[Warning: Spoilers ahead.]
When it premiered in 2010, CBS’s “Mike & Molly” was something of a gimmick in the stable of mega-producer Chuck Lorre – a kinda new take on the rom-com. Hey look everyone, they’re fat! Plus, incessant fat jokes are OK! It’s “The King of Queens” times two! But we were rooting for them anyway, even if their dropping weight wasn’t going to be part of the deal. They could easily have called this thing “The Biggest Non-Losers.”
Given the percentage of Americans who struggle with their waistlines, this didn’t seem all that revolutionary at the time. Plus, in every other way, “M&M” was doggedly traditional: multiple cameras (a Lorre trademark), wacky meddling parents and wisecracking best friends/siblings.
Alas, the show was never a huge ratings smash and devolved into something of an afterthought. Yet it performed solidly enough and stuck around for six seasons, including the truncated 13-episode farewell campaign that concludes with Monday’s two-parter (8 to 9 p.m.). To be sure, a grand total of 127 episodes ain’t too shabby. If you’re keeping score (something we love to do here at The Wrap), that’s more than twice the 62 that “Breaking Bad” completed.
Why is the show leaving CBS now? Indirectly, the blame must fall to co-star Melissa McCarthy, even if she famously tweeted back in December, “I was shocked and heartbroken when @CBS canceled #MikeAndMolly. I would have shot this show for 50 more years. I’ll miss my 2nd family.”
We have no reason to question McCarthy’s sincerity in having wanted the show to go on forever and ever. But at the same time, she also has to be breathing a major sigh of relief, since over the past nearly six years she’s exploded into the biggest (no pun intended) female comedic movie star in America. McCarthy is commanding a healthy $14 million for the “Ghostbusters” reboot that hits theaters in July. She now opens her own films as the single name above the title. She is also Emmy-winning (2011) and Oscar-nominated (2012 for “Bridesmaids”). This sitcom had to be a major time suck holding back that soaring film career.
It is therefore logical – if by no means confirmed – to presume that McCarthy ultimately priced out CBS and “M&M” producing studio Warner Bros. TV, even if we’ll never know precisely what she’d have commanded. The short version is that the initial license fee deal between network and studio had expired, meaning a new, shorter deal was primed to be negotiated. That would have meant fresh contracts for the actors including a gigantic one for McCarthy, who was earning far less than current market value after having come off her role in “Gilmore Girls” (2000-07) as supporting player Sookie St. James.
Whatever happened behind the scenes, Warner Bros. and CBS did not come to terms on a renewal. Perhaps this was in part because McCarthy’s superstardom hadn’t generated anything close to a commensurate popularity surge for her show.
And that was all she wrote for the series: Death by “We’re good, thanks.” What is perhaps somewhat more amazing is the fact McCarthy and co-star Billy Gardell were by the end still evidently on speaking terms, given her massive acclaim (including four Emmy nominations for her, zero for him) and his continuing to log stand-up gigs, film supporting roles and “Scooby-Doo” voiceovers.
“Mike & Molly” leaves the air tonight much more polished and sure-footed sitcom than it was on arrival. Both the penultimate half-hour, “Curse of the Bambino” (directed by McCarthy), and the finale “I See Love” (directed by the legendary James Burrows) seamlessly blend well-earned laughs with the obligatory heartstring tugs required of a series heading off into the Great Nielsen Beyond.
In the first of the pair, the childless Mike (Gardell) and Molly (McCarthy) continue the storyline of looking to adopt a baby – and things degenerate to their logical freak-out extreme. He goes to a psychic. She gets dragged by her mother-in-law Peggy (the phenomenal Rondi Reed) to church. And whenever the phone rings, they explode with anxiety, thinking it could be the adoption agency on the other end telling them they’ve been approved.
The denouement is beautifully done (no doubt another Emmy nomination for Burrows) and features a couple of truly classic scenes in the hospital waiting room when the birth mother goes into labor three weeks early, giving all of the lead and supporting players spotlight moments. That’s especially true of dueling grandmothers-to-be Peggy and Joyce (Swoosie Kurtz). It all concludes on a fittingly warm and wonderful note, complete with a giant reveal near the end that won’t be spoiled here.
A few closing observations: McCarthy is fairly effortless in her comedic flair. Her charisma and star power fairly radiates off the screen. Gardell, who rarely gets credit that’s due him, hits the finish line a far more natural and relaxed all-around performer than he was in “Mike & Molly’s” early years. Too, it’s clear as things wind down that the incessant reveling in fatty humor that so defined the show’s beginning thankfully matured to the point where the size of the protagonists was far less the point, and nearly irrelevant. Bravo for that.
This wrap-up hour successfully pulls off the difficult balancing act of keeping things light and clever while avoiding the kind of mawkishness that too often permeates these finales. It supplies just enough sweetness to leave us feeling sated – and not a calorie more.