There's nothing like interviewing someone who's sitting in a bathroom.

That's exactly what happened when I spoke to Jeffrey Klarik and David Crane, the co-creators of the new Showtime series 'Episodes,' a couple of weeks ago. They had just come off their TCA press tour session, and they were speaking to me from a private room at the tour's hotel. It inspired Klarik to describe why a phone in the bathroom isn't as luxurious a notion as it once was, thanks to cell phones.

"You know, sometimes I'll be talking to my mother, she lives in Florida, and in the middle, I'll hear like tinkling and I'll realize she's talking to me while she's peeing. And I'm like 'Oh gee, Ma!'"

After the fun, we talked about the series, where Tamsin Greig and Stephen Marcum play a British couple whose hit U.K. series is being adapted for a U.S. network, and the show is getting lost in translation. Among the adaptations the network has "suggested"? Matt LeBlanc as the star of the show. We talked about whether LeBlanc was reluctant to play himself, if the executives depicted on the show are accurate, and which show of theirs they wish was still on the air.

Citing a scheduling conflict with an indie film he's working on, Oscar-nominated actor Thomas Haden Church has bowed out of Showtime's upcoming original series 'Episodes,' the Hollywood Reporter is reporting.

Also making an exit: Claire Forlani ('Meet Joe Black'), though no word yet on the reason behind her exit. In the meantime, Forlani has been unceremoniously replaced by British actress Tasmin Greig.

Currently in pre-production in London with a start date set for mid-May, 'Episodes' stars Matt LeBlanc as, surprise, Matt LeBlanc. The single-camera show from 'Friends' creator David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik has the erstwhile 'Joey' parodying himself as he vies to be cast in a U.S. version of a hit U.K. sitcom.

You gotta hand it to Matt LeBlanc. The guy must have a pretty good sense of humor to star as himself in a show where he's essentially nothing but a punchline.

The former 'Friends' cast member is the joke (or at least one of the jokes) in the new Showtime/BBC comedy series 'Episodes', about a successful UK comedy duo forced to cast LeBlanc as the lead in a crappy US version of their hit show.

Bob posted a promo for the show last month, in which LeBlanc is humiliated having to audition to play himself ("You want Matt LeBlanc, you get Matt Leblanc!"). Judging by the funny promo, it looks like 'Episodes' could appeal to fans of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', 'Entourage', and 'Pilot Season'.

We don't have a premiere date for the series yet, but THR is reporting that three actors have signed to co-star alongside the one-time Joey Tribbiani.

So this is the 9,327th article that has been written about a possible Friends reunion. A lot of fans would like to see one but it seems that there have always been one or two holdouts that are preventing a reunion from taking place. But those holdouts might not be the actors themselves.

Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe) tells US that a reunion, whether on TV or on the big-screen, will probably never happen because the creators (Marta Kauffmann and David Crane) don't think it's a good idea. Kudrow isn't sure how a reunion would work anyway, but she seems to be up for it if they can do something interesting.

Would you want to see a reunion? Friends is one of my favorite shows, but I'm wondering how they could do a reunion. Would it be the same without the old set (Monica and Chandler bought a house and Joey moved out to L.A. to...well...star in a short-lived sitcom)? They'd have to get Central Perk in there somehow.

What can I say about Friends that hasn't already been said? You either like the show or you don't. I think a lot of people look at the show as "just another sitcom" about friends who hang out somewhere, one that was overhyped and one where the stars where overpaid. The hype I can't argue with and the pay, well, more power to them if they could get it. But I also happen to think that for a while there, several seasons in the middle of the show's 10 year run, it was one of the best sitcoms of all-time. It was remarkably well-written, clever, and at the same time had at its core a really big heart that all the copycats that followed couldn't recreate.

But what about this DVD set? Should you go out and buy the complete set?

One of the problems I've had, and continue to have, with The Class since it premiered this past fall was that the show had just too many characters and too many stories. Sure, the storylines with Lina and Richie were sweet and had the most dramatic impact, and the stories with Kat and Ethan were often very funny. But the Duncan and Nicole storyline seemed right out of the Friends playbook and the Kyle/Holly/GayButNotGay Husband story? Ugh... the less said about it, the better.

But it looks like the show's creators, David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik, are getting the message. According to this AP article, they have decided to create more epsiodes where the group is together, rather than the disparate storylines that dominated the first ten or so episodes of the season. They admit that, while having a soapy, separate-thread structure for the show was a novel concept for a sitcom, it just wasn't working. And the actors wanted to do more scenes together, too, so it seems like going back to a traditional format is working better for everyone.

Digital Spy has a quick article about Kevin Bright, one of the executive producers of Friends. Right now, he's not working in TV, and has decided to teach a course about directing sitcoms. Why? Because, according to Bright, the current state of sitcoms on US television is pretty lame.

"We're in a bad place," Bright said. "Since Will and Grace I haven't seen one original idea on network TV." (Update: here's a link to the original Boston Globe article this quote came from. Looks like he doesn't absolve himself from blame here -- remember Joey? Thanks to Katie S. for pointing this out.)

Mind you, this includes The Class, which is being produced by David Crane, one of Bright's partners on Friends. I wonder if Mr. Crane gave Bright a call when word of this got back to him. Anyway, I think Bright is being too harsh; yes, there are not a lot of sitcoms out there right now, but most of the ones that are on are pretty fresh and funny (at least until According to Jim comes back from hiatus). Even The Class started with a pretty unique premise, even if it's taking time for it to figure out how to juggle all its characters (last night's episode was the first that did a good job of it). It's not like Bright should be bitter; Friends made him a nice pot of "F you" money.

When I previewed rough-cut pilot of The Class (premieres Monday, Sept. 18 at 8 PM ET) back in June, I had my doubts about whether the loose association of the characters in the show would be able to withstand the rigors of a long-term series. The finished pilot didn't change my mind. But CBS was nice enough to include the second episode on the same screener as the pilot, and I'll tell you this: the show has potential. It seems an especially good companion for How I Met Your Mother, which it will preceed on Mondays, since both cater to the same late-20s crowd. But The Class does so without the cutsiness that can sometimes seep into HIMYM.