PR.com (Allison Kugel): Are you still in production on the third season of Cougar Town?

Busy Philipps: We’re actually filming the finale this week. We’ve been in production since August; when everybody else went back to work, so did we. We were just in a holding pattern waiting for an airdate, and it just never came. We were waiting and waiting, and shooting our episodes. Finally we got the word that February 14th was going to be the date.

PR.com: What was going on between Cougar Town and ABC? They were telling you to stay in production, but they didn’t know what they wanted to do with your show?

Busy Philipps: Initially, we were picked up for twenty-two episodes and we were told they really believe in the show and they really love the episodes that are coming in. It was just, literally, a question of where would they find room in their schedule for us. I think [Cougar Town creator] Bill Lawrence felt we should have our own night and not be behind Modern Family anymore. Because the story was always, not how many viewers did we have, but how many of Modern Family viewers we would lose. So I think in that respect he’s totally right. We have tons of fans who have proven to be incredibly loyal, and who have been very vocal about bringing the show back sooner rather than later.

PR.com: One of Cougar Town’s creators, Bill Lawrence (Spin City, Scrubs), made some interesting comments not too long ago. Bill stated that he decided to take a grassroots approach to promoting Cougar Town rather than leaving it in the hands of the network. The production actually financed those efforts independently, apart from ABC.

Busy Philipps: It wasn’t the show, it was Bill Lawrence; he and Christa Miller (who plays Ellie Tores in “Cougar Town”), who are married. They have paid for this whole thing themselves. I’ve been in television for fifteen years and I’ve been on shows that have been successful commercially, but maybe not critically. I’ve also been on shows that have been critically successful, but maybe not commercially, and therefore cancelled. There’s a real sense of helplessness on the creative side when you’re on a show that you know in your heart is good, and you feel like if only you could get the word out there, but you don’t feel a ton of support coming from the network side. In the months leading up to before Cougar Town started I saw one [ad] on the side of a bus in Los Angeles. You literally could not step three feet this past year without bumping into Whitney Cummings’s face. Networks make these decisions where they want to put their money. Bill Lawrence changed the game a little bit this time.

PR.com: Has Twitter been instrumental in bringing people out to these Cougar Town screening events?

Busy Philipps: Oh, for sure. I have ninety-nine thousand followers on Twitter now, which is crazy to me. Courteney [Cox] just joined, and I’m sure she’ll have a million followers by Tuesday.

click to read interview with Busy Philipps