Production designer Rob Tokarz has been crafting the gorgeous sets for HBO Max’s Hacks. In the final season he was given many different challenges. Letting us see the different stages of construction the Diva Casino goes through. Crafting the box that Deborah hangs from on the Vegas strip. But the biggest emotional challenge was making the set and pieces of Deborah’s 1970s sitcom, Who’s Making Dinner? We have heard about this show since season one and he had to give it the feeling of a show that everyone knows and loves. A great send off to Hacks, a show he and so many fans do love.
The Contending: You were nominated for the episode Who’s Making Dinner? so you had to create the set of the fictional TV show that looks like it was from the 1970s. What were the challenges in doing that?
Rob Tokarz: The show Who’s Making Dinner? is mentioned in the first episode of Hacks because Frank dies. But that’s most of what we know about it. So the challenge was trying to create a show that would resonate enough fifty years later to get a Paley exhibition. So it was really about conversations with the showrunners about what the show could be, just in getting some parameters. Then it was fleshing out all the real life stuff. So when we built the set, we also built a backstage and a camera aisle. We brought in fictional, period correct cameras and audience seating.
We spent two days shooting backgrounds in different costumes and hair to make the era feel right and to populate the event itself with these pictures that are behind the scenes. A lot of the design focus for the event itself was trying to find these exhibition moments that if you were a big fan of the show you would recognize. That’d be the oven from the episode where he burns the roast, and that’s the apron from the episode where she gets her apron caught in something. We thought a lot about when you see a Vitameatavegamin dress, you can see her stuffing candy in her mouth in the conveyor belt going crazy. So that was our challenge, to take that kind of familiarity with a show that doesn’t exist and make that come across during the episode.
The Contending: In crafting the museum area where you’re putting all those in, did that have any particular challenges?
Rob Tokarz: It was really just making sure that we populated it with enough stuff that it felt real. I think one of the big things was the way that I pitched building the set was that we were going to have the walls of the set of the show. But that ended up not making sense because no one would keep the walls for that long. So instead we photographed the walls, and we blew them up as photographs, and then put some pieces of set dressing, and then little tidbits that I think I wrote in my notes app to be put next to different pieces of set dressing, and then just making it all feel cohesive. So it was really just getting the limited amount of time we had to install and making it all look right. Jennifer Lukehart, my set decorator, found some really great modern furniture but had a period feeling with its using colors. So it’s really just blending those two eras together.
The Contending: One of my favorite sets was Cherry Jones’s house. What went into creating that?
Rob Tokarz: So, this is one of those sets where I got to ride on the coattails of our incredible locations department who found that house. I want to say it was in Malibu. And it was as close to a turnkey set as it gets. It was so beautifully well-appointed because the homeowner was a designer. We shuffled some furniture around and brought in elements and lighting. And of course, the closet was something that we fully dressed in. A lot of that house lived the way that it was.
But the closet was where we got to have a lot of fun because, similar to what we did with Who’s Making Dinner, we wanted to put in items that you would look at and feel like that’s a real thing. We had the advantage that there’s a lot of prop and costume people that are doing knockoffs. So we were able to kind of lean on the Internet, and Jen and her buyer, Amy, put a story to every piece. We had the Audrey Hepburn dress and the sneakers from Back to the Future. That set itself was tricky because it was a hybrid closet, but it’s also a showpiece so it was hard to find that balance. But we ended up leaning more towards the closet, but a Bottega Veneta one where there’s lots of space, and you can see everything. It was beautiful.
The Contending: Well, one of the big projects throughout the whole season is that they’re refurbishing an entire casino. So you had to do a set of it looking trashy, and then as the season progressed seeing the progress. What kind of challenges did that entail?
Rob Tokarz: Initially when I started reading the scripts for the season, it really appeared that we would have to build the casino and then do all those iterations on a stage. It turns out that the page count didn’t make sense for the build. So what we did is we found these really great spots between LA and Las Vegas that would stand in for each of the pieces. When we see it trashed, that’s Whiskey Pete’s in Primm, Nevada, right on the border. If you’ve ever driven from LA to Vegas, there’s this roller coaster that happens right when you cross the state line. It’s one of those casinos that was shut down. So we were able to use old out-of-date slot machines and tables and all that and dress it in and just kind of enhance what was already there. Then for the under construction, we shot at the Westgate, which used to be some kind of Star Trek experience. That was under construction, so when we were in the mid-stage they were actually really nice and held off on their construction. We brought in some lighting and elements, but it was really just a raw space that worked really well. And for the Diva itself, we had a couple of places. One was the Plaza in Las Vegas for our exterior. It also stood in for the comedy club space that was one of their theatrical spaces. But the Diva itself was shot downtown LA at the Cicada Club. And what we did for that one was bring in a bunch of scenic elements and change some finishes that they had in the space, plugging some walls. We had some fun with that one, for sure.
The Contending: Did you get the box that Jean Smart is hanging in in the episode, The Box?
Rob Tokarz: Yes. So that episode, it’s one of those that seems really simple because it’s really a box, but we had to do so much work. The box itself was something we made out of 3-inch box steel, and then we had custom plexiglass panels trucked in from Texas because you can’t get eight foot by eight foot, half inch and three quarters plexiglass at Home Depot. We had that put together, and then we had to have an engineer sign off on all the drawings to make sure that we could physically lift it. And ultimately placed it in three different spaces. There was the one that was kind of all visual effects, where we had it in a dark space on solids, which actually had the cabling to be able to lift it. And that was something that would then be VFXed into plate shots that we shot in Vegas. Then of course we had the Vegas version, which is the beginning and the end of the event itself. That was probably the location we scouted more than any location this season, because we were trying to wrap our heads around how the visual effects are going to work. And then we had the added challenge that Vegas won’t turn off the lights for you, even if you’re Hacks. (laughter)
So we landed on building Vegas on stage at Universal, and we took a 130-foot stretch of the Strip where we knew the action was going to happen. I had a team fly out and measure down to the sprinkler heads. It was on a day that they had F1, so it was partially fenced off for safety. So we’re like, throwing tape measures through the fence to try to get to the curb to make sure we got the distance right.
Then Victoria Tam, my assistant art director, was there plastering so we could form it down to the broken concrete. We matched every crack, and we made a concrete stamp to get the pavers just right. We built it all on stage and then built a softbox that was essentially the size of a full stage over top, so that we could light it. Because of course, even if it’s in darkness, we’re lighting it.
The Contending: Did you use the real Madison Square Garden for the scene when Jean Smart walks in and it’s all empty, or make your own space?
Rob Tokarz: The only real part of Madison Square Garden we got was in episode two when you see it in the background. Everything else we built partially on stage. We couldn’t find very good references to the interiors of Madison Square Garden. It’s a pretty private space. So what I was able to do when we were in New York was take pictures up through the windows and at least match the ceiling that I could see and the light fixtures. Everything else was made up. For the actual show Deborah is doing, we went to the Toyota stadium in Ontario and dressed it as our facsimile for Madison Square Garden.
The Contending: What about Central Park when she actually does get to perform? How did you craft that?
Rob Tokarz: That was Lake Balboa and was another one of those interesting challenges because it’s remarkably hard to find a large flat lawn in Los Angeles. We found a location the following week and started doing construction on something right where we were going to put our set. We knew we were going to VFX New York around it, and then spent our time making sure that it would make sense. But the biggest thing was that this shot was planned so we see Deborah as the sun is setting. And we had to make sure that our stage was oriented to exactly where the sun was going to set on the day we were going to shoot. So everyone’s got their sun app out watching the arc of the sun, where it’s going to be on this date at this time. We’re triangulating from whatever few trees we had there. We made sure that we had our quarters right. And then we actually installed it. We matched all of that. Landed the stage, and I think we nailed it. Adam, our DP, was happy.
The Contending: As a fan, I was happy, so you succeeded.
Rob Tokarz: What was nutty, though, is that we had that happen during a terrible rainstorm. We actually held off 3-4 days to try to get it to dry out a little bit. Installing it with lifts and everything was a monster. We just had plywood everywhere and still dug into the mud. I mean, it was a beast.
The Contending: Well, you’ve been with the show since Season 2. You were an art director in Season 2, and then you’ve been the production designer since. What has it been like being with this show for so long, and now coming to the end with it?
Rob Tokarz: Creatively, it’s wonderful. It’s just really great to be able to dig into a world and these characters and really be able to live and breathe them, and come from a design perspective where you really do understand the characters. Personally, it’s just been really fantastic. The team we have on Hacks, beyond my department, every department, it’s a very familial feeling. So it’s just really nice to go to work with your friends every day. And it’s been really great to know that we have these 6 or 7 months out of the year that we get to hang out with each other. And the last couple of seasons where we get to travel together to eat some fantastic food.
I’m just really grateful for having had the opportunity. It’s been such a fun show to work on. It’s really special to work on shows you’re a fan of. I watched the first season and fell in love with the show. And then I got into season 2. I was, like, this is fantastic.
The Contending: I read that some of the sets that you guys have found have ended up with the cast and crew, that you’ve given them off to some people. Have you kept anything for yourself?
Rob Tokarz: Yeah, I have a set of salt and pepper shakers that didn’t make it to assets. I have her LA license plate. And I have her late night parking sign. Those were the three kinds of things that I have from the show.
Hacks is streaming now on HBO Max.
