History Series / MikeAndMolly

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Molly's sister Victoria is ... unlucky in love to say the least. Molly and Joyce had to physically stop her from going after her married boyfriend.

* MyBelovedSmother: Mike's mom, who fakes a heart attack as soon as she finds out Mike is on a date with Molly.
** Another episode has Mike getting very sick and being taken care of Molly at his place. His mother shows up and steals him back to her place and them stealing him back & forth. Eventually, she gets him last and alludes to possibly hiding him in his uncle's ice cabin to keep her away.

* RecoveredAddict: Mike and Molly met at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, and are often seen attending such meetings in the early seasons. After getting married in the fourth season, that angle of the show was phased out to concentrate on their domestic lives.

* StPatricksDayEpisode: In the appropriately-named "St. Patrick's Day," Mike and Molly continue pregnancy attempts and almost miss Carl and Samuel's St Patrick's Day party. Also, Victoria kisses Harry after he helps her with a college assignment, but the kiss prompts a major announcement from Harry.

%%* CoolOldLady: Carl's grandmother.

%%* DeadpanSnarker: Samuel

%%* HeterosexualLifePartners: Mike and Carl.

%%* MotorMouth: Carl

%%* StrawLoser: No matter what kind of trouble Mike is having in his life, it's loads better compared to Carl's life.

** Victoria would move to the basement near the end of the seties.

** For a time in season three, Mike & Molly cleaned up the basement at Molly's house and moved there from the second floor. They then return upstairs halfway through season four.

* ForcedFromTheirHome: Happens to Carl after he and his grandmother have a rather intense fight over personal boundaries and such and she, after Carl goes to commiserate with Mike, throws him out. When confronted about this, Nana explains she believes she's been enabling some of Carl's more childish traits by letting him go live in his own. She makes sure he knows he can come back for visits and she is not kicking him out of her life, but Carl has to find another place to live. Eventually Carl winds up taking over Mike's old bachelor pad and getting Sammy for a roommate.

* BuxomIsBetter: Vitoria.

%%* DysfunctionalFamily: Both Mike and Molly's families. [[FreudianExcuse And they both wonder why they have weight issues...]]

* Flanderization: Molly became more brash, snarky, assertive and animated in the retool in the show's attempt to capitalize on Creator/MelissaMcCarthy's skyrocketing movie career. This attempt would be undone in the final season.

%%* BookDumb: Victoria claims to be "not so much book smart as magazine smart."
%%* BrideZilla: Molly turns into one three weeks before the wedding.
%%* ChristmasEpisode
%%* CloudCuckooLander: Victoria, though mostly because she's a pothead.

%%* CoolOldLady: Carl's grandmother.
%%* ADateWithRosiePalms: The reason Molly's mother made so much banana bread three years after her husband died.
%%* DeadpanSnarker: Samuel

%%* HalloweenEpisode
%%* HeterosexualLifePartners: Mike and Carl.

%%* IAmBigBoned: Molly's mom calls her that.
%%-->'''Molly:''' Bones don't jiggle, ma!

%%* SassyBlackWoman: Carl's grandma.
%%* TheStoner: Victoria.
%%-->'''Molly:''' You're high?
%%-->'''Victoria:''' You're not?

%%* StrawLoser: No matter what kind of trouble Mike is having in his life, it's loads better compared to Carl's life.
%%* TokenBlackFriend: Mike's partner Carl, although it's less egregious than most examples since Carl has a decent amount of episodes revolving around him.

* TwoDecadesBehind: Occaisional references to Mike carrying a service revolver. Almost all North American police departments switched over to semi-automatic pistols in the early '90s. Chicago Police Department ''does'' permit senior officers to elect to carry a revolver, however, Mike is shown using a Glock 17.
%%* UglyGuyHotWife: Averted, in fact it's the entire point of the series.

%%* UnusualEuphemism: ''Every'' conversation between Joyce and Victoria ends up dissolving into this.

* YouAreFat: Many jokes throughout the series have been made at Mike's expense about his weight. Sometimes he returns a DeathGlare, while othertimes he takes it in stride. Everyone gets a dig in, but the biggest offenders are Carl, Vince and his boss Captain Patrick Murphy.

* Flanderization: Molly gets more brash, snarky, assertive and animated after the season four retool in the writers' attempt to capitalize on Creator/MelissaMcCarthy's skyrocketing movie career. This attempt would be undone in the final season.

* YouAreFat: Many jokes throughout the series have been made at Mike's expense about his weight. Sometimes he gives a DeathGlare, while othertimes he takes it in stride. The biggest offenders are Carl, Vince and his boss Captain Patrick Murphy.

-->''"For the first time in my life, I see love..."''

* Flanderization: Molly gets more brash, snarky, assertive and animated after the season four retool in the writers' attempt to capitalize on Creator/MelissaMcCarthy's skyrocketing movie career. This attempt would be mostly undone in the final season.

%%* UnusualEuphemism: ''Every'' conversation between Molly's mother and Victoria ends up dissolving into this.

** "Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy". Molly uses Peggy as inspiration for a new book, but it doesn't go as well as she thought it would. She goes into the attic to look around and finds a hope chest that Peggy forbids her to open. [[spoiler: Peggy reluctantly shows her that it's filled items from her childhood that her father sent her after her mother died. Eventually she tells Molly of how hard life was on the farm, and that her father would get drunk and hit her mother. She left at fourteen to get away from him but has always felt guilty about leaving her mother behind with no one to protect her. Mike puts it best at the end: "I'm gonna go hug my mom."]]

[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mike_and_Molly_4673.jpg]]

** For a time, Mike & Molly cleaned up the basement at Molly's house & moved there from the second floor. They then return upstairs halfway through season four.

* VocalEvolution: Molly's voice gets less throaty and slightly higher in pitch between seasons two and three, and slightly more exaggerated and whiny after the season four retool.

--> Molly: (''holding up the towel on Vince's lap while Mike walks in'') Look at it! ''Look at it!'' '''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis LOOK AT IT!!!]]'''%%ZCE
** "This Old Peggy." Mike, Carl, & Samuel get an unwanted peep show from Mike's mom when Peggy forgetfully (the episode's issue at hand) walks into the living room naked as the three are repairing the house. There are no better descriptions other than "all white" & "PTSDD."

** In one episode, Molly makes fun of Harry for still living with his mother, when she also still lives with her mother. Harry calls her out on this too.

* TheUnfairSex: A recurring issue in the show is that Molly tends to be irresponsible and selfish, but when Mike calls her out on it he's made to look like the bad guy, or at best they BOTH apologize even when Mike wasn't in the wrong.
** Starting in season 4 Molly goes off the rails ,quitting her job on a whim despite having huge debt(all of which was incurred by Molly), drinking frequently with her mom and sister, and still continues to make extravagant purchases when she has no income. When Mike calls her on wasting "his money" that's all that's discussed afterwards even though he immediately said he misspoke. No one bothered to mention that Mike was 100% right that she shouldn't be blowing hundreds of dollars on frivolous purchases.
** When Molly gets an advance on a book she immediately spends all of it on a fancy new car she thinks Mike will enjoy, but he points out that they should return the car since they have more important things to use the money for(like the $80,000 debt she racked up before they were married) and Molly basically calls him ungrateful. Mike does admit that part of what bothered him was that he felt he should be the one buying things for her not the other way around, but the issue of her being irresponsible is dropped right after he mentioned it. What's even worse is that the money was an advance on a book she hadn't yet written, so if she didn't meet the publishers deadline she'd have to return the money, which would plunge them FURTHER in debt since the money was spent.
** The best example would be the season 6 episode "The Good Wife" where Mike rightly called her out on the fact that she had been regularly leaving cooking and cleaning to him despite the fact that he was working full time and she instead was spending the day drinking and shopping with her mom and sister, making the excuse that she can't write a new book until "her batteries recharge". When Mike calls her out in this she accuses him of being a chauvinist that expects her to be an obedient housewife and the next day makes a big show of acting like a stepford wife to make him feel guilty, as well as mocking him and freezing him out. In the end they both apologize and agree to share the household chores, which all seems good until you remember that Mike wasn't wrong, it's perfectly reasonable for the spouse who has the entire day free to cook and clean especially when the other spouse works all day. Had the situation been reversed and Mike was the one home all day and he didn't cook and clean because he was too busy having fun, he likely wouldn't have been viewed as sympathetically as Molly was.

''"For the first time in my life, I see love..."''

A 2010–16 Creator/{{CBS}} sitcom produced by Creator/ChuckLorre and starring Creator/MelissaMcCarthy, Creator/BillyGardell and Swoosie Kurtz. Mike and Molly meet at an Overeaters' Anonymous meeting and hit it off.

** For a time, Mike & Molly cleaned up the basement at Molly's house & moved there from the second floor. They then return upstairs later on.

%%* TokenBlackFriend: Mike's partner, Carl, although it's less egregious than most examples since Carl has a decent amount of episodes revolving around him.

* BookDumb: Victoria claims to be "not so much book smart as magazine smart."
* BrideZilla: Molly turns into one three weeks before the wedding.
* UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}
* ChristmasEpisode
* CloudCuckooLander: Victoria, though mostly because she's a pothead.

* CoolOldLady: Carl's grandmother.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: The reason Molly's mother made so much banana bread three years after her husband died.
* DeadpanSnarker: Samuel

* DirtyOldMan: Vince.

* DysfunctionalFamily: Both Mike and Molly's families. [[FreudianExcuse And they both wonder why they have weight issues...]]

--> Molly: (''holding up the towel on Vince's lap while Mike walks in'') Look at it! ''Look at it!'' '''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis LOOK AT IT!!!]]'''

* HalloweenEpisode
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Mike and Carl.

* IAmBigBoned: Molly's mom calls her that.
-->'''Molly:''' Bones don't jiggle, ma!
* TheHypocrite: In season 6 a drunken Molly calls Victoria a screw-up, leading to Victoria calling her out on this with a ReasonYouSuckSpeech. She rightly points out that while she may be a pot head, she has a steady job, no debt and has saved up enough money to put a down payment on a nice house, while Molly quit her teaching job on a whim and had a huge debt owed mostly to frivolous purchases and general lack of impulse control.

* MistakenForGay: Carl and Mike are mistaken for this "at least three times a week." In the season 3 premiere, Carl gets a temporary partner while Mike is on his honeymoon, and on their last day together the partner kisses Carl full on the lips, resulting in a HeroicBSOD.

* MotorMouth: Carl

* NameAndName
* UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}: Billy Gardell, who portrays Mike, hasn't forgotten where he came from and makes regular appearances on Pittsburgh radio station WDVE's morning show.
** In one episode, they go to a baseball game between the Cubs and Gardell's favorite team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Don't think that wasn't done on purpose.
** Gardell speaks in his natural "yinzer" accent. It would be apparent to anyone who knows what they're listening for, but it's portrayed as being a Chicago accent.
* [[PairTheSmartOnes Pair The Fat Ones]]: The tendency of shows to match people up like-to-like, partly because it drives a plot, and partly as an asumption that the only way a fat person can find a life partner is to find another fat person.
* RealSongThemeTune: "I See Love" by Keb' Mo'.

* SassyBlackWoman: Carl's grandma.
* TheStoner: Victoria.
-->'''Molly:''' You're high?
-->'''Victoria:''' You're not?
* StrawLoser: No matter what kind of trouble Mike is having in his life, it's loads better compared to Carl's life.
* TokenBlackFriend: Mike's partner, Carl, although it's less egregious than most examples since Carl has a decent amount of episodes revolving around him.

* UglyGuyHotWife: Averted, in fact it's the entire point of the series.

* UnusualEuphemism: ''Every'' conversation between Molly's mother and Victoria ends up dissolving into this.

* BlackBestFriend: Mike's partner, Carl, although it's less egregious than most examples since Carl has a decent amount of episodes revolving around him.