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Michael Patrick King"So we came up with the idea of a fictional reality show that would expose the most comic and tragic aspects of this character and the world she moves through." |
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HBO
How did you and Lisa Kudrow end up working together on The Comeback?
Michael
Lisa and I met in between jobs a very long time ago. She was guest starring on Mad About You and I was being fired from my first executive producer job. And we would stand in the parking lot and we would laugh at each other. And then Friends happened, and later on Sex and the City happened, and I would see Lisa at these Golden Globes and Emmy events. And she had become sort of this goddess - I would look at her and say, does she remember then? And she'd look at me and we had this great, distant remembering of our past lives. Then when our two shows finished, I got a call from Lisa saying, 'Do you want to have lunch with me? I want to talk about an idea for this character that I have.' So I went to the Beverly Hills Hotel for the Polo Lounge, which is very camp. And Lisa and I and John Melfi, now the executive producer who does the series with us - he couldn't be there, so she was holding his place.
We sat down, and Lisa and I started laughing immediately, because this character she had in mind was so - I don't know - comic and deluded and potentially ripe for anything. Lisa has a huge improvisational background, and I have a background in improvisation from a while ago, so I started improvising with her - like, what if the waiter said this? She was just able to go and go and go. Pretty soon it was unraveling and we were amusing ourselves, and we thought, well, if we're laughing, we're kind of hard about what's funny. Or we've actually become deluded into some sort of madness, and maybe everybody else will be laughing about it.
HBO
Did you draw on your own experiences in developing the character and the show?
Michael
I think every writer draws on their own experiences and combines them with their impulses. I followed Lisa's impulse for Valerie and then began to figure out the world around her. And I'm happy to say I have worked in the sitcom world and with many women, which makes me feel qualified to comment on both.
HBO
What would you like the audience to take away from their first encounter with Valerie?
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"Our journey, the fun of us writing the show and filming the show, is to find those moments when her life is bigger than her awareness of the camera, so we can zoom in there and actually get the crack of what is real." |
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Michael
I would like the audience to feel for her and be fascinated enough to tune in again to try and figure out more of who she is. She is very flawed but loveable. She has a dream - perhaps a foolish, ego-driven dream - but a dream that she cares about deeply. There are many layers to this woman, and the most important layer may be that she is always aware of the cameras. Our journey, the fun of us writing the show and filming the show, is to find those moments when her life is bigger than her awareness of the camera, so we can zoom in there and actually get the crack of what is real -- the moment when her feelings confuse her enough that she's actually naked.
HBO
The premise of the show is fairly complex - a fictional character in a fictional reality show, which revolves around an actress auditioning for a fictional situational comedy... How did you develop the idea behind the show?
Michael
When it became clear that the show was really about exposing the underside of this character, the idea for "reality TV" came into it. So we came up with the idea of a fictional reality show that would expose the most comic and tragic aspects of this character and the world she moves through. She has to struggle to find dignity in a situation where she can never get dignity. And the fun thing about this character is that she's really tough and really vulnerable at the same time. So as far as comedy goes, that's a dream.
HBO
Do you see The Comeback. as a reflection of, or comment on, the state of TV today?
Michael
It's really a character-driven, totally scripted comedy that plays out across all the franchises of current television. We picked the desperate and humiliating arena of current television to give us a vibrant antagonist to fuel the funny and sometimes heroic story lines. Yes, it is the story of Valerie Cherish, a 40ish actress trying to make "a comeback" in Hollywood, but it could just as easily be the story of someone trying to climb Mt. Everest... only this may be harder and hopefully funnier.
I think the last thing either of us really thought we were gonna be doing was a comment on television. But the only reason we're doing it is because it's a comment on television through this really comic, tragic character. And it's an amazing thing to see a new character appear that kind of knows who it is - and then you can just write the show.
But the whole thing wouldn't work if it was an essay. The only reason the show could possibly work is because of the emotional life of the main character, a fortyish (we don't know her age, we haven't asked) but a roughly fortyish actress being exposed to reality cameras. And one of the great 'cream pies,' if you will (we used to say that on Sex and the City whenever the girls got really cocky, we always said, here comes the 'cream pie' before something bad would happen to them) -- the great cream pie of the series is that Valerie signed up for it herself. She is literally, if you see the poster, she is grinding herself up to make television. And she's happy as a clam.
HBO
So it's a look at the reality of reality TV?
Michael
Right - we're showing you all the raw footage for what will become the reality show, and the people who are making the reality show, and what their role is. It is also quite a challenge, because there's a show-within-the-show-within-the-show. I always say, it's like a William Escher print, like which hand is drawing which? You don't quite know.
Eventually there will be an edited version of this show, a re-interpretation of everything we've just seen, which Valerie is not likely to have any control over. So it will be interesting to see how she reacts. But like the series itself, we're not happy unless people are laughing and then squirming, and then they don't know if they should cry... and then they're laughing again.
HBO
In addition to the candid look at reality shows, we also get to see the underbelly of a modern-day sitcom in the making.
Michael
It's really complicated microcosm of what's happening right now in television. I think it's all about the epic battle of reality TV versus traditional television, the old - school television represented by classic sitcoms - like Murphy Brown and Cheers - versus the new genre of sitcoms, which are pretty edgy and very youth-oriented. And The Comeback is rooted in this one woman's journey through this incredibly complex miasma. And it's Valerie Cherish - a product of the old world who is trying to be part of the new world. To me, it's (hopefully) a very hip show about somebody who's not so hip.
HBO
Could you ever imagine any one other than Lisa Kudrow playing Valerie Cherish?
Michael
The rule is, if you're gonna do a comedy, you have to have a nuclear comedy engine. Lisa Kudrow, she's comic in her own unique way. Even after ten years on Friends, people still haven't felt they've seen it all. In order to do a big comedy, you need a big comic star. And then in order to do something that is along the lines of what Lisa and I were interested in, where it would suddenly get sad, you need an amazing soul actress. You need somebody who can all of a sudden lift the mask off and just destroy you in a second. And not in a pathos, crappy, violiny way, but in a real, essentially human way. One of the great amazing splits in Lisa is that she's able to make you laugh and yet she really plays real people. And even though Valerie Cherish is an actress who has a faux personality and a faux exterior, she's a human being on the inside.
It comes right out of Lisa's eyes whenever you want it to, and it comes out all the time - which is what will hopefully make the series funny. You'll start to understand what she's thinking, because it's not a show that will ever tell you what she's thinking. She won't reveal that much of herself. So you need somebody like Lisa who can actually be hurt and be subtle, and that's what's great about the pilot. I really want to do work that captures the moments when one minute you're laughing and the next minute you're a little bit taken aback by crying, the complicated feelings that surface when the top layer is funny and underneath is a little heartbreaking. That was one of the joys of working on Sex and the City over the six years. We could let the characters be funny on the surface and emotional underneath. Lisa Kudrow has that ability, so we're gonna run with it.
She's also a brilliant writer. To see her sitting in the room with seven writers is quite an amazing experience. Lisa has said that this show represents her sense of humor. And it represents my sense of humor as well. So we're halfway through the season already and it's in bits and pieces that seem to be, 'Yeah, that's where we want to go.' Now, whether anybody else wants to go on that journey - I think with Lisa they will -but if anyone else wants to go on that journey, the expose of this moment in time, television, women, Hollywood, 'reality'... we'll see.
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HBO Store
Survive any bad hair day with The Comeback Cap.
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Video
Watch the promos, trailers and interviews for the show.
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