{"id":3712,"date":"2026-04-13T04:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/3712\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T04:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T04:47:15","slug":"the-comeback-dan-bucatinsky-on-ai-and-shrinking-tv-budgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/3712\/","title":{"rendered":"The Comeback: Dan Bucatinsky on AI and Shrinking TV Budgets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: This story includes details about Episode 4 of \u201cThe Comeback<\/a>\u201d Season 3, now available on HBO Max.<\/p>\n

\n\tBilly Stanton, Valerie Cherish\u2019s longtime publicist-turned-manager-turned-producing partner on \u201cThe Comeback,\u201d is more than ready for his closeup.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Episode 4, Billy, played by Dan Bucatinsky<\/a>, is being photographed for a fictional Variety 50 Over 50 issue. When Valerie [Lisa Kudrow] interrupts the shoot, Billy begs her to step away. \u201cI am suicidal for some solo press,\u201d Billy says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had that line etched on glasses that I gave as wrap gifts to everybody, and they were signed, \u2018Billy Stanton,\u2019\u201d says Bucatinsky, who also serves as a co-creator and executive producer of the three-season HBO series. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable how that line tells you everything you need to know, and it just encapsulates so much of Hollywood. It says it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen \u201cThe Comeback\u201d premiered in 2005, Billy was a publicist at legendary PR firm PMK. By the time Season 3 rolled around, 21 years later, he\u2019s been asked to be a producer on \u201cHow\u2019s That?!,\u201d Valerie\u2019s new sitcom that\u2019s being secretly written by AI.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m an EP. I can get a parking spot and wear fucking cool clothes,\u201d Bucatinsky says of Billy, who spends most of his time in Season 3 wearing Thom Browne skirts. \u201cI can finally get my perks and all the fringes that come with being an EP. We\u2019re meeting Billy at a time where he\u2019s going to take advantage of anything that comes his way, whether it be a gift bag or to be one of the 50 Over 50 in Variety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut is Billy finally happy? \u201cI would have to say no,\u201d Bucatinsky says. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s love in his life. I think that the dedication and preoccupation with attention that Billy has now developed over the last 20 years is a false journey towards what he believes will bring him happiness, like any drug addict, a fast hit of some publicity. But then what do you do when you wake up in the morning with nobody in your bed? I don\u2019t think Billy is feeling happy \u2014 not yet. I think when you see the end of this season, I think Billy will find a sense of purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile \u201cThe Comeback\u201d is clearly a comedy, its emotional and dramatic arcs give audiences a real glimpse into the realities of how Hollywood is struggling right now. With budgets being slashed across the studio system and the omnipresent fear that AI is taking away jobs, it can feel at times that Hollywood is on the brink of an implosion.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one scene in Episode 4, Valerie asks \u201cHow\u2019s That?!\u201d writer Mary Abrams (Abbi Jacobson) to polish up a script because she\u2019s not happy with the AI-generated version. Mary lashes out at Valerie, using the harshest of language to let her know that she doesn\u2019t care about the show and that her only goal is to make enough money to move her and her kids as far away from Los Angeles as possible.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t care that Rome is burning,\u201d Mary snaps.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven so, Bucatinsky insists that \u201cThe Comeback\u201d isn\u2019t taking any side in the AI debates.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are representing Valerie\u2019s point of view, which is, \u2018I just want to work no matter what it takes,\u2019 and the point of view of the writer who\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m not going to play this game this way,\u2019\u201d he explains. \u201cYou\u2019re showing humans, you\u2019re showing human experiences and not coming down on whatever the issues are. In other words, you\u2019re not preaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Comeback\u201d has certainly felt real-life studio number-crunching. While Season 1 had about 10 writers in the writers\u2019 room, the eight-episode Season 3 only has three. \u201cIt was out of necessity and budget,\u201d Bucatinsky says. \u201cIf we were doing 10, 12 or 13 episodes, we would have needed more writers, but the budget for our eight episodes was not huge. We\u2019re not \u2018Euphoria.\u2019 We don\u2019t get the audience that \u2018Euphoria\u2019 gets. So we had to do everything on a budget, including the writing of those episodes that Lisa and Michael [Michael Patrick King] cranked out every single draft of. It was an economics thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith that knowledge in mind, the already very meta show gets even more meta as audiences watch Valerie so dedicated to making \u201cHow\u2019s That?!\u201d work.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always thought of Valerie as a heroic figure,\u201d Bucatinsky says. \u201cShe can flip the switch. She can flip the narrative in a positive way, no matter what\u2019s thrown her way. Yeah, there\u2019s less work now, and yeah, it\u2019s written by AI, but look at the 200, 300 people we get to employ. She\u2019s able to find a path towards adapting, pivoting and being happy regardless of what comes her way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: This story includes details about Episode 4 of \u201cThe Comeback\u201d Season 3, now available on HBO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,3594,3595,268],"class_list":{"0":"post-3712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-dan-bucatinsky","11":"tag-just-for-variety","12":"tag-the-comeback"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}