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Lisa Kudrow’s mockumentary series The Comeback is back this November, after 9 years in hibernation.
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The Comeback was cancelled by HBO after one—hilarious, pathetic, scary-honest—season of 13 episodes. The comeback features only 6-episodes so far.
In The Comeback, Lisa Kudrow—who was raised in a middle-class Jewish family in LA, and had a Bat Mitzvah—plays 1980s D-grade sitcom actress Valerie Cherish who, when she was in her mid-twenties, starred as the central character on a sexually charged workplace sitcom known as I’m It!
The show was a moderate hit during its first three seasons, then ratings began to fall and the network killed it after 97 episodes—just too few episodes to be in syndication.
Valerie vows that she will make a comeback, which is her ultimate goal as an actress. She agrees to star on a reality television series called The Comeback, which will chronicle the resurgence of a former sitcom actress’ flagging career as she auditions for a starring role on a new network sitcom called Room and Bored, about four sexy, 30-something singles living in an LA condo.
She wins the role, and as the production of Room and Bored begins, Valerie’s part is significantly reduced to that of the lead character’s aunt and landlord, Aunt Sassy, who is portrayed as loveless, out of touch, and pathetic.
It’s the kind of role Kudrow was born to play, with a bluntness that’s almost too pathetic to bear. She’s funny the way someone else’s cold sore is funny—it’s all about the relief we feel at not having it happen to us.
We’re hooked.
So, when we last saw Valerie she made yet another memorable appearance on The Jay Leno Show and her relationship with the team behind her new sitcom Room and Bored was disintegrating quickly. But first, episode 1: