Episode: “Opening Day” (2011)
REVIEWED BY MARK A. LARSON
Editor & Publisher
A face only a mother could love?
Meet Harry. … You may not have been formally introduced, but you probably recognize him.
Most likely, you know the type of guy I’m talking about. You’ve seen him in the stands at the stadium – maybe more than once. Often, he’s alone … perhaps a bit chubby, sometimes with glasses, always wearing the home team’s baseball cap. He’s usually scoring the game and probably has a headset on, listening to the ballgame’s broadcast.
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Hope abounds in the crisp early April air in Chicago. Spring Training is over, and the real games are about to begin. It’s opening day, when every team in the major leagues is in first place … when every team still has a chance of earning World Series rings.
The bulk of this episode of “Mike & Molly” takes place at Wrigley Field on opening day. And Cubs fans are buzzing with excitement.
Mike and Carl are Chicago police officers – and partners. For several years, they’ve attended the Cubs opener together. However, now that Mike has a girlfriend (Molly), he wants to invite her to join them. Carl has reservations, especially because he and Mike only have two field-level seats. Mike purchases a third ticket in the bleachers and Molly comes up with a plan to rotate seats – each of them will sit in the bleachers for three innings. (“If it goes into extra innings, we’ll draw from a hat,” she says.)
Just before the big day, we see Mike addressing his weight-loss support group about avoiding putting on pounds by eating too much stadium food. He talks about the temptations that abound, such as “Those little cups of chocolate ice cream you eat with the tiny, wooden spoon, and (you can) still suck the flavor on the wood grain.”
In order to stick to his diet and avoid the great eats, Mike’s solution is to bring his own snacks to the game. In this case, a small tub of carrots. Yum (?).
When it comes time to be seated, sure enough, the guy parked next to them in the bleachers is the aforementioned Harry who engages each of them during their stints in the cheaper seats. The conversations range from goofy to the absurd. For instance, Mike is almost drooling when he watches Harry scarf down a hot dog and he has to stick with his carrots. Harry’s opinion on eating a ballpark hot dog? “It’s like heaven wrapped in a pig intestine.”
When it’s Molly’s turn to sit in the bleachers, she and Harry are chit-chatting when he advises her: “you should come on floppy hat or foam finger day … the vibe is palpable.” Then he offers to buy her a beer. Just to be fair, Molly informs him she has a boyfriend. Although Harry might have been interested in her, he’s somewhat relieved and says, “thank goodness, I’m getting a little tired of holding my stomach in.”
When the scenes return to the two field-level seats, there’s banter back and forth at different times about Mike, Molly and Carl each attending (or not attending) Cubs games with their fathers when they were young. But the meat of the episode are the interactions with Harry.
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“Mike & Molly” ran for 127 episodes over six seasons (2010-16) on CBS. Billy Gardell starred as Mike; Melissa McCarthy played Molly; Reno Wilson was Carl; and David Anthony Higgins guest starred as Harry. The Harry character stayed on and became a semi-regular, eventually appearing in 27 episodes. Yet, this might have been the best of them, as he is nearly flawless as the nerdy baseball fan.
in the foreground
NOTE: To find out if this show is available in your area, use a search engine and type in: “Where to watch MIKE & MOLLY” … In general, know that some television programs are currently only available on DVD, so check your local library … Others may not be available at all at this time.
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