\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p><\/div>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Ellen Matthews for Variety<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tThe fourth season of Apple TV\u2019s \u201cThe Morning Show,\u201d starring Aniston as news broadcaster Alex Levy, premiered in the fall, and along with its usual ripped-from-the-headlines topicality, Alex had to reckon with some personal issues: Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons played her estranged father, Martin, a law professor and a rake; happily,\u00a0by the end of the season, father and daughter found closure and a way forward.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the subject of closure, the third season of \u201cThe Comeback\u201d shot on Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. lot, where \u201cFriends\u201d famously filmed each week before a live audience. The two friends get teary-eyed reminiscing about their Stage 24 memories, as well as thinking about the fact that Kudrow\u2019s son, Julian Stern, with whom she was pregnant during \u201cFriends,\u201d has a supporting role on \u201cThe Comeback.\u201d As Aniston puts it, \u201cHe grew up hearing laughter all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tJennifer Aniston:<\/strong> Oh! The cameras are here!<\/p>\n \n\tLisa Kudrow:<\/strong> Oh, duh. All right, so then [like a smooth talk-show host] Hello, Jennifer.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>[In a similarly smooth English accent] Hello, Lisa. My Floosh.<\/p>\n \n\tSo the last time we did this \u2014<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow:<\/strong> Was on Zoom!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>In 2020. Which feels like \u2014 boy, we\u2019ve come a long way! And we\u2019re all living amongst each other and back to being in the same rooms.<\/p>\n \n\tYou\u2019d never watched \u201cFriends.\u201d And I actually remember thinking to myself, \u201cReally? How could she never watch \u2018Friends\u2019?\u201d Except for when we would gather in the very, very beginning, back in the 1900s. We would watch the show at one of our homes.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow:<\/strong> <\/strong>It was really fun. And then we got busy. There were whole episodes that I hadn\u2019t seen. I just couldn\u2019t sit there at home and have anybody walk by seeing me watching a show that I\u2019m in. Because it felt embarrassing to me.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Just like, \u201cOh, here I am, watching my own self be brilliant and funny\u201d? Because you were.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Well, I wouldn\u2019t feel that way. Watching it, sometimes I would just be like [she affects a loud, reedy voice], \u201cHe\u2019s her lobster!\u201d Why that voice?<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Because it was funny. Boy, that was really fun. That all still feels like yesterday, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>No, it doesn\u2019t to me. So I have watched it now.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Did you love it?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Loved it with all my heart. I\u2019d end up sitting there for three hours, and then it\u2019s like two in the morning: \u201cI need to go to bed! This is bad!\u201d But, oh, it made me so happy to watch it. And, man, you\u2019re all good. Holy cow! You were really good, Jennifer. It\u2019s such a ridiculous thing to say to people! Like, of course.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Ellen Matthews for Variety<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>That was such lightning in a bottle, the chemistry of all of us. And the writers played off of us and our relationships, which were truly genuine. Do you miss multi-cam?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>When I\u2019m sitting on a set waiting and it\u2019s been a long time? Yes, I do.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>I really loved that medium. I loved the audience.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t love the audience, but I would now. [She looks into the camera and uses Valerie Cherish\u2019s voice.] \u201cI would love you, if you would want me on a sitcom.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>It was so great. We had a life at the same time.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I would love to do another one, if anyone wrote a good one. Let\u2019s do it. You heard it here!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Oh, wow. What\u2019s it going to be?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Can we do you, me and Courteney? What would that be?<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Girlfriends. Let\u2019s pitch it. Let\u2019s workshop it in front of all of these wonderful people.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>And then you did \u201cThe Morning Show\u201d! Which you know I\u2019ve been a fan of since Season 1.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>You\u2019re so supportive.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Supportive? I just love it. And you\u2019re phenomenally good.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>You\u2019re very kind. We have awesome, incredible writers. And I am in awe of them and what they have to do, because there\u2019s so many characters \u2014 and weaving these stories all together and having it make sense.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Alex and her father, played by Jeremy Irons, no less. Oh my God! How was that, first of all?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Ellen Matthews for Variety<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Jeremy Irons, who is a gorgeous human being \u2014 literally physically breathtaking, and he\u2019s as funny and playful; he\u2019s like a big kid. He was just incredible. And always like, \u201cHow was that? Was that good?\u201d Like, same thing as we would say to each other.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Can I ask you, though, about the scene in Alex\u2019s apartment? Alex is learning for the first time that her mother had postpartum depression and then left. <\/strong>There were so many emotional bombs for Alex.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>It was a lot of bombs, yeah, because we all have such complicated relationships with our own fathers, right? Or I did, at least.<\/p>\n \n\tBut, first of all,\u201cThe Comeback\u201d \u2014 I love Valerie Cherish so much.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Good!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>She makes me laugh and she breaks my heart. I also think the life of \u201cThe Comeback\u201d has been fascinating.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Isn\u2019t it crazy?<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>What was the first year that you did it?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>2005.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>So why did it end the first time?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>It was canceled!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>A show gets canceled, then someone nine years later goes, \u201cRemember that show \u2018The Comeback\u2019? Damn, that was good.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>There were different people in charge who had been fans of it. And it did have this very strong niche audience \u2014 maybe more than niche. It made lists of good shows. It only had one season. And then HBO said, \u201cYeah, we think that would be an event for the people who love the show to do another.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>How did this season come about? The third?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Michael Patrick King, whenever he and I would get together, we would always end it with \u201cWhat do you think Valerie would be doing?\u201d Or he would say, \u201cShe\u2019s on Broadway.\u201d The last time, he said, \u201cWhat if Valerie\u2019s offered the lead in a multi-cam, but it\u2019s written by AI?\u201d I went, \u201cYes, of course. Yes! Of course! She would sign up for that nightmare of scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>What do you feel about AI?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Ellen Matthews for Variety<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I feel like we\u2019re going to learn a lot about what doesn\u2019t work, and that there will be some aspects of it that will be really helpful. And I think an audience will always let you know what works for them and what doesn\u2019t work for them.And I think right now, just as actors, I think we\u2019re safe, because young people can tell so much better than I can tell, what\u2019s an AI generated human.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Isn\u2019t it crazy?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I can\u2019t tell that well.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>The amount of things that I get sent from people think that it\u2019s actually me \u2014and it\u2019s so clearly not. But yeah, it\u2019s such unchartered territory, and I think we have to learn about it. It feels like it\u2019s already just grown into this 900-headed monster. We don\u2019t understand enough about it.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I mean, I know you. You\u2019ve probably looked, and tried to learn about it.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>I want to learn more. I want to understand what this is, because there\u2019s just so many questions.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow:<\/strong> Yeah. And we talked to people in preparation for doing \u201cThe Comeback.\u201d We wanted to sound a little bit like we knew what was going on.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Andrew Scott is so genius on the show.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Tears came out of my eyes when I heard he would want to be in the show, honestly. Michael Patrick King, in fact, had said, \u201cNo, no, we can\u2019t have someone known. Because we need for the audience to believe this world is real.\u201d And I just said, \u201cMichael, 20 years ago, Phoebe put on a red wig and said her name was Valerie and people bought it.\u201d So I don\u2019t think that\u2019s an issue. And it\u2019s our last season. It\u2019s the last time we\u2019re doing this.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Well, you say that.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I say it and I mean it.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Do you really mean it?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Yeah, because now it\u2019s a piece. It\u2019s a trilogy. And we went from the first extinction event, we thought \u2014 reality TV \u2014 to this extinction event [artificial intelligence]. It\u2019s full circle in that way.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Jimmy Burrows, who plays the director on \u201cThe Comeback,\u201d was our first director on the \u201cFriends\u201d sitcom show. Remember when you sent me and Courteney a picture of you and Jimmy \u2014<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>On Stage 24! We were looking at stages, and Warner Bros. offered Stage 24.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Stop it! Just coincidence?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Well, maybe. Or they intentionally offered Stage 24, which was really nice. And I can\u2019t tell you how many ways that moved me. [Her voice catches.] Oops.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston:<\/strong> I know.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Because knowing this is the end of Valerie Cherish and \u201cThe Comeback,\u201d and that was where it was the end of \u201cFriends\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>[Reaches for tissue] Shit!<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>And next to \u201cFriends,\u201d this is \u2014\u00a0give me one!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Sorry! [She passes Kudrow a tissue.] Goddamn! I did this last time. Shoot.<\/p>\n \n\t[Kudrow and Aniston are laughing and crying and dabbing their eyes.]<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Next to \u201cFriends,\u201d \u201cThe Comeback\u201d means the most to me, right?<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Goddamn! Sorry! Hold on a second! Please don\u2019t put this in there. I beg of you! Anyway. But, yes! I\u2019m seeing shots on the show, backstage, like seeing where craft service was.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>And! I have a picture of my Julian at 2 years old standing on a step stool washing his dishes, washing a cup at the sink. And then he\u2019s there on that stage doing his first thing in a big show, not a short or student film. There he is!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>There\u2019s Julian. I was beside myself, because that was a surprise for me. A really good, really amazing surprise. And he\u2019s so good.That young man was baked on that show.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Literally. Every huddle. Touched my stomach before we\u2019d go out.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Always touch the Floosh belly.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Wait, when I was pregnant with Julian [looks into the camera] \u2014 they weren\u2019t just touching my stomach. It\u2019s not creepy. It\u2019s a sweet thing. You don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston:<\/strong> <\/strong>But imagine growing inside your mother, as a baking child. What\u2019s the word? I keep saying \u201cbaking.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Gestating? Did you want to say gestating?<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>No. That sounds even weirder. It\u2019s like he grew up hearing laughter all the time.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I know. Can you imagine? Just the amount of joy. Because it was the most fun.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston:<\/strong> <\/strong>And he is today one of the most joyful human beings that I get to spend time with. Like, I love him. I would choose him as a person I would like to spend time with as a friend, not just because he\u2019s your son.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Aw! When he could first speak, he\u2019d look at the TV, point to Jennifer and say, \u201cMommy!\u201d So he had a connection to you.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>That was weird. He knew, somehow, that that would make me feel good. Have you watched the whole 10 years of it?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Yes. There are things that Phoebe says that at the time are like, \u201cIsn\u2019t that stupid?\u201d And now I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, yeah, no, I think that\u2019s actually how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Did you like the Thanksgiving episodes? Those were fun.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Yes. Those were great,\u00a0the Thanksgiving episodes. When Brad was on, that was hilarious.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston:<\/strong> I know. How funny. The movie stars that came on \u201cFriends.\u201d Brad, Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts. Isabella Rossellini. We had so many \u2014 Sean Penn. They were always nervous. Remember? I always found it fascinating how nervous they were.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Yes. Nervous. Well, because what\u2019s the tone? It\u2019s not theater; it\u2019s for TV. It\u2019s not a movie. What the hell is this? And it\u2019s a good question. And I remember someone asked one time. I didn\u2019t know how to explain it, so I said, \u201cOh, just talk louder. Same intention, just \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Just louder! The first couple movies I did during \u201cFriends,\u201d remember?<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Screaming?<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Screaming!<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I can\u2019t bear the volume and sound of my voice. It\u2019s too loud.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>I love it so much though.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>But I did love, with all my heart, all of us cracking up, including me, when Ross is playing the bagpipes.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Nothing funnier.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>And then Phoebe\u2019s like, \u201cOK, sure.\u201d [She imitates a high-pitched, screeching bagpipe sound]. She doesn\u2019t know what song it is! When I watch it, I\u2019m just like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m fully laughing!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Well, it was funny, man!<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>But I did crack up in tears, I laughed so hard. The funniest was the Gellers\u2019 anniversary party. Alec Baldwin was in that one. And there was an oyster, <\/strong>and Alec\u2019s like, \u201cHere, eat this.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cOK,\u201d and she flicked it on the floor. And then Joey comes over, and she asks, \u201cYou having a good time?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cNo, it\u2019s horrible. I waited forever for the buffet line. I almost slid on a giant booger!\u201d [Kudrow and Aniston are dissolving in laughter.]<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Why is it so stupid, Lisa? It\u2019s so stupid!<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>He thought that an oyster-sized booger came out of someone\u2019s nose!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Oh, God, LeBlanc was so good! And he played that really not smart guy so well.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>It\u2019s so good!<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>\u201cIt was a moo point!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s like a cow.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: \u201c<\/strong>It\u2019s a moo point.\u201d Oh, God. Is this too inside baseball? It\u2019s so entertaining for people \u2014\u00a0just us watching ourselves.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Watching us laugh at our show.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>I don\u2019t want to ever stop talking to you.<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>I know.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>Well, the good thing is we don\u2019t have to. And we can continue our conversations when you come over or I come over and we go have dinner. We\u2019ve got to get Courteney. We\u2019ve got to get that little threesome back together.<\/p>\n \n\tAniston: <\/strong>I love you!<\/p>\n \n\tKudrow: <\/strong>Love you!<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow \u2014\u00a0friends since, um, \u201cFriends\u201d premiered more than 30 years ago \u2014 are thrilled to see each other, especially because it\u2019s been so long: a year and a half, according to Kudrow. She\u2019s been busy working on \u201cThe Comeback,\u201d for which she and co-creator Michael Patrick King wrote all eight episodes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2444226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[423430,26741,338684],"class_list":["post-2444225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-actors-on-actors","tag-jennifer-aniston","tag-lisa-kudrow"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Jennifer-Aniston-and-Lisa-Kudrows-Friends-Reunion.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2444228,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444225\/revisions\/2444228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2444226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\n\t\tProp styling and art direction: Shawn Patrick Anderson\/Acme Studios; Assistant prop styling: Joseph Bell\t<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n