Matt LeBlanc, who shot to fame as ladies' man Joey on the hit series Friends, is returning to series television for the third time — this time playing himself in a spoof of the business itself.
Showtime executives announced over the weekend the 42-year-old actor will appear in a co-production with the BBC about a fictional hit British comedy that is being transformed into an American series.
Episodes features LeBlanc as himself — an actor being chosen to play the lead.
"I am so glad I got the part. Seeing someone else play Matt LeBlanc would have been devastating," the actor quipped in a statement.
In clips shown to media at an entertainment conference in Pasadena, Calif., LeBlanc appears at an audition and arrives in a room filled with other actors dressed like Joey on Friends and practicing his character's trademark phrase, "how ya' doin'?"
Showtime, which has ordered 10 episodes, plans to air it later in 2010.
LeBlanc was last in the Friends spin-off Joey, which ran for two years before ending in 2006.
In some ways, LeBlanc's new venture parallels that of another Friends' co-star, Lisa Kudrow who portrayed Phoebe.
Kudrow's shortlived 2005 series, The Comeback, featured her as an actress who was being filmed for a reality series. Kudrow did not play herself but her character was a performer trying to achieve her previous success in a TV series.
Currently, the only other Friend doing a series is Courtney Cox, who stars in Cougar Town.
