The Comeback: A Michael Patrick King Conversation on TV Comedy Writing Starring Lisa Kudrow

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In this Michael Patrick King conversation, the legendary showrunner breaks down the premium TV comedy writing and satirical comedy structure behind The Comeback starring the equally impressive as Lisa Kudrow playing Valerie Cherish.

The series — a solid industry satire tracking an ex-A list sitcom star’s desperate fight for relevance — takes a bold turn as Valerie enters an unfamiliar network landscape completely disrupted by emerging automation. Through this profound Valerie evolution, the series weaponizes comedy to execute a timely, meta AI in Hollywood script framework, exploring what happens when a human actress must breathe life into soulless software-generated material and ultimately proving why human storytellers remain the true heart and soul of Hollywood.

The Comeback has enjoyed three seasons spanning from 2005 – 2026. That’s almost a decade between seasons. It’s not that co-creator, executive producer, director and writer Michael Patrick King works slowly, it’s more a case of studios cancelling the show and bringing it back at the behest of fans.

King directed every episode in Season 3 and many episodes in the previous seasons. So, he’s a true multi-hyphenate.

“Everybody knows how important the page is, but how many ways it doesn’t become page to the stage correctly. I think that the directing is really the best friend of the writing. It’s so important as a writer to have a director that can lift up and frame the words, the feelings, the emotions,” King notes.

Valerie Cherish and Jimmy Burrows in The Comeback Season 3 on HBO Max

Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) and Jimmy Burrows. Photo Photograph by Erin Simkin/ HBO

During his days on writing on another HBO success story, Sex and the City, King understood the importance of directors who truly understand the material and elevate it into “one big piece.”

You’re aware of this giant quilt that you’re making the whole way

The Comeback is “a show about Hollywood in Hollywood.” As a bonus, the series is actually filmed in Los Angeles. The cast and crew would “come from their houses to Warner Brothers. And we had two big sound stages at Warner Brothers, like the olden days,” King adds.

The Comeback: Season 3 – Written by AI – With Some Human Input

In a sharp jab at the current state of the industry, Valerie gets cast in her first multi-cam TV show. Yay! But it’s written by AI. Boo!

Michael Patrick King had a clear vision for filming in the old studio style. A ton of cameras and the directror were on set constantly tweaking lines with the actors. And everyone was having fun, except for Jimmy Burrows, who quit because he wasn’t.

“First of all, it was like being at a great party,” King reflects. “I thought to myself, if you’re not having fun doing this, which is this weird fairy tale of getting canceled in 2005, and then 10 years later, having the DVD interest bring you back, and being offered to do it again, and then coming up with an idea 11 years later… that it’s just a very magical thing,” he mentions.

Valerie Cherish and husband Mark Berman in their condo

Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) & Mark Mark Berman (Damian Young) Photo by Photograph by Erin Simkin/ HBO

Filming Documentary Style Raw Footage

The first season of The Comeback is essentially raw footage filmed by two documentary cameras. “It’s the dance between Valerie, who is desperate to be in the spotlight, getting trapped in an unedited version of her embarrassment and her need,” King recalls. It was initially going to be a single camera show at HBO, but everyone soon realized that having two cameras was going to be the prototype with a “raw footage vibe.”

At the end of Season 2, Valerie got sick and had to leave the Emmys “because life became bigger than awards to her for the first time.” It was a pivotal moment for her when she walks away from the real world and leaves the cameras behind.

“It’s almost like Dorothy going from the Black and White into the color in The Wizard of Oz,” King continues. It was a big swing as audiences see the real Valerie. At the time, it was unclear if there was going to be a third season. Eleven years later, Season 3 was greenlit. This brings another set of considerations to the fore.

“How do we give people what they remember, which is the dark camera, embarrassing, quick movements, and bring in the fact that real life is there?” ponders King. “The only way I could think to do it was like three-card Monty, where you move the camera so fast you don’t know where the ace is.”

“The first thing I thought was if we give them enough screens, they won’t think about which screen we’re on. Because the world is all about screens now. Everybody’s on a screen. You see people walking down the street having, you know, FaceTime conversations on the screen. And everybody is sort of Valerie now. Everybody’s tweaking their image in their Instagram stories.”

Everybody is a collection of energies on screens

Mutliple Multi-cams

The Comeback become a blend of traditional cameras and documentary cameras in Season 3.

“We had two traditional cameras, two doc cams, and then Ella Stiller, who plays Patience, her social media person. She was actually filming with an iPhone that we used the footage from,” King notes. This gives the impression of something happening right now.

“The aim was to get Valerie, but then spill over and get reactions from people, and come back to her. Everybody was excited, because in these scenes you’re going to see everybody filming the multi-cam, and everybody is in shot.”

“It all became a game, but it was really about creating. The other type of camera we used was security cameras in houses, because every rich person’s house I go into has nine cameras shooting nothing.”

Filming in Valerie and her husband Mark’s (Damian Young) condo was like a maze. You had to figure out what room they were in like an interactive game.

Michael Patrick King concludes that the challenge to directing so many actors with so many cameras is to trust.

‘Trust that everybody that’s doing great camera work is great. We had eight monitors, but you can’t see everything. And when you get in the editing room, you’re like, ‘Wow, look at what everybody did.’ You can’t micromanage. You can design a marching plan for everybody to be in the moment.”

“Even the multi-cam operators knew what they were doing because they were filming a sitcom within a sitcom. You feel like you’re, you’re in a troop rather than sitting in your chair, barking at people, because there’s no way you could cover all that.”

“There was the joy of seeing Lisa in a writing room, writing it, and then forgetting that she wrote it, and just be in the moment.”

“Valerie’s talking all the time. Lisa would do nine pages one day, one time, and she’s finally forgot where she was. And she said, ‘How can I still be the only one talking?'”

Patience as Valerie Cherish's socail media director on The Comeback Season 3

Patience (Ella Stiller). Photo by Erin Simkin/HBO

Directing Lisa Kudrow

“Lisa doesn’t repeat takes. I think the curse for her is being in the moment, not being in the moment,” King notes.

“So I just watch her. And when something isn’t working, I usually do something to get her in the moment. I might have an extra bump into her. She’s a joy to watch, because it’s believable, and yet, broadly comic.”

“It’s really interesting. There’s really little to say on set. She knows what we wrote. But she will also say, ‘I think it’s moving too slow. And am I too slow?’ And I say, ‘I don’t think so. I think you’re doing great.'” It’s just very collaborative and really fun.

Where did Valerie Put Her Late Hair Stylist’s Ashes?

King draws our attention to the storage unit scene where she’s looking for the ashes of her late hairstylist, Mickey, played by Robert Michael Morris. She’s misplaced them in the move.

“Valerie does so well in that scene. The fluidity of moving seamlessly from the iPhone conversation to the mirror, to her exit – but also the fluidity of the emotions going from hysterically funny to really emotional. We don’t see Valerie like that very often. The trick of the mirror and that little tiny sliver of a crack of her inner voice makes it.”

“The other thing that’s really interestingl about that scene is that is not a burn in. That phone call was actually happening. The actress was in the parking lot outside the storage unit. That’s in real time. Lisa’s playing with it.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Josh (John Early) is the over-emotional, very protective, sitcom writer who stomps his feet because he’s upset over certain wardrobe choices.