Dan Bucatinsky's The Comeback Is Making a Comeback Thanks to the Threat of AI

0:01 -Our next guest is an Emmy Award-winning actor, writer,

0:03 and producer you know from shows such

0:04 as "Scandal," "Hacks," and "Web Therapy." He stars

0:07 in and is an executive producer on "The Comeback,"

0:09 which airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

0:12 Let's take a look.

0:13 -Jane, this is private, okay?

0:14 So can you and the cameras please not come in?

0:17 This is personal.

0:19 Thank you.

0:20 -Hey.

0:23 -Why are you out to get them?

0:24 -Valerie Cherish.

0:25 -Yeah.

0:25 -This is David Berkus.

0:27 -Uh-huh.

0:27 -Hi.

0:28 -I've asked David to do a session with us.

0:29 David is a brilliant couples therapist.

0:31 -Uh-huh.

0:32 And has cameras.

0:34 -Well, I'm producing this pilot on my own.

0:36 -Uh-huh.

0:37 -I mean, couples-therapy content is so hot right now.

0:40 -Is it?

0:41 Yeah.

0:41 Well, Billy, you can't just suddenly put me in front

0:45 of a therapist and expect me to talk on his show.

0:49 -You do everything in front of the camera, but, suddenly,

0:53 not when it benefits my mental health or career.

0:57 You see?

0:57 This is what I was talking about.

0:59 -Please welcome to the show, Dan Bucatinsky, anybody.

1:02 Cheers and applause]♪♪ How are you?

1:16 I'm so happy you're here.

1:17 -Me too.

1:17 I'm thrilled.

1:18 This is the craziest, strangest run of any show ever.

1:21 Season 1, 2005.

1:23 -Yep.

1:24 -Season 2, 2014.

1:26 Season 3, now.

1:28 -Yes.

1:28 -I was going to say,

1:29 have you ever worked on anything like this before, but, like, no one has.

1:33 -No.

1:33 It's the only show in history that took 22 years to make three seasons.

1:38 -And, now, obviously, that wasn't the plan in the beginning.

1:41 When you did the first season,

1:42 I would assume the plan was the second season would be the next year.

1:45 -Yes, we were canceled.

1:46 -Yeah.

1:46 -And that's very sad.

1:48 -And it was very popular.

1:49 I'm sorry.

1:50 You know, it was beloved.

1:51 -It was.

1:51 It was.

1:52 It had a niche audience, people who got it,

1:54 and I think some people thought it was maybe ahead of its time.

1:56 -Yeah.

1:57 -And we didn't get a pickup, and it was sad.

2:01 And, lo and behold, you know,

2:04 10 years later, the opportunity to make another season.

2:07 So cancelation is not such a terrible thing, apparently.

2:10 I mean, I don't want— -No, no, no.

2:12 I would love not to try.

2:14 -We're not gonna— -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

2:15 No, I'm glad it's worked out for you, but I don't want to try that.

2:18 -No one try to be canceled.

2:21 -It must have been— It felt like a gift to get the chance to do eight more.

2:25 -It was such a blessing to do two, right?

2:28 And at the end of two, we ended it in such a beautiful,

2:31 dramatic way, and we thought it was over...again.

2:34 -Yeah.

2:34 -And then everybody was like,

2:35 "You gonna to do a third season of 'The Comeback'?" And I was like, "Well,

2:38 you never know." -And I guess the weird thing is,

2:39 because you had 10 years between your first and second season,

2:42 people don't stop asking, right?

2:43 Like, nobody goes up to, like, David Chase now and is like,

2:46 "Are you going to do more 'Sopranos'?" Like,

2:48 you know, but, like, you guys keep doing it, right?

2:50 -Exactly.

2:50 And we're like, "Well, you never know.

2:51 You never know." And as it turns out— And the thing is,

2:54 we would always talk about it.

2:55 We would always talk about like, "Where do you think Valerie is right now?

2:58 -Right.

2:58 -And I was like, "Oh, my God." It would be so great to see her in London,

3:01 in, like, you know, 'Downton Abbey.'" -Yeah.

3:03 -You know?

3:04 Going head-to-head with Maggie Smith.

3:07 -Yeah.

3:07 -But we needed a big story.

3:10 And Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King,

3:12 who created "The Comeback," were like, "Those are little— You know,

3:15 those are little incidents." A big story— Like,

3:17 first season was about reality television threatening our business.

3:21 And what's a big enough threat that would make it worth it to do a third season?

3:26 And it was like— It was AI.

3:28 -And when you heard that it was going to be AI,

3:30 did you just realize right away like, "Oh, right, that's perfect.

3:33 That is what it should be." -Correct.

3:34 I mean, I think Lisa was the first one who was like, "Oh,

3:37 it's too bad that we couldn't see Valerie Cherish on the picket line.

3:40 Like, how would she react to the strikes?" And then

3:42 the two of them looked at each other and were like,

3:44 "What if she was in the first sitcom written by AI?" And it was like,

3:50 "Oh, that has to happen." And they pitched it to HBO, and they were like,

3:54 "Well, if you're going to do it, you have to do it right now." -Right.

3:56 -And it was true.

3:58 The two of them wrote all eight episodes.

4:00 We shot them November to— August to November, and we're on the air now.

4:05 -Your character, Billy, was a publicist in the first season,

4:07 and you're sort of feeling yourself now.

4:09 You've gained power over the course of the 20-plus

4:11 years we've been with "The Comeback." -Yes.

4:13 -It must be fun— I mean, again, you also— You work with Lisa.

4:17 You guys are friends.

4:18 And so it just must be delightful to go

4:20 to work every day and play this character, as well.

4:22 -It is.

4:23 It is.

4:23 It's so fun.

4:24 And Billy started off as this really rambunctious and, you know,

4:29 a publicist with impulse-control problems, who shoved everybody in his path.

4:33 And 20 years later, yes, we've been working together for a long time.

4:37 We've been friends for a long time.

4:39 To play Billy, who's finally getting the opportunity to call himself

4:43 an executive producer and realize that he might have— You know,

4:47 that there might be some star shining on him soon, maybe.

4:51 -You and Lisa have both been in this business a long time.

4:54 You're both very observant people.

4:56 And because this is a show about show business, I would imagine people,

4:59 all the time, are asking if any of the characters are based on them.

5:02 -Oh, yeah.

5:04 First of all, there are so many women of a certain

5:06 age who would call us from the beginning and, over 22 years,

5:09 were like, "Oh, you're writing about me.

5:11 You're writing about me.

5:12 Valerie Cherish is me." But the truth is, everybody is a conglomeration of a lot

5:16 of people that we've seen in our business.

5:18 And, you know, we come from— We're carnies, all of us,

5:23 you know, and we were cracked, broken people, me included.

5:26 And there's no reason we'd be in show business if we weren't.

5:29 And so it really is a conglomeration of how desperately,

5:32 how urgently people really want to win and to get seen and to be heard.

5:38 One of the reasons the gay community responds so much to "The Comeback"

5:42 is because it's about a character who wants to be seen and heard,

5:46 which is very common amongst— I hear— amongst the gay community.

5:50 -Yes, I think that's true.

5:52 You know, I want to ask about that, because your kids are older than mine.

5:57 You have a 21-year-old and an 18-year-old.

5:58 I have kids, too.

6:00 And it is funny.

6:00 Like, you know, we're in show business.

6:01 Like, we have this piece of us that wants to be seen that, like,

6:05 isn't— I sometimes worry is, like,

6:07 an unhealthy thing to present to your children, right?

6:10 Like, daddy cares about what other people think about daddy.

6:13 Like, is it— -Correct.

6:14 -And are your kids— I mean, again,

6:16 they're of an age where they probably didn't grow up with your work,

6:18 but do they ever see it?

6:20 Do they ever stumble across, like, earlier work of yours?

6:22 -Oh, they stumble across it.

6:24 They don't want to see it on purpose ever, ever.

6:26 I mean— -So if you say to watch it, they would never.

6:29 -No.

6:29 My daughter has— My daughter literally recently said like,

6:32 "Are there any shows that you weren't on?

6:34 Because I'm watching and then you come on, and it's really

6:38 annoying." -What have you recently ruined for your daughter with a cameo?

6:42 -I recently ruined "Chicago Med." -Oh, wow.

6:47 -Yes.

6:47 -So she was just watching "Chicago Med"— -She was watching, and there I was.

6:50 And she's like, "Dad!" -Yeah.

6:51 And then she's like, "This isn't a real hospital!

6:53 It's a show!" -"Just get off my TV." -"You took me out of it." -And then,

6:58 occasionally, I hate to admit it, I want to seem cool to them.

7:01 And I did this movie, this Christmas movie, with Lindsay Lohan.

7:05 And my daughter is 21, and it's a romantic comedy.

7:06 -Yeah.

7:07 -It's a Christmas movie.

7:08 There's something for everyone in it.

7:09 Someone gets stoned in it.

7:11 I thought my son would love it.

7:12 And I was like, "Daddy's in this Netflix movie,

7:15 and I play the husband of Kristin Chenoweth.

7:18 She was on 'Wicked.'" -Yeah.

7:19 -I'm selling it so hard.

7:20 -It's so sweaty.

7:21 -It's so sweaty.

7:23 -I believe the kids would call this "cringe." This was very cringe.

7:26 -Correct.

7:26 They did not want to see it.

7:27 They have not seen it.

7:28 -Oh, you couldn't get them to watch it?

7:30 -Nope.

7:31 I was like, "Quick, kids, daddy's playing straight." And— And— -Even that.

7:36 -Even that, even that.

7:37 -They wouldn't even run in to watch daddy play straight.

7:39 -To see daddy with a wife.

7:41 -Wow.

7:41 Unbelievable.

7:42 Unbelievable.

7:43 The cruelty they cause us to feel.

7:46 -I have to stop trying or acting like I care.

7:50 -You should just— You should have come in and been like,

7:52 "I'm in a Christmas movie, but it's not for you." -Oh, my God!

7:55 -Yeah, you're like, "I think it would

7:56 be over your head." -Yeah, that's totally it.

7:58 -"I don't think you'd get it." -That'll be the answer.

8:01 And they'll be in their rooms, like, Googling,

8:02 "Alright, what's this Christmas movie?" -Yeah, "What is this?

8:04 What is this?" Well, alright, for the next Christmas movie.

8:05 -For sure.

8:06 -Thanks so much for being here, Dan.

8:08 -Thank you for having me.

8:08 -Congrats on the show.

8:09 -Thank you.

8:09 Thank you, thank you.

8:10 -Dan Bucatinsky, everybody.

8:11 New episodes of "The Comeback" air Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

8:13 Stick around.

8:14 We'll be right back.