CBS' "Mike & Molly" -- A Little Too Potty Mouthed for Such a Nice Couple

Watching just one episode isn't usually enough to get a real feel for what's going on with a series. The Flaming Nose likes to take a look at a couple to see what the trends are -- is the comedy pilot jam-packed with laughs, and the rest of the episodes too dry, or maybe the pilot is spotty, and things get better in the subsequent weeks.

Let's take a look at CBS' new Monday night 9:30pm comedy Mike & Molly, starring Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy as two oversized Chicago singles who start a relationship. It's plenty funny enough to fill The Big Bang Theory's former timeslot, and with a Chuck Lorre it has a lot in common with that now-quite successful show. Mike & Molly takes an essentially nice central couple of characters and surrounds them with dialogue which is often raunchy and sexually-explicit.

During the first two episodes there were references to masturbation, queers and queens, condoms and lube, penis and weiners, "snapper" as synonym for vagina, Molly's first period compared to tomato sauce, vomit, and pot jokes. For comparison, in an episode of FX's Louie it was entirely appropriate and brilliant to have a poker game conversation revolve around gay bath house activity, with no-holds-barred descriptions and quips about gay male sex, culminating in an honest and stunning moment of drama, and then more dirty jokes.

In Mike & Molly the aforementioned references felt out of place, shoehorned in for shock effect. As I've said many times here I'm no prude, but Chuck Lorre seems to enjoy smashing the audience's face into edgy -- but not in a good way, in a childish showoffy way -- content that doesn't do the show any favors. The Mike & Molly dialogue provoked, for me at least, more of an "ewwww" reaction, not so with Louie. Mike & Molly uses dirty words as a cheap trick for cheap laughs, and it doesn't need to.

To the credit of leads Gardell and McCarthy, Mike and Molly are personable characters and already you're rooting for them. Gardell manages to achieve something that perhaps some viewers might find unimaginable -- his Mike is a strong and sexy man with tremendous personal appeal. McCarthy's Molly is nice but not cloying, a real woman living with her mother and sister who unfortunately are completely cartoonish laugh machines, as is Mike's cop friend and partner played by Reno Wilson. So what, it's a comedy, right? But please, do we need to hear penis jokes in a show like this?

The fat jokes? Plenty and often self-inflicted so that's maybe better. American culture hasn't figured out how it really feels about fat people. Are thin people watching Mike & Molly to laugh at the chubby leads? I doubt it, because they are only characters who have any heart. Are fat people watching as an affirmation? I don't know. What Mike & Molly seems to do best is be a love story. Maybe that's not what CBS wants out of a comedy with Two and Half Men as a lead-in, but unless the show gets nastier and more cruel (and dirtier, which happened to The Big Bang Theory), I think that's what's working.

Will I continue to watch? Online, yes. Somehow it seems to fit the computer monitor. I don't think I want to watch Mike & Molly's gratuitous weiner jokes on my big TV screen. They don't deserve the exposure. (And it's not the jokes, it's the show they're in).

Mike & Molly airs Mondays at 9:30pm on CBS.

A Few Good Shows that are NOT on Sunday Night!

While we all agree that Sunday night is a cornucopia of fabulous television programming, the rest of the week is not quite the viewing desert one might think. Last week, a number of established series had season premiers and there are a few that are off to a very good start.

HOUSE (Monday nights at 8pm on FOX), took the plunge by giving the brilliant, drug addled doctor a reason to stick to the rehab program for good. He and bosomy hospital Director Cuddy are finally an item. They kissed...they had naked sex...they're planning a European vacation together. It's all fraught with peril, of course, given that Dr. House is borderline Asperger's syndrome and almost completely incapable of a normal human relationship. Towards the end of the episode he actually said the "L" word to Cuddy, which I found touching. My more cynical sister Leslie said, "That's it then, we're looking at the last season for House!".

Moving over to Tuesday nights at 8pm on Fox, the Emmy award winning GLEE turned in a champion season opener. Starting with a full cast cover of Jay Z and Alicia Keys rap/song masterpiece "Empire State of Mind" and introducing a few fascinating new characters. Cheerios coach Sue Sylvester has a new nemesis with the towering and formidable football coach Beiste (The Panther). They clashed from the start, it was like watching butch gladiators fight it out in the halls of a public high school. New singers are being introduced as well, with the Filipina exchange student giving a goose-bump inducing audition.

Modern Family is the one to watch on Wednesdays (ABC at 9pm). Winner of the Best Comedy Emmy for their first season, Modern Family is living proof that broadcast television can still come up with a series that is fresh, innovative and absolutely hilarious. The season two open had Mitchell and Cameron building a huge pink Princess Castle for Lilly, while Phil and Claire try to get rid of the ancient family station wagon. The irrepressible 12 year old quipster Manny goes on a date, making his mom moan that "the leading cause of death among Colombian women is when their sons get married".

Saving the best for last, Thursday night features 30 ROCK (NBC at 8:30pm). Long a Flaming Nose favorite, 30 Rock dispels the myth that it's not possible to make a successful TV program about a TV program. Wait...that myth has never been true...what about The Dick Van Dyke Show? All the greats are back with Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) trying to merge with a new pilot boyfriend (Matt Damon!), and Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) head over heels for his uber-competitive TV newswoman doppelganger. There's trouble in paradise, however, as Kenneth the Page is missing. Has he gone over to CBS? Absolutely love the constant references to GE and NBC being sold to "Cabletown", a dig at the pending real life take over by Comcast.

There you have it, something to love for every night of the week! And oddly enough, not one of these programs is on cable. What's the world coming to? ;)

Eddie Cantor and "Boardwalk Empire"

We hope you caught Episode 1 of HBO's 1920's Atlantic City-set gangster drama Boardwalk Empire, which premiered last Sunday night. It was a stylish -- how could it not be, with the participation and direction by Martin Scorcese -- and multi-layered evocation of the beginning of America's failed experiment of Prohibition, with a bravura performance by the always interesting Steve Buscemi. He carries the show on his shoulders, giving us a wonderful interpretation of a complicated character -- part gangster, part businessman, part human being -- and it's wonderful to see him headlining a series.

We also loved the use of period music in the show (good article about it by Ann Powers from the L.A. Times here) , and I was particularly thrilled to see one of my favorite performers, the comedian Eddie Cantor, used generously in the episode. I'm not sure you would have gotten the impression that Eddie was particularly funny given the part of his vaudeville act they re-created, with the able assistance of Stephen DeRosa who did a great Cantor. Cantor was very funny, particularly in the movies he made for Samuel Goldwyn in the early 1930s. Highly recommended, particularly Roman Scandals.

But here's some very early sound footage from 1923 -- about the same time period as Boardwalk Empire -- with the real Eddie Cantor doing some of his act. It's fascinating at the very least. Then, another YouTube user found and posted I Never Knew I Had a Wonderful Wife (Until the Town Went Dry, the Cantor song that was used during Boardwalk Empire. Thanks to both these YT users who brought Eddie Cantor into the 21st Century!





Don't forget to watch Episode 2 of Boardwalk Empire tomorrow night on HBO! Check out the official Boardwalk Empire site for more information and view the entire schedule when you can watch this terrific series, undoubtedly the most accomplished of this new season.

Back to Basics with "Meat & Potatoes" on Food Network

I used to love Food Network, but too much Rachael Ray and idolizing chefs-as-superstars eventually turned me off, but promos for their newest offering might make me a believer again.

Meat & Potatoes premieres tonight at 10pm, starring chef Rahm Fama traveling around looking for the most awesome titular items. As a voracious carnivore -- I know it's philosophically wrong and a big karmic boo-boo, but I gotta have the steak! -- just seeing the shots of juicy cuts of meats and overflowing sandwiches brought me back to the network.

I hope this is more about the meat than about Fama; I love to see enthusiasm and knowledge but am not so found of the comedy bits that pervade these "on the road" food/travel shows. Note to hosts: We already know you have the best jobs in the business -- eating for pay -- so try to calm down a little and stop gloating about it. Just show us the beef, please.

No promos were available anywhere to embed here -- how is that possible, Food Network? -- so we can't actually show you the slathering goodness, but we still recommend tuning in tonight for "Between the Buns" as Fama highlights smoked meat sandwiches in Brooklyn, amazing hot dogs in Chicago, and huge burgers in Kansas City. Jeez, but that sounds good!

Check out the show's official Food Network site here, and you might also enjoy reading some of the other recent coverage about the show, here from Serious Eats, and at the Food Network blog here.

William $#*!ner Rules!

We know you're not expecting much from tonight's premiere of William Shatner's new sitcom $#*! My Dad Says -- at least not if you've been reading anything about it -- but we still love Shatner and will be thinking good thoughts for his latest venture.

Shatner is one of those guys who has managed to create a vivid persona that straddles his real life and his screen life, and his very special position as one of the most iconic pop culture figures in American history. For pete's sake, he's Captain Kirk! What else do you need?

Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote a piece in today's Salon about Shatner, and makes merry with the old "he's a bad actor" gag line, but he's really not. Shatner is a wonderful actor, a marvelous stylist who started out as a classically trained thespian and soon enough learned how to make a living at it, and it was things like Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits and Star Trek that paid the bills. Not subtle? Perhaps not, but certainly effective.

We want to see him in commercials, not because we think he's an authority, but because we like him. We truly do.

So let's all take a look at $#*! My Dad Says, tonight at 8:30p on CBS, because it's $#*! Shatner Says, and that's a good enough reason for us.

FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" Returns Tonight!

FX's outrageous and hilarious comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadephia returns tonight for its 6th season. Crazier and more subversive than anything else on TV -- except maybe FX's own recent Louie starring Louis C.K., and much funnier than anything calling itself a comedy on the pay nets -- IASiP might be something that you're not watching yet, despite 58 episodes since its August 2005 premiere. When you watch something like this you realize how tame network sitcoms are (and probably should be), but if you crave something with a very high laugh-per-minute score and a very low good taste level, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will hit you just about right.



If you're not familiar with the show, all you really need to know is that it takes place at Paddy's Irish Pub, a ratty bar in South Philadelphia. Created by co-stars Rob McElhenney (Mac), Glenn Howerton (Dennis) and Charlie Day (Charlie), the series also features McElhenney's real-life wife Kaitlin Olson as Sweet Dee and Danny DeVito as Frank, Dennis and Dee's rich and enthusiastically eccentric father. All are superb, with veteran DeVito absolutely at home and completely delightful in these utterly raucous surroundings, and especially so in his scenes with Charlie Day. Frank and Charlie are roommates in Charlie's small and scabrous apartment, sharing a bed and getting into some great physical comedy with their wonderfully lowbrow antics.

Actually, most of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is aggressively lowbrow and that's what keeps the anarchic comedy energy bubbling throughout every episode. Never afraid to tackle
crude, lewd, or usually verboten subject matter -- abortion, sexual molestation, welfare recipients, religious fervor, cancer, the mentally challenged, cannibalism, pooping, public masturbation and so on -- IASiP so consistently delivers the laughs that all is forgiven. Even though they're kind of hard on felines in several episodes -- but I did love the way Dennis became super-enamored of the junkyard cat who was pressed into service as "Agent Bauer" when he and Frank became fake policemen -- they're equally as hard on babies, gays, homeless people, priests, gangsters, mothers, and everybody else.



All five seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are available on DVD, used to be available on Hulu, and can undoubtedly be found around the web if all other sources prove fruitless, and you should also visit the FX official show site here. There's a fun make-your-own-trailer mash-up feature to play with, and many other clips and background info for your enjoyment. For a crash-course in all things Sunny, check out their Season 6 viewer guide, too.

We're not going to claim that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is for everybody. If you like your comedy polite and contrite, this show isn't for you. If you want gentle titters and soft rippling chuckles, also not so much for you. However, if you're looking for belly laughs and spit takes, this show has "YOU" written all over it.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has its 6th Season premiere tonight at 10pm on FX. Encores seem to be scattered around the schedule, including Fridays at 1am, Saturdays at 12:30am, and maybe somewhere else but unfortunately FX runs so much Paid Programming that's hard to suss it out. We hate when real networks run Paid Programming. It's degrading and incredibly off-putting. No wonder people go to the web to watch TV -- so often the networks are wasting hours when they could be presenting their shows and instead running really crappy Direct Response ads. Not. Good. Ever.

But don't despair! It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is back! All Hail the DayMan!

The Real Temple Grandin on C-SPAN

While driving from Nova Scotia to Florida last week, I was lucky enough to turn on the hotel TV and see most of this incredible interview with Temple Grandin from November of last year. We loved that the HBO movie made about her swept the Emmy Awards last months, and the real lady is no less fascinating. We highly recommend taking a look at this terrific interview; in addition to presenting Ms. Grandin in all her intriguing glory, it shows us why C-SPAN is such a precious television resource for us all.

(I can't seem to get it to embed, but check it out on C-SPAN's website here!)

The Flaming Nose Remembers 9-11-2001

On the 9th anniversary of one of the most shocking days in America's history, The Flaming Nose honors all of the television coverage that kept us informed, horrified and riveted throughout the nightmare. From the time the first planes hit the towers, through the endless funerals and memorials and tributes for all of the poor souls who were lost in this terrorist attack, television was there for us all. It is said that this was the most watched, most photographed event in history. We all watched, and could not turn away.

Here's to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. Here's to CNN and all the local stations in NYC that kept broadcasting through the day of horror. Here's to the History Channel, which is airing 9-11 specials all day long today. The History Channel never forgets. Neither should we.

Most of all, here's to all of the brave people who helped each other in NYC, in Washington and on Flight 93 nine years ago today. Heroes all.

Lucy and Superman

We're featuring the lovable Lucille Ball and stalwart George Reeves as Superman on our header these days, mostly just because we love them both. Reeves as Superman was our childhood hero, even though he was already dead (he died in June of 1959) by the time many of us saw Superman reruns as kids.

No matter. Reeve's infectious charisma, sturdy good looks and Superman's incredible sense of justice made him the perfect hero for us all. Of course you remember the I Love Lucy episode "Lucy and Superman" which culminates in the sequence below. At once hilarious, heroic, charming, and adorable, this scene shows why we'll never stop loving Lucille Ball or George Reeves.

Nearly Overlooked -- Terrific Female Performances on HBO's "Hung"

Though the show is often far from being merely the titillating sexual thrill that its title promises, HBO's Hung features a trio of don't-miss ladies -- make no mistake, they're the ones with the balls in this show. Hung's mostly unsung lead actresses toil in relative obscurity, but not for any lack of talent or excellence. Hung hasn't quite risen to the level of cultural touchpoint and probably won't, but that doesn't mean this 'male pimp and the women who love him' premise isn't worth watching.

Star Thomas Jane is fine as the well-endowed high school coach Ray, and this season he's getting some good competition from co-star Gregg Henry as fellow coach Mike Hunt (say it fast) who's unknowingly embroiled in an almost poignant man-for-hire relationship that Ray has blown off. Of even more interest are Jane Adams as Ray's pimp Tanya, Anne Heche as Ray's ex-wife (who has discovered old feelings bubbling up again), and Rebecca Creskoff as Lenore, Ray's other pimp. Creskoff casts a voluptuous visual aura similar to Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, and in fact she guested on two early MM episodes as the older sister of Rachel Katz, Don's department store heiress squeeze.

Jane Adams is a ragged thread as Tanya, nearly unraveling then getting it back together. She's always superb as she's found herself nearly overshadowed by Ray's business and personal relationship with the more aggressive Lenore. Anne Heche as Jessica is playing out a great storyline now. Her character is not exactly unhappily but surely mundanely married to a kind but average-looking big-bucks dermatologist (played so well by Eddie Jemmison) who of course knows deep down he bought himself a gorgeous wife. Jessica can't seem to get Ray off her mind, and in the last episode she ended up going moonlight swimming with him at the lake by their old house.

Hung has been praised for its neurotic verve, mostly thanks to Jane Adams incredible Tanya, and for its morose and cynical take on modern sexual relations. I'm all for that. Is it funny? All the half-hour so-called "comedies" on HBO or on Showtime are hardly that, or at least not always nearly that. It's their complexity that makes them so addicting and even...no, especially..when they fail as comedy they're even better.

The Season Two finale of Hung will air on Sunday, September 12th at 11pm, on HBO.

Ep. 20: Even-Steven or The Luckiest Kid in Detroit

Nose-talgia: One More Hot Old Ad Jingle

Let's hear it for the Teaberry shuffle. Like the Polaroid camera, and Palisades Amusement Park, here's a product that has gone to that great old brand round up in the sky. Notice that this jingle is played by trumpet icon, Herb Alpert.

Nose-talgia: Another Jingle -- Polaroid Swinger!

This is one that seems particularly So. Cal, doesn't it? I had a Polaroid Swinger camera and used it a lot back in the mid-60s. That's Ali McGraw in the ad, too! Yea Yea!



Send us your favorites and we'll post them here!