With The Comeback‘s upcoming third and final season, fans of the HBO comedy will surely be mourning one character’s absence.
Following the 2017 death of Robert Micheal Morris, who played Valerie Cherish’s (Lisa Kudrow) best friend and trusted hairstylist Mickey Deane, the actress and co-creator told Deadline she was sure “that was it” with the series. “We were done,” she said.
“Mickey’s irreplaceable, and we know that’s how everyone would feel,” explained Kudrow at Deadline’s SXSW Studio last weekend.
Premiering Sunday, March 22 on HBO, Season 3 of The Comeback doesn’t shy away from the character’s death, featuring a touching tribute in the fourth episode, airing April 12. And although Val is reunited with another former hairstylist, Jack O’Brien’s Tommy Tomlin, the character is not intended as a replacement.
“Mickey’s character was so original, and his impact was so specific, that I felt like a proxy,” said O’Brien. “Like that had to be completed, it had to be delivered in some sense.”
Noting that Morris was co-creator Michael Patrick King‘s drama teacher before finally making his onscreen debut on the show in 2005, O’Brien related to the experience as a 4x Tony-winning theater writer, lyricist, director and producer, who also makes his acting debut in the show.
“So, there’s a little tradition there, that he wasn’t thinking of himself as a professional actor at that point,” he explained. “And I think it was a great joy for him at the end of his life to be thought of that way. So, I just sort of borrowed the guise and carried that affection toward, because I realized that everybody watching it would miss him. And it was a lovely thing to be asked to do.
O’Brien explained that he “wasn’t being asked to mimic [Morris] or be even in that mode. I was asked basically to carry him forward, and I felt that’s what I did.”
Lisa Kudrow, Ella Stiller and Jack O’Brien in ‘The Comeback’ Season 3
King praised O’Brien’s “authenticity, and a gravitas, and a heart, and a soul that is nothing like Robert Micheal Morris, but is fully Jack O’Brien’s. And we wanted Valerie to have someone with a heart, who saw her a star, which is why the I’m It [connection] was important. He saw her as a star, still.
“But also, we wanted to have him help her deal,” added King. “Because Lisa didn’t even consider doing The Comeback once Michael died. … He couldn’t be replaced. So, we came up with the idea that maybe Valerie hasn’t really felt it yet.”
Kudrow added, “Yeah, it felt very Valerie too, because it’s something that’s difficult, so it’s not happening.”
Morris appeared alongside Kudrow on The Comeback since its 2005 premiere. The mockumentary reality show returned for a long overdue second season in 2014. Season 3 premieres Sunday at 10:30pm ET on HBO, also available to stream on HBO Max.
In the third and final season, Valerie accepts the lead role on a new sitcom, How’s That?, which is secretly being written by an AI program. As reality show cameras follow her around once again for this latest phase of her career, the actress and producer has to navigate the many cultural landmines of Hollywood in 2026.
Deadline Studio at SXSW presented by Redbreast Irish Whiskey.