The Comeback | |
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Genre |
Comedy-drama Satire Mockumentary Found footage |
Created by |
Lisa Kudrow Michael Patrick King |
Starring | Lisa Kudrow Malin Åkerman Robert Bagnell Lance Barber Robert Michael Morris Laura Silverman Damian Young |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 2 |
No. of episodes | 21 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
John Melfi (Season 1) Michael Patrick King Lisa Kudrow Dan Bucatinsky |
Camera setup | Single camera |
Running time | 30 minutes 42 minutes (Season 2 premiere) |
Production company(s) | Is or Isn't Entertainment Working Class Films Warner Bros. Television |
Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | HBO |
Original release |
First series: June 5 – September 4, 2005 Revived series: November 9, 2014 – present |
External links | |
Website |
The Comeback is an American television comedy-drama series produced by HBO that stars actress Lisa Kudrow as sitcom actress Valerie Cherish in modern-day Los Angeles. It was created by Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, a former executive producer of Sex and the City. Kudrow and King are also screenwriters and executive producers of the series, with King also serving as the director of some episodes. The series premiered on HBO on June 5, 2005 and aired for a single, 13-episode season before being canceled. The series was revived nine years later and an eight-episode second season aired on HBO beginning on November 9, 2014.
The show, a satirical, comedic look inside the entertainment television industry, is shot by a two-camera crew. Season 1 is presented as found footage shot for the fictional reality show within The Comeback, also called The Comeback. Season 2 is presented as found footage shot by a camera crew originally commissioned by Valerie to pitch a pilot to noted reality TV producer Andy Cohen, later repurposed as behind the scenes web content, and then into a full-scale documentary.
Kudrow has said that she, King, and HBO are all interested in producing a third season of the series.
The series initially follows Valerie Cherish (Kudrow), a veteran sitcom actress who has been out of the spotlight for more than a decade, as she attempts in 2005 to return to the industry that made her famous. Valerie lands a role on a new network sitcom called Room and Bored, but struggles with the matter of being an aging, non-influential performer in an increasingly youthful Hollywood, while her every move on and off the set is being documented for a companion reality show.
In 2014, Valerie is cast as a fictionalized version of herself in an HBO series entitled Seeing Red, which chronicles the career of the sitcom writer/producer who tormented her nine years earlier. A documentary film crew captures her second career resurgence as it threatens to destroy her personal life.