The Comeback Press Conference: Lisa Kudrow Opens Up on FRIENDS References in The Show

Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King attended the press conference for the third season of The Comeback. For those unaware, The Comeback Season 1 originally aired on HBO from June 5, 2005, through September 4, 2005. After a long hiatus, the second season aired nearly a decade later, from November 9, 2014, to December 28, 2014. Now, the makers are returning with the third and the final season, premiering on HBO Max from March 22, 2026. New episodes of the eight-episode season will debut weekly.

Opening up on the show, Lisa shared her excitement about being a part of The Comeback again. When asked about the FRIENDS references put in the show, Lisa mentioned, “We couldn’t help it. We were shooting on the FRIENDS stage. It felt like there was an easy jump there that Valerie didn’t even pay attention to. She was only looking at the movies on the plaque. She didn’t even see the TV shows. She said, ‘We’re going to be the first hit of stage 24.’ You know, FRIENDS was a hit.”

Creator Michael Patrick King shared, “We were mostly interested in how close we could get to Valerie actually saying the word ‘friends’… That was all we were concerned about.

Addressing past backlash tied to FRIENDS, Kudrow shared how the cast and crew navigated the tough times with bad press experiences. She revealed, “There was massive backlash when FRIENDS aired. People hated us. So we got together and just said, ‘Alright, we have to just head down, stop doing press and just do our work.’ We wanted to deal with the task at hand and do our actual job. We wanted to say the words and do our show.”

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