Cougar Town:
Season:     1     / Episode:     1    
Pilot

Max, a hard working waitress, soon finds herself helping out Caroline, a new waitress who was once wealthy, but has been left with nothing after her father's crimes. Max invites Caroline to be her roommate, but their new friendship is put in jeopardy when Max's boyfriend hits on Caroline.

Liz Lemon is head writer for The Girlie Show, a live comedy show filmed in New York City's 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Things start to get complicated when her new boss, Jack Donaghy, insists that wild movie star Tracy Jordan join the cast.

Because of recession, successful seven-year-old Allen Gregory DeLongpre has been forced to attend elementary school. But because of his maturity, he has difficulty fitting in.

Steve finds himself unable to score with Lisa Silver, a sexy cheerleader, so Stan helps him by rigging the school election to name him student body president. Meanwhile, Francine cuts off Roger's junk food supply, and Roger uses Hayley to get his fix by writing her term papers.

Michael anticipates becoming the new president of his father's homebuilding company, having put up with his family for years in order to achieve it. This includes living in the attic of a model home with his son George Michael, and learning his sister Lindsay, brother-in-law Tobias and niece Maeby have been in town for a month without telling him. Instead, the position is given to his mother Lucille, shortly before his father George Sr. is arrested. Michael, reluctantly, returns to run the family business to steer them while his father is incarcerated, and Lindsay decides to become close to Michael again.

After a car accident, Detective Michael Britten experiences two dueling realities, one where his wife was killed and another in which his son's life was claimed. He handles a case involving a kidnapped girl in one reality while he handles a murder in another.

After serving a fifteen year prison sentence, an unnamed criminal flees New York City when he is attacked by a group of gangsters. He heads to the small town of Banshee, Pennsylvania in search of his ex-lover and former accomplice Anastasia, who is living under the name Carrie Hopewell with her new husband Gordon and their two children Deva and Max. When the town's newly-appointed sheriff Lucas Hood is killed in a bar robbery, the criminal assumes his identity and takes up the mantle of sheriff of Banshee, with only the bar owner Sugar Bates knowing the truth. Lucas learns from Banshee's young mayor Dan Kendall that the town is under the stranglehold of business owner and criminal entrepreneur Kai Proctor, a former Amish who abandoned his faith in favor of illegal enterprises. Back in New York, mysterious crime boss Mr. Rabbit sends the gangsters after a former contact of Lucas's, Job, who helped Lucas forge paperwork to become sheriff. Job manages to escape, displeasing Mr. Rabbit, who instructs his employee to "find them both quickly."

Bobby "Axe" Axelrod is a charming, charismatic 9/11 survivor who heads up Axe Capital, a hedge fund based in Connecticut. His generosity makes him a beloved member of the community - he pays the first year of tuition and board for all of the college-going children of all of his former colleagues who perished in 9/11 (the fund was formerly located in the World Trade Center) - but the Securities & Exchange Commission thinks that Axelrod is dirty. The SEC goes to Chuck Rhoades, a ruthless masochist U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, but Rhoades refuses to pursue Axelrod until he makes an error, not willing to sacrifice his perfect 81-0 record for prosecution of financial crimes. However, when Rhoades hears that Axelrod wants to buy a heritage waterside property for $63 million, he considers moving forward against Axelrod, as the purchase would widely sour him to the public. Rhoades returns home to his two children and wife, Wendy, who works as a motivational coach/psychiatrist at Axe Capital. He offers Wendy a job as human resources head at GE, as he does not want her working at Axe if he decides to pursue her boss, and despite feeling as though she is being manipulated, Wendy entertains the possibility of leaving Axe (after a loud, profane argument in front of their two small children). Angered by Rhoades' refusal to take on Axelrod, a SEC agent, Spyros, plants a reporter at a presser for Rhoades. The reporter challenges Rhoades' 'small win, no loss' mantra, and Rhoades decides to bait Axelrod into buying the house to turn public favour against him. Axelrod is visited by an old friend, Dan Margolis, whose nervous nature makes Axelrod realise that Margolis is cooperating with the FBI. Axelrod dismisses Margolis from his office without incriminating himself, and goes to his fixer, Hall, who plans for Axelrod to frame a fellow trader, Steven Birch, should the need arise. Next, Axelrod invites the SEC's planted reporter to lunch, and in a befriending move, alerts him to a shady deal that Birch completed recently. Axelrod and Rhoades finally come face-to-face at an investment conference, and their discourse is immediately adversarial, with Rhoades criticising Axelrod for milking his 9/11 survival for public worth. Axelrod decides to buy the house, but is later told by Hall that the FBI have now opened a case file on him.

Jamie Reagan graduates from the Police Academy and joins NYPD the same day a nine-year-old Latina girl is abducted walking home from school. Frank addresses the press about the case, and Danny is questioned about his interrogation tactics.

Tightly-wound captain Ray Holt takes over Brooklyn's 99th precinct, which includes Jake Peralta, a talented but carefree detective who's used to doing whatever he wants.

We meet 40ish year old Hank Moody in a church asking Jesus to help him get his life back on track. He is then distracted by a hot nun, which turns out to be a dream that is representative of his lifestyle. Sex-addicted Hank sleeps with many women including a woman who is cheating on her enraged and muscular husband and Mia, a 16-year-old girl (Hank assumes she is older). Moody also has to interact with ex-girlfriend Karen who might still love him. With her, they share the custody of their 12-year-old daughter Becca who is wise beyond her years but is starting to have a sex life, which freaks out both of her parents.