The last time we saw Valerie Cherish, star of an ancient, made up sitcom called “I’m It,” she was being ill used as an occasional punch line on a raunchy series “Room and Bored,” and chronicling her return in a reality show called “The Comeback.”
It was 2005.
But the HBO series on which this all unfolded, also called “The Comeback” (HBO, 10 p.m.) was canceled after its 13 episodes.
Tonight, nine months later, Lisa Kudrow’s comic creation returns once more.
Kudrow, over the phone from Los Angeles, says she was doing the Valerie Cherish character back when she was in an improv group, before she became a star on “Friends.”
“There was a character in The Groundlings, a monologue called Your Favorite Actress on a Talk Show,” she says.
“It was basically that voice, that sort of ‘Where’re you from?’ voice, kind of phony and insincere, like a talk show personality from back then.
In creating “The Comeback” with Michael Patrick King, Kudrow thought it would be funny to have this person who “is so in control about how they are coming off out and so presentational and mannered” try to be the center of attention in a reality show.
Back then, the kind of reality shows that tend to fill up cable schedules today were more rare. “The biographical ones were ‘The Osbournes’ and Anna Nicole Smith,” she says.
So Valerie thought she could control things, incessantly gesture time out to her long-suffering producer (Laura Silverman) for something she didn’t want in the show. The series, ostensibly made from raw footage, left it all in for a series that as a cutting edge example of cringe comedy ranked with “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and grew in stature since its single season.
And though it wasn’t been picked up for a second season when it aired (“which was weird”), they were sketching out plans for a second season.
In it, the reality show was a hit. “We established was that it got picked up after only one airing,” Kudrow says. “She would be sort of a success, and on ‘Room and Bored’ maybe things would change and Paulie G would be kicked out, and maybe [the one woman in the writers’ room] Gigi would run ‘Room and Bored’ and there would be a different set of nightmare issues for Valerie. And there might be a strain for Valerie and her husband Mark .”
Mark, played by Damian Young, is seen at the first season’s end concerned that Valerie is being sought for autographs. “He thought she was done,” Kudrow says. “We were just going to explore that stuff.”
But unexpectedly HBO canceled the series.
Because of time and temperament, and “The Comeback” attaining a cult status in the intervening years, a new team at HBO suggested its comeback. There were more than enough ideas to pursue, Kudrow says, and the return of “The Comeback” is something to cheer for old fans and first-timers.
More from the Kudrow interview I did for The Washington Post can be found here.