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<\/p>\n\n\tThe Comeback returned to TV this spring for one last critique of the Hollywood machine. After focusing on the comedic ire toward reality TV; the ebbs, flows and drama spilling out of writers rooms; and the broader landscape of network television, co-creators Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow, who also stars, turned their attention to the threat of AI in season three. \u201cOne of the main thrusts of why we came back was because Valerie\u2019s character [Kudrow] has always had problems, in the other two seasons, with the writer,\u201d King says. \u201cSo the idea of coming back for the third season with a writer that isn\u2019t human was really interesting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn this scene in episode four of what will be the final season of the HBO comedy, Valerie has just wrapped filming on the pilot of her new show, How\u2019s That?! Ever the optimist, she\u2019s blindsided when the director Jimmy, played by iconic real-life TV director James Burrows, tells her the show will never truly be great as long as it\u2019s written by AI, illustrating the main tension emanating throughout the season and Hollywood at large.<\/p>\n
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\n\tThis scene works for Kudrow, she says, because it shows just how determined her character is. Explains King: \u201cIt also shows the two types of characters. One person who doesn\u2019t need anything from the industry anymore, Jimmy \u2014 he\u2019s had it all, and he doesn\u2019t need it, it doesn\u2019t look fun to him \u2014 and Valerie, who, no matter how fun it isn\u2019t, still needs to make a show great. She has to work, but she also has to strive.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\tHere, Jimmy delivers the sort of mission statement of the season, summing up the root of all the consternation around AI in Hollywood. \u201cThe part of the speech that I find to be most resonant is, \u2018A group of writers in the corner beating themselves up to beat out a better joke,\u2019 \u201d says King. \u201cThere\u2019s so much in my history of having written sitcoms over the years about that group dynamic of beating themselves up to beat out a better joke. Like, it is not a prompt. It\u2019s a fight.\u201d He adds: \u201cLife is rough, it beats people up. And the great thing about that is sometimes comedy writers can find a way to turn it into gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of HBO<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile in the script Jimmy says that the husband-and-wife writing duo, played by Abbi Jacobson and John Early, aren\u2019t fun, the episode aired without that line. King says they filmed it but wound up taking it out in the editing room.\u00a0 \u201cI thought, \u2018Jimmy has worked with many writers who weren\u2019t engaged, but they were [especially disengaged],\u2019 \u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s not like Jimmy needs everybody to be in a kumbaya situation, but he does need them to be engaged. And all we really have seen by the time you\u2019re actually seeing this is Valerie is fun. And the cast is fun. We were always trying to point out that it wasn\u2019t them. It was the situation that wasn\u2019t working for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of HBO<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat Valerie wants, Kudrow says, is for AI to be able to write better, to write more surprising jokes, to get her back to being a top comedic force. Says King, \u201cHe says to her right before he leaves, which is the killer line in the scene, \u2018It\u2019s too bad, this could have been the one.\u2019 Valerie\u2019s been looking for \u2018the one\u2019 for quite a while now. She was No.\u202f1 on her first show, back in the \u201990s, and so, she\u2019s got a tractor beam to get recognized as great. \u2026And what she wants is to be seen as, \u2018Wow, you\u2019re the one.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of HBO<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cLike the first season with reality television \u2014 and Michael made up some hilarious reality TV shows that we then could not believe our eyes basically happened \u2014 we\u2019re not trying to predict, we\u2019re trying to reflect what the fear is, what it\u2019s about,\u201d Kudrow says about how they depict AI in Hollywood playing out.\u00a0 \u201cWe had one thing we wanted to do,\u201d adds King. \u201cOur big threat was, we wanted to be on the air before any studio actually admitted they were using it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\tUp to this point in the season, the introduction of AI into the process of producing a TV show hasn\u2019t come for Valerie directly. \u201cShe\u2019s going to keep going, though,\u201d Kudrow says. \u201cIt does become obvious to her that she needs a writer, that you need a showrunner who is a writer. Because it\u2019s too much for her to do.\u201d How Valerie handles varied conflicts \u2014 and how that changes from AI affecting the writing to impacting her role directly \u2014 was one King and Kudrow were keen to explore. \u201cWe did address it a lot,\u201d says King. \u201cOne of the great arcs of Valerie for us is to show that she adapts and evolves. Even in the scene we\u2019re talking about, she hears the truth and then decides, \u2018He\u2019s old-fashioned, I\u2019m current.\u2019 When faced with the reality of keeping going or stopping or feeling depressed or being excited, she will choose the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n