July and August with filming commencing in September and wrapping in November. The completed season would "ideally" get delivered to HBO by December. The series came to a close after a four season run in 1999. Ullman began conceiving a new show in which she'd play only one or two characters with minimal makeup. "This time I'll play one or two characters [instead of all the characters]. I just don't want to put all that rubber on my face. That began to get really tedious. I've got make it easier on myself, and it'll be easier if I don't have to spend ten hours in make-up." Format A typical episode consists of two or three long sketches with interstitial character monologues all focusing on the episode's subject. However, every season featured one or two episodes which deviated from the show's regular format in favor of a single storyline (e.g., "Vegas", "Hollywood”, "Road Rage”, "The End of the World"). Opening title sequence and theme song Each episode of season one opened with Ullman asleep in bed, musing about the topic she would be taking on in that particular episode. This was her only appearance out of character in the show. This would end up becoming an issue for some viewers as many were unaware that Ullman was playing every character. The theme song was an original song performed by Ullman, describing the show's characters as "company in between [her] ears." A new opening was conceived for season two in which she opened the show with an anecdote or monologue in relation to each episode's subject. The show's theme song was also changed to her 1983 cover version of the Kirsty MacColl song "They Don't Know", with Ullman and her characters lip-syncing and dancing to it. In February 1998, Ullman revealed that some viewers were still unaware that she was playing all the characters, "We still get letters asking, 'Can I have a picture of Tracey and the rest of the cast?'" Advertising Famed caricaturist Al Hirschfeld's artistic rendering of Ullman surrounded her characters was used to promote the show's third season. In 1999, Ullman was featured in a Got Milk? ad campaign, along with three of her Tracey Takes On... characters, Kay Clark, Linda Granger, and Hope Finch. Character origins and development All of the characters in Tracey Takes On were original creations. Ullman shied away from doing straight-up impersonations of