There are no cougars in Cougar Town. Because they're all in Philadelphia – at the Field House bar downtown – where ABC's Cougar Town happened to be holding one of multiple nationwide viewing parties last week.
Unsurprisingly, ABC had nothing to do with the night.
An associate producer at the event (after snapping a picture of the stars with three Hopkins students) shared that executive producer Bill Lawrence paid for Cougar Town's "grassroots tour" out of his own pocket.
Lawrence, who is famous for television shows Scrubs and Spin City, was unavailable for comment, but everyone at the event had kind words flowing from their lips when they spoke of the man in charge.
Josh Hopkins, who plays Courteney Cox's love interest, described Lawrence as "a gentleman, and an artist, and a businessman."
His money was well spent, too.
The viewing party was not a quiet celebration of the cast and crew having finished up filming, but rather a loud wake-up-call to the TV-watchers in Philly who had snubbed the show in its first season – among them, Kelsey Donohue, a TV enthusiast and Hopkins senior, who proclaims herself now "a convert."
Since the event conflicted with the bar's weekly singles' night, we got to watch two episodes of Cougar Town's new season with a few real-life Philadelphia cougars.
Except for Lawrence's Twitter friends, the event was a surprise to all.
There was, after the screening, an older woman who – when the show's stars had left – confessed she'd never heard of the half-hour show with the ever-growing cult following.
When the woman, who preferred not to share her name, was asked if she planned to enjoy the show at home, she said she'd consider after another drink or two, but assured me that "the preview had gotten her warmed up."
All in all, the cougars were no help in deciphering the question on every patron's mind that night: How does a show with such an unfortunate title make it to season – what is it – three?
The clue is in the Simpsons-style feature at the beginning of each episode, where a map of Florida shows the actual city of Cougar Town near Sarasota and the "welcome to" line becomes: "Yeah, it's still called ‘Cougar Town,' we're not happy about it either."
The viewing party was like the show, actually, in that there was something to talk about – sneak peeks of a clearly ambitious season to come – but no one would give up their right to relax as they dealt with it.
Cougar Town's Hopkins and Dan Byrd, who plays Jules's (Cox's) college-aged son, took some time during the party to share their views (and a few beers) with The News-Letter.
Hopkins was first to confirm the show has no plans of changing its title despite internal and external pressure.
But if he had a say? He likes the name MILF-town. Byrd concurs: The only thing the show is missing is "more making out."
Hopkins said Cox is his first choice, but Byrd kept mum.
Donohue recognized Hopkins immediately – not just from her compromised first impressions of Cougar Town, but also from what she remembered as "confident, somber roles."
Hopkins revealed to her that his "friends always wondered why he wasn't playing more comedic roles." Because at heart, he's "a light-hearted guy."
Even though he's right at home behind the bar in a sitcom, Hopkins may never escape his talents as a dramatic actor. After the party, a friend of the cast described him as a "fantastic, expressive actor" and praised his performance in the recently-released comic drama Lebanon, PA.
He works hard, as further evidenced by Cougar Town's typical filming requirement of 14-to-17-hour workdays from its actors, but knows how to lie back too.
He says about the show: "Drink? In Cougar Town, we breathe alcohol."
As for Byrd, he's happy to have a permanent home in Cougar Town apart from his multitude of additional comedic guest roles.
And why not? He says his dream-team scene partner is none other than Cox herself.
Is the show still about older women stalking young, supple prey? Hell no.
The producers clearly abandoned that premise for the lifeboat of an easy comedy where casual alcoholics living in Cougar Town, Florida tackle their not-so-serious life issues in not-so-serious ways.
The show stayed alive because it's not just good but uniquely good. And the same reason it's almost achieved its cult status is the same reason it's in trouble.
Should the inhabitants of Cougar Town suffer because their fans aren't living in Nielsen households?
The producers think not, and they're fighting to make people aware of their work with viewing parties and vast social media endeavors.
A radical change, but the premise shift might have been a miracle for Cougar Town. Suddenly, fans started having fun – non-cougar-related fun – and so did the actors, and it made all the difference.
Hopkins says it this way. "We know what we are. We're not being fake. We're not changing the world, or saying we are. All we're saying is, we live in Cougar Town. It's a fun place to visit. Trust me."
