Accidentally on Purpose Information

Accidentally on Purpose is an American television situation comedy series starring Jenna Elfman. It first aired on CBS during the 2009"10 season. and was produced by the CBS in-house production arm. The show is based on the book of the same name (ISBN 0061256927) by Mary F. Pols.

On May 18, 2010, CBS cancelled the series after only one season.

Plot

Accidentally on Purpose follows Billie (Jenna Elfman), a San Francisco movie critic in her 30s. Billie meets Zack (Jon Foster), an aspiring chef in his 20s, at a local bar and they have a one-night stand. She soon finds out that she is pregnant, and decides to keep the baby. She must simultaneously deal with her boss and ex-boyfriend, James (Grant Show), who finds himself jealous of Zack. Before the story began, she had hoped that James would ask her to marry him, but he told her that he was not ready because he was married once before.

Thanks to this unexpected arrival, Billie and Zack have agreed to live together platonically, since the only place that Zack has called home was his van. While Billie receives encouragement and advice from her alcoholic girl best friend Olivia (Ashley Jensen) and her conventional, younger, married sister Abby (Lennon Parham), she also has to deal with Zack's freeloading friend Davis (Nicolas Wright), among others, when they start turning her place into a frat house, leaving Billie to question whether she is living with a boyfriend, a roommate, or a second child to raise.

Theme song

The theme song for the show is "Birds of a Feather", written by David Fagin of the indie-rock band The Rosenbergs. The song is on their album Department Store Girl.

History

On November 3, 2009, CBS ordered an additional five episodes of the series, bringing the total to 18. In early 2010 CBS moved Accidentally on Purpose to Wednesday nights from Mondays, to accommodate the midseason return of Rules of Engagement and the cancellation of Gary Unmarried. However, after the ratings slipped CBS elected not to renew the series and on May 18, 2010, made the cancellation official; the cancellation was part of CBS' decision to eliminate all of its Wednesday night comedies in favor of trying a Thursday-night block.

Critical reception

Accidentally On Purpose received mixed reviews, scoring a 49/100 on Metacritic, while scoring a 6.2/10 with viewers. The New York Times, in a review of the show's first episode, called Grant Show's performance "graceful" and said Elfman is as "funny as the script allows, in that broad, robo-comic way you may remember from Dharma & Greg."

The series had an average of eight million viewers per episode while airing on Mondays after How I Met Your Mother, but fell to an average of 5.5 million of viewers per episode while airing on Wednesdays after The New Adventures of Old Christine, which was also canceled in 2010.

Cast

• Jenna Elfman as Billie Chase
• Jon Foster as Zack Crawchuck
• Ashley Jensen as Olivia
• Nicolas Wright as Davis
• Grant Show as James
• Lennon Parham as Abby Chase
• Pooch Hall as Ryan
• David Sutcliffe as Brian
• Larry Wilmore as Dr. Roland
• Bryan Cuprill as Nick
• Michael Rapaport as Sully
• Matthew Glave as Officer Ravitz

Crew

• Claudia Lonow " Writer
• Lloyd Braun " Executive Producer
• Gail Berman " Executive Producer
• Jack Rudy " Music Supervisor

Episodes

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (in millions)
WrittenBy=Claudia Lonow	DirectedBy=Pamela Fryman	Aux4=8.91	ShortSummary= Billie (Jenna Elfman) meets Zack (Jon Foster), an aspiring chef in his 20s, at a local bar and they have a one-night stand at his friend's apartment. She soon finds out that she is pregnant from the fling and decides to keep the baby. She must simultaneously deal with her boss and ex-boyfriend, James, who finds himself jealous of Zack. Before the story began, she had hoped that James would ask her to marry him, but he told her that he was not ready because he was married once before. Thanks to this unexpected arrival, Billie and Zack have agreed to live together platonically, since the only place that Zack has called home was his van. While Billie receives encouragement and advice from her party girl best friend (and fellow journalist) Olivia (Ashley Jensen) and her conventional, younger, married sister Abby (Lennon Parham), she also has to deal with Zack's freeloading friend Davis (Nicolas Wright), among others, when they start turning her place into a frat house, leaving Billie to question whether she is living with a boyfriend, a roommate, or if she just has a second child to raise.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Gregg Mettler	DirectedBy=Pamela Fryman	Aux4=8.02	ShortSummary= While snooping through Zack's belongings Billie discovers a note addressed to her, that he never finished writing and sets out to find what Zack is hiding.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Vince Calandra	DirectedBy=Ted Wass	Aux4=7.17	ShortSummary= Billie's pregnancy causes her breasts to increase in size which causes other guys to flirt with her. Meanwhile, Zack refuses to have sex with Billie after she tries to have sex with him.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Cynthia Greenburg	DirectedBy=John Pasquin	Aux4=7.73	ShortSummary=Billie and Zack discuss their feelings on dating and agree to see other people, however, Billie's pregnancy gets in the way of any potential love connections.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Bill Kunstler & Alison McDonald	DirectedBy=Andrew D. Weyman	Aux4=8.26	ShortSummary= Billie tries to live vicariously through Zack and Davis by offering up dating advice to them. However, things take a turn, when the objects of the boys' affection reveal their true intentions.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Bill Kunstler	DirectedBy=Andrew D. Weyman	Aux4=8.08	ShortSummary=Billie and Zack have their first big argument after Zack tries to surprise Billie by installing a low flow toilet.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Vince Calandra & Cynthia Greenburg	DirectedBy=David Trainer	Aux4=7.89	ShortSummary=Billie unintentionally causes Abby and Nick to break up when she asks them to be Godparents. However, after a fun night on the town with Davis goes too far, Billie must stop Abby before she does something she will regret.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Mike Dieffenbach	DirectedBy=John Pasquin	Aux4=7.27	ShortSummary=When Billie starts dating a colleague from her newspaper, Zack is unable to hide his jealousy.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Andrea Abbate & David Holden	DirectedBy=Ted Wass	Aux4=7.89	ShortSummary= Billie is threatened when James hires another film critic at the paper and sets out to prove how valuable she is.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Franklyn Hardy & Shane Kosakowski	DirectedBy=Barnet Kellman	Aux4=7.91	ShortSummary= When Billie and Zack take instructional parenting classes separately due to their schedules. Zach intends to meet some other fathers as most of his other friends are not at this stage of life yet, but instead makes friends with a gay female couple. Billie goes with Olivia and Abby. However, the course quickly becomes a competition when Abby outshines Billie at all the tasks.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Gregg Mettler & Claudia Lonow	DirectedBy=Gail Mancuso	Aux4=8.81	ShortSummary= Worried that she'll ruin Christmas, as she has in previous years, Billie tries to hide from her parents the fact that Zack is living with her. Zach spends Christmas with Davis and he realises that Billie is the coolest women he's ever met. When he returns to the apartment he proposes to Billie. Meanwhile, Abby's husband, Nick, tries to impress their father.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Mike Dieffenbach & David Holden	DirectedBy=Ted Wass	Aux4=8.43	ShortSummary=Zach tried to get along with Nick, but he is too strange for him. When Billie tells Abby their Zach doesn't like Nick, they fight and Abby tells Billie to arrange her own baby shower. Davis pretends to be Dave Grohl's younger brother to impress a girl. Billie and Zach discover the gender of their child.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Alison McDonald & Andrea Abbate	DirectedBy=Andrew D. Weyman	Aux4=9.56	ShortSummary=Billie and Sully work on a story together which leads to a surprising discovery about the paper. Zack begins a new business venture with Davis as his partner.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Claudia Lonow & Bill Kunstler & David Holden	DirectedBy=Ted Wass	Aux4=8.42	ShortSummary=Billie tries to manipulate Zack so he does more around the apartment, but her plan backfires when Zack ends up creating a new mess each time he cleans one. Meanwhile, Davis gets a job at a gay bar to earn extra cash.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Franklin Hardy & Shane Kosakowski	DirectedBy=David Trainer	Aux4=9.10	ShortSummary=Billie invites herself to Zack's high school reunion but worries that she can't compete with his hot, ex-girlfriend in her pregnant state. Meanwhile, Olivia helps Abby host a party where they try to sell Abby's miracle youth juice.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Jenn Lloyd & Kevin Bonani	DirectedBy=Ted Wass	Aux4=6.03	ShortSummary=Zack is upset when Billie hires a baby nurse without consulting him. Meanwhile, Davis and Ryan are faced with a difficult choice when they learn surprising news about the nurse.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=David Rosenthal & DJ Nash	DirectedBy=Ted Wass	Aux4=5.90	ShortSummary=Billie pretends to go into labor to save Zack from getting a traffic ticket after they're pulled over for speeding. Meanwhile, Olivia and Davis go shopping for a baby gift.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}	WrittenBy=Claudia Lonow	DirectedBy=Ted Wass	Aux4=5.22	ShortSummary=After faking labor pains to get Zack out of a speeding ticket, Billie goes into labor " for real. Unfortunately, things take a turn when Zack gets busted by the officer they had initially lied to and is hauled off to the police station. In the end, Billie gives birth to her baby, Henry, and agrees to marry Zack.	LineColor=FF7F00 }}

International releases

Country / Region	Network(s)	Premiere
Canada	Citytv	September 2009
Croatia	Fox Life
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Fox Life
Australia	Network Ten	December 2009
The Netherlands	NET 5	June 8, 2010
Ireland	TV3 Ireland	July 3, 2010
Brazil	Sony Entertainment Television	February 4, 2010
Latin America	Sony Entertainment Television	March 4, 2010
United Kingdom	E4	June 17, 2010
Philippines	Studio 23, Velvet, STAR World	TBA, June 4, 2010, June 7, 2010
Indonesia	STAR World	November 2012
Israel	Yes Stars Comedy	April 2010
Italy	Fox Life (Italy)	March 11, 2011
Macedonia	Fox Life	September 2010
Japan	Fox Life	April 2010
Poland	Comedy Central	May 17, 2010
Portugal	Fox Life, Fox Life HD	June 27, 2010
New Zealand	C4	August 3, 2010
Slovenia	TV3 Slovenia	October 18, 2010 (Weekdays at 6pm)
Denmark	TV 2 Zulu	December 2010
Norway	TV 2	December 29, 2010
Slovakia	TV JOJ	February 20, 2011
South Africa	SABC 3	June 27, 2011
Greece	Skai TV	September 13, 2011
Finland	Nelonen	January 6, 2012
Serbia	B92 and Fox Life