Men Behaving Badly minutes longer. "Men Behaving Badly" is based on Simon Nye's 1989 book of the same title. Producer Beryl Vertue first considered it for a film before deciding it was suited for television adaptation. Harry Enfield, already a well-known comedian, was cast first. He had seen Martin Clunes perform in a play and recommended him for the other lead. Enfield felt out of place in the sitcom and announced he was leaving after the first series. When Thames Television found out, their immediate reaction was to end the series, and they had to be persuaded to put on a second series,
Men Behaving Badly (U.S. TV series) with Schneider and the show's producers. They were replaced by Ken Marino and Jenica Bergere, and Spybey was promoted from recurring to series regular. Reviewers found the show's content to be too risqué, pushing its brand of gross-out humor beyond all but the raciest cable shows of the day. The first season ran for 22 episodes. Altogether 13 episodes were completed for the second season, albeit with Schneider as the sole original member in the main cast. Only six of those completed episodes ever aired during the initial run because of dropping ratings and steep competition from CBS's Top 10