This is Deborah Vance's world, and we're just living in it.
“Hax” producers Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Gene Statsky have spent the past few seasons establishing the visual aesthetic of Deborah (Jane Smart) — she’s big, bold and gorgeous; and production designer Rob Tokarz, who earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the sitcom “Max,” has looked for ways to expand that vision whenever the opportunity arises, especially when it comes to new spaces.
In episode eight, which earned Tokarz an Emmy nomination for “Yes, And,” Deborah finds herself in a double bind. She’s scheduled to appear at a gay pride event in Palm Springs, and she’s also getting an honorary degree from UC Berkeley. She’s faced with a tough choice, but she needs to make a splash, and UC Berkeley is the place to do it. It’s her final push to land a job as a late-night host, and a lot is riding on it.
Several events take place at a fraternity party, a new setting for Tokarz, but he was able to draw on his personal experience, dating back to his graduate school days. “I was going to paint the room I was living in,” he admits. “I was very bold about it, but it didn’t work out at all. I saw the color choice for this room and thought it would make things look cool.”
He added that he wanted the room to look “visually dirty and messy.” He put in a mix of decorations like a lizard tank, a weightlifting bench, a bong and posters, the idea being that the room would look like a jumble of “unadorned” things.
The fraternity room needed to feel “sticky”.
Things don't go well for Deborah when old videos of her start circulating, and subsequent events cause her to stay away from campus. She misses out on the Palm Springs Pride event, which included a dedicated area for Deborah Vance fans.
However, Tokarz had to build Deborah Vance's activation space in Palm Springs, so he spent time searching. The production team found a home that screamed mid-century modern in Palm Springs with an open backyard, a pool, and amazing views.
Rob Tokarz filled Vance's home with items sold by Deborah Vance on QVC.
While decorating it, Tokarz had conversations with Aniello, Downs, and Statsky, and the approach was similar to that of making any other collection—start with more and scale back.
“We brought everything we could imagine from previous episodes of Deborah Vance's World, along with things she would sell on QVC, and filled the house with them,” he says.
From there, he branded it with banners and a light blue color. “We wanted to make it pretty because it’s called Deborah Vance and it’s her lifestyle collection,” Tokarz says. “We wanted it to look like it was proud.” Tokarz also worked on the familiar.
Production designer Rob Tokarz took a look at the installations for Vance's home.
This season, Deborah's love of the holidays finally shines through in the Christmas episode “The Deborah Vance Christmas Spectacular.” The Tokars transform their sprawling Las Vegas mansion into a winter wonderland, complete with faux snow and a giant gingerbread house.
He looked to previous seasons when it came to building the set. “We used the nutcrackers from season one, and we had a Christmas room full of Deborah decorations that we folded up,” he says.
What color would Tokarz never use when working on existing or new spaces for Deborah Vance's world? While gold is a favorite color, yellow is a color that doesn't fit her world.
