{"id":387282,"date":"2026-03-16T02:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T02:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/387282\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T02:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T02:49:11","slug":"lisa-kudrow-satirizes-ai-in-season-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/387282\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow Satirizes AI in Season 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSeason 3 of \u201cThe Comeback<\/a>\u201d premiered at SXSW<\/a> at the Paramount Theater on Sunday to an adoring audience who welcomed the show \u2014\u00a0and co-creators Lisa Kudrow<\/a> and Michael Patrick King<\/a> \u2014 back after its 11 1\/2-year absence. Throughout the two episodes screened, the crowd regularly burst into laughter and then applause, indicating that the character of Valerie Cherish, Kudrow and King\u2019s iconic creation, has been sorely missed: The show\u2019s third (and final) season will premiere on HBO on March 22.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Comeback\u201d has set its penetrating sights on artificial intelligence for Season 3, as Valerie, who\u2019s grudgingly taken up podcasting with her show \u201cCherish the Time\u201d after the cancellation of her two-season mystery series \u201cMrs. Hat\u201d (on which she played Mrs. Hat), which aired on Epix (and therefore, no one knew it existed). The third season opens during Valerie\u2019s never-launched stint as Roxie Hart in \u201cChicago\u201d during summer 2023\u2019s Writers Strike. After an incredible cameo from former SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, the story jumps forward three years, as Valerie is offered a starring role on the first show ever to be written by AI. The story unfolds from there, with Kudrow\u2019s producing partner, Dan Bucatinsky, playing Billy Stanton (Valerie\u2019s producing partner); Laura Silverman reprising her role as Jane Benson, the producer of Valerie\u2019s once and future reality show; and Damian Young returning as Valerie\u2019s loving, ever-frustrated husband, Mark Berman.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Q&A after the episodes, King said that he and Kudrow would have lunch every few weeks and wonder what Valerie was up to. But it wasn\u2019t until the dual strikes of 2023, when the entertainment industry recognized that AI is an existential threat, that they felt like they\u2019d found something worthy of \u201cThe Comeback\u201d coming back. \u201cOnce we came up with the idea of Valerie and AI, it felt like the same energy as Valerie and reality TV 20 years ago,\u201d King said. \u201cAnd once that happened, Lisa was like, \u2018That\u2019s it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the moderator asked Kudrow how quickly she can slip back into the role of Valerie, Kudrow said: \u201cShe\u2019s never gone. I have to stop myself from actually saying to people, \u2018Didja? Aw.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the AI aspect, King said they were worried when they first started writing that they needed to come up with a grand conclusion, but then realized that actually, their \u201cjob is to report right now what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEverybody is panicked and desperate,\u201d Kudrow said. \u201cAnd everybody is curating their own reality show, and posting it on the worldwide platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKing said that when they pitched Casey Bloys, HBO\u2019s chairman \u2014\u00a0who was their original executive on \u201cThe Comeback\u201d \u2014\u00a0he greenlit the third season right away, saying they needed to get the show on HBO immediately before any of the studios admit they are using AI.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show filmed in Los Angeles over the summer, and Bucatinsky said that when he first saw Kudrow in Valerie\u2019s wig, he thought, \u201cHi, old friend.\u201d Silverman said she wanted to \u201csoak it all in one last time\u201d and \u201chad the best time of my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNew to the cast is Jack O\u2019Brien, the three-time Tony award-winning director of such plays as \u201cHairspray\u201d and \u201cThe Coast of Utopia.\u201d O\u2019Brien plays Tommy, a former TV hair stylist (and an octogenarian), who Valerie runs into in the Season 3 premiere and quickly becomes part of her entourage.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is a person missing here: the beloved Mickey,\u201d O\u2019Brien said, referring to Robert Michael Morris, who played Mickey Deane, Valerie\u2019s hair stylist\/loyal companion\/cheerleader, and died in 2017. King cast Morris as Mickey because Morris had been an acting teacher, and King was one of his students. As O\u2019Brien put it, Morris then \u201cbecame an integral part of this knitting of these talented people.\u201d Valerie needs a Mickey in her corner; Tommy now serves that role.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m at the stage in my life when I just want to say yes to everything,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Comeback\u201d originally debuted on HBO in summer 2005, and, though it received Emmy nominations<\/a> \u2014 for comedy actress for Kudrow, directing for King and casting \u2014 it was canceled after one season, which was a shock to the creators, who assumed HBO would give it another chance<\/a>. Nine years later, after the show had ascended to cult-classic status, the network did: HBO revived \u201cThe Comeback\u201d for a second season in 2014, when it ran for eight perfect episodes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen \u201cThe Comeback\u201d lay fallow for another decade-plus, until last June when HBO announced<\/a> that it would return for a third \u2014 and final \u2014 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Season 3 of \u201cThe Comeback\u201d premiered at SXSW at the Paramount Theater on Sunday to an adoring audience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,57616,2694,62590,133715,128],"class_list":["post-387282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lisa-kudrow","tag-michael-patrick-king","tag-sxsw","tag-the-comeback","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116236580844069168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}