What Dan Bucatinsky Watches (and Listens to) With His Kids

Dan Bucatinsky, who plays Billy Stanton on The Comeback, is finding the role particularly interesting because it mirrors his real-life work. He’s been writing and creating projects with Lisa Kudrow for many years, and together they’ve executive produced all three seasons of The Comeback and the online series Web Therapy.

Billy isn’t a very good publicist – his most notable achievement is getting his client on the cover of Be Yoga magazine. However, Bucatinsky is a fantastic actor. He’s consistently delivered strong performances even in single episodes of popular shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Weeds, and Grace & Frankie. He really broke out as James Novak on Scandal, a recurring role that earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

As many people know, Bucatinsky is most passionate about being a father to his adult children, Eliza and Jonah, who he raises with his husband, Don Roos, a writer for film and television.

For me, The Comeback holds a special place because my daughter was born during the filming of the first season, which aired in 2005. I distinctly remember bringing her home, still in her car seat, to the house where we were shooting – it was meant to be Valerie’s home on the show. This season, though, my kids weren’t interested in visiting the set at all. They’re past the point of being impressed, except maybe by the free Butterfingers they have at the craft services table.

Ticket To Ride

Life is different now that my children are adults. We used to enjoy watching cartoons and family movies when they were young, but now my eighteen-year-old son is quite tall – six-foot-three – and he’s really into the military and video games.

I was in bed around 1 AM last night when I heard a thumping sound. I went outside and discovered my son practicing archery in the yard. It struck me how different he is from me at that age – I was inside learning to tap dance!

Our family has developed a lot of different hobbies and interests over the past few years. With everyone enjoying different things, finding activities we all enjoy together became really important. During the COVID pandemic, we discovered a board game called Ticket to Ride that we all became completely hooked on – it became our common ground.

We started building a model railway that stretches across the country. It became a nightly hobby for all of us during the COVID lockdowns.

Is It Cake?

There’s one show the whole family enjoys watching together: Is It Cake? It’s funny because my kids usually don’t watch anything I’m in – which is actually nice. I did a ton of episodes of Scandal, but they weren’t interested. However, if I were a judge on Is It Cake?, I know they’d definitely tune in!

The Dog House: UK

Our family loves dogs – we currently have three! My daughter also has a bird, so we enjoy watching the HBO Max show The Dog House, which features dogs looking for loving homes.

I absolutely love this show called The Dog House! It’s a British program, and I think they’ve done five or six seasons now. Each episode follows different families as they visit a gorgeous dog rescue in the English countryside. What’s so special is that the show helps match these families with rescue dogs who really need a home. You get to know the dedicated people who run the rescue, and you learn each family’s story – why they want a dog, and what they’re hoping for. It’s often incredibly touching and just makes you feel good.

The dog selections aren’t always a perfect fit for the families, but the show itself is fantastic.

Wicked Tuna

This one isn’t my choice, but my kids can be dictators with the TV: Wicked Tuna.

It’s surprisingly captivating to watch these fishermen search for the most valuable tuna. It feels like a really unusual game show, and you actually pick up a lot of interesting information along the way – things like what determines the quality of tuna and how weather conditions impact the catch.

The Avatar and Jurassic Park Franchises

My kids are really fixated on rewatching the same movie constantly, which is actually pretty interesting to observe. I don’t recall being quite like that myself – although I used to rewatch every season of I Dream of Jeannie repeatedly, so perhaps I’m being a bit of a hypocrite. But they can watch all three Avatar movies again and again without getting tired of them.

Our family has seen these movies countless times over the years. That’s true for all the Jurassic films – they’re a real hit with us! They are pretty scary, though. My husband hates anything too graphic, so he usually watches with his hands covering his eyes, or even through his phone, which he finds less frightening for some reason.

Duolingo Chess

It seems like everyone’s been getting into chess lately! I’m new to the game myself, and it’s interesting to find that Duolingo, known for language learning, now offers chess lessons too.

Don is really into Duolingo these days, and my daughter has become a surprisingly strong chess player, beating everyone in the family. It’s a fun way for us to connect and remember what it’s like to enjoy time together as a family.

Billie Eilish and Russian Military Fight Songs

https://youtube.com/watch?v=watch?v=V9PVRfjEBTI

My daughter and son have completely different tastes in music, which makes it impossible for us to agree on what to listen to. My daughter loves artists like Billie Eilish and Pink, while my son, Jonah, has the most unusual musical preferences I’ve ever encountered. He’ll listen to everything from Alex Warren and John Denver to country and even Russian military songs! His playlists are wild, but I let him play whatever he wants in the car – it’s all about spending time together.

I’m not entirely sure what sparked my son’s interest in joining the military. As a child, he enjoyed playing with toy guns and video games, especially military-themed ones. Because my children are adopted, and it was an open adoption, we have a close relationship with their birth mother. We visit her in Wisconsin every few years, and I believe learning about her brief time in the military played a role in his development as he grew up. He seemed to appreciate having that family connection and it became something he was drawn to.

He chose to attend the Army-Navy Academy, a boarding school in Carlsbad. I would have preferred he go to the Julie Andrews School, which focuses on jazz, tap, and ballet.

Cooking Classes

My daughter explores her hobbies in her own unique way. She enjoys video games, crafting, and both cooking and baking. Luckily, sometimes our interests overlap – we both love to cook – and we get to have fun together in the kitchen.

This year, while Don was working on Emily in Paris, I took my 20-year-old daughter to Rome. We took a pasta-making class together, and it was a really special experience for me. It meant a lot to create something with her at this stage in her life, as she’s really becoming her own person. Of course, she’s always been independent, but it’s so much more apparent now, so finding ways to connect with her is increasingly important to me.

Friends

I’ve noticed my daughter watching Friends, and it’s funny because she doesn’t really think about the fact that it was originally a show people watched weekly, back when TV was an event. She just streams episode after episode, and it strikes me how timeless it feels. Friends really doesn’t seem to be limited by age or who’s watching it. It’s just reliably comforting, which I think explains why it’s stayed popular for so long.

Lisa Kudrow and I have been close friends for three decades – she’s practically family. My kids call her “Aunt Lisa” and adore watching her on TV. My daughter was so excited when I told her her show, The Comeback, is returning in March, she immediately started binge-watching the first two seasons to get ready for the new one!

2026-03-30 16:56