Mike & Molly: Discussion Thread

MIKE & MOLLY is a comedy from Chuck Lorre (“Two and a Half Men,” and “The Big Bang Theory”) about a working class Chicago couple who find love at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. Officer Mike Biggs (Billy Gardell) is a good-hearted cop who sincerely wants to lose weight. Mike’s partner, Officer Carl McMillan (Reno Wilson), is a thin, fast-talking wise-guy, who despite his teasing encourages Mike on his road to slimness and romance. While speaking at an O.A. meeting, Mike meets Molly Flynn (Melissa McCarthy), an instantly likeable fourth-grade teacher with a healthy sense of humor about her curves. For Molly, focusing on smart choices isn’t easy because she lives with her sexy older sister, Victoria (Katy Mixon), and their mother, Joyce (Swoosie Kurtz), both of whom flaunt their healthy appetites and slender figures. Mike also faces temptation at the diner he and Carl frequent, where they’ve become friends with the Senegalese waiter, Samuel (Nyambi Nyambi), who finds trying to eat less a foreign concept. For Mike and Molly, thanks to their mutual love of pie and the desire to resist it, finding each other may have been worth the “weight.” Chuck Lorre and Mark Roberts are executive producers for Chuck Lorre Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Didn't Norman Lear do this show 25 years ago?

He did?

It sounds like a limiting concept. I mean, how many plotlines can they make based around fat jokes and skinny jokes? And if the show is based around that, then why so much focus on it in the PR?

He did?

It sounds like a limiting concept. I mean, how many plotlines can they make based around fat jokes and skinny jokes? And if the show is based around that, then why so much focus on it in the PR?

Norman Lear had a short lived sitcom about two overweight people in love. I think it was called Dumplings or something.

Given that Lorre shows, at least Two and a Half Men, seem to be all about hate and bile, I can see this show becoming a success, since a lot of people still enjoy making fun of the overweight (even though so many Americans today are overweight).

Norman Lear had a short lived sitcom about two overweight people in love. I think it was called Dumplings or something.

Given that Lorre shows, at least Two and a Half Men, seem to be all about hate and bile, I can see this show becoming a success, since a lot of people still enjoy making fun of the overweight (even though so many Americans today are overweight).

Wow, as much as I've been into TV of the 60s, 70s, and 80s for all these years, I'd never heard of that before. Now I want to see it.

Oh, they make fun of being overweight because if they make fun of it, it won't be the serious health risk that it really is. Kinda sad. No, not kinda sad. Very sad. I'm just glad John Goodman is not involved.

As we "speak," members of all the anti-weight discrimination leagues are probably lining up, posters in hand, outside CBS Television City.

Decent pilot, could have been better, but there were definitely worst pilots.

Decent pilot, could have been better, but there were definitely worst pilots.

Pretty much agree with you. I'll give it another run next week.

Decent pilot, could have been better, but there were definitely worst pilots.

Like Crap My Dad Says.

Wow, as much as I've been into TV of the 60s, 70s, and 80s for all these years, I'd never heard of that before. Now I want to see it.

Oh, they make fun of being overweight because if they make fun of it, it won't be the serious health risk that it really is. Kinda sad. No, not kinda sad. Very sad. I'm just glad John Goodman is not involved.

The characters met in Overeaters Anonymous, so the show is acknowledging being obese is a physical/psychological problem. I really don't think we have to worry too much about Hollywood (or the media in general) sending us the message that being overweight is ok.

Edited September 26, 201015 yr by Juliajms

i LOVE this show!

Marie Claire editor in chief Joanna Coles is apologizing for a blog entitled “Should Fatties Get a Room? (Even on TV)” on her mag's website railing against the overweight characters on CBS' Mike & Molly.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/marie-claire-editor-apologizes-mike-32901

The creator of CBS' new hit comedy Mike & Molly fired back at a Marie Clarie blog post that criticized his show for starring "gross" fat people.

The women's magazine is facing an online firestorm about a post titled "Should Fatties Get a Room (Even on TV)?" where freelancer Maura Kelly wrote she was disgusted watching an overweight couple on the show.

“Yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other," she wrote "... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room -- just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroin addict slumping in a chair.”

Other viewers don't seem to mind. Mike & Molly is the second-highest-rated comedy in CBS' Monday lineup, after Two and Half Men, and has been ticking upward in the ratings in recent weeks.

Below, creator Mark Roberts, who has struggled with weight issues himself, responds to the controversy.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/exclusive-mike-molly-creator-slams-32990

I can not believe Marie Clair, online or not, would allow such a thing to be published.

Whats disgusting is this former anorexic woman who would like to bully and shame people into having her former eating disorder.