How often do you catch references to theme parks in movies and TV shows?
I caught a relatively deep-cut reference to a Universal theme park in this week's season finale of "Hacks." Even though Hacks is an HBO Max show, it is not a Warner Bros. Discovery production. NBCUniversal owns the show, and the company's Universal Studios Hollywood backlot appears frequently as a location in the show.
One of the industry in-jokes on Hacks is that the show uses both Universal Studios Hollywood and Television City (the old CBS studios) as filming locations for the studio where Deborah Vance (played by Jean Smart) shoots her late-night TV show. If you know your way around LA, you know that these locations are not close to each other. It's at least a 30 minute drive between the two, with traffic.
But in the season finale, Hacks hits the road, allowing Universal to sneak in a reference to another one of its theme park resorts. And it is not Universal Orlando. Instead, this week's Hacks spends time at the home of another Universal theme park - Universal Studios Singapore.
The Singapore theme park does not appear in the show, save for one very long shot where you can glimpse it in the background. But much of the episode plays at Resorts World Sentosa, the integrated resort that includes the Universal theme park. In the show, Smart's character is a former Las Vegas casino comic, and Resorts World Sentosa also includes a major casino, where some of the episode's action takes place.
It's not uncommon to see Universal and Disney shoot its TV shows in its theme parks in Southern California and Central Florida. But it's rare to see the companies feature their theme parks abroad. (For what it's worth, Universal Studios Singapore is not owned by NBCUniversal, but is owned and operated under license by Resorts World Sentosa. But the two companies obviously are financial partners, which likely made arrangements for this episode's production easier.)
So that rarity made this reference worth noting for me. Also, there's the fact that I am a big fan of Hacks. (There is a worthless imaginary bonus point available to anyone who can mention in the comments the episode of the show in which I appear. I'm just an uncredited background actor, but you can see me clearly on screen, if you do not blink.)
* * *
To keep up with more Universal and theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
When I think of theme parks in movies/TV shows, I think about Viper at SFMM in Final Destination 3, Kennywood in Adventureland, and Freestyle Music Park/Hard Rock Park being used in the TV show Revolution.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
I think of National Lampoon's Vacation...
Wally World...