Weeds is an American black comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Lionsgate Television, which began airing on the Showtime cable television network in 2005. The show revolves around Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), a widowed Southern Californian mother of two boys—Silas (Hunter Parrish) and the younger, Shane (Alexander Gould)—who turns to selling marijuana to support her family after her husband unexpectedly dies. Over the course of the show, Nancy becomes involved in illegal activities on an escalating scale. The title of the show refers to the title given to the clothes worn by a widow during a period of mourning for her husband - "widow's weeds" (from the Old English "Waed" meaning "garment") and also plays on the word "weed", a slang term for cannabis.