Episodes: The Creation of "Matt LeBlanc" (and the Destruction of Joey)
Matt LeBlanc is a pretty big jerk on Episodes, and not in the neurotic Larry David-on-Curb Your Enthusiasm-kind of way. In the Showtime comedy, LeBlanc plays himself as a lame-brained has-been — with a stinky Joey cologne line to match — but also a womanizer, bum dad, and most recently, the kind of guy who sleeps with his friend's wife without remorse.
It's a complicated if depressing alter ego to take on, and certainly one attention-grabbing way for the real-life LeBlanc to jump back into the spotlight following the 2006 failure of Joey. Executive producers David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik say that they didn't craft the part around the real LeBlanc, who in person is pleasant but serious, relaxed but not overly friendly. "Occasionally, he'll be playful, but he's not Joey," Klarik says.
Are the creators of Showtime's Episodes bitter? They don't think so!
"Fake Matt is...
Fri, Feb 18, 2011
