Emmy-Nominated Comedy Series Contenders Unveil How Exploring Other Genres Strengthened Their Work at Variety TV FYC Fest: The Nominees

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Selena Kuznikov At the end of “Hacks” Season 3, co-creator, co-showrunner, executive producer and writer Jen Statsky said Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels’ (Hannah Einbinder) relationship has hit a point it’s never seen before – and the writers have had to find a way to mind the comedy and emotional stakes following it. “You always want to be funny first and think of the comedy and think of the jokes, but their relationship is very real, very fraught, very difficult,” Statsky said. “And that also gives us a lot to play with.” Statsky, writer and producers Jake Bender and Zach Dunn of “What We Do in the Shadows,” director and executive producer of “Abbott Elementary” Randall Einhorn and writer, director and executive producer of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” Jeff Schaffer joined the Variety TV FYC Fest: The Nominees to discuss their respective shows.

Einhorn, who previously worked on shows like “The Office,” “Parks and Rec,” but also “Survivor,” said his experience in reality TV helped him strengthen his directing on “Abbott Elementary.” “I certainly use a lot of techniques from reality and from documentaries,” Einhorn explained. “For instance, whenever we see Janine and Gregory together, we just back up and get longer on the lens.

And I think what that does is it makes the scene ring truer. It kind of veneers it with this authenticity of, I believe that they’re not aware of the cameras.

We put a little foreground in there and we make it seem like they’re not aware of us for these voyeuristic moments that I think feel very rich.” Bender and Dunn similarly use a mockumentary format in “What We Do in the Shadows,” which Bender says feels like is “the whole joke of the show.” “We get into it a little bit in the final.