We Are Men
Mondays at 8:30 Eastern / 7:30
Central
Premiering September 30
Because their new comedy We
Are Men is about a foursome of recently divorced guy friends who share
questionable counsel around their apartment complex’s outdoor pool, Must Hear TV asked each of the new Monday
night comedy’s stars to summarize their show using just four words.
“We Are Divorced Men,” says Jerry O’Connell, jumping in
proactively much as would his character Stuart, the Speedo-sporting OB/GYN,
angry as he suffers through his second contentious nuptial breakup.
“Not Good at Committed Relationships,” adds Tony Shalhoub, whose
Frank is a garmento and four-time groom who now lives happily between
girlfriends, vowing never to marry again.
“Good Guys, Bad Ideas,” says Chris Nicholas Smith, who plays
naïve Carter, the youngest and most recent addition to this cynical group,
after he was dumped at the altar in mid-ceremony.
“Friendship, Love, Mistakes, Ridiculousness,” finishes Kal
Penn, whose character Gil harbors hopes of reconciling with his ex-wife after
he was caught having the world’s least satisfying affair.
About five years ago, at the time himself a new divorcé, “I
was basically a little bit of all four of these guys,” remembers We Are Men’s creator Rob Greenberg. After years as a producer of another marital-status-teasing
comedy hit, How I Met Your Mother,
Greenberg was inspired to write about his new phase of life after noting that
“everybody handles divorce in different ways.
Some people are wounded, while others attack. Some never want to get in another
relationship, and others jump back in.
Some are philosophical, some blame their exes. I realized divorce is a ripe area [for
comedy] because of how people react to it.”
In We Are Men, the
guys form a strong bond over the mutual failures of their marriages, which
O’Connell says is what attracted him to the show. “While divorce is in itself a negative
situation, I think [Men] takes a
positive spin on it, and says that there is life after divorce,” the actor
explains. “And that with the help and
support of friends, you can get through what is an awful time.”
“These are guys who, a lot like your friends, make mistakes
and do ridiculous things, but at the end of the day they’re there for each
other,” Penn agrees. When approached
about We Are Men, “I thought it was a
nice way of depicting friendship, and it’s also pretty real.”
TV has brought us such strong four-way friendships before,
in shows like The Golden Girls and Designing Women. But never before have we seen the male version,
a show depicting what four such disparate men are truly like, and how they
relate to each other, when no women are around.
As Greenberg theorizes, “There’s a particular feeling to being alone
with your guy friends. You can be more
uncensored.” That’s why, he says, these
four Men are ready to join the Girls and Women among the ranks of classic TV comedies. “I think Sex
and the City is a good model for this show, too, but in reverse,” Greenberg
explains. “That show was about four characters’
love lives, work lives and family lives – but ultimately, it was about their
friendship when they came together as a foursome.”
