As the premiere episode opens, Carli, played by Melissa Peterman is faced with her family’s breakfast dilemma, hardly any cereal as she waters down the milk. She is a single mother with three children, well almost four if you count her big brother who lives with them and helps with the kids. But the bills keep coming and she needs all the help she can get.
Carli works at Parker Foods and is far from shy when it comes to the opposite sex. Although she has been married twice, she is certainly still looking for Mr. Right. Ed Asner who plays Hank works at the shop too and the show is consistently filled with wisecracks and good laughs.
Melissa Peterman is perfect in the part and in the first episode; her brother announces that their old friend from high school is coming to visit. Actually, Carli went to the prom with him because he was the only guy in high school who would be seen with her. Being so tall she had been called; Blondzilla, the Ablondable Snowman, Kareem Abdul JaBlonde, Blondre the Giant or Genghis Blonde. But he weighed 300 pounds and was no less than unattractive himself.
So at work, Carli talks with Hank about a group of women who sit in the coffee bar drinking latte and socializing each day. She wants to know why she can’t live the good life. Hank tells her she should keep her eyes open for one of the rich guys in town, but it wouldn’t hurt to get fish lips and whoopee cushion knockers. She wants to have a spark, not just marry for money.
Carli gets home and the family sees her coming and jump into their places so she thinks they have been doing homework, but the little guy is reading “Eat Pray Love” and she figures it out immediately. The doorbell rings and it is Buddy who lost a ton of weight and looks good and still thinks he is Sonny Crockett from Miami Vice. He wants to court Carli but it makes her think about going for what she wants after seeing him in his new body.
There is a cute guy she spots in the bakery who makes her heart skip a beat, and when she gets a chance to wait on him tells him all kind of stuff that would get her fired. His name is Rob and she feels the spark she is looking for. Suddenly Sonny Crockett comes into the store doing a 70’s dance trying to attract her attention and tell her he loves her and wants to marry her. They did make a pact at graduation that if they were still single in 20 years, they would marry each other.
As she is being proposed to, Rob comes from nowhere and tells her he would like to see her in his office. Expecting to get fired, she meets with him. She will not let him get a word in edgewise and begs him not to fire her. Actually, he liked her ideas and told her to consider management training just as Rob’s girlfriend comes into the office.
When Carli comes home, Buddy is telling the kids about Crockett and Tubbs. So Carli sits him down and tells him that she is not ready to settle down with him and they agree to see what happens in ten more years. They he says at least he got to first base one time and she reminds him that it was a Twister game and it did not count.
