TV-14, 6 seasons, 102
22-min. episodes
Creators: Kevin Biegel, Bill
Lawrence
Directors: John Putch, Michael McDonald, Courtney Cox, Bill Lawrence, Gail Mancuso, Bruce Leddy, Chris Koch, Michael Spiller, Josh Hopkins, Jamie Babbit, Lee Shallat Chemel, Phil Traill, Ken Wittingham, Millicent Shelton, Randall Winston, Sam Jones, Brian Van Holt, Busy Philipps, Courtney Rowe
Writers: Kevin Biegel, Bill
Lawrence, Melody Derloshon, Blake McCormick, Peter Saji, Mary Fitzgerald,
Jessica Goldstein, Chrissy Pietrosh, Sean Lavery, Ryan Koh, Sam Laybourne,
Sanjay Shah, Kate Purdy, Brad Morris, Emily R. Wilson, Michael McDonald, Gregg
Mettler, Linda Videtti Figueiredo, Mara Brock Akil, Rachel Specter, Audrey
Wauchope, Michael Lisbe, Nate Reger, Aaron Ho, Austen Faggen, Justin Halpern,
Patrick Schumacker, Jen D’Angelo, Eric Ernst
Starring: Courtney Cox,
Christa Miller, Busy Philipps, Dan Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Ian Gomez, Brian Van
Holt, Bob Clendenin
Guest starring: Carolyn
Hennesy, Ken Jenkins, Lamarcus Tinker, Sawyer Ever, Ryan Devlin, Spencer Locke,
Brad Morris, Barry Bostwick, Collette Wolfe, Briga Heelan, Edwin Hodge, Nicole
Sullivan, Shawn Parihk, Nick Zano, Scott Foley, Sarah Chalke, Sheryl Crow,
Maria Thayer, Ryan Biegel, Lou Diamond Phillips, Yasmin Deliz, Michael
McDonald, Shirley Jones, David Arquette, Jennifer Aniston, Cindy Crawford,
Rachel Harris, Beverly D’Angelo, Susan Blakely, Matthew Perry, Paula Newsome,
Alan Ruck, Lisa Kudrow, Nia Vardalos, Ahmed Best, Michelle Williams
Last Tuesday I had to hold
back tears. One of my most beloved television shows came to an end. I wasn’t
brought to the edge of tears because of the emotionally jarring conclusions for
the characters’ to their story, however. No, their story’s end was just as
ridiculous as just about any episode’s worth. No, I was nearly brought to tears
because there just isn’t any other television series like it out there. The
closest to it might be “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, but that one probably has
higher aspirations.
I’m writing about the show
“Cougar Town”, which started out its life on ABC as a fitting replacement to
the creator’s former show “Scrubs”. It was canceled by ABC after three seasons,
which is a strange time to cancel a show as only one more season will generally
provide enough episodes to sell it into syndication and barrels of advertising
dollars for no extra expense. But, ABC yanked it and TBS picked it up for
another three seasons. Of course,
I’m sure for many—once it made the leap to cable—it all but ceased to exist.
I know! You’re saying to
yourself, “Really, Andy? ‘Cougar Town’ is a terrible show!” Many a time I would
post on social media that I was watching it and friends would reply with a
“Why?!” The truth is, it was the ultimate guilty pleasure for me. It is a
terrible show. It is utterly stupid, with stupid characters doing things that
nobody ever does and hardly matter to anybody but these particular made up
people. And the reason it works for me is that the show’s cast and crew seemed
to know all that. They were well aware that it was crap and enhanced it by
embracing what it was with the unconditional love of family. They make fun of
themselves with the ridiculous way they depict themselves and the moronic
things they do. How else can you explain why the small detail of a game
invented by a bored character could become one of the iconic moments of the series?
“Penny can!!!”
When ABC first announced the
series, I thought it sounded stupid. It was supposed to be about an aging
beauty who hooked up with younger men in competition with other cougars. I’m
not sure that really would’ve appealed to anybody. Then, for some reason I
watched the trailer they made for it. It was very funny. I decided to try it
out. While it did sort of follow that premise at first, it was willing to go
just about anywhere for laughs. Soon, its original premise had been abandoned
for a focus on the group of friends that made up the “Cul-de-sac Crew”, their
love of wine, and their ridiculous ideas that nobody would ever have or follow
to any sort of conclusions if they did. They even made fun of the show’s
ill-fitting title in the opening credits sequence every episode.
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