Hollywood seems to always take that cliché “write what you know” to heart when it comes to producing scripts about Hollywood. I enjoy those tales, of course, but that’s because my chosen profession is to report on this fascinating business. There’s clearly enough money, creativity, mystery, farce, scandal, glamour and spectacle for us to cover every single day at Variety. And all of the stuff that makes for good copy also makes for entertaining TV and film plot lines.
So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that three of this year’s biggest Emmy comedy contenders play in that space: “Hacks,” “The Studio” and “Only Murders in the Building.” All three have quite a bit of fun with industry tropes, and come a little too close for comfort with some of its satire. And they even crash into each other: “Hacks” creators Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky and Paul W. Downs cameo as themselves on an episode of “The Studio,” while Ron Howard is among this year’s hot TV trends, playing himself on both “The Studio” and “Only Murders.”
So, we always ask, do audiences outside Hollywood get the jokes, or care? Sometimes, yes. The entertainment business as a series setting goes back to the early days of TV, as even “I Love Lucy” had a bit of showbiz as its backdrop. Then came “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” a TV show about the making of a TV show that won the outstanding comedy Emmy three times.
HBO built an entire network partly on the premise of shows about show biz — “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Entourage,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “The Comeback.” (I’m not including “The Idol” there, for obvious reasons.) One of Netflix’s best early shows was the animated “BoJack Horseman.”
But just as often, it seems like shows about the biz nail it with critics and awards, but audiences are less interested. In TV circles, we still talk about Fox’s groundbreaking 1999 comedy “Action,” about a nasty Hollywood producer played by Jay Mohr, but it was canceled after eight episodes. They added a laugh track to ABC’s “Sports Night” in a desperate attempt to make it work. NBC’s “30 Rock” won three consecutive comedy Emmys and is beloved by many — yet was never a megahit. Comedy Central and HBO Max gave us three fantastic seasons of “The Other Two,” but I’m still angry at all of you who didn’t watch.
I think audiences are watching “Hacks” (especially this season as Deborah Vance tackles talk), “The Studio” (the best biz parody in years) and “Only Murders” (which addressed Hollywood this season) because they’re just damn good. But in the industry, they’re elevated because we feel a special kinship with them — and that’s OK.
I’m hearing from a lot of execs in the business who bristle at “The Studio” because some of its cringe is a little too close to home. I decided to do an experiment on LinkedIn and ask other industry folk whether these shows give them PTSD. I was delighted to learn that, for the most part, it’s a no, that they enjoy seeing the satire. “It’s fun for this 10-year Warner Bros. vet to get more glimpses of that classic old lot,” one exec says of “Hacks.”
Former CBS research exec Eric Steinberg says he sees “lots of relatable moments in ‘Hacks’ now that the main character has her own show. It will be no surprise to you that I found the audience research episode particularly fun. And, the exteriors at TV City bring back lots of memories. PTSD? Hardly!”
Communications exec Stacey Luchs adds, “There are moments that really hit home — the kind of thing people outside the entertainment world probably wouldn’t believe. Sometimes it feels like I’m in on an inside joke, and it just makes me smile.”
My former (and longtime) Variety colleague Steve Gaydos perhaps says it best: “The writers of ‘Hacks’ and ‘The Studio’ have been reading our mail. But Billy Wilder turned it into art 75 years ago with ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ He didn’t just shoot fish in a barrel. His fish had souls, and their fates mattered — then and just as much now, on stage with music and on screens of all sizes in black and white. That’s the ultimate achievement and though these current TV shows contain moments of pathos, it will take time before we can measure their memorability.”
