Valerie

There’s a lot of chatter around reality TV right now and the hazards of leaning into mess for the sake of potential viewership. Before Utah-based reality star and social media influencer Taylor Frankie Paul was making national headlines over domestic violence allegations brought against her by former boyfriend Dakota Mortensen — putting “The Bachelorette” and “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” series under interrogation — The Times was working on a group of stories that captured the longevity and cultural impact of the unscripted format.

News and culture critic Lorraine Ali took a look at the reality TV-to-politics pipleline. Writer Pamela Chelin spoke with “Survivor” host Jeff Probst and others to discuss why CBS’ competition show continues to endure after more than 25 years. And I wrote an oral history on the first episode of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” which premiered 20 years ago and, in that time, expanded and morphed into a franchise, spreading to 12 other U.S. locales, including the upcoming series set in Rhode Island.

Speaking of reality TV — Valerie Cherish and “The Comeback” have returned for another round of the showbiz satire. The HBO comedy, which blends scripted comedy with a mockumentary format, originally premiered a year before the “Real Housewives of Orange County” and lampooned the effects of the early-2000s reality TV boom. It followed Valerie (Lisa Kudrow), a former sitcom star from the ’90s, as she attempts to revive her career by starring in a new sitcom while allowing a reality TV crew to document her journey. When the short-lived series was revived in 2014, it poked fun at the rise of prestige TV and the evolution of celebrity culture in the social media era. Now, its third and final season finds our favorite leading lady navigating Hollywood’s AI revolution. Michael Patrick King, who developed the series with Kudrow, stopped by Guest Spot to discuss the show’s latest timely exploration.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, we take a breather from current programming and dust off two bygone titles. One is an animated sitcom that revolves around a mild-mannered therapist and his sessions with a notable clientele of real-life comedians playing exaggerated versions of themselves; the other is a mid-aughts thriller (of the Lifetime TV variety) that follows a heroic doctor who moonlights as a dangerous predator — its Letterboxd rating spread is something to behold. And it’ll make you wonder what Valerie Cherish might have brought to camp like that.

Let it all be incentive to spend some extra time on the couch this weekend — it’ll cut down on trips to the gas pump! Until next week.

— Yvonne Villarreal

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Dr. Katz, played by creator Jonathan Katz, invites his ex-wife, Roz, played by actor/author Carrie Fisher, to indulge in a dysfunctional family Thanksgiving on “Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.”

(Comedy Central)

“Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist” (YouTube)

Once in a while the algorithms that rule our lives do us an actual favor, and so it was that YouTube alerted me that the entirety of this great turn-of-the-century cartoon lives there, hosted unofficially on a variety of channels. (Just type in the title.) Created by star Jonathan Katz with Tom Snyder, the inventor of an animation workaround called Squigglevision — in which vibrating outlines give a crude effect of action — and co-produced by Loren Bouchard, who would go on to co-create “Bob’s Burgers,” this six-season, semi-improvised, Peabody Award-winning Comedy Central series is founded on the notion that a comedian’s patter can resemble the neurotic unloading one might encounter in a psychotherapist’s office. And so onto Katz’s couch comes a parade of future comedy elder statespersons, naively but recognizably rendered, including Ray Romano, Lisa Kudrow, Dave Chappelle, Garry Shandling, Marc Maron, Catherine O’Hara, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes, Patton Oswalt, Sandra Bernhard, Paul F. Tompkins, David Cross, Jim Gaffigan, Steven Wright and Conan O’Brien. Rodney Dangerfield, already an elder comedy statesperson, has some things to say about his wife. Framing the therapy sessions are the domestic misadventures of Katz and his adult child son, Ben (H. Jon Benjamin, the Mel Blanc of adult animation, if Mel Blanc only used his own voice). Can’t-be-bothered secretary Laura (Laura Silverman, recently seen as Jane the documentarian on the new season of “The Comeback”), fills out the regular cast. — Robert Lloyd

“Stalked by My Doctor” (Tubi)

Last weekend, the Museum of Home Video hosted an interactive game at Vidiots where the sold-out crowd watched the first five minutes of 10 films and then voted on which flick to finish. “Stalked by My Doctor” won in a landslide. This 2015 Lifetime TV movie is one of the most bizarrely watchable trash films of the 21st century. Eric Roberts stars as Dr. Beck, a lovelorn, egotistical California cardiologist who is convinced he’s a catch. This graying bachelor falls for his patient, a high schooler named Sophie (Brianna Joy Chomer) and, when rejected, threatens to clobber her disabled boyfriend (Carson Boatman) with the guy’s own crutch. Filmmaker Doug Campbell makes B-pictures like a plastic surgeon does liposuction: He hacks off all the fat. Subtle? Absolutely not. Yet, there’s not a single dull scene and the characters make smarter moves than you’d expect. By the end, I was hooting and clapping, and giddy to hear that this top-notch schlock launched a five-film franchise. Some night soon, you can bet I’ll put on “Stalked by My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge.” — Amy Nicholson

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in “The Comeback.”

(Erin Simkin / HBO)

Could ChatGPT deliver a script worthy of Valerie Cherish’s talents? More than 11 years after it was last revived, “The Comeback” returned this month with a third season that explores the fear of technology replacing artists, and the ethical compromises that arise, through its sharp and uncomfortable comedic touch. Valerie is offered the lead in a new sitcom, “How’s That?,” on a faltering streaming service called the New Net. But there’s a catch. It’s the first-ever TV series to be written by AI — a fact that network brass wants to keep secret to avoid industry backlash. Valerie is initially resistant to the idea, but a humiliating experience on an indie shoot has her reconsidering. Is she about to be part of the new future of TV? A new episode of “The Comeback” drops Sunday on HBO and HBO Max. Over email, King shared his worries over how AI may transform the entertainment business and the series he’d pick to join the comeback circuit. — Y.V.

This season has Valerie Cherish starring in the first sitcom written by artificial intelligence. The series has always hilariously explored industry shifts. What concerns or curiosities do you have regarding AI, and did those evolve as you worked on the season?

Concerns — yes, many. They range from young writers with nowhere to learn their craft to no writers, young or seasoned, anywhere but the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. And yes I’m curious — white-knuckle curious — to see how the threat of AI (Season 3) will change how we make TV compared to how way the threat of reality TV (Season 1) and the threat of prestige cable and streaming (Season 2) did. Spoiler alert …television and TV writers are still here. When is this being published?

Without spoiling anything, there’s a scene in this week’s second episode where Valerie takes a meeting with some Hollywood folks — and it’s an odd experience. Do those meetings feel any more confusing or bizarre to you, in terms of how network brass thinks about the landscape, than they did a decade or two ago?

That billion-participant Zoom scene in the episode is very reflective of the “pitch process” today — in fact more than reflective — it’s a documentary … minus the occasional “pop-up pet.” What’s missing from this current Zoom pitch process is the in-person connection, which also accounts, I think, for why you no longer hear the phrase: “I sold it in the room.” No room, more people — less sales?

What does your writing process with Lisa Kudrow look like? Place me in those weeks of writing the first episode of this season.

The first and every episode has the same process. We talk, we laugh, we eat, we improv, we take turns writing it down — you know, things human writers do.

In addition to this third go with “The Comeback,” you worked on multiple seasons of “… And Just Like That.” What have you found interesting about the process of revisiting characters at a different stage in your life? Has one felt easier to navigate than the other in the current entertainment landscape?

I’m fascinated by a character’s personal evolution — how they can grow over the years. Who they were, who they might be now, what they’ve let go of — how they’ve changed. I’m also fascinated by how some fans of these characters don’t want them to change. In the current TV landscape — the fans are very vocal.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

“The Pitt” [HBO Max]. In addition to the good characters, it’s the thrill of being introduced to new actors.

As a viewer, which show — excluding those in your catalog — do you think would be worthwhile to revisit in 2026?

“Freaks and Geeks” [Prime Video, Paramount+]. One season only. Sometimes … a special show that was canceled — deserves a comeback.

ICYMI

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Valerie Perrine, the Las Vegas showgirl turned Oscar-nominated actor best known for playing Lenny Bruce’s wayward wife Honey Harlow in “Lenny” and Lex Luthor’s secretary Eve Teschmacher in the 1978 and 1980 “Superman” films, died Monday morning. She was 82.

Perrine’s death was confirmed by Stacey Souther, her close friend and the director of the 2019 documentary “Valerie,” which followed the star’s debilitating battle with Parkinson’s disease.

“It is with deep sadness that I share the heartbreaking news that Valerie has passed away,” Souther announced on social media. “She faced Parkinson’s disease with incredible courage and compassion, never once complaining. She was a true inspiration who lived life to the fullest — and what a magnificent life it was. The world feels less beautiful without her in it.

“I love you, Valerie. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Souther also shared a GoFundMe link and a note that Perrine’s final wish was to be laid to rest at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Cemetery. “After more than 15 years of fighting Parkinson’s, her finances are exhausted.”

Perrine was born Sept. 3, 1943, in Galveston, Texas, to parents Renee and Kenneth, a dancer and a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. A military brat growing up, Perrine moved frequently and spent time in Japan, Paris and Scottsdale, Ariz.

She attended the University of Arizona, but her academic aspirations were short-lived. She skipped town, trading her textbooks for a feather headdress and G-string in Las Vegas. Soon she was a lead dancer in the star-spangled Lido de Paris show at the Stardust Hotel. She told the New York Times in 1974 that she spent some of her $800 weekly paycheck on experimenting with drugs: acid, mescaline, peyote, cocaine — you name it, she tried it.

Eight years after her foray into Vegas showbiz, her movie career kicked off unexpectedly during a visit to Hollywood. An agent at a friend’s dinner party took a liking to her, she told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. He asked if she had any publicity photos. The only one she had was in her topless Lido costume.

The sexy picture made its way to the desk of Monique James, the head of new talent at Universal. “She called me in and asked if I had ever acted before and I said ‘no,’” Perrine said. “She arranged a screen test.”

Paul Monash, the producer of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” which was based on Kurt Vonnegut’s acclaimed novel about World War II and time travel, directed the screen test. “They told me to wear a bikini because they wanted to see what my body looked like. I didn’t have a bikini. I wore my G-string and that was it.”

“I had been working in Vegas all the time and had been on the beach in St. Tropez, so being [naked] didn’t mean anything to me,” she told The Times. “It was my attitude that sparked his interest and the way I read the line, ‘Oh, you’re a moon child.’ He hired me.”

Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce, left, and Valerie Perrine as Honey Harlow in a scene from the 1974 movie, “Lenny.”

(United Archives via Getty Images)

Soon after, she portrayed the love interest of NASCAR driver Junior Johnson opposite Jeff Bridges in the 1973 sports drama “The Last American Hero.” Perrine and Bridges dated briefly while working on the film. The same year she became the first woman to bare her breasts on television in the PBS telefilm “Steambath.”

Bridges described Perrine in the 2019 documentary “Valerie” as having a “real sense of fun and play.”

“She was excited about life and excited where she was and it’s a contagious feeling,” he said. “Growing up in a military family and traveling all over the world made her a really interesting person and as an actress, she had the ability to bring all of that into her performances.”

In 1974, she tapped into her showgirl background to portray the drug-addled stripper Honey Harlow opposite Dustin Hoffman as Lenny Bruce in the biopic “Lenny.” Her performance garnered rave reviews. She nabbed the lead actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, BAFTA named her most promising newcomer and she was nominated for an Oscar.

Perrine was perhaps best known for her portrayal of Eve Teschmacher, Lex Luthor’s secretary and love interest in the 1978 “Superman” starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando. She played the role again in 1980’s “Superman II.”

She also starred in the 1980 disco flick “Can’t Stop the Music” alongside the Village People and Caitlyn Jenner. The movie flopped and Perrine was so mortified by the film’s poor reception that she moved to Europe. She didn’t officially retire from acting until around 2010, and by 2015 she had gone public with her Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.

The 2019 documentary short “Valerie,” directed by Souther, dropped the veil on Perrine’s battle with the illness, with her loss of bodily autonomy captured in the film. She said “the shakes” caused her to struggle and the level of care she required made her feel like a baby.

Still intact, though, were her sharp wit and self-deprecating sense of humor. In the film a doctor explains that there are times when physicians aren’t able to pin down a diagnosis or there are multiple diagnoses.

“The doctors don’t know what’s going on with me,” Perrine says. “They can’t figure it out.”

“What do you think it is?” the doctor asks Perrine.

“Karma,” she quips.