E! News is reporting that HBO’s 2005 original series, The Comeback, will get six more episodes. The show’s stars Lisa Kudrow, Malin Ackerman and Kellan Lutz are all expected to return.
HBO has yet to confirm the news, but E! said that production is scheduled to begin on May 19, and that the show will pick up with the story in real time, almost a decade after we last saw the characters.
In The Comeback, fame-crazed Valerie Cherish (brilliantly played by Lisa Kudrow, who also co-created the series) is the former TV star of I’m It, an eye-roller of a sexy workplace sitcom that peaked in the late 80s and declined after a poorly-timed Rodney King joke in 1992. Valerie Cherish, who has been chasing fame ever since her I’m It days, finally scores a gig with her own reality show, The Comeback — the show within the show. Throughout shooting The Comeback, Cherish is constantly undermined by her production crew and her self-serving attempts to put her best face forward.
When The Comeback aired in 2005, the timing wasn’t quite right. Today’s audience would be amazed at the show’s ability to satirize the desperation, narcissism and downright nastiness of the Kim and Kyle Richards of the world — five years before we ever saw a single episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. In 2005, however, The Comeback was too prophetic for its own good. Some people missed the bit — but not everyone. In the nine years since, The Comeback has achieved cult comedy status, making its revival — similar to Arrested Development‘s reprise last year — welcome news for fans.
Show co-creator Michael Patrick King told Entertainment Weekly back in Feb. that “Lisa [Kudrow] and I actually have had a couple of lunches lately where we’ve been missing Valerie and wondering where she’d be.” Two months later, it seems they have an answer.
For now, The Comeback is only slated for a limited run of six episodes, but what if Valerie Cherish finally finds her audience again? She could be here to stay.
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