Matt LeBlanc Talks 'Episodes,' Foul-Mouthed Jay Leno, and Behind the Scenes on 'Friends'

Showitme's "Episodes" is back (Sundays at 10:30 p.m.) after almost a year-and-a-half on hiatus, but it's like the show never skipped a beat — because the story really didn't. Season 3 picked right up where Season 2 left off back in 2012, and Matt LeBlanc's character "Matt LeBlanc" just keeps digging a deeper hole for himself.

Created, written and produced by LeBlanc's old "Friends" boss David Crane and his partner, "Mad About You" writer-producer Jeffrey Klarik, "Episodes" won LeBlanc his first Golden Globe (he'd previously been nominated for "Friends" and its spinoff "Joey") and added to more Emmy nominations to his resume, but LeBlanc's faux life on the show leaves very little to celebrate.

[Related: Matt LeBlanc: 'Friends'' Joey Will Always Have a Special Place in My Heart]

"Everything gets worse and worse and worse, which, for me, is great because it makes me feel better about my real life," LeBlanc said with a laugh when Yahoo TV caught up with him.

This week, the fictional Matt LeBlanc show-within-the-show, "Pucks," is on the verge of getting canceled, but in real life "Episodes" has already been renewed for a fourth season — and maybe more. "I'll stay as long as Dave and Jeffrey want to do it," LeBlanc said.

[Related: 'Episodes' Gets Season 4 Renewal from Showtime]

Keep reading for more from LeBlanc, including thoughts on Jay Leno's foul-mouthed cameo, this season's sweeter moments, and some "Friends" behind-the-scenes stories you've never heard. Can you believe Susan Sarandon would be nervous to do TV?

On "Matt LeBlanc" in Season 3:
Career-wise, for me this year, it's like a downward spiral. Like a s--tstorm that won't end. My personal life, the ramifications of sleeping with my stalker … that, of course, doesn't go well, and I find out later that my stalker is over me. And I'm upset! When your stalker is not stalking you anymore, that's terrible. [Laughs.]

On Sean and Beverly's happily ever after:
You see couples in TV and movies, and there's infidelity and then they get back together, but you don't ever see much after they get back together. You always see about the infidelity, and then resolution, and then it's over. This goes to what happens after that, and it's really interesting to see how Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) deal with the fact that that trust has been broken. And Sean's ability to perform is compromised, let's say, and how he deals with that… it was a fun area for him, and frustrating at the same time.

Watch the Season 3 premiere:

On pitching jokes to Jeffrey and David:
If you're gonna pitch a joke to them, you better f--king have your ducks in a row, and it better be good. You have to really think and have foresight and say, "Yeah, this is pitchable." I spent 10 years on "Friends" with David, and I learned a lot from him. I learned what that sort of style is. They'll have these long, long, long, long scenes that are poignant and moving — and it's all a set-up to one punchline at the end. I tease them about it all the time. "You guys write the most complicated 'ba-dum-bum' jokes in the f--king world!"

[Related: Matt LeBlanc Mocks Matt LeBlanc]

On Jay Leno's memorable cameo:
He calls me a "f--king j-zzbag" … and they wrote that, that wasn't something that Jay pitched, but it's interesting: If you were to imagine Jay Leno swearing, c--- isn't right, but j-zzbag feels, like, generationally perfect, doesn't it? I thought it was so spot-on. It was great. [Laughs.]

Some sweeter moments:
We meet Morning's (Mircea Monroe) sister, who turns out to be her daughter, who I have sex with. I think she's her sister when I sleep with her, and then I find out, post-coital, that she's her daughter. Then Morning finds out about it, and that doesn't go well … but it sets up a more poignant scene with Mircea and Tamsin, and you see what a great mom Morning was over the years, and you'd never expect that from this person.

[Related: 'Episodes' Creators Preview Season 3 and a More Mature Matt?]

And some "Friends" guest star stories we've never heard:
Bruce Willis I liked a lot — he was a lot of fun when he was there. Sean Penn was a lot of fun… he didn't have a great part though. His part was a little strange. It's funny because it was in front of a live audience, and they'd all get super nervous. Susan Sarandon was really nervous. When she was on the show, they had a big Star Wagon trailer for her, and a PA came to my dressing room and asked if I could go out and run lines with Susan. So I go out there, and it's Susan holding the script, looking at it, and Tim Robbins reading the stage directions, and me. And it's Friday night — when you do a sitcom for a long time, your brain gets conditioned to program, perform, delete, repeat. So by Friday night, I have 40 pages in my head, ready to rock, and I know it backwards and forwards. So I ran lines with her without a script and that made it even worse for her. She was like, "How can you…?" And I said, "We've been rehearsing all week. It's there, you know it. As soon as you walk out there, the crowd is gonna go crazy and love it, and you're gonna have to hold for about a minute, and then we'll back up and you'll come in again and then we're off to the races and it'll be fun." It's not a play, but because of the crowd, they all were thinking it was like a play, like you can't make a mistake. You can absolutely make a mistake — a lot of actors on a sitcom will intentionally make a mistake for the audience to get on their side. It just helps with nerves.

"Episodes" airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on Showtime.