Thomas Haden Church and Claire Forlani have exited Showtime’s upcoming comedy Episodes.
The show, which is in preproduction, reportedly replaced Forlani with UK actress Tamsin Greig after the table read. Church, who is said to have had scheduling conflicts with an independent film he is working on, has yet to be replaced.
The show stars Matt LeBlanc playing a parody of himself. When a successful British husband-and-wife comedy team heads to Hollywood to adapt their show for the US, they find that network execs have Americanized it to the point of replacing the lead Brit actor with LeBlanc. The pair (Stephen Mangan and Grieg in for Forlani) find the show and their marriage begin to unravel.
Church was to have played a larger-than-life network exec. No official reason was given for Forlani’s departure. Co-starring on the series are Kathleen Rose Perkins and Mircea Monroe.
David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik created the series which is a co-production between Showtime and the BBC. They will exec produce with Jimmy Mulville through his Hat Trick shingle.
Showtime has ordered seven episodes. There is no premiere date yet set.
