When The Comeback first premiered in 2004, its sharp satire of reality television felt almost uncomfortably prescient. Two decades later, co-creators Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King reunite for the final chapter of Valerie Cherish’s desperate, enduring journey through Hollywood. At a recent press conference the pair explored how the rise of AI, industry-wide anxiety, and personal loss brought the iconic character back to screens one last time.
The AI Hellscape and Valerie’s Ultimate Challenge
For Kudrow and King, resurrecting Valerie Cherish required a premise large enough to match the stakes of modern Hollywood. Reality television represented an existential shift for scripted drama during the show’s initial run. Similarly, the rapid onset of AI provided the ultimate conflict for Valerie Cherish.
King explained that we felt the world had escalated to Valerie’s desperation in the first season. The rise was not due to AI, but to the world’s state and people seeking and keeping jobs. “Not because of AI, but because of where the world is, and people desperate to get a job, and keep a job… All of them really.”
The co-creators felt a strong urgency to capture the industry’s current uncertainty surrounding artificial intelligence before the technology became normalized. “Our goal was to get on the air before a studio admitted they were using AI,” King noted. “We wanted to be in ‘How?’ ‘What?’ phase, rather than the… ‘What if’ phase.” Kudrow added that the comedy of the season stems directly from the anxiety of the moment. “When we approach doing comedy on the subject of AI… it’s the daily hellscape that we’re living in.”
Honoring Robert Michael Morris and Navigating Loss
A central emotional anchor of the third season involves addressing the passing of actor Robert Michael Morris, who played Valerie’s beloved hairstylist and confidant, Mickey Deane. Kudrow admitted that after Morris passed away, she initially felt the show could not continue without him. However, the creative team ultimately channeled his absence into a layered storyline about grief, connection, and Valerie’s refusal to process pain directly.
“His story is a great victory,” King reflected. “He went from obscurity to when he died, the Entertainment Weekly headline of the article said, ‘Television Star Robert Michael Morris Dead.’ And so, I always got this great happiness about the fact that in that moment he was called a television star, which is something he would have loved.”
Kudrow shared a poignant detail from the writers’ room regarding how Valerie honors Mickey’s memory in her own complex way. “The one thing in the writer’s room Lisa kept repeating over and over again… is that Valerie designed the box,” King said, referring to Mickey’s urn. “So that she had enough of a connection to celebrate him at the end, even though she then immediately put it away.”
Visual Evolution and Taking Creative Risks
To reflect Valerie’s evolving psychological landscape, the new season expands its camera formats beyond traditional reality TV coverage to include security cameras, iPhones, and moments of unmediated cinematic reality. The series culminates in a finale that transitions from black-and-white film to full color, a deliberate risk designed to highlight Valerie’s core humanity.
“Showing a film, an actual film in black and white, felt weirdly like Valerie was Old Hollywood,” King explained. “What I love is the color coming in, it comes in right at the point that Valerie’s humanity really starts to make her… People saw Valerie as black and white. Victim, crazy. Loser, winner. There was no gray area. So, we started with a gray film and then brought her into color.”
Kudrow noted that throughout Valerie’s survival strategies and public embarrassments, her resilience remains a source of strength. “I do believe you create your own reality depending on how you’re perceiving everything,” Kudrow said. “When push comes to shove, she knows her craft… and even when she really knows stuff and someone’s trying to argue with her, she’s still pretty nice.”
The Trilogy’s Definitive Conclusion
Despite the decade-long gaps between previous seasons, both Kudrow and King confirmed that the third season marks the definitive end of The Comeback. When asked whether another milestone or industry shift could prompt a fourth season down the line, Kudrow was clear about the show’s structure.
“It’s a trilogy,” she stated simply. “We’re not doing a ‘quadrily.'”
Filmed entirely on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles during a quiet period for local production, the final season stands as both a love letter to classic television making and a final curtain call for one of comedy’s most enduring characters. “We wanted very much to show old and present Hollywood and potentially future Hollywood,” King said.
“The crew was beyond happy to come to work and have that gate go up in their hometown and do what those sound stages are made to do, which is create entertainment.”
The Comeback returns for its third and final season, premiering March 22 on HBO and available to stream on HBO Max.
