My Boys was a TBS sitcom that aired on the cable network from 2006 to 2010. The four-season show centers around PJ Franklin (Jordana Spiro), a female sportswriter for the Chicago Sun-Times, who is desperately trying to find love. The problem is that PJ is just “one of the boys,” and loves sports, playing poker, and drinking beer. She can be brutally honest and a bit blunt, qualities that turn off her potential suitors. PJ is surrounded by guys, and these lovable doofuses are like family to her. She does have one best friend who’s a woman. Stephanie Layne (Kellee Stewart) does her best to advise PJ on dating, but she can’t quite work her magic enough to help PJ find Mr. Right. Viewers seemed to enjoy watching PJ and her best buds, but TBS eventually decided to cancel the show after 49 episodes, leading to My Boys becoming a forgotten sitcom of the early 2000s.
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.
‘My Boys’ Could Never Be Made Today
There are some episodes of classic sitcoms that feel a little cringey upon rewatching (like Monica in a fat-suit on Friends), but the entire premise of My Boys wouldn’t sit right with today’s audiences. PJ is a successful woman who’s working at her dream job. But the whole gist of the show is that she’s too boyish to find a boyfriend. The series spends way too much time focusing on PJ needing to land a man than any other aspect of her life. Instead of capitalizing on PJ’s unique personality, the series instead plays for laughs that she’s too masculine. The writing could have focused on PJ as a fully well-rounded person, but instead zeroes in on how weird she is to be surrounded by men. Even PJ’s best friend wants to change her, and is constantly giving her advice on how to act more feminine. The male characters aren’t really written any better though, since they’re portraying common stereotypes of commitment-phobic playboys and harried husbands. Basically, these characters could be dropped into any sitcom from this time period and feel right at home.
It’s not that there aren’t some redeeming qualities in the series. It does have a fantastic cast, with Jim Gaffigan,Reid Scott,and Jamie Kaler as part of PJ’s gang. Other notable actors like Nia Vardalos, Kyle Howard,Johnny Galecki, and Rachael Harris all pop up over the course of four seasons. There are plenty of silly laughs and a sweet theme of found family. It’s clear that My Boys was trying to capture the magic of a group of supportive pals, found in the uber-popular Friends. But the series would be impossible to make in the present day because of how outdated the premise is. High-quality writing in television shows today doesn’t show women changing themselves just to land a man, and most successful shows are celebrating women who are thriving in their careers. PJ would be a wonderful female protagonist in a show written in 2026, but she definitely wouldn’t be portrayed as flawed or less-than. Of course, even a sitcom today would depict the trials of dating, but PJ wouldn’t be denigrated as a mere tomboy who’s far less interesting than her male friends.
Spiro would go on to an impressive career, with roles in The Mob Doctor, Blindspot, and Ozark, and Gaffigan is a major comedy star now, so it’s not like My Boys didn’t have some importance. The sitcom is still fun to watch, mainly because we can see how far we’ve come as a society in the last 20 years. Viewing the series is like a nostalgic trip to several decades past, but it’s also easy to see that there’s no way this forgotten show would have been greenlit today.
My Boys is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
