CBS's Mike & Molly is a comedy built on two overweight people, the titular Mike (Billy Gardell) and Molly (Melissa McCarthy), and their romantic relationship. The couple meets at an Overeaters Anonymous group and the jokes spring from that "hilarious" premise.
We all know that overweight characters in television and movies are generally either played up for comedy or pity. We've seen the "fat suits" and marvelled at the donut jokes. We've witnessed the likes of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Tyra Banks get called "fat" by ignorant media types.
So when the opportunity comes to feature overweight people in a good light, it's hard not to get excited. Is this a sea change? Has Hollywood finally woken up?
Back in May, NPR's Linda Holmes described some of CBS's upcoming line-up. In her article, she mentioned Mike & Molly and highlighted a particular line from the press release:
"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.'"
Ha ha. Get it? Worth the "weight?"
Naturally the two "chubbies" could only find each other, right? Couldn't have a "fatty" and a "skinny" getting together, could we?
To add to the "outrageous humour" we can expect from Mike & Molly, Gardell's character is a police officer. He knows his way "around the streets – and the donut shop." And his full name is Mike Biggs.
Ha ha. Get it? Mike "Biggs?"
C'mon CBS, give me a reason to think Mike & Molly isn't just an excuse to crank out a half hour of stale, vapid, moronic fat jokes at the expense of the very audience you're trying to lure with this nitwitted and shameful excuse for television progress.
"It is about regular people," says the show star Katy Mixon. "Just regular people."
Mike & Molly premieres on CBS on September 20. The network is hoping co-creator Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory) will be able to make this crap fly thanks to his credibility.
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Article comments
1 - Josh Lasser
For what it's worth, the pilot that was sent out the summer definitely contained an abundance of fat jokes.
2 - Jordan Richardson
Yeah, all of the show previews I caught focused on the fat jokes. They really seem to marketing this as a fat show rather than a show about a couple that happens to be overweight.
3 - jeannie danna
I see what you mean about the focus of this show, Jordan.
Also, knowing now that these are the same misogynistic morons that produced Two and Half, I'm not surprised that it's this shallow.
The greatest thing about this show is not ground breaking subject matter, but a great cast...they could pull it off if they threw out all the fat jokes.
4 - Jordan Richardson
If they threw out the fat jokes, they wouldn't have the show. That's the problem.
All this "appealing to regular people" they're trying to do stinks when weight is the core issue of the show.
5 - jeannie danna
Oh...that is a problem.