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"Pilot" Season One, Episode One Directed by Bill Lawrence Written by Bill Lawrence Air Date - September 23, 2009 on ABC Previous Episode: None Next Episode: Into the Great Wide Open |
Synopsis[]
Meet Jules, a single mom in her 40s who’s not too happy with what she sees in the mirror. Soon we meet Travis, Jules’ teenage son, and Laurie, Jules’ 20-something assistant. Travis seems like a cool kid and he and his mom seem to have a great relationship, even if she’s able to embarrass him in record time. Laurie is in a totally different place in life than Jules, enjoying parties and the singles scene, and she can’t help but push Jules to go out there and put herself back on the market. Jules just can’t bring herself to do it. After all, even she can’t help but poke fun at all of the overly tanned divorcées on the prowl for younger men.
That is, until the next morning when she sees Grayson, her recently divorced neighbor, escorting a young conquest to a waiting cab. More than a little annoyed, she confronts him about the huge double-standard people have when it comes to divorced men and women dating younger. He responds with a challenge—that Jules is just jealous because she couldn’t get a young stud if she tried. Jules proves she’s still got it when she flashes the paperboy and he crashes his bicycle into a parked car. To make matters worse, her ex, Bobby (Brian Van Holt), shows up looking for his alimony check a little early so that he can afford to feed Travis when they hang out later that night.
So Jules agrees to go for drinks with Laurie. Things are going okay when she meets a hot young guy, but another club goer remarks that his mom went to high school with Jules and she’s so embarrassed that she leaves. She’s about to settle in for another night of wine drinking with her best friend and neighbor, Ellie, when the hot guy from the bar shows up on her doorstep, thanks to Laurie. At first, Jules isn’t sure what to do, but the hottie lets his intentions be known quickly and Jules is pretty happy to go along. A few hours later, things are going great and Jules is very excited about how the night has turned out, that is until Travis and Bobby show up early and walk in on her and the hottie during…well, let’s just say the next morning Travis is uncomfortable seeing his mother about to eat a banana for breakfast.
Travis, it turns out, is having kind of a rough time with his mom’s new life. Beyond walking in on her with some guy she met at a bar, he finds out that junior high kids are stealing his mom’s real estate signs—which feature a titillating picture of Jules thanks to Laurie—for purposes that we’d all rather not dwell on. When some of the kids at school give him a hard time about it, he explodes and beats one of them down with one of his mom’s signs. Jules picks him up when he’s in trouble at school and promises that she’s going to do all she can to make sure her life doesn’t ruin his. But his luck’s not looking up when his dad finally gets a job—mowing lawns at his high school. Hang in there, Travis. College can’t be that far away.
Jules can’t believe that after one night, she’s become one of those women she would make fun of. Laurie tries to talk to her about it, but before they get far, they see a junior high kid stealing another one of her signs. They try not to spook him, but they end up sprinting after him in a foot chase that’s practically out of an ‘80s cop show, only way more hilarious. They finally track the kid to his house and Jules confronts the kid in his room, which is absolutely plastered with her provocative real estate signs. After she sets the kid straight she realizes that she does need to have her own life on her own terms. Later that night, after Travis has gone out with his friends, she locks the door and the hot guy from the bar is there—his name’s Matt, by the way. She sends him upstairs to light candles and get ready, and definitely not to talk. After a quick look in the mirror, Jules heads upstairs, a bit happier with what she saw.
Gallery[]
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Guest Starring[]
- Courteney Cox as Jules Cobb
- Christa Miller as Ellie Torres
- Busy Philipps as Laurie Keller
- Dan Byrd as Travis Cobb
- Josh Hopkins as Grayson Ellis
- Ian Gomez as Andy Torres
- Brian Van Holt as Bobby Cobb
- Carolyn Hennesy as Barb Coman
- Jonathan 'Lil J' McDaniel as Ryan
- David Clayton Rogers as Matt
- Chris Zylka as BJ
- Tyler Steelman as Robbie
- Gregory Hinton as Bouncer
- Stacy Barnhisel as Robbie's Mom
- Thomas Crawford as Principal
Music[]
Trivia[]
- This is only one of two episodes whose titles are not named after songs performed by Tom Petty. The other is the second-to-last episode of the series, "Two Story Town", which is derived from the song title "One Story Town".
- Gregory Hinton, who played the Bouncer, also played one in an episode of Bill Lawrence's other series Scrubs (S04E15).
| Season One Episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
1. "Pilot" |
9. "Here Comes My Girl" |
17. "Counting on You" |
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