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\n Even when playing an actress from a \u201990s sitcom directed by Jimmy Burrows, Lisa Kudrow\u2019s Valerie Cherish is able to, against all odds, make viewers (or at least this one) briefly forget about Phoebe Buffay.
\n Photo: Erin Simkin\/HBO\n <\/p>\n
In the third episode of the new season of The Comeback<\/a>, Valerie Cherish arrives at Stage 24 on the Warner Bros. lot, where she\u2019s set to film her new sitcom, and admires the plaque listing all of the famous films and TV shows that were also shot there. \u201cLook at all these legendary movies, and now How\u2019s That?! can be the big TV hit for Stage 24,\u201d she says, at which point the documentary camera zooms in on the shows listed on the plaque under \u201ctelevision,\u201d including Mike & Molly, Full and Fuller House, and, most conspicuously, Friends. It\u2019s a great visual gag, using The Comeback\u2019s mockumentary format as a device to silently underline Valerie\u2019s delusions of grandeur. But it wasn\u2019t until days later that the second layer of that joke clicked, and I realized: Oh right, Lisa Kudrow was on Friends.<\/p>\n How could I have forgotten that? Did I need to see a doctor? Should I switch out sudoku for the People magazine crossword puzzle to help improve my cognitive function? I was rocked by this bizarre lapse in memory, especially about a show that I, like everybody else in the world, have watched in full. And yet, when I first saw that meta nod to Kudrow\u2019s own sitcom stardom, I was so grounded in the world of The Comeback<\/a> that I simply took the joke at face value. The same thing happened an episode earlier<\/a> with an even subtler reference, when Valerie is listing off Jimmy Burrows\u2019s directing credits, flirting with actually saying the name of the show that\u2019s been otherwise left unsaid, but ultimately gets cut off by Mary (Abbi Jacobson) just as she finally starts to say, \u201cFrie\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Both nods work because they\u2019re just that \u2014 nods. They aren\u2019t distracting enough to pull you out of the action nor heavy handed enough to leave you with existential questions. (If Friends exists in the universe of The Comeback, does that mean Lisa Kudrow does as well? Did Lisa and Valerie ever meet at the People\u2019s Choice Awards?) Instead, they\u2019re simple winks to the audience with punch lines that don\u2019t rely purely on the reference. That\u2019s in part why it fully went over my head, but ultimately that moment of forgetfulness about one of the most famous sitcoms of all time is actually more of a credit to Kudrow\u2019s ability to completely disappear into Valerie Cherish. Even when playing an actress from a \u201990s sitcom directed by Jimmy Burrows, Kudrow is able to, against all odds, make viewers (or at least me) briefly forget about Phoebe Buffay, an otherwise unforgettable behemoth that would be impossible for any other actor to outrun.<\/p>\n It\u2019s normally incredibly difficult for actors to shake off the iconic roles that they\u2019ve become synonymous with. Sarah Jessica Parker will always be Carrie Bradshaw, for example. Jason Alexander will always be George Costanza. And Tom Hanks will always be, say it with me, Larry Crowne. But in Valerie Cherish, Lisa Kudrow has created a character who manages to escape the shadow of Phoebe, not by being more successful or known than Phoebe but by being completely distinct from her. There\u2019s such little overlap between the two characters that there\u2019s practically nothing Valerie could do or say that would remind the viewer of Phoebe. Whereas Phoebe lacks inhibitions, Valerie is plagued by them, and the contrasting sitcom formats of Friends (multi-cam) and The Comeback (mockumentary) call for totally different performance styles.<\/p>\n Sure, the visual distinction between the characters also helps \u2014 who knows better than Valerie Cherish, who once famously had to play a brunette with migraines, how pivotal hair color can be \u2014 but the difference all really comes down to Kudrow\u2019s performance. Valerie Cherish remains one of the most dimensional, nuanced characters on television because when Kudrow embodies her, she doesn\u2019t let a single frame go to waste. Even the smallest of glances or bits of vocal cadence tell us something about who Valerie is or what she\u2019s feeling, creating a character who feels lived in and real and who is occupying a similarly real and familiar world. So when we\u2019re looking at her on The Comeback, we don\u2019t see Lisa Kudrow and her past roles, from Phoebe to Romy \u2014 we see Valerie and her past roles. And one thing I\u2019ll never forget? That Valerie Cherish was Mrs. Hatt!<\/p>\n