Scrambling to survive, actors often have a shared fate:

"If they're lucky, they land a commercial. If they're very lucky, it's a beer commercial. The beer commercials have had a hip thing going for them," said Tom Cavanagh, whose "Trust Me" series, set in the ad world, debuts 8 p.m. Monday on TNT. "They usually have bigger budgets, too."

And at the best moments, they have a loopy style. "There is a tremendous amount of creativity," said Eric McCormack, the other "Trust Me" star.

Both men got early breaks by landing LaBatt's commercials. ("That's a Canadian rite of passage," Cavanagh jokes.) Now they play friends who work, grumble, argue, scheme and create at a Chicago ad agency.

McCormack plays Mason, the more mainstream of the two. He's an art director with a wife (Sarah Clarke), kids and a get-along personality.

Cavanagh plays Conner, the wild-card factor. He's a writer, with girlfriends and a quick — if scattered — mind.

In "Trust Me," however, things suddenly change: Mason becomes creative director, Conner's boss. "It's what happens when you give someone extra responsibility he doesn't know if he wants," McCormack said.

That brings anger and humor, at the heightened pace of an ad agency on a deadline. It's a world the key people understand.

"Trust Me" was created by "The Closer" producers Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny, who worked for a combined 20-plus years at the J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett ad agencies in Chicago. Their stars, Cavanagh and McCormack, only knew each other in passing, but they have much in common. They're both Canadians; they lived and worked in Vancouver, at the same time, starred in NBC shows at the same time. They are married dads and ex-LaBatt's stars.

McCormack's series ("Will & Grace") was far more successful than Cavanagh's ("Ed"). Then again, Cavanagh's beer commercials did better.

McCormack's LaBatt's spots were all in costume and all featured the same actress. "I was always trying to pick her up in a bar," he said.

Cavanagh did offbeat spots that always ended with the line, "If I wanted water, I would have asked for it." This became almost too successful; people called him "the beer guy," and his spots popped up unexpectedly. "I remember seeing one on the big screen at the SkyDome in Toronto."

Cavanagh couldn't avoid seeing those commercials, because he's a sports buff. In a diverse life, he has lived in Ghana, played college basketball and did musicals, both in Canada ("Grease") and on Broadway ("Shenandoah," "Urinetown").

McCormack's route was more traditional: For five summers, he did Shakespeare at the prestigious Stratford Festival.

"I thought I was in for a long time as a spear carrier," he recalled. "Then this crazy director came and I was doing 'Measure for Measure' in a leather bar."

It was the start of a fun Stratford time. He would go on to the "Lonesome Dove" series in Canada and then to "Will & Grace."

Now he's back in a series. Monica Potter plays Sarah Krajicek-Hunter, a forceful writer. The boss is played by Griffin Dunne, who is an actor, writer and director; "he's a legend in the business," McCormack said.

Still, the show focuses on McCormack and Cavanagh. Two old beer-commercial guys play the other side of the ad business.