![Lisa Kudrow plays actress Valerie Cherish in The Comeback. Lisa Kudrow plays actress Valerie Cherish in The Comeback.](http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2014/11/11/comeback06-e4f5b781b9dd9c0095258a889b3e8f0f0065660c-s300.jpg)
Lisa Kudrow plays actress Valerie Cherish in The Comeback.
In 2005, Lisa Kudrow starred in a little HBO show called The Comeback, a show styled as — get ready for this — the raw footage for a (fictional) reality show about a (fictional) actress named Valerie Cherish, getting her big chance to come back in the (fictional) sitcom Room And Bored. The show was well reviewed but low-rated, and it was canceled after 13 episodes.
In the kind of reversal that's very rare in real life, The Comeback has just debuted a second season on HBO, catching up with Valerie and almost all of the original cast to find out what's happened in the 10 years since Valerie became a reality star who signed vomit bags. (It's a long story.) To mark the occasion, Pop Culture Happy Hour panelist Glen Weldon, a longtime fan of the show, sat down with me, a new convert, to talk about the things the show gets right and the humanity it finds in a very unconventional lead character.
![](http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Painful+Hollywood+Portrait+Makes+For+Great+TV+On+%27The+Comeback%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDE1MTIxMDg0MDE0MDQ3NTY3MzkzMzY1NA001))
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