The couple's first TV series as executive producers, "Mix It Up," launched its second season June 2 on WE: Women's Entertainment.
"We're doing 13 episodes," Arquette says. "We'd like to do 26 - but maybe next year. Just to keep the train moving. When you stop and shut down production, it's hard. People have to get other jobs. We really hope this next season takes off a little more. We hope it catches a buzz and people tune in."
In each episode of "Mix It Up," hosts Milos Milicevic and Rebecca Corry (a Mutt-and-Jeff team with a large height difference between them) come to a new home for a three-day makeover. The goal is to find harmony between the disparate tastes of the inhabitants, whether they are family members, spouses or roommates.
While the residents head out, a team led by a professional designer comes in to redecorate the space, incorporating elements important to each person living there.
Arquette says, "The reality of the situation is we're coming in because these people are stuck. The best thing to do in that situation is hire a professional. They do it for a price, obviously. Try to get somebody who's skilled but also knows how to work with a budget.
"But that's really the point of our show. It's not a do-it-yourself show. We'll give little tips and pointers of things people can do on their own, and hopefully, some of the design aspects may come through, so you don't have to get a designer or decorator each time. But it's really helpful when you do. Even Courteney will hire a professional designer when she's stuck on a room."
The inspiration for the show came from Cox and Arquette's own experiences. After meeting on the set of "Scream" and marrying in 1999, they had to combine their very different decorating styles. Cox had some training in architecture and a background in remodeling and design. Arquette just had some very strange tastes. Apparently, the negotiations are still going on.
"She decorates the house," Arquette says. "I'm way too messy, too much of a pack rat for anything else. But she's sweet, she knows certain rooms I can do. She says, 'Go at it.' Like, we have this new production office, and I can totally decorate the kitchen any way I want -- bring in lunchboxes and stuff like that, put a giant hot dog on the wall ... just silly stuff. And she totally embraces that.
"But the conference room is really clean and professional -- big rosewood table. It's a great balance."
During the first season of "Mix It Up," the Arquettes were very hands-on. But this year, he says, "We're more involved in post-production. It's more specific, our focus. We're making the show a little snappier, fast edits, some better visuals."
The couple's on-screen presence is limited to cartoons of themselves that introduce the episodes and appear from time to time as narrators.
"I hope the audience enjoys the pop-ups," Arquette says. "We've tried to incorporate the cartoons a little more this season."
He and his wife have watched other decorating shows, and he has very strong opinions on some of the competition.
"A lot of them bug me, to tell you the truth. I'm biased. They talk down to the audiences almost, treat them like they're knuckleheads. I don't like them bringing in bad designers and making people's houses look like crap. It's good horror/comedy television, but it's really sad. It's not very responsible.
"Courteney hand-picks all these designers. She knows them; she's worked with them. She specifically matches up couples to designers to tackle different kinds of problems. Just to send somebody in that you know is going to make a mockery out of their houses, staple records to the walls ... .
"Also, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes producing on these shows that takes all the reality out of it. Obviously, we find the angle to approach these people, what their conflict is. But we try not to be too overbearing in our on-set producing, so that things come out staged, things aren't in the moment. Those shows reek of that. That's why, when I see them, it kind of bugs me. The producers know exactly how ugly they're going to make the place, so they ask the people to say they hate black, so they paint the whole room black. It just annoys me."
While Arquette says he and Cox-Arquette don't have other redecorating shows in the pipeline for their company, they're hardly slacking off.
"We have one idea for a renovating show. It will be our only design type of show. But we have several different dramas, comedies and movies.
"It's a lot more work as a producer, from an actor's point of view. You take it home with you all the time. You have to do this constant putting-out of fires and figuring things out. But once a show gets up on its feet, like 'Mix It Up' has, and you have competent people doing a lot of the jobs, it makes it a lot easier. But that first year, it was pretty brutal."
