And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. With an emmy award, multiple nominations and two Screen Actors Guild awards, a writer, plus ten years on friends lisa kudrow knows a thing or two about fame producer as well as actress, she coproduced the come back about a less than talented sitcom actress desperate for the limelight. After a nineyear hiatus the comeback has made a comeback, lets take a look at the series. Hi. Valorie. Of course. Hows it going . Nice meeting you. I knew this was low budget they got you working the gate now, too . Is that what you do . Hey. Thanks dude. Nice meeting you. Hes the best. I think its important to give chance a leg up in the business. Youre doing it again. Just like the original . Cool. Can i see some id. Really . You need his id . Maybe he can show you some of his Worldwide Box Office grosses . I have those in my glove compartment if you need it. Actually. Thats so funny. These are for you. Anyway. Here. Oh, you didnt have to do that. Happy birthday. It spilled a lot. Oh god. Okay. Im really sorry. Here. You know what . You do it. Exactly, yeah. You know, we just met. Give me an hour at least. Thats funny stuff. Glad to have you back. Thanks. Happy to be here. Lets jump right in. Why did the come back, why has the come back made a come back . I think the people at hbo who were there now, they always liked the come back. You know, they called up Michael Patrick king and said will you and lisa come in . We miss valorie. We think others miss her. And if you have any ideas, then lets do it. We were in shock after that meeting we were waiting for our cars going who gets that . I was in shock when i read about it. What do you make of that that in this business, this happens so rarely that years later they call you in and say you know what . Lets look at this again. I dont i think its it was a bunch of factors and you know, not the least of which look, Entertainment Weekly kept putting the comeback on a top list of shows from the decade and all these wonderful things and i noticed that people younger and younger discovered the comeback and they loved it. Right. And i think when it was on in 2005 it was just a little too uncomfortable for people. Since then we have had stuff like that. What do you think has changed in our society from 2005 when this first premiered to 2014 that makes us a project like this more digestible, more relevant . You tell me . First of all, reality tv, we did this in 2005 it was really only the Second Season of amazing race and there were no real housewives of anywhere yet. You know . I think Orange County started in 2006 so we also didnt have a point of reference for women humiliating themselves that much for fame. Sorry housewives, but you do. And you know why youre doing it and thats what makes you smart. [ laughter ] but were just used to everybody just putting themselves out there for a little spotlight. Everyone broadcasts themselves on the internet. Everyone publishes themselves on the internet. Everyone is doing that. There are at least one or two ways to read through your artistry here what you make of Reality Television in real life. Uhhuh. I can put it that way. I dont understand it either. Yeah yeah yeah. One read is that as you joked a moment ago, i think you were joking that these reality tv stars are really pretty smart to do what theyre doing, knowing what theyre doing and getting paid while theyre doing it. Some of them. Or this is your send up, this is your spoofing of something that is completely stuck on stupid. Its both. I mean it is. Youre right. Thats a lot of it. Back in 2005 especially it was reality tv exits ridiculous and manipulated and then a send up on the type of person who thinks well i can control it. No you cant. You really cant. And anything to do with entertainment, thats the goal. Especially with reality tv its depending on you humiliating yourself for it to be a good show. Thinking anything else is fool hearty. Let me explore that a second. If im the actor in a reality series and i know what i am doing is acting, they may call it reality but its acting, how am i humiliating myself any differently than jim carrey in dumb and dumber . Whats the difference in humiliation . Well, to me the difference is its your name. Right. Its your children its your husband, your actual life. And then to say yeah but thats not real. Well, what is real . I think thats an actual question. Thats not anything that me or Michael Patrick king who created the show with me, its an actual question. Thats sort of one of the we have different motif themes going through the series. This time there is that question is when is it you and when is it not you and it seems to be dependent on convenience. We will have valorie playing a character, a villainized version of her. Written by a guy who tortured her nine years ago who hated her, this is his villainized version of her. Its all that. And she has decided, you know, in one moment thats me. They cant do that and then shes offered the job and its not me its the character. Its okay its not me. And we watch in every episode thats not me or thats me. You cant have it you know, like so whats the difference. You cant decide that. As i listen to you talk now i wonder whether or not this is really an expose on human beings at large, not just Reality Stars or bona fide actors but who we are as human beings that we want to pick and choose and ebb and flow when we want to be real and not real, when its really us or not. Thats an indictment on us as human beings in society today. Indictment is harsh. Yeah. Actor portrayal . Im going to play it safe and call it an observation. Okay. Okay. Ill take that. Ill go with observation for 500 please. [ laughter ] well go with that. Observation. You mentioned youre funny. Thats why you do what you do. Thank you. And you get paid for that, too. Sometimes. You mentioned not today youre not. You mentioned motifs and themes. Mention some in the come back now and im curious about whether or not those themes because time has passed are different than what you exposed us to in 2005 . Some of them are different. I think the one about who are you and what does that mean . Who you are and who you think you are, but also something that is kind of similar and we end it on the note of what about your marriage . How does that stack up as a priority to you . The personal stuff. Personal relationships, i guess. With mickey the hairdresser is kind of you know, hes an employee but also we come to see they mean a lot to each other. Its its that stuff, you know, when is work the priority over your personal life and at what cost which is not, you know, something brand new but we thought we wanted to really take a look at that nine years later a marriage of 13 years not four years any more. How interested are you or not interested in getting us to wrestle with and marinate on themes in our real lives through your artistic work or is that not what this is about in anyway, not even a small percentage. Its in there if you want. But do you want us to see that . Is that what you are after or is it just about acting and doing a funny project for you . Well, its both. Its not mandatory that anyone get everything thats in there. We do feel, you know, maybe, you know, we think a little more of ourselves than we should. But there are certain layers to this. But the bottom line is that its entertaining or strikes a cord and even if you cant articulate what the cord is beyond some discomfort, then thats fine, too. You know . Yeah. And also i learn a lot from what people write about it when i am brave enough to read what people write about it that their take away is that is in there but that wasnt the intention. Im glad you said that. Do the take aways sometimes surprise you . You discover stuff that you didnt even intend or know or see . Yeah. There is a little, just a little moment that someone picked up on in the second episode when valorie is telling mark. You like hbo, you like mad men and hes like thats on hbo . No its on a e. Its not on a e. And someone said how funny they said mad men and hbo passed on mad men so its a dig at hbo. Well, not intentionally. You know, thats there. I think you meant broader themes but little things, were we unconsciously . I dont know. Since you mentioned hbo a few times. And comeback is on hbo. And its mentioned a few times in the show. Just a few, yeah. How much of the success the first time around in being allowed to come back a second time has to do with the success of the platform of Cable Television . Oh, i dont know. Thats a good question. It does feel like that contributed. There is sort of an anything goes and things are brought back. Netflix brought back a fox show in arrested development and hbo brought back project green light, too. I think its sort of whats to me whats great is that people are starting to focus again on like the actual content. Uhhuh. You know . And if it was good then, why does it need to be good . And i think that would be great if people would start revisiting shows or scripts. They werent crazy. They were good but for whatever reason they were not done. Is there particular freedom of expression that you find on cable . Yes. Oh, definitely. Do we you mean on hbo . Yeah. They were dreamy nine years ago and theyre dreamy again. But to me just the idea that there are so Many Networks now. There are so many platforms for, well i guess you have to call everything content. But netflix, all of it, that the competition now, its just huge. There is so much opportunity that its really great. As long as your requirement is not to make Network Money from 27 episodes a year, you know, like it used to be, then i think everyone has not everyone, but i think theres much more opportunity to you know, get your show done or have your idea out there. Let me try to be half way serious for half a second here. That wasnt it . I havent got serious yet. Im on the way. Im really curious about this. Having had you on this program a few times im going to use a word and you feel free to strike the word if it doesnt fit your narrative. How blessed, how fortunate do you feel not just that the come back had a come back but that your career has had come backs what i mean is you could have gone to live happily ever after with the success of friends, the money you made from friends, the notoriety you have from friends. You dont have to be doing this. I suspect its about the work, you want to express your gift. How blessed do you feel to be having another shot at this on a major platform . I feel so blessed that i get nervous. Yeah. Wow. That theres going to be some balancing force in the other direction. Seriously . Yeah. You mentioned friends. Who cant not. Friends is the reason that i dont have to worry about the mortgage or anything like that. I dont have to work unless i really want to unless its close to home. I am raising a son as a teenager now and for us i want to be there. So definitely blessed and lucky that i can do things that will that better be worth it to do if im going to take time away from any of them. Any of them, my family, you know . Yeah. How how does that Economic Freedom we talked about artistic freedom. How does that freedom affect your choices . Oh, hugely. Yeah. Because we could do Something Like web therapy, you know . Youre like on two networks simultaneously. Yes. You are all there. On two different networks. Its on showtime. Yes. Like yall missed that. Shes on hbo and showtime. Thats like unheard of. Yeah. Except if youre not important enough to be exclusive to either one of them. Only you would read it that way. You are such a masochist. Thats great. Thats part of what were talking about. Like lay low. Dont ask for too much. Do everything you want, you know . You can price yourself out of working if you want to. If you insist on that. For better or worse, like with web therapy, the costs arent huge so why not keep doing them . You know . Its a great arrangement and then, you know, not you need the money and youre going to be honest, then youre out of luck. But, but thats a huge factor. You know . The money, there is no requirement for a great amount of money but the more you do you can win in the end. Yeah. And by winning you mean what exactly . Winning is always money. We always say that. Im just asking. Were in america. Winning is money. Exactly. [ laughter ] i figured your definition was a bit more expansive. Winning is not losing money, okay, but also having enough. Web therapy has been on showtime for four seasons. Thats great. Who do you think you are has been on five seasons. More will be on after the beginning of the year. Those are huge successes. My producing partner. We have a Company Called is or isnt. Weve been open for 11 years. We dont have a deal at a network or a studio which is kind of unique and were immensely proud of that. How did you and the other friends havent done badly for themselves. Theyre okay. Okay. Yeah. How did you make this transition that is to say that youre obviously continuing to act but the producing and the creative side, how did you, were you planning this during the friends run . How did this happen. Yeah, i was planning it. Around 2002, 2003, i saw that we might be finishing up soon and i thought we should have a Production Company and i knew we could get a deal at Warner Brothers because they did vanity deals but my secret is this cant be a vanity deal. And so i partnered with dan who is a writer, actor, and producer. And as opposed to, you know, a person who had been in development and executive somewhere, i chose more of an artistic creative person. And thats because i knew that when i was done with friends i could do independent films and one day i might want to do a tv show in which case i might want some creative input so i might want to establish myself as a producer first. Let me ask you a question that might seem strange but im going to ask it anyway. Im thinking of two people whose name i will not call now but two people i have talked to over the course of my career who made tons of money at a particular thing but theyre not particularly happy with the thing they made the money at. Oh. You follow me . Yeah. I sense you dont feel that way about friends but when you look back on your work at this point in your career, 20, 30 years later. Well, 20. Lets not get crazy with 30. Wouldnt make sense. Okay. Yeah. Dont want to age you. Well stop at 20. When you look back. Cant we always stop at 20 . I wish. Dont i wish. We look back on that now. You think what . Nothing but good. Every aspect of it honestly. Honestly. There was so so much fun. Just laughing every day for ten years. No fights or tension with the people youre working with every day for ten years. Thats a miracle. It was a good show. The writing was really great. It really was. And really funny. And the audience loved it. We made people happy and you know what . The thing is i dont know if i have said this before but right after 9 11 happened, i know when i would be driving in traffic and a car would pull up next to me and just look over and give me a very solemn thank you and i knew what they were talking about. Its good to laugh. And it kind of sunk in that, you know, everyone says youre not curing cancer, you know . But it really is nice to laugh at the end of the day at 11 00 instead of the news and you can watch something light and fun, people that care about each other and i think that is a value. I really do. So im proud. Very proud of it. In a post 9 11 world, particularly given where we are right now with all this happening in this universe, how are you navigating raising a teenaged boy . What do you make of that journey . Im going to knock this is wood isnt it . Cheap wood. It counts right . Im asking. I hope. He is great. Uhhuh. Hes a really good person. My husband and i honestly feel like hes a better person than we are so thats good. Its supposed to be that way. It is . I dont have kids yet but i have nine brothers and sisters and 31 nieces and nephews. My sense has always been, may sound a little weird, but i think when god allows us to have children, he gives us another chance to try to get it right. The point of having children is to try to put into them those things that you think will help them live a better life, create a better world. Right. Thats my assessment. Whats the point of having a kid if youre not going to make the investment in this kid or children to leave the world better than when you found it. I agree but i dont think everyone agrees on how to accomplish that. Nor should we. A lot of people enter into it with a sense of panic and desperation and then thats what the kids get. Not that my husband and i havent done that because were human beings and we have. But he is just innately smarter. Big picture smarter. Whats the big deal whats not a big deal. It aint so much innate. Youre being too modest. He has parents. People say all the time he was a selfmade this and that. Nobody is selfmade. We are who we are because somebody loved us. Right. Your son is a brilliant young man because somebody loved him. I dont mean to push back so much. Its true. The good thing about him is that he also loves himself and i think thats built in. Thats important. Hopefully we havent interfered too much with that. And im not really trying to be modest, honestly. Anyway, so i think as far as having a teenager goes so far its been good. Doesnt have his license yet so well see. Yeah. [ laughter ] but i do feel like i need to be around. Yeah. Thats all. I still dont feel like i can go shoot something out of town for a couple months or do a play in new york. Fortunately since the come back has made a come back you can stay home. Yeah yeah. I can stay here. You can watch it on hbo. I am always so happy when you come to see us. Oh, thanks. I always learn from something from you really . Really . I mean that. I wouldnt just say that. Im proud of myself. Thank you. Im proud of you, too. And im glad you came back. Thats our show for tonight and as always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Join me next time for a conversation with Smokey Robinson about his latest cd, smokey and friends. Thats next time. See you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more. Welcome to film School Shorts, a showcase of the most exciting new talent from across the country. Experience the future of film next on film School Shorts. Film School Shorts is made possible by a grant from Maurice Kanbar celebrating the vitality and power of the moving image, and by the members of kqed. Man so, im walking home by the river one night, and i come upon this group of beautiful