Most of the reporters on hand for TCA summer press tour are counting the days until The Comeback’s return in November. Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King talked to us about Valerie Cherish’s triumphant return. As I wrote at Quartz,
While Kudrow and her co-creator Michael Patrick King had talked casually over the years about what Valerie might be up to now, “it was too much of an emotional risk” to think seriously about the idea, Kudrow said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. That changed when HBO called them in, after two network staffers persuaded HBO programming president Michael Lombardo to consider reviving it. “It just started with a kernel of a creative idea,” said Lombardo. “We started imagining it, and we called Michael Patrick King and Lisa. They came in for a meeting and it was so exciting, funny and it just happened.”
They, and HBO execs, also talked about how much reality TV — and HBO — has changed in the nine years since The Comeback went off the air, and what could be next for the show.