No cougars left in 'Cougar Town' as it focuses on pop culture jokes
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For Courteney Cox and Josh Hopkins, the first show of the third season of "Cougar Town" is filled with romance, fitting for Valentine's Day.
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LOS ANGELES -- It's long past time to stop hating "Cougar Town" for the show it began as but no longer is.
The comedy's initial concept -- 40-something Jules (Courteney Cox) dates 20-something guys -- was basically discarded before the end of the first season in favor of a comedy about a group of adult friends who hang out, behave somewhat childishly and consume vast amounts of wine.
After the show's first season, executive producers Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel began talking about the possibility of renaming the show, but instead they opted to mock the title in the opening credits.
"This show title has nothing to do with what it's about, but writers look for ways to procrastinate," Mr. Lawrence said last year during a press conference on the show's set in Culver City, Calif. "We spend at least a couple hours a week trying to come up with the stuff we say before the title."
When: 8:30 tonight, ABC.
Starring: Courteney Cox.
In tonight's third-season premiere, the show's title card reads: "Yes, it's still called 'Cougar Town.' We're not happy about it either."
Aside from the title, Mr. Lawrence said all vestiges of the show's original concept are gone. Jules long ago quit dating; she and Grayson (Josh Hopkins) get engaged in today's Valentine's Day season premiere.
"We eliminated every aspect of cougars from the show once and for all," Mr. Lawrence said, including cougarish behavior by Barb (Carolyn Hennesy, "General Hospital"). Barb's still on the show, but she's no longer dating younger guys. "We made Barb be married to [a character played by] Barry Bostwick."
It's not altogether unusual for a show to evolve as "Cougar Town" has, although its evolution seems more drastic because of the way the show no longer reflects its title. But there is often a period early in a scripted TV series' life when the producers learn about their characters through the actors who play them.
"I love getting to know actors ... and seeing what their real personalities are like and stealing from them," Mr. Lawrence said. "And one of the first things that I noticed when I met Courteney Cox is she pours herself a healthy glass of wine. She pours herself the type that you could do wrist curls with."
Consequently, the "Cougar Town" friends drink copious amounts of wine, and Jules pours her vino into an enormous wine glass nicknamed Big Carl, a replacement for her previous wine glass of choice, the dearly departed Big Joe.
First Published February 14, 2012 12:00 am
