The second day of the ATX Television Festival Season 10 kicked off The Daily, where co-founders Caitlin McFarland & Emily Gipson gave a rundown of yesterday’s events, showed the opening credits sequence for their own parody sitcom (and promised more clips later in future episodes of The Daily), and then they brought on guest Clea DuVall, EP of Housebroken, to talk about their love of animation, horror programming, Clea’s writing/directing, and their preference of binging vs week-to-week releases.
Hacks: A Conversation with Cast & Creators
The first panel of the day was for the hilarious and heartwarming HBO Max series Hacks, which just finished up its first season this week, and has already been renewed for a second. If you haven’t checked out the series yet, it’s great, and certainly worth a watch.
The panel was moderated by Joanna Robinson of Vanity Fair, and the panelists included co-creator/co-showrunner/EPs Paul W. Downs (“Jimmy”), Jen Statsky & Lucia Aniello, and stars Kaitlin Olson (“DJ”), Carl Clemons-Hopkins (“Marcus”) & Hannah Einbinder (“Ava”).
This was a really fun group of people. They started off talking about their favorite jokes from the series, how the show came about and its goals, the visual language of the show, Hannah’s similarities and differences to Ava, how the character of George in episode 5 serves as a catalyst for Ava, the toe shoes, and more. The showrunners also talked about what they saw in Hannah to cast her as Ava, even though she hadn’t acted before. Kaitlin Olson shared her love for Designing Women, talked about what it was like working with Jean Smart, and discussed that amazing D’Jewelry. Lucia Aniello discussed what it was like serving as both writer and director and how the latter informed the former. Hannah also talked about doing the kiss scene with Jean Smart, and the relationship between Ava and Deborah. The panel finished up with the cast talking about what they’d like to see for their characters in season 2.
New Voices: Launching A First Series
The next panel of the day was sponsored by HBO/HBO Max, and took a look at the experiences of first-time showrunners of three HBO series. Moderator Matt Zoller Seitz (Editor at Large, RogerEbert.com; TV Critic, New York Magazine) talked to the showrunners of Industry (Konrad Kay & Mickey Down), Betty (Crystal Moselle) and Made for Love (Christina Lee), some of whom hadn’t worked in the entertainment industry before. The panelists discussed how their shows came about, their processes, and some of the lessons they learned working on their shows.
HouseBroken: Q&A with Creators and Cast
Following a screening of the pilot episode of the new FOX animated comedy HouseBroken, there was a Q&A panel with the cast/creatives moderated by Danielle Turchiano of Variety. The panelists included co-creators/executive producers Clea DuVall (“Elsa”), Jennifer Crittenden & Gabrielle Allan, and stars Lisa Kudrow (“Honey”), Nat Faxon (“Chief”), Sam Richardson (“Chico”) & Jason Mantzoukas (“Lyle”).
Whenever you gather a bunch of comedians together, it’s always a great time, and this panel was not a disappointment—I was constantly laughing throughout this panel. The panelists started off talking about how the idea for the series was born on the set of Veep, and how the actors got involved with the show. The actors discussed their characters, incorporating their own personalities or experiences into them, and finding the right voice for their characters. Sam Richardson embarrassingly demonstrated his cat sound (which initially sounded more like a robot), Lisa compared Honey with Web Therapy‘s Dr. Fiona Wallice, and Jason compared The Grey One with Big Mouth‘s Jay. The writers discussed how they brought in different animals for different purposes, and how they explore human issues and neuroses by projecting them onto the pets. One of the writers also shared a horrific but hilarious story that happened to her friend’s hamster that inspired Nibbles. The participants also discussed what is is like doing table reads via Zoom, the process of recording their lines during the pandemic, ad-libbing lines, the rewrite process, the use of real animal sounds versus the actors, and more. They finish out the panel by mentioning some of their favorite jokes in the first season.
Throughout the afternoon and early evening, there were topical panels for “Growing Up Is Hard: A New Generation of YA Protagonists” (a look at how storylines and characters on YA shows have evolved) and “The Messy Middle” (a more realistic and well-rounded portrayal of characters, allowing them to have flaws), a quick Happy Hour discussion, a panel for the OWN original series David Makes Man, and a conversation with Showtime talk show host/personality Ziwe.
The day closed with a first look at the upcoming AMC series Ultra City Smiths
Ultra City Smiths First Look
AMC+ gave a preview of its upcoming stop-motion adult animated series Ultra City Smiths, which premieres on July 22. The logline of the series is as follows:
“Ultra City Smiths” centers on an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Ultra City’s most famous magnate and the two intrepid detectives following the case, rallying to fight against their city’s dangerous corruption, at a high cost to themselves and their families, all in pursuit of a gentler place to call home.
The panel was moderated by TV Guide Magazine’s Emily Aslanian, and the panelists included series creator Steve Conrad, co-director David Brooks, and stars Jimmi Simpson (“Detective David Mills”), Chris Conrad (“Detective Nico Onasis”), Luis Guzmán (“Rodrigo Smalls”) & Hana Mae Lee (“Christina”).
Series creator Steve Conrad (Perpetual Grace, LTD, Patriot) talked about the genesis of the series and the decision to use the baby doll figures, and how giving adult characteristics to these baby dolls ended up creating something unique, unusual and intriguing. He also talked about building the sets, and the show’s amazing cast. Ultra City is like New York City in the late 1970s/early 1980s with its own Central Park, prison, red light district, and no on. Crime is running rampant, and corrupt cops are everywhere. Each episode has a tip of the hat to some well-known film, often 1970s cinema such as Dog Day Afternoon and Midnight Cowboy. However, the series is set in the modern world. Oh, and if the show wasn’t crazy enough, each episode will also feature a musical number by one of the characters. Jimmi Simpson’s character sings in the first episode, and perhaps Luis Guzmán’s character will do some sort of cover song in the second season. Conrad said the most nerve-racking moment working on the show was directing Tom Waits (who plays the narrator), and in second is watching the dailies. He said they won’t ask Waits to do a song.
The actors stated many times how this was very much a Steve Conrad show, but with animation. They each described their characters, and we saw a few photos (waiting on clearance to include them here). Jimmi Simpson voices Detective David Mills, the cop who is investigating the disappearance of a wealthy city resident. Chris Conrad voices his Starsky & Hutch-like partner Detective Nico Onasis, a hedonist who is distracted by both men and women alike. Nico is at a crossroads when we meet him, he’s starting to take stock in his life and make a change, deciding to get married in order to give him an anchor and become a better detective. However, he doesn’t actually know who he’ll marry yet, just that it will be soon. Luis Guzmán voices neighborhood crime lord Rodrigo Smalls, and apparently the look of his character is based on photos of a 20-year-old Guzmán. Finally, Hana Mae Lee plays Christina, Rodrigo’s pregnant fiancée, who’s really into fashion and Hip Hop. They are trying to avoid Detective Mills and get away from city together.
Co-director David Brooks was calling in from the set in Canada, which could be seen in the background. He and Steve talked about the painstaking process of doing the stop-motion animation. Things like clouds and the way people walk are just taken for granted in the live action world. Here they have to think about every detail of how characters move, and in this R-rated world, that could be while they’re having sex, fighting, crying, riding a chopper, and more. They only get about 8 seconds of animated footage per day per animator, and the production has about 40 sets/cameras with 2 animators per set. The series was greenlighted in September, they started shooting in January, and all 6 episodes of the first season will be completed in July. So it’s been rather fast despite the process.
The first 2 episodes of this zany-sounding show launch on July 22 on AMC+. I am looking forward to checking it out!
Virtual Festival Badges and Day Passes for Season 10 are still available. To purchase a Badge, Pass, or learn more, visit atxfestival.com/attend.
