HBO Max's Jean Smart Series Doesn't Have A Name Yet, But There's A Good Reason Why

The untitled Jean Smart series coming to HBO Max does not have an official title, and it's just months away from debuting on the streaming service. The series follows a young stand-up comedian who lands a job writing jokes for an older comedian who works nightly in Las Vegas.

During the TCA winter press tour, the cast discussed the upcoming show where they delved into why the series doesn't have a name yet. "I think part of what the challenge has been for a title is [that] the show really is trying to say so much at once," explained executive producer and series creator Lucia Aniello. "And I think to try to summarize so many different things with just one or two or three words is an interesting exercise, and I think we're in the middle of that exercise right now.

"But the show is obviously about a larger-than-life person, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart), and it also has a two handedness to it, but it also has an ensembleness to it as well. There's just so much that we want to say and so to kind of boil it down into just a quickie kind of a title is an interesting process, and I think we really are just trying to find something that feels like it represents what the show is."

The content of the series is obviously more important than the title--but a catchy title sure can grab viewers. The series follows legendary comedian Deborah Vance who forms a dark mentorship with Ava (Hannah Einbinder), a 25-year-old writer who ends up writing for Vance.

"Deborah's sort of on automatic pilot a bit, when we first meet her, which is why Paul (W. Downs)--who plays my manager--has insisted that I meet with this young person to punch up my act a little bit, which of course I resent because Deborah's always done her own writing," said Smart.

And neither of these characters--Deborah and Ava--can agree on what's funny because comedy is subjective, and it's all about the point of view of these characters. "Ava's point-of-view is that if the masses thinks something is funny, then it's not cool," Smart continued. "And if the masses like it, you know, if the people from Florida who eat at Panera like it, it's not funny."

Einbinder is exceptionally familiar with the world of stand-up, as a comedian herself. "I take a swing at it up there," Einbinder said. "I try my best, and I bomb, and I do well sometimes. It is an unmasterable craft. You can never be a perfect stand-up comedian."

While the show has the backbone of stand-up comedy, it is much more about Deborah and Ava's life off the stage and the relationship between these two characters from two very different generations. The show also features Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Candyman), Kaitlin Olson (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia), Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore), Paul W. Downs (Rough Night), Mark Indelicato (Ugly Betty), Poppy Liu (Better Call Saul), and more. The series is created by Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky, with Downs and Aniello serving as executive producers alongside Michael Schur, David Miner, and Morgan Sackett.

It was a big announcement day for HBO and HBO Max. The limited series Mare of Eastdown had a presentation where actor Kate Winslet discussed trying to tackle the very specific Delco accent.