Episodes is a television sitcom created by David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik and produced by Hat Trick Productions. It premiered on Showtime in the United States on 9 January 2011"Biggest Sunday Ever on Showtime! Shameless, Episodes & Californication to Premiere 9th January", Showtime press release, 22 September 2010, via FutonCritic.com. Retrieved 3 November 2010. and on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on 10 January 2011. The show is about a British husband-and-wife comedy writing team who travel to Hollywood to remake their successful British TV series, with unexpected results. It stars Matt LeBlanc portraying a satirical version of himself. LeBlanc made his regular return to television for the first time since he was on NBC's Joey.
On 10 June 2015, it was announced that Showtime had renewed Episodes for a fifth season, which was due to begin filming in London in 2016. On 11 April 2016, the fifth season was confirmed to be the series' last; it consists of seven episodes and premiered on 20 August 2017. The series finale, "Episode Seven", aired on 8 October 2017.
Episodes has received positive reviews from critics, with specific praise being given to the performances of stars Stephen Mangan, Tamsin Greig, and LeBlanc. For his performance in the series, LeBlanc won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy and has been nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Episodes
Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) Lincoln win yet another BAFTA Award for their successful British sitcom, Lyman's Boys. Network president Merc Lapidus (John Pankow) and his second-in-command/paramour Carol Rance (Kathleen Rose Perkins) convince the couple to move to Los Angeles to remake their series for an American audience. The network immediately pressures the Lincolns into casting Matt LeBlanc for the lead role; Matt charms the Lincolns but they still insist he's wrong for the part. The network also changes the premise of the show to an unrecognizable degree, going from a sophisticated comedy about a headmaster at a boarding school to a slapstick comedy about a hockey coach called Pucks!. Hollywood veteran Morning Randolph (Mircea Monroe) is also cast in a main role.
During production of the pilot, Sean becomes good friends with Matt. However, tensions flare between Matt and Beverly when he suggests that Morning's character be straight rather than a lesbian—a move Sean ultimately supports in order for the story to have room to grow. Beverly begins suspecting that Sean has feelings for Morning although he denies this. During a gala, Matt tries to set Sean up with Morning but this ultimately fails. Beverly catches Sean masturbating to Morning's sex tape and becomes incensed when she misinterprets a hug between him and Morning. Beverly begins packing to go home and leaves Sean but accidentally gets into a car accident, smashing into Matt's car. After recuperating at his house, Matt and Beverly have sex. Afterwards, Matt reveals that nothing ever happened between Sean and Morning. Horrified, Beverly returns home to Sean and apologizes for freaking out. Production on the Pucks! pilot ends and Sean and Beverly prepare to return home to London. At Matt's house, Sean finds out about his sex with Beverly and the two fight. Sean tells Beverly that he's going to divorce her when they return home. However, test audiences loved Pucks! and a full season has been ordered.
Months later, Sean and Beverly are still working together on the show, with their relationship remaining purely professional. Matt and Sean are able to work through their differences. Meanwhile, Pucks! premieres and is panned by critics, but the first episode earns strong ratings. During the airing of the episode, Matt receives a handjob from Merc's blind wife Jamie (Genevieve O'Reilly) and begins an affair with her. The ratings for Pucks! decline sharply after its second episode. Citing audience surveys, the network suggests that Sean and Beverly rework the scripts to focus less on Matt and more on his teenage co-stars. Matt is furious and threatens to quit but relents when Beverly tells him that the show is the only thing giving her a chance at reuniting with Sean. When Sean insists that he has no interest in doing so, Beverly begins dating Morning's brother Rob (James Purefoy). Meanwhile, Carol is told by network chairman Elliot Salad (Michael Brandon) that Merc will soon be fired. Carol wants to preserve her romantic relationship with Merc so she tells him that his blind wife is having an affair with Matt, leading to fisticuffs between the two men. Afterward, Carol tells Merc that he's out of his job. She breaks up with him after he tells her he can't leave his wife now. Beverly, who was injured in the fight, shares a moment with Sean and the two finally reunite.
The unstable Castor Sotto (Chris Diamantopoulos) is chosen to replace Merc and insists on cancelling Pucks!. Carol defends the show and suggests moving it to a new night. Meanwhile, Matt falls in love with a script for an NBC drama pilot. He begs Sean and Beverly to kill him off the show, but they refuse once they discover that the script is penned by their obnoxious former assistant Andrew Lesley (Oliver Kieran-Jones). After the ratings plummet in their new timeslot, Pucks! is pulled from the schedule and production on the show begins to wind down. As Matt negotiates for a role in the NBC pilot, Sean and Beverly begin preparing to return home when an agent, Eileen Jaffee (Andrea Rosen), remembers an old script of theirs titled The Opposite of Us. Eileen convinces a tepid Sean to let her shop the script at several networks, but Beverly is dead-set on returning home. With her job on the line, Carol shows the script to Castor and he wants to adapt it. Although Sean is unsure as to what to do, Beverly convinces him to ignore their offers as she insists it would be the same experience they had with Pucks!. The Lincolns return home to London and Matt is cast in the NBC pilot. Meanwhile, after Merc informs Elliot about Matt's NBC deal, Pucks! is picked up for an additional six episodes, ending Matt's stint on the pilot and forcing the Lincolns to return to California.
As production on Pucks! is forced to continue, Castor Sotto is fired and replaced by Helen Basch (Andrea Savage). The new charismatic network president is able to convince Sean and Beverly to let them make The Opposite of Us. Sean receives a visit from his old writing partner Tim Whittick (Bruce Mackinnon) who suggests that he was a co-author of the original script. Tim wants to be involved in production of the new show, but Sean and Beverly strongly oppose this. After legal problems present themselves, Sean gives the network an ultimatum that he and Beverly will walk if Tim is involved and the network relents to their demands. Meanwhile, Matt incurs tremendous financial losses after his accountant is exposed for embezzling his clients. In an act of desperation, he and Merc collaborate on a game show called The Box. At the network, Carol gets along well with Helen and the two begin a relationship. However, Helen believes that Beverly is attracted to Carol. After suspecting that she's being cheated on, Helen fires Carol and forces Sean and Beverly to work on The Opposite of Us with Tim serving as showrunner.
The Box is an enormous success. However, Matt is accidentally caught on tape masturbating on set and he is subsequently fired. Ratings for the show tank without him and Matt only agrees to return if the network agrees to his stipulations, including a guarantee series order for a script he chooses. He asks Sean and Beverly to pen the new script; with the production on Opposite of Us becoming increasingly unbearable, they gleefully quit and agree to work with Matt on a new show. After throwing around several ideas, the passing of Matt's father (Alex Rocco) inspires them to write a drama about a conflicted father-son relationship. Meanwhile, Carol threatens the network with a sexual harassment lawsuit. After briefly rekindling her relationship with Merc, she discovers she's pregnant, although she leaves him when she learns he's also involved with Morning. Helen and Carol ultimately get back together. Sean, Beverly, and Matt pitch their show to the network and it is green-lit. However, Matt ultimately passes when he reads the script, incensing the Lincolns. Sean and Beverly begin developing a new script. Matt apologizes and begs to be cast in the show, as he insists the main role was made for him. Months later, the ensemble gather to watch the premiere of their new show: Episodes.
Cast and characters Main Matt LeBlanc as a fictionalized version of himself. Matt is a wealthy, charming, but arrogant actor, who was persuaded by the high salary to take the starring role of Coach Lyman in Pucks. He has a short attention span and need for immediate gratification. He has two sons, who spend most of their time with their mother Diane (Fiona Glascott), with whom Matt has an antagonistic yet ultimately protective relationship. Stephen Mangan as Sean Lincoln – co-creator of Pucks. Sean moves from London to Hollywood with his wife and co-creator Beverly to adapt their award-winning show Lyman's Boys for American audiences. Sean initially adapts to Hollywood better than Beverly, finding it easier to bond with Matt on some level than she does. Although he grows to loathe Hollywood and professes to want to return home, Sean stays because the paychecks are much bigger. Tamsin Greig as Beverly Lincoln – co-creator of Pucks. When Beverly and Sean move to Hollywood, she is quickly overwhelmed by the new lifestyle. Unlike Sean, Beverly struggles to adjust to life in Los Angeles, and the only person she feels close to is network executive Carol Rance (Kathleen Rose Perkins), with whom she often goes hiking in Griffith Park and smokes pot. John Pankow as Merc Lapidus – the president of the network. He purchases the American rights to Lyman's Boys without watching it, based on the acclaim it has received, but immediately insists on major changes which ultimately have a significant impact on the quality of the show. He is boorish and arrogant, lies to everybody to avoid responsibility and has a very short attention span. He is cheating on his blind wife with his network subordinate, Carol. Kathleen Rose Perkins as Carol Rance – the network's head of programming. She is Merc's second-in-command. Carol is very good at her job, but she often undermines herself professionally because she has a fetish for people who have authority over her, leading her to engage in a series of affairs with her bosses. She becomes good friends with Beverly. Mircea Monroe as Morning Randolph – the leading actress employed by the network to play librarian Nicola McCutcheon opposite Matt's character on Pucks. A running gag throughout the show is that Morning's age, while never explicitly revealed, is significantly older than her appearance suggests. She has frequent plastic surgery to maintain the appearance of youth which she feels Hollywood insists on from actresses. Morning perceives herself as a household name equal to Matt because she was "Kelly" on the show Kelly Girl many years before. She has a 19-year-old daughter, Dawn, who she pretends is her younger sister.
Recurring Joseph May as Andy Button (seasons 1–5) – the head of casting of the network. By the end of the first season, he is fired by Merc because he likes the talking dog show Merc hates. In the second season, he is re-hired when he threatens a lawsuit against the network. Daisy Haggard as Myra Licht (seasons 1–5) – the head of comedy of the network. She constantly makes negative facial expressions and utters disapproving noises. In the fourth season, she obliviously becomes pregnant and ultimately gives birth.