HBO's The Comeback returned with its season 3 premiere on Sunday, addressing the death of Valerie Cherish's hairdresser Mickey Deane. The episode features subtle nods to the character, played by the late Robert Michael Morris, and reveals new details about his passing. Creators Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King discussed the storyline at a recent press conference.
HBO's cult comedy The Comeback, created by Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King, aired its season 3 premiere on Sunday after an 11-year hiatus. The half-hour episode centers on Valerie Cherish, played by Kudrow, navigating her career amid contemporary challenges, while incorporating the absence of her longtime hairdresser and friend, Mickey Deane (Robert Michael Morris, who died in 2017 at age 77). In the opening Broadway sequence, an 8x10 photo of Mickey leans against the mirror in Val's dressing room. Later, while working on an indie film, Val tells director Tommy Tomlin (Jack O'Brien) that Mickey succumbed to the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020, not cancer as previously thought. Kudrow and King plan more references to the character throughout the season. At a press conference on Thursday, King explained Kudrow initially resisted reviving the show after Morris's death but eventually agreed. He noted, '[Morris] went from obscurity to, when he died, the Entertainment Weekly headline... said,
