Product Description

(HBO Comedy Series) Ten years ago she was TV's "It" girl. Now It's a different story. For Valerie Cherish, no price is too high to pay for clinging to the television spotlight. Lisa Kudrow stars as Valerie Cherish, a former B-list sitcom star so desperate to revive her career that she agrees to star in a reality television show called The Comeback.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Audio Commentary
Interviews:Valerie?s DVD Interview
Other:Valerie Backstage at Dancing with the Stars

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16229 in DVD
• Brand: HBO HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2006-08-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 30 minutes

Amazon.com
How wickedly ironic--and delicious--that Lisa Kudrow's single season of The Comeback provided the talented actress with enough meat for her to be nominated for an Emmy--after the show was canceled by HBO. Kudrow went for the Anti-Phoebe role after the demise of Friends, demonstrating her spectacular acting chops and range of comic abilities. The show centered on Kudrow's playing an actress, once the ingénue of the moment, trying ever more desperately to get back into the limelight. The vehicle of choice: a reality "series" that follows Kudrow's Valerie Cherish into scenarios with the deck more than stacked against her. Kudrow's acid delivery and willingness to show Valerie's raw pain, ambition, and obsequiousness make for engrossing and poignant, if squirm-inducing, viewing. Valerie's fond memory of being on Leno: when a fellow guest's monkey unexpectedly relieves himself on her head. "It was a real water-cooler moment," she says, desperately spinning. "And you know, this was Leno's first year. So it was a real important show for him too!" The boxed set includes all 13 episodes and some yummy extras, including a new "interview" with Valerie Cherish, an appearance by Valerie backstage at Dancing with the Stars, and backstage dish with series creators Kudrow and Michael Patrick King. The series, though short-lived demonstrates why Kudrow is one of our most talented actresses; here's hoping for a succession of more Comebacks. --A.T. Hurley

Customer Reviews

Brilliant Niche Series
Perhaps the Producer, Michael Patrick King from Sex and The City and Lisa Kudrow, star from Friends were really expensive to get for HBO, since those shows were so big. However, those shows were made for the masses. Perhaps HBO was expecting another block buster ratings giant. It sounded like it, when they chose not to renew this show, saying the numbers weren't there and they didn't have any resources to put into promoting it further.

However, The Comeback was more of a niche show; subtle, intelligent, willing to embrace pain, humiliation in a point blank fashion. Willing to embrace phases we tend to avoid: those difficult moments in life when somebody says something in which you are not quite sure how to respond, socially awkward situations. A series this intelligent and insightful can only appeal to a few. The great masses prefer simple minded fair to distract them or prefer to see lots of things exploding with lots of pyrotechnics kind of like Homer and Bart Simpson, who are caricatures of "Everyman" on the Street".

But as Valerie (Lisa's character says in one episode); Reality TV is becoming "Coliseum mentality" and that she doesn't do coliseums. Valerie feared her show would not fare well in such a world. This thought proved to be prophetic.

Lisa Kudrow graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Biology. She's an extremely intelligent woman although you might not think so with all the ditzy characters she has played like Phoebe and the Romy and Michelle HS Reunion character.

In The Comeback however, as the main character and as Executive Producer, her intelligence is allowed free rein, as she is allowed to fully develop this Valerie character into a lightning rod for all manner of ridiculous situations...she still plays the part of silly and vain woman but does it so well in concert with the whole cast... We get to see humanity and all it's ridiculous foibles: vanity. prententiousness, selfishness, rudeness, vapidness, indifference, ego mania, self involved-ness...

Each episode allows us to see in subtle details and not so subtle details the dynamics of human/social interactions.

It was definitely not a show for the masses...I don't know if the 2nd season could have been as good as the first but at least we got 13 fantastic episodes of which I have watched at least 15 times each. I think Lisa and Michael should have tried to bring it to Showtime after HBO dropped it but Hey life is always changing...I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Kudrow brings brains and painful honesty to reality TV
In Lida Kudrow's short-lived HBO series "The Comeback" we are forced to watch former "it-girl" Valerie Cherish as she embarks on a comeback, playing a Mrs. Roper-style character in a jiggly comedy while appearing in her own reality TV show, The Comeback. It all strikes a little too close to home for television celebs, I think, and Kudrow isn't afraid to go to those uncomfortable places making us cringe even as we laugh. At the beginning of the series we're laughing at Valerie and her obvious attempts to make herself look good in the eyes of her fans from the past. By the time the first season wrapped, we were with her every step of the way, rooting for her triumph and feeling her pain. I'm so glad we're going to get this show on DVD... now if we can just have a second season?

"Give her another take!"
FInally, HBO is doing right by "The Comeback" - one of the most hilarious shows ever to grace the TV screen and one which was criminally cancelled after only one season - with a double disk DVD. From tvshowsondvd.com:

The 2 disc set will include all 13 episodes from season 1, along with commentaries on 6 episodes, Valerie's DVD interview, and footage of Valerie backstage at Dancing with the Stars. Episodes on the set include:

Disc 1

1. The Comeback (Pilot) - Audio Commentary
   
2. Valerie Triumphs at the Upfronts - Audio Commentary
   
3. Valerie Bonds with the Cast - Audio Commentary
   
4. Valerie Stands Up for Aunt Sassy
   
5. Valerie Demands Dignity
   
6. Valerie Saves the Show
   
7. Valerie Gets a Very Special Episode
   
   Disc 2
   
8. Valerie Relaxes in Palm Springs
   
9. Valerie Hangs with the Cool Kids - Audio Commentary
   
10. Valerie Gets a Magazine Cover
    
11. Valerie Stands Out on the Red Carpet - Audio Commentary
    
12. Valerie Shines Under Stress
    
13. Valerie Does Another Classic Leno - Audio Commentary