Carol Burnett is the latest A-lister to join the long list of Hollywood cameos and guest stars on Hacks.
The comedy legend appears in the season 4 episode, “I Love L.A.,” which debuted on Thursday, April 24. While Burnett’s cameo wasn’t as fiery as some of Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) other celebrity encounters audiences seen, it was a poignant moment on the Max original series.
During a chance meeting at the doctor’s office, Vance asks Burnett, 91, if she has any advice for dealing with stage fright — something that has plagued the comedian-turned-talk show host as she prepares to make her late-night debut in season 4.
“You know what did? I would pick one person in the audience and I would do the show just for them,” Burnett tells Vance before ending on some words of encouragement, “Listen, you’re gonna be wonderful. You always are.”
While speaking to PEOPLE, Hacks co-creators and co-showrunners Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky shared how they landed the comedic icon on the series, especially four seasons into its acclaimed run.
“We have been trying to get her on,” Aniello reveals. “We’ve gone up to her at events and said, ‘Hey, we come from the show Hacks. I dunno if you’ve ever seen it.’ And she’s like, ‘I have.’ And we’re like, ‘Great, so can you come on?’ ”
“We actually heard that she was a fan of the show and we were like, ‘Geez, that would be so perfect to have her on, especially this season with the story that we’re telling,’ ” Downs adds, explaining that Hacks “is about telling the stories of female comedians who didn’t get their due in the same way that their male counterparts had.”
He continues, “And so, for someone like Carol Burnett to want to do it, I mean, she’s a living legend. So it was really special and really cool ’cause we were filming it at Television City, which is where The Carol Burnett Show was filmed.”
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However, they couldn’t have Burnett on just for any moment — they wanted to make sure it was something special and something that fit in with what was happening on the series.
“It was very scene specific,” Statsky says of the scene that worked best for having Burnett on. “There are so many people we’re fans of that we’re like, ‘Oh God, that would be amazing.’ But we already try to be story first and character first, so you never want to just shoehorn someone in just to have them. So this finally felt like a really lovely moment for her to come into the Hacks world.”
“To have her and Deborah get to sit and talk about performing and how it feels to be a performer and stage fright, it just feels like such a special moment that we’re really happy to have in the show,” Statsky continues. “It’s an all-timer for us.”
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Of course, having Burnett on set did not disappoint.
“She was so sweet and funny. On the day, she had her own ideas. She came in with stuff and was improvising,” Aniello says, while Statsky adds, “Like, my expectations were obviously sky high ’cause she’s a comedy legend and they were only exceeded.”
For Downs, who directed the episode, “it was a crazy bucket list moment.” He adds, “I don’t think Hacks would exist without her and people like her, so it was a pinch-me moment but also crazy to be like, ‘I’m gonna give a note to an icon.’ ”
“But I will say this, she takes direction very well,” he says.
As for what Smart thought of reuniting with Burnett after the first two worked together on-screen in a 2013 episode of Hot in Cleveland, where they played a mother-daughter duo, it was just as exactly as she hoped.
“She is so sharp. She is so funny. She’s so down to earth and kind and sweet,” Smart, 73, said during an FYC event with reporters, which PEOPLE attended, adding, “If I can be here when I’m 91, I’ll be the luckiest woman in the world.”
Later, while speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Smart said, “It was such a treat to have her… There’s nobody like her in terms of comedy and just being an incredibly cool human being.”
Burnett, meanwhile, added that she was “thrilled to get in the sandbox” with Smart 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.
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