There is a show called Hacks on the streaming service Max (formerly HBO Max).

In it, Jean Smart plays an aging comedian named Deborah Vance in the vein of Joan Rivers. She has won 2 Emmys for her role.




Why am I posting this on the football board? Because on this week's episode, Hacks visits UC Berkeley, Deborah Vance's alma mater, as the school has agreed to hand her an honorary degree.

But when she arrives, students discover all of her racist and ableist past jokes.

Anyways, here's how it went down, Berkeley-wise.

First, we get an establishing aerial shot that definitely looks like Berkeley.




Next we see Deborah Vance walking through campus.

Wow, the UC Berkeley campus looks a lot different in the 8 years since my last visit.

$c is used a lot to represent various college campuses in tv/movies. \_()_/

bluehenbear said:

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$c is used a lot to represent various college campuses in tv/movies. \_()_/

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Finding Elaine: UC Berkeley in "The Graduate" (1967) Pop Culture Pundit


https://popculturepundit.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/finding-elaine-uc-berkeley-in-the-graduate-1967/

" The Graduate is probably the most notable film to be partially set at my alma mater, and likely one of the only to have actually filmed there. As is show business, several shots of Cal within this film are really shot at USC (sss!) but several are filmed in the places and streets I called home for four years."

*I've attained the age where I think Jean Smart is still kinda hot, especially in that scene in Tony Goldwyn's hotel room.

My favorite story of a film being made on campus was a film about Patty Hearst.
The director/writer/producer wanted the SLA person to make a phone call to report on the successful kidnapping and for some reason they wanted it on Sproul. There are no phones on Sproul. So the film crew put up a fake phone booth. But didn't guard it. Several people entered trying to use the phone!

bearister said:

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bluehenbear said:

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$c is used a lot to represent various college campuses in tv/movies. \_()_/

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Finding Elaine: UC Berkeley in "The Graduate" (1967) Pop Culture Pundit


https://popculturepundit.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/finding-elaine-uc-berkeley-in-the-graduate-1967/

" The Graduate is probably the most notable film to be partially set at my alma mater, and likely one of the only to have actually filmed there. As is show business, several shots of Cal within this film are really shot at USC (sss!) but several are filmed in the places and streets I called home for four years."

*I've attained the age where I think Jean Smart is still kinda hot, especially in that scene in Tony Goldwyn's hotel room.

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You're totally overlooking that timeless classic, Junior. As everyone knows, it starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a fertility researcher at Cal who impregnated himself for an experiment. Many scenes were shot on campus, though not at the VLSB.

On a side note, parts of the 2000 film, Boys and Girls, were also filmed at Cal. The leads played Cal undergrads. There were the usual Sather Gate shots, but also a scene was filmed in Wheeler Hall, IIRC, though it was supposed to substitute for Sproul Hall. I only happen to remember this film because I not only watched parts of it being filmed at Cal but also was a background extra.

EtA: Now that I think about it, I don't think that registration scene was filmed on campus. Instead, there were flyers asking for Cal students to be extras to show up somewhere else (I don't remember where anymore) for that scene.

bearister said:

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bluehenbear said:

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$c is used a lot to represent various college campuses in tv/movies. \_()_/

---

Finding Elaine: UC Berkeley in "The Graduate" (1967) Pop Culture Pundit


https://popculturepundit.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/finding-elaine-uc-berkeley-in-the-graduate-1967/

" The Graduate is probably the most notable film to be partially set at my alma mater, and likely one of the only to have actually filmed there. As is show business, several shots of Cal within this film are really shot at USC (sss!) but several are filmed in the places and streets I called home for four years."

*I've attained the age where I think Jean Smart is still kinda hot, especially in that scene in Tony Goldwyn's hotel room.

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For the record: UC Berkeley wouldn't allow The Graduate to film on campus, thus why there's one stolen shot in Sproul Plaza.

Yeah, several films were filmed at UC Berkeley.

The first few minutes of this:




The lecture hall here is LeConte Hall, filmed during spring break 1998.

bearister said:

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*I've attained the age where I think Jean Smart is still kinda hot, especially in that scene in Tony Goldwyn's hotel room.

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Oh yeah?
Did you get a tingle?

ncbears said:

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My favorite story of a film being made on campus was a film about Patty Hearst.
The director/writer/producer wanted the SLA person to make a phone call to report on the successful kidnapping and for some reason they wanted it on Sproul. There are no phones on Sproul. So the film crew put up a fake phone booth. But didn't guard it. Several people entered trying to use the phone!

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Today's kids would surround it, looking in amazement. Some would ask, "what's that?!" Others would be exclaiming loudly, "they've done it! They've finally done it! Time travel has been invented at UC Berkeley!"

…. When I was in London this past summer, there were long lines (Asian tourists) to get pictures in front of the red phone booths down by Big Ben. I gawked at the fun they were having posing this way and that, all quite politely, mind you: "No, no, take your time. Here, give me your phone and I'll get some of both of you there."
We're talking like 20 people deep waiting for this. It was something else.



Ha! I went to search for a representative photo and the first people shown were from…. Wait for it…. San Francisco!
So it's not just tourists coming from Asia, which by the way represents an ever increasing segment of the European tourism market!
The article says this phone booth I mentioned is the most photographed one in all of London! Who knew!

https://londonist.com/london/features/is-this-the-most-photographed-phone-box-in-london

Maybe UC Berkeley can put a US booth on Sproul and charge 10 cents per pic - have it go to our NIL efforts!




Hmmm. I'm trying to get copilot to make the booth look more US style, and the gate to look more "Satherish".



Oh, well… moving on.
Maybe one of you whiz kids will have better success and say, "Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!"

They also had Cal putting Deborah Vance up at the Claremont Hotel so they had a quick drone shot of the hotel's exterior. It looked impressive.

Found the Cal connnection.

Hey! If you're an Emmys voter, please consider voting for Hacks, a show I wrote for, and Platonic, a show I acted on. Both are actual funny comedies. And Einbinder for Supporting! Seth and Rose for acting stuff! pic.twitter.com/UMBGdRpVKK

— Guy Branum (@guybranum) June 21, 2024