The script for the oldest Hollywood cliché nearly writes itself: jaded, altruistic New Yorker channels his inner Hemingway and writes the Great American Novel to critical and consumer acclaim. He is approached by Hollywood, heads west to take a meeting with The Suits, signs away his life for the house in the Hills (or Valley?) and shuttles his family across country, while spinning tales of precious bounty, year-round sunshine, and maybe, just maybe an Oscar® (fingers crossed, guys!)…

Months later, when his celebrated best-seller “God Hates Us All” is turned into a crappy romantic comedy (“Tom & Katie” star in A Crazy Little Thing Called Love), the fall-out has caused his writing mojo to shrink smaller than his manhood after a dip in the Pacific. His woman then ditches him for that (rich) guy – a tool bearing promises of a stable life in the Beverly Hills flats, while his 12-year-old daughter is getting felt up at school. What’s a guy to do?

If you’re Hank Moody, you take all those shriveled life lemons, hand a few to the bartender, order a citron martini for you and that hot chick who just shimmied in the door, and tickle her fancy just long enough until she agrees to takes you home. Check, please! But Hank Moody is definitely no schmuck: he’s incapable of not telling it like it is, for better and often, a lot worse. “He’s addicted to telling the truth – it’s his greatest asset and his greatest flaw,” reveals series star and executive producer David Duchovny. “He’s a walking id, and sometimes, a walking idiot.”

For a guy like Hank, hoping is far better than having. And in a prime-time littered with henpecked men whose women strut around town carrying their mates’ assets tucked neatly in their handbags, Hank’s devil-may-care, walking-middle-finger attitude is refreshing.

Alas, every Adam has his apple. Hank’s carefree coitus is constantly interruptus by memories of the good old days with ex-girlfriend “Karen” (Natascha McElhone) and their daughter “Becca” (Madeleine Martin). Unfortunately for him, all the women and wine in the world can’t salve the brutal sting of the family he’s left behind. But, while he’s busy trying to get out of neutral with his writing and wriggle his way back into Karen’s heart, what’s the harm in having some (okay, a lot of) fun?

“So, the question for the series is: what if you were a cynic with a heart of gold?” posits Duchovny. “Hank has come to L.A. to make a movie of his book and thought he could use the system in the land of the lotus eaters, but he got used up himself instead. So, CALIFORNICATION is all about how a guy who has screwed up tries to get back to his beloved family by the most circuitous of ways.”

David Duchovny won the Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy in Golden Globe 2008.