‘Cougar Town’: Courteney Cox and Josh Hopkins on character growth and Valentine’s Day

(But if you still haven’t heard and are trying to remain unspoiled, you might want to stop reading. And don’t hit play on the video.)

It’s been teased in network promos and is both shown and referred to in the 10-minute preview of the season co-creator Bill Lawrence posted online last week. Stars Courteney Cox and Josh Hopkins just hope that even if people know Grayson proposes to Jules, they’ll still tune in to see how it happens.

“If it wasn’t them, it would’ve been me. I’ve spoiled it all over the place,” Cox said when Zap2it visited the “Cougar Town” set in January (a couple weeks before Lawrence posted his video). “Bill would tell me if I was in trouble, and I haven’t heard anything, so I’m just gonna go with it.”

“In a perfect world, it would be great to surprise everyone with that,” Hopkins adds. “But it’s marketing — it’s what you do. It gives people a reason to watch, too.”

The romantic element makes Valentine’s Day a “perfect” (if accidental) launch date for the new season, Cox says.

Cox and Hopkins also talk about how their characters have grown over the course of the show — which goes hand in hand with the way “Cougar Town” pretty quickly became a show that had very little to do with the premise suggested by its title.

“[Jules] was coming out of a bad marriage … and just trying to get back out in the world,” Cox says. “That was scary, and I was dating younger guys — but then it quickly became not about that. … From the pilot, we knew [Grayson] was brought in as a love interest to Jules. It just took us a few episodes to get on that track.”

Hopkins is also glad the show didn’t dally too long on a will they-won’t they story for Grayson and Jules. “It’s been a great, classic storyline for a lot of shows … but it’s been done,” he says. “It’s pretty nice to explore the comedy of an actual relationship and not the almost relationship. It’s been fun.”

Photo/Video credit: Zap2it