How Hacks Landed Carol Burnett for Season 4 Cameo with Jean Sensible (Unique)

Carol Burnett is the most recent A-lister to affix the lengthy listing of Hollywood cameos and visitor stars on Hacks.

The comedy legend seems within the season 4 episode, “I Love L.A.,” which debuted on Thursday, April 24. Whereas Burnett’s cameo wasn’t as fiery as a few of Deborah Vance’s (Jean Sensible) different movie star encounters audiences seen, it was a poignant second on the Max unique collection. 

Throughout an opportunity assembly on the physician’s workplace, Vance asks Burnett, 91, if she has any recommendation for coping with stage fright — one thing that has plagued the comedian-turned-talk present host as she prepares to make her late-night debut in season 4.  

” what did? I’d decide one particular person within the viewers and I’d do the present only for them,” Burnett tells Vance earlier than ending on some phrases of encouragement, “Pay attention, you are gonna be fantastic. You all the time are.”

Whereas chatting with PEOPLE, Hacks co-creators and co-showrunners Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky shared how they landed the comedic icon on the collection, particularly 4 seasons into its acclaimed run. 

“We now have been attempting to get her on,” Aniello reveals. “We have gone as much as her at occasions and mentioned, ‘Hey, we come from the present Hacks. I dunno for those who’ve ever seen it.’ And he or she’s like, ‘I’ve.’ And we’re like, ‘Nice, so are you able to come on?’ ” 

“We truly heard that she was a fan of the present and we have been like, ‘Geez, that may be so excellent to have her on, particularly this season with the story that we’re telling,’ ” Downs provides, explaining that Hacks “is about telling the tales of feminine comedians who did not get their due in the identical method that their male counterparts had.” 

He continues, “And so, for somebody like Carol Burnett to wish to do it, I imply, she’s a dwelling legend. So it was actually particular and actually cool ‘trigger we have been filming it at Tv Metropolis, which is the place The Carol Burnett Present was filmed.” 

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Nonetheless, they could not have Burnett on only for any second — they wished to ensure it was one thing particular and one thing that slot in with what was taking place on the collection. 

“It was very scene particular,” Statsky says of the scene that labored finest for having Burnett on. “There are such a lot of individuals we’re followers of that we’re like, ‘Oh God, that may be wonderful.’ However we already attempt to be story first and character first, so that you by no means wish to simply shoehorn somebody in simply to have them. So this lastly felt like a extremely beautiful second for her to come back into the Hacks world.” 

“To have her and Deborah get to sit down and speak about performing and the way it feels to be a performer and stage fright, it simply appears like such a particular second that we’re actually comfortable to have within the present,” Statsky continues. “It is an all-timer for us.” 

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After all, having Burnett on set didn’t disappoint. 

“She was so candy and humorous. On the day, she had her personal concepts. She got here in with stuff and was improvising,” Aniello says, whereas Statsky provides, “Like, my expectations have been clearly sky excessive ‘trigger she’s a comedy legend they usually have been solely exceeded.” 

For Downs, who directed the episode, “it was a loopy bucket listing second.” He provides, “I do not suppose Hacks would exist with out her and other people like her, so it was a pinch-me second but in addition loopy to be like, ‘I am gonna give a observe to an icon.’ ”

“However I’ll say this, she takes path very nicely,” he says. 

As for what Sensible considered reuniting with Burnett after the primary two labored collectively on-screen in a 2013 episode of Scorching in Cleveland, the place they performed a mother-daughter duo, it was simply as precisely as she hoped. 

“She is so sharp. She is so humorous. She’s so all the way down to earth and type and candy,” Sensible, 73, mentioned throughout an FYC occasion with reporters, which PEOPLE attended, including, “If I will be right here after I’m 91, I will be the luckiest girl on the earth.”

Later, whereas talking with Leisure Weekly, Sensible mentioned, “It was such a deal with to have her… There’s no person like her by way of comedy and simply being an extremely cool human being.” 

Burnett, in the meantime, added that she was “thrilled to get within the sandbox” with Sensible as Vance.

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New episodes of Hacks season 4 debut Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Max.