Matt LeBlanc's comedy and William H. Macy's dramedy start 2011 off so strong that the new year can claim budding greatness in the very first month. By Tim Goodman The comedy Episodes and the ...

Matt LeBlanc's Joey Tribbiani in Friends was his most notable role, but he also starred in this show, which was what his spinoff should've been.

After Friends, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc went in different directions, but Kudrow's best work featured strange parallels with LeBlanc's career.

Now, on "Episodes," LeBlanc is doing a brave, even rash thing: making himself the show's biggest punch line and possibly digging himself deeper into the real-life career dilemma his show portrays.