The characters on “Cougar Town” drink wine. A lot of wine. Often.The series’ central character, Jules (Courteney Cox) drinks wine out of an enormous goblet she calls Big Carl. A really big goblet. Big Carl holds a bottle-and-a-half of wine.

“And she drinks maybe five or six in one show,” joked executive producer Bill Lawrence.But this is the world of TV. Nobody is headed for the Betty Ford Center.

“She’s going to continue to drink and live a very successful life being an alcoholic, but manageable,” Cox joked. “There is no rehab in sight or anything.”

Cox, who’s also one of the show’s executive producers, and Lawrence quite clearly get along extremely well. They also quite clearly disagree on the whole wine-drinking thing.

“I don’t think we exaggerate the amount of wine-drinking that adults do in America by that much. I think maybe by that much, at most,” said Lawrence, holding his fingers an inch apart.

“I think that we do,” Cox disagreed.

Lawrence sort of blamed Cox for her character’s drinking. Well, more than sort of.

“I love getting to know actors and seeing what their real personalities are like and stealing from them,” he said. “And one of the first things that I noticed when I met Courteney Cox is she pours herself a healthy glass of wine. She pours herself, like, the type that you could do wrist curls with.”

Cox was just shaking her head “no” the whole time.

If the drinking levels are fictional, the drinks are not. If you watch “Cougar Town” closely, you’ll see that those bottles of wine are real wine bottles. With real labels. Not something made up by the art department.

“You recognize labels of wine that also happen to be in my house now in big giant free crates,” Lawrence said. “That’s funny because it’s a little true.”

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The Winter TCA has been packed with all sorts of goodies — mainly news about the TV shows debuting in the midseason — but there was a special treat for this TV junkie: a visit to the Cougar Town set! Before chatting with the show’s stars like Courteney Cox (read the interview here), I got to check out Jules Cobb’s living room and kitchen, Grayson’s bar, and the other spots where many a glass of wine has been drunk. The cast and creators, in a great mood in the wake of their season three pickup, also hung out for a panel and gave us some tidbits about the show. Here are my five favorite things I learned.

• Cox may have something to do with her character’s affinity for huge glasses of wine (giant goblet Big Carl made an appearance, by the way — series co-creator Kevin Biegel drank out of it during the panel). Executive producer and co-creator Bill Lawrence says he often gets bits about his characters from the actors who portray them, and he spilled that Cox “pours herself a healthy glass of wine.” Lawrence, however, said he doesn’t think that the show exaggerates how much Americans drink, but Cox disagreed: “I think we do.” Oh, and if you’re curious, Big Carl can hold an entire bottle of wine.
• The name Cougar Town isn’t going anywhere, though Lawrence says he always has “one incredible screw-up” with his shows, and the title is Cougar Town‘s. Not that anyone cares anymore. “It’s become cool to say you watch a show called Cougar Town,” Cox joked. Plus, Lawrence says that at this point, “it’s just too much fun to write those jokes,” referencing the subtitles that accompany the title in the opening credits.

To see the other funny things I picked up at the set visit, just read more.

• If you’re afraid that Laurie and Travis will get together, rest easy; it doesn’t sound like it’ll happen anytime soon, especially not if Dan Byrd and Busy Philipps have a say. Byrd says he thinks “the flirtation is more interesting,” while Philipps cracked, “I’m not sure I want to kiss Dan Byrd.”
• The cast of actors is obsessed with the “penny can” game the same way the characters are. Lawrence says that if they start playing the game, it’s hard to get them to stop, and that the bit grew out of procrastination in the writer’s room.
• Wondering why you see so many guest stars from Lawrence’s other shows like Scrubs? “We have a friends and family policy,” Lawrence said. Among the visitors they’re hoping to get on Cougar Town are Nia Vardalos, Ian Gomez’s (Andy) wife, and Philipps’s husband — despite the fact that he’s not an actor.

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