TCA Press Tour: Courteney Cox returns to sitcoms

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Courteney Cox’s guest star turn on ‘Scrubs’ was a test run for her professional relationship with executive producer Bill Lawrence, who co-created her new ABC comedy, ‘Cougar Town.’

Now, they are apparently in producer-star heaven because Lawrence twice mentioned during a press tour session that his relationship with Cox-Arquette is the best he’s ever had with a woman. His wife, Christa Miller, who also stars in the show, was sitting on the panel, by the way.

Cox-Arquette plays a 40-something mother of a 17-year-old son who begins dating again. In the pilot, her beau is much younger than she is -- hence the title. But that doesn’t mean she won’t date older men too.

The pilot opens with a brave sequence in which Cox-Arquette (it’s really her) examines things she doesn’t like about her body in the mirror. (Like her arms and abs). Lawrence said he got the idea for the opener from something that his wife did shortly after she had a baby.

‘She was looking at herself in the mirror after she got out of the shower and she went (expletive),’ Lawrence said. ‘ And I thought that was so funny, you know what I mean? By the way, I just ruined my weekend.’ (Miller was giving him a bit of an evil eye for his trip down TMI lane).

After her failed stint producing and starring in FX’s ‘Dirt,’ Cox-Arquette said she was looking to return to performing in a comedy. Even though she is married to David Arquette, she said she could relate to the character.

‘When I turned 40, I was laying in bed with Coco. I’d just had her two days before,’ she said. ‘I was going, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to give this back to somebody?...No, getting older is harder anyway, but in Hollywood it’s especially harder. But what I love about this character is that everything’s real. It would be very scary if I wasn’t married and I had to go back out there again. It’s a hard world and I think [the producers] deal with it beautifully.’

--Maria Elena Fernandez