Matt LeBlanc, the lovable doofus Joey of NBC's smash Friends, is playing himself — sort of — in Episodes, Showtime's send-up of the TV business, which premieres Sunday (9:30 ET/PT).
The seven-episode series, shot entirely in London, focuses on Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig), a married British couple behind Lyman's Boys, a successful sitcom about a "witty, urbane headmaster" (Richard Griffiths).
But when an American network decides to remake the show and recruits the couple to Hollywood, they find their creative vision trashed. In its wake: a mediocre facsimile called Pucks!, in which crusty, rotund Griffiths is replaced by LeBlanc, his physical opposite, who's essentially cast to play "Joey as a hockey coach." (Lacrosse is considered, but rejected as "too lacrosse-y.")
The project was dreamed up by David Crane (Friends) and Jeffrey Klarik (Mad About You), a real-life couple who found great success in those shows but suffered their own TV horror story with their follow-up, CBS' short-lived 2008 comedy The Class, an experience they've likened to being a "puppy in a dryer."
Crane recalls how they pitched it to LeBlanc: "Here's a show, and you're the punch line." But Episodes avoids the pitfalls of insider-showbiz series by focusing less on LeBlanc than the uncomprehending outsiders, who see their career and marriage upended.
"Sean and Beverly are at that age where they should be having kids, and they don't; the show is their kid," LeBlanc says. "Hollywood and the show represent all the pitfalls that can harm a child, and I become this wedge in their marriage."
LeBlanc's own marriage had ended in divorce, and he wasn't looking to get back into TV when Crane offered him the part over lunch. "I had taken time off after Joey," the failed Friends spinoff, "and was really enjoying my life and being a dad," he says. "I was in a place where I just needed a break and found myself in a position where I was almost 40 and had enough money to retire."
Still, he found the pitch "awesome," though "the only thing I bumped on was, I didn't understand what it meant by me playing myself. I had to emotionally detach myself from the idea of portraying myself, (and) then it became fun. ... It's more the public's perception of a celebrity than it is me."
Nor has he had much first-hand experience with the venal villains of Episodes: network executives led by Merc (John Pankow, Mad's Cousin Ira) and his sycophantic underlings. But Crane has. "They don't know what the answer is. All they know is they're spending this ridiculous amount of money and their job's on the line," he says. "And in any business where there's a creative element, any product you're trying to sell, there's a desperate need to quantify everything,"
He recalls NBC wondering, as it tested the pilot for Friends, "Can Monica sleep with someone on her first date?" At a rehearsal taping, "they were terrified," he says, and asked audience members leading questions such as, "Was Monica a slut?" (They said no; the scene stayed.)
"They tell you (testing) means nothing, and then you find out it meant everything," Klarik says. "Otherwise all they have left is their opinions."
LeBlanc is cagey about similarities to his alter ego. He'll allow that the fictional Matt "uses the fact that he played Joey, so people think he's a little dim, and they have their guard down," whereas "I'm not really much of a manipulator. I kind of wear my heart on my sleeve."
tamsin greig, stephen mangan, gary levin, friends spinoff, david crane, tv horror, being a dad, punch line, life couple, horror story, hockey coach, british couple, richard griffiths, creative vision, own tv, mad about you, tv business, pucks, headmaster, pitfalls
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Usatoday.com
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