Tracey Ullman's State of The Union - Show Direction

Show Direction

The first season of the series is directed by Troy Miller. The show is shot in cutaway fashion.

"It's her kind of sketch show, where she plays many, many characters. No sketch is longer than a minute and a half. Each episode is a day in the life of the United States. You pop in on people all over the country, really quick visits. You'll go to some famous people. You'll see some recognizable faces and some regular Americans. You revisit characters from episode to episode. You'll go in and out, like the Google map of the U.S., in and out from the outer atmosphere. You'll go to Iowa and visit two women on a farm and then you'll pull out and go to Los Angeles and see Arianna Huffington, played by Tracey, in her boudoir, and then pull out and go to Washington, D.C. and see a woman who's an anchor for the evening news. Tracey will play 90 percent of the characters, men and women", as described by Showtime network executive, Robert Greenblatt.

From the Showtime press release, " Tracey tackles the country's celebrity-obsessed, 24- hour news culture by portraying a variety of characters from celebrities such as, Cameron Diaz, Renée Zellweger, Dina Lohan, Tony Sirico, David Beckham, Nancy Pelosi and Arianna Huffington. Additionally, Ullman has created a new line-up of original characters that reflect a cross-section of American society from an Indian pharmacist to a homeless woman without health insurance to a soldier on temporary leave from Iraq."

Much of the show's soundtrack, as well as the title music, is taken from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, popularly known as the "New World Symphony".

Each sketch lasts from a few seconds, to a few minutes, much like a Youtube clip, a style Ullman was looking to achieve. The series is narrated throughout by, Peter Strauss.

The series was inspired by a PBS commercial which featured a tractor and talked about a "farmer waking up in the Midwest to provide a high-quality breakfast to a child on the Pacific rim." "I just thought, 'What a nice journey across America,'" says Ullman.