+ #4.04 – “I Should Have Known”

#4.04 – “I Should Have Known” – When Tom gets a new girlfriend (guest star Ali Wentworth), the girls decide to investigate. Bobby goes on a fake date with Ellie to improve his table manners. And after getting fed up with the girls’ rules, Andy and Grayson rebel.

I just received an e-mail from Cougar Town writer and supervising producer, Blake McCormick, and he gave me some scoop on Michelle Williams’ surprise appearance on the show! Check it out below:

The Michelle Williams thing was fun, we got that at the last minute actually, we had something else in place in case she wasn’t available but she came by the set for an hour and we were able to get her part.

Awesome! So great that she was able to film her cameo!

+ “Watch What Happens Live” – 1/08/13

Grab a glass of wine – let’s be real, grab a case of wine – and gather up your favorite group of inappropriate pals because “Cougar Town” is heading back to the small screen!

Before you soak up the fourth season premiere – which airs Tuesday on TBS at 10 p.m. ET – check out our 15 in 15 interview (fifteen questions in fifteen minutes) with the hilarious Busy Philipps, who plays Jules Cobb’s ditzy sidekick, Laurie Keller, on the booze-infused sitcom. What’s her favorite feature? What would she never be caught dead wearing? Find out now!

1. What is your weirdest grooming habit?
Well, I don’t really think it’s that weird. I’m just very particular about my face wash routine. I do it religiously, and I have since I was a teenager. I always wash my face before bed. I mean, I have literally never gone to bed with makeup on, ever.

2. Is there a beauty product you can’t live without?
I don’t even have to think about it: Epicurean Tea Tree Oil lip balm. I’ve been using it for many years, and I just can’t live without it. I love it. It’s my favorite thing in the world.

3. Do you have an insta beauty or fashion trick?
I never underestimate the power of hot rollers for your hair and eyelash curlers for your eyelashes.

[READ MORE...]

Nads: Do you feel like you have more freedom with Cougar Town because you’re on cable now?

Busy: I think going into this season we all thought that there was going to be more swearing, but then as my husband pointed out before I came to work, it’s basic cable, so the rules are pretty much almost the same. You know, the way that things have shifted in the past 10-13 since I’ve been on TV is insane. From Freaks and Geeks when they would not air the episode “Kim Kelly Is My Friend” because they thought it was too racy for television.

Nads: What was so bad about that episode?

Busy: Nothing! You really have to watch the episode to understand the irony of it. The network would not air it b/c they thought it was too rough and too tough. In the episode I had a kind of abusive mom and weird step dad who’s creepy. But, they just wouldn’t air it.

Nads: But now they have polygamy on television, how crazy is that?

Busy: It’s par for the course. It’s not just that they just have polgamy, it’s who doesn’t have polygamy!

Nads: Do you think reality has pushed the evelope for scripted?

Busy: Maybe! I’m kind of reality fan…

[READ MORE...]

Paste recently caught up with Christa Miller, who plays the hilariously acerbic Ellie Torres on the comedy. Miller, who became a familiar TV face during her years on The Drew Carey Show and played Jordan on Scrubs, is married to Cougar Town executive producer Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Spin City). The New York native and mom of three shared her thoughts on the show’s new season, what it’s like being on TBS and just how much she is like Ellie.

Paste: What do you think about the show’s move to TBS?
Christa Miller: Obviously I knew that it was trying to be put in the works a long time ago, and I thought it was kind of a genius idea. We have so many loyal fans and cultish fans that really think the show is funny, and we all think the show is funny. We really appreciate being able to continue on to do our show. If it was a crap show, my husband wouldn’t have tried to make sure we kept making it. You just wouldn’t fight for something that was crap, so we were excited to keep it going. We have a very tight-knit crew and cast. My husband has been working with the same crew since Scrubs, so we’ve all been together for such a long time. My husband runs an incredible set. He has a “no asshole” policy. People come in and are professional and respectful to everybody and we laugh all day.

Paste: How much of you is in Ellie? Or how much of Ellie is in you?
Miller: She is kind of what I whisper privately to my husband at a dinner party—what I would like to say. What I say to my husband, when we speak privately, about what I really think of people. [For example] I don’t even know if I should say this—at one of my children’s schools, the moms are having a moms’ night out and it’s 10 days before Christmas; I couldn’t be busier. It’s so hectic, just reading the email my eyes are rolling. I can’t say “no” big enough. It just makes me laugh to myself and my husband will say, “What?” and I’ll tell him. Then it will be in the show that I actually said to the moms, “Are you fucking kidding me? That you even bother doing this is annoying me.”

[READ MORE...]

The cul-de-sac crew is back!

If Busy Philipps does say so, Cougar Town‘s upcoming fourth season may just be its best yet. Making the move from ABC to TBS for season 4, the beloved fan favorite hit, costarring Courteney Cox and Josh Hopkins, will really hit its stride starting with the January 8 premiere.

“I’m really excited about it! Honestly, I was quite nervous going back . . . I didn’t know what to expect. Cougar Town is the little show that could,” the pregnant actress — who plays Jules’ BFF Laurie — tells Us Weekly of the series, which was in danger of cancellation after season 3 until TBS inked a deal to air the new episodes and encores of its three previous seasons.

Fans will be especially impressed with Cougar Town‘s first two episodes, which were directed by series star Cox. “The first two [episodes] way surpassed my expectations and came out incredible,” Philipps enthused to Us in August when filming began. “I’m really proud of Courteney and really excited about the season!”

Source

Showrunner Bill Lawrence is no stranger to rolling with the punches and preparing for a series finale more than once within his actual series’ run. With Scrubs, he had a self-proclaimed “crazy” nine-year run that involved receiving new seasons after being sure the show would be canceled. And now again with Cougar Town, he braced for an abrupt end only to be revived with a new season (and potentially a much longer partnership) with TBS.

As Cougar Town enters into its fourth season overall but its first for the cable network, Lawrence told Celebuzz that he was still making the same show and therefore hoped the same fans would flock to it.

“Look, if the same amount of people that were watching the show on the network were to watch us on TBS, it would be a great hit and success story for TBS, so that’s all I want, you know? I would kill to have a mass appeal television hit — Spin City was like that for a while, and it was cool, but I don’t know how guys likeChuck Lorre or Modern Familydo it. I haven’t been able to crack that code. So for me, it’s about doing niche shows that hopefully have a loyal enough fan base to stay alive,” he said.

Cougar Town always nods to its loyal fans nicely. When ABC pushed its third season to the mid-season schedule, Lawrence threw in a meta jab that had the characters celebrating Thanksgiving late in the year because their “schedules got all mixed up,” and they were worried they wouldn’t be back, all together, during that time the following year anyway. Season 4 opens in a similar fashion: with the cul-de-sac crew walking into Jules’ (Courteney Cox) house and breathing in how happy they are to return — only for Travis (Dan Byrd) to point out they were only over at Ellie’s (Christa Miller).

[READ MORE...]