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TCA Press Tour: Matt Le Blanc gets real ... kind of

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What led Matt Le Blanc to sign on to the new Showtime comedy “Episodes,” in which the former “Friends” star plays, well, himself?

“Schwimmer said ‘no’ … so did Perry … so did Lisa,” Le Blanc joked during a panel at TCA’s press tour held at the Beverly Hilton when he wasn’t joking about the girth of his penis.

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In the new series, written and executive produced by David Crane (“Friends,” “Joey”) and Jeffrey Klarik (“Mad About You”), Le Blanc is recruited to star in a remake of a hit British series to the horror of its husband-and-wife screenwriting team.

In its transition to American television, the show about a headmaster of a boy’s boarding school, played by Richard Griffiths, gets a few minor (major) revisions; Le Blanc finds himself playing a hockey coach in “Pucks!” (exclamation point included to give it that extra American oompf).

An actor playing an actor is nothing new for the 43-year-old actor. For 12 years, he made audiences laugh as the dim-witted bit lovable Joey Tribbiani on “Friends” and its two-season spinoff, “Joey.”

But Le Blanc wants to make one thing clear before viewers confuse this character with reality: He’s playing himself … but he’s not really playing himself.

“[‘Matt’] is not really myself,” he said. “It’s a character that Jeff and David wrote that happens to have the same name … there are some similarities, but for the most part it’s a fictitious character.”

But all those “How you doin’?” references that have plagued him since “Friends” wrapped are all too real — and welcomed — and highlighted in the series, a Showtime and BBC collaboration.
“I got a couple on the way in,” Le Blanc said. “My job is to make you believe what I’m saying. … If people really believe me as that character, then in my opinion I’ve done my job. I don’t look at it as a negative thing. It tends to happen a lot.”

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“Episodes” premieres at 10:30 p.m. Jan. 10 on Showtime.

-- Yvonne Villarreal

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