Jean Smart wanted to feed the people.
Backstage at the Fonda Theatre on Friday night, the actress was basking in the glow of the successful reprisal of her “Hacks” role onstage in front of 650 people for a live comedy event.
But as she peeked into the kitchen in search of a quieter interview spot (after ruling out the women’s bathroom), Smart noticed several stacks of pizza boxes still remained from the show.
“These can’t be thrown out — this is terrible!” she said, setting down her martini and opening the boxes to find full pies inside. “We’ve got to pass these out. Let’s go.”
Wearing a Kobi Halperin satin pantsuit she’d first donned as Deborah Vance on a Season 5 episode of “Hacks,” Smart grabbed an armload of pizzas and strutted onto Hollywood Boulevard where throngs of fans were still chatting and posing for photos under the marquee.
“Deborah!” one fan squealed, referring to the actress by her character’s name, while Smart cheerfully pushed pizza boxes into outstretched arms.
On a night when fact blurred with fiction, the impromptu scene felt straight out of “Hacks.”
Nearly three months had passed since the lauded series concluded its fifth and final season on HBO Max. Smart and several other stars — including Hannah Einbinder, Paul W. Downs, Mark Indelicato and Lauren Weedman — returned to their roles for the scripted live show “Deborah Vance & Friends & Enemies Live!” in Los Angeles.
Billed as an “in-world production,” the hourlong event was timed to the start of Emmy Awards voting and featured Smart, 74, performing a snappy stand-up show as her fictional comedian counterpart. When Vance’s jokes crossed a line — quips about Jeffrey Epstein, lesbians, race and “age-affirming care” — Vance’s writer, Ava (Einbinder), rushed to the stage to help her mentor “not get canceled.”
The show, which was filmed, also included an interactive Deborah Vance trivia segment led by Vance’s agent, Jimmy (Downs), and stand-up sets from the fictional mayor of Las Vegas (Weedman), the comedian Naomi Ekperigin (who played herself in an episode and onstage) and Pat Regan (a writer on “Hacks” who also made a cameo as a bellhop in the show).
Meg Stalter, who is currently starring in “Oh, Mary!” on Broadway, appeared via video message with the excuse that her character, Kayla, was in jail for public indecency.
The event concluded with Deborah and Ava poignantly singing along to Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand’s “Get Happy” and “Happy Days Are Here Again” medley, which was also featured in the “Hacks” finale.
The “Hacks” creators and showrunners Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky had long fantasized about having Deborah perform a live comedy set. When HBO Max requested they come up with an event “that feels a little different,” Downs said, it prompted them to finally make it happen.
“It was probably the fastest yes to something like this we’ve ever gotten from the cast,” he said, noting that Einbinder “teared up” when they told her about the idea.
The three said they came up with the concept in late July and wrote the material over the last 10 days. The actors rehearsed together for the first time on Friday.
“We were all here this morning running around, getting props, directing, rehearsing,” Statsky said. “It felt very high school play.”
Earlier that evening, as the sun began to set, the line of guests snaked around several blocks near the theater. Despite adding a standing-room section, the venue reached capacity, and some had to be turned away at the door, a publicist for HBO Max said.
Inside the theater, attendees had access to an open bar, popcorn, pretzels and the aforementioned pies from Prime Pizza. They received baseball caps with the logo of the fictional talent agency that represents Vance — Schaefer & LuSaque.
Austin O’Malia, the group vice president of awards at HBO and HBO Max, said in an email that the network had primarily invited those affiliated with industry guilds and membership organizations, as well as select “Hacks” superfans and media. The event was free to attend and all RSVP slots were taken within hours of the invitation release, he said.
O’Malia noted that the Television Academy, whose members vote for the Emmys, “doesn’t allow networks, studios, or productions to invite Emmy voters directly to events they are hosting post-nomination.” But he said that “given the high crossover between guild and Television Academy membership, we expect many of our guild guests are Emmy voters.”
“Hacks” is nominated for 24 Emmys this year — a record for a comedy in a single year. Smart has taken home the best comedy actress Emmy for each of the show’s first four seasons. If she nabs the trophy again in September, she will be the first actress to win the award for every eligible season of her show.
“What can I say? It would be wonderful,” Smart said. “But, I mean, talk about an embarrassment of riches. This show has been the gift that keeps on giving, so I can’t get greedy.”
In an industry that puts a high premium on awards recognition, the “Hacks” live show is just one example of increasingly creative awards season marketing campaigns.
Several guests had also attended a star-studded event the night before for the Apple TV+ show “Widow’s Bay” at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
The pizza boxes that Smart handed out had been branded with For Your Consideration advertisements for the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building” and ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” — both of which are competing with “Hacks” and “Widow’s Bay” for best comedy.
But there were plenty of “Hacks” fans on Friday. In interviews, several pointed to the show’s queer representation and its portrayal of the struggles of working in the entertainment industry as selling points. More than a few wore Deborah Vance T-shirts.
Kouwthar Muhssancookie had appeared as an extra on an episode of “Hacks” as an audience member at one of Vance’s comedy shows. She recalled Smart’s attentiveness to the extras during that shoot.
“That touched my heart,” Muhssancookie said of Smart’s kindness on set. “So, I thought, today, I’m going to come and support her.”
Though HBO Max intended the event to promote the show for awards consideration, the creators said that, for them, it was not just about wooing voters. Statsky said they’d simply hoped to do “one last thing for the fans.”
Aniello added, “I think the truth is that we just missed these characters, and we weren’t ready to let them go.”
