actors to see what alchemy is correct.' Aniello pointed out that watching one take after another can rob them of the wider context of the scene. 'You actually don't know which is the best one until all of a sudden you see it in the sequence. So sometimes it can just be time-consuming and you've gotta finish the show at some point,' Aniello said. But one of the barriers to finally finishing the hat 'Hacks' episodes is crafting the final mix and color grade so that the show is presented in the best possible way across a wide variety of viewing platforms and formats. 'We sound mix on the stage and we listen to it on the stage, but then when we do our review of the sound mix after notes are given, we go to a different environment and listen to it on television speakers,' Downs said. 'We try and listen to things and watch things both from a color grade and a sound design standpoint in as many environments as we can because they're so different device to device.' They can get exacting about those differences, too. 'You're like, 'OK, well, in 5.1 it sounds like this; in left-to-right it sounds like this; on the computer, it sounds like this. We literally are like, 'What brands of televisions do most people have and watch it from?'' Aniello said. ''What is the most likely out-of-the-box color grade that people put on it?' We want to make [the show] as good as possible for the most people, but then you [also want] to reward the people who put the time into having a 5.1 speaker system in their house, and it just gets very complicated. You're like, 'Who do we make it for?' We are thinking about those things so much.' The devil is in those details, to be sure, but some of the biggest shifts that happen in the edit on 'Hacks' are ones that simplify what we see in order to emotionally clarify what the characters are going through. One key example of this occurs early on in the Season 4 finale, 'Heaven,' while Deborah is licking her late-night exit wounds back in Las Vegas. 'When I come into a director's cut of Lucia's work, I know pretty much what it is because we write in a way that's pretty visual and we oftentimes have planned things that I'll expect to see,' Downs said. But the sequence of Deborah moping in bed, at rock bottom, was different. A case of extremely judicious editing, in addition to take selection, elevated it beyond what Downs expected to see. 'We had actually scripted [a series of] voicemails from Jimmy [Paul W. Downs] and Kayla [Megan Stalter] and Randy [Robbie Hoffman] and Ava just checking in on her and all of the calls that she'd missed. But when Jen and I came in at the producer's level to watch Lucia's first director's cut, she had opted not to include those voiceovers,' Downs said. 'And I was so moved by that sequence. I thought it was one of my favorite things in the series. Now, that's saying a lot because my lines were cut, OK? Jimmy's lines were cut. But I loved that sequence so much.' All episodes of 'Hacks' are now streaming on Max. To hear full interview, subscribe to the on , , or your favorite podcast platform. Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme' Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hacks Renewed for Season 5 at Max
Deborah Vance is about to rewrite her legacy: Max has renewed Hacks for Season 5, TVLine has learned. 'Like Deborah Vance herself, Hacks only gets bolder, sharper and more iconic with time,' president of Universal Television Erin Underhill said in a statement. 'We're beyond thrilled to keep the laughter rolling with Jen [Statsky], Paul [W. Downs], Lucia [Aniello], our extraordinary cast and crew, and our partners at Max.' More from TVLine Mountainhead Is Too Cruel (and Too Real) to Live Up to Succession - Grade It in Our Poll! All American Renewed for Final Season at The CW - Find Out When It Will Air Harry Wild Renewed for Season 5 at Acorn TV Added Head of Max Original Programming Sarah Aubrey: 'We congratulate Hacks' singularly talented cast and crew and our great partners at Universal Television.' An A-to-Z List of 300+ Scripted Series View List In Season 4, tensions rose as Deborah and Ava endeavored to get their late-night show off the ground and make history while doing it. But in the season's penultimate episode, Deborah quit her hosting gig at Late Night With Deborah Vance after network head Bob Lipka demanded she fire head writer Ava for leaking confidential corporate information. (The Season 4 finale streams on Max starting Thursday at 9/8c.) Aside from its two leads Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, Hacks also stars Paul W. Downs, Megan Stalter, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Kaitlin Olson, Helen Hunt, Mark Indelicato and Rose Abdoo. Season 4 guest stars include Dan Bucatinsky, Tony Goldwyn, Jimmy Kimmel, Jane Adams, Julianne Nicholson, Christopher McDonald and Carol Burnett. Are you looking forward to more ? Sound off in the comments! Best of TVLine 'Missing' Shows, Found! Get the Latest on Ahsoka, Monarch, P-Valley, Sugar, Anansi Boys and 25+ Others Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?) The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More
