‘Cougar Town’ team promises more nudity for first season on TBS, takes jabs at ABC

Now that Cougar Town is transitioning to cable on TBS, its creative team no longer has to deal with some of the restrictions of being on a broadcast network. As the kick-off panel for the Winter Television Critics Association press tour, co-creator Bill Lawrence talked about going from TBS to ABC and what fans can expect from the Courtney Cox-starring show’s fourth season.

Lawrence explained that fans shouldn’t expect any major changes, except one, reports Entertainment Weekly. “One difference is Courteney did declare this year the year of her cleavage,” he said.

“You will not see one scene where I don’t show my boobs,” Cox joked.

“The big difference is we’ve shifted from Brian Van Holt not wearing his shirt all the time to Josh Hopkins not wearing his shirt all the time. I think that was probably TBS’ only big note,” Lawrence added.

Fans of the show might have thought that Cougar Town was getting the cold shoulder from Disney and ABC, which still owns the property. After all, following the show’s first two low-rated seasons, the network kept the show off the air for eight months before airing season three, notes TV Guide. It was then cancelled, before TBS stepped in.

“I've been trying to kill this show for years,” Lawrence joked. “Are you going to believe me if I said this was my plan all along?” Still, he said ABC/Disney are “doing a great job.”

Lawrence also mentioned all the promoting TBS has done for the show.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen them but there’s commercials for this show now, it’s insane,” he said. “Go to New York and you’ll see the [ABC] Don’t Trust the B— posters... they’re right next to ours.”

“I think we all were curious as to how the transition was going to be, but going to the upfronts from last year and being so embraced ... it was really refreshing,” star Busy Philipps explained.

As for the show’s title, TBS never wanted to change it. “Cougar Town had become part of the humor… why change something that we all appreciate that’s part of the show’s humor … why [move away] from all the marketing that had already been done [in support of the show],” TBS head of programming Michael Wright said.

Lawrence talked about upcoming storylines for the show, including Jules Cobb’s (Cox) “naked day” and a possible relationship between Laurie (Philipps) and Travis (Dan Byrd).

Cougar Town premieres on Tuesday at 10 p.m.