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  • CBS
  • Sep 21, 2009
  • CBS
  • Sep 21, 2009

Summary A San Francisco newspaper film critic becomes pregnant after a hookup with a much younger man and together they raise a non-traditional family. Golden Globe Award winner Jenna Elfman (Dharma & Greg) plays Billie, who after a hard breakup with her boss, James (Melrose Place's Grant Show) then gets knocked up by Zack (Windfall's Jon Foster...

  • CBS
  • Sep 21, 2009
  • CBS
  • Sep 21, 2009
Accidentally on Purpose
Season 1
Season Premiere: Sep 21, 2009
Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 18 Critic Reviews
50
User Score Mixed or Average Based on 9 User Ratings
5.1
My Score
Hover and click to give a rating Saved

Where to Watch

Summary A San Francisco newspaper film critic becomes pregnant after a hookup with a much younger man and together they raise a non-traditional family. Golden Globe Award winner Jenna Elfman (Dharma & Greg) plays Billie, who after a hard breakup with her boss, James (Melrose Place's Grant Show) then gets knocked up by Zack (Windfall's Jon Foster...

Where to Watch

Season Episodes

View All Seasons
Episode 1 • Sep 21, 2009 • 30 m
Pilot
Billie becomes pregnant after a brief fling with Zack, and she asks him to temporarily move in with him because he has no place to stay.
Episode 2 • Sep 28, 2009 • 30 m
Memento
When her boss raises the question of who Zack really is, it prompts Billie to go on a fact-finding mission as to the true identity of her baby's father.
Episode 3 • Oct 5, 2009 • 30 m
One Night Stand
Billie's pregnancy creates an attraction from members of the opposite sex, while Billie feels her own results of her hormonal changes, but she becomes really befuddled when Zack rebuffs her advances.
Episode 4 • Oct 12, 2009 • 30 m
The Date
Billie declares that she and Zack are able to see other people, but it's Billie who finds the dating scene a little rougher than expected, and Zack finds a conscience when he tries the waters, too.
Episode 5 • Oct 19, 2009 • 30 m
The Love Guru
Billie tries to live vicariously through Zack and Davis by offering up dating advice to them. However, things take a turn, when the objects of the boys' affection reveal their true intentions.
Episode 6 • Nov 2, 2009 • 30 m
Fight Club
Billie and Zack have their first big argument after Zack tries to surprise Billie by installing a low flow toilet.
Episode 7 • Nov 9, 2009 • 22 m
The Godfather
Billie unintentionally causes Abby and Nick to break up when she asks them to be Godparents. However, after a fun night on the town with Davis goes too far, Billie must stop Abby before she does something she will regret.
Episode 8 • Nov 16, 2009 • 30 m
The Third Man
When Billie starts dating a colleague from her newspaper, Zack is unable to hide his jealousy.
Episode 9 • Nov 23, 2009 • 22 m
Working Girl
Billie is threatened when James hires another film critic at the paper and sets out to prove how valuable she is.
Episode 10 • Dec 7, 2009 • 22 m
Class
When Billie and Zack take instructional parenting classes separately due to their schedules, Billie goes with Olivia and Abby. However, the course quickly becomes a competition when Abby outshines Billie at all the tasks.
Episode 11 • Dec 14, 2009 • 30 m
It Happened One Christmas
Worried that she'll ruin Christmas - as she has in previous years - Billie tries to hide from her parents the fact that Zack is living with her. Meanwhile, Abby's husband, Nick, tries to impress their father.
Episode 12 • Jan 11, 2010 • 30 m
The Odd Couples
Episode 13 • Jan 18, 2010 • 30 m
The Rock
While everyone feels the pressure of corporate cutbacks, Billie feels like she has to write the story of her life for a cover story and Zack & Davis go into business for themselves.
Episode 14 • Feb 1, 2010 • 21 m
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Episode 15 • Feb 8, 2010 • 30 m
Back to School
Billie invites herself to Zack's high school reunion but worries that she can't compete with his hot, ex-girlfriend in her pregnant state. Meanwhile, Olivia helps Abby host a party where they try to sell Abby's miracle youth juice.
Episode 16 • Apr 7, 2010 • 30 m
Face Off
Zack is upset when Billie hires a baby nurse without consulting him. Meanwhile, Davis and Ryan are faced with a difficult choice when they learn surprising news about the nurse.
Episode 17 • Apr 14, 2010 • 30 m
Speed
Billie pretends to go into labor to save Zack from getting a traffic ticket after they're pulled over for speeding. Meanwhile, Olivia and Davis go shopping for a baby gift.
Episode 18 • Apr 21, 2010 • 30 m
Speed 2
After faking labor pains to get Zack out of a speeding ticket, Billie goes into labor - for real. Unfortunately, things take a turn when Zack gets busted by the officer they had initially lied to and is hauled off to the police station.

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 18 Critic Reviews
50
17% Positive
3 Reviews
61% Mixed
11 Reviews
22% Negative
4 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 18 Critic Reviews
50
17% Positive
3 Reviews
61% Mixed
11 Reviews
22% Negative
4 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
75
Suspend all disbelief, pretend the really, really offensive laugh track doesn't exist, disregard the giant slabs of ham offered up by Jensen and Parham, and enjoy the chemistry between Elfman and Foster.
By Linda Stasi FULL REVIEW
60
Everything in the pilot, written by executive producer Claudia Lonow, is a hair or three too strenuous; Billie has been knocked down to a few easy-to-grasp impulses, and almost all the other roles are filled by stereotypes--Jensen's most wastefully--in stereotypical relationships. Nevertheless, the premise is full of interesting possibilities about love and age and unconventional parenting.
By Robert Lloyd FULL REVIEW
50
Accidentally on Purpose, with its matching sets of friends for Billie and Zack, its bland jokes, its lack of any sort of topicality, its Jenna Elfman, feels as if it could have been on any time in the last two decades.
FULL REVIEW
50
The stereotypes in play on Accidentally on Purpose are flat, if harmless, from the get-go.
By Matthew Gilbert FULL REVIEW
50
Accidentally on Purpose doesn't have the smarts to be the salvation of a genre, but neither does it look like the torpedo to sink the ship. Not great, but nothing heinous.
By Tom Shales FULL REVIEW
38
The show has similarities with the movie "Knocked Up," but is missing its most important ingredient: humor.
FULL REVIEW
30
Virtually everything in Accidentally on Purpose is some kind of cheap sexual crack or double entendre. The essential sweetness Elfman showed in Dharma & Greg and the later, unfortunately little-watched Courting Alex curdles into mean self-parody as she scorns her new boy-toy as an intellectual and economic inferior even as she grovels before his bedroom skills.
By Glenn Garvin FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 9 User Ratings
5.1
33% Positive
3 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
22% Negative
2 Ratings

User Reviews

 View All
User Score
Mixed or Average Based on 9 User Ratings
5.1
33% Positive
3 Ratings
44% Mixed
4 Ratings
22% Negative
2 Ratings

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

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