Bradley Whitford joins the cast of 'Happyish'

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Emmy Award-winning actor Bradley Whitford has joined the cast of the half-hour comedy pilot Happyish, Showtime announced Tuesday.

Best known for his work on the TV shows The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Trophy Wife, Whitford will play the character of Jonathan Cooke on Happyish. Cooke is Thom Payne's boss and "an advertising industry legend whose success is due in equal parts to his creative genius and moral cravenness," a synopsis said.

Starring Steve Coogan as Payne and Kathryn Hahn as his wife Lee, the pilot is to be be filmed in New York next month.

The show is billed as "a scathing examination of our pursuit of happiness, a pursuit that might just be the very thing causing our unhappiness in the first place."

The pilot was originally shot with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Hahn as Thom and Lee before Hoffman's death of a drug overdose last February. The cable network recently announced it is moving forward with the project with Coogan in the male lead role.