The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd

charming. quirky. surreal. trippy. sweet. sad. disappointing. rewarding. alluring. intellectual. musical. ENTRANCING!

This show finally nabbed me when I was at someone else's house, and Molly was reporting on an undercover police investigation. This was a chick show, and I'd have been damned if anyone caught me enjoying a chick show. But the quirky comedy was just my style. I was hooked. Obviously influential on the self-satisfied Ally McBeal, Molly Dodd is in serious need or some new time in syndication.

Molly's middle-of-the-night chats with her dearly departed dad.

Marion Ross playing the role of her overly-concerned mother.

Her all-knowing doorman.

Perpetually unlucky in love.

Bizarre fantasy sequences.

Her neighbors (Ron [who later turned up in 'Mad About You'] reading the paper, and the back page headline shouting "Ron Wants Out" when their marriage was crumbling.)

Gut-wrenching loss (anaphylactic shock.)

Hope from despairing loss.

David Strathairn.

New York.



Lordy, I miss this show!

I watched this show religiously in the late 80s when I moved to Boston. It was a show with great feelings. The first year or so on NBC was so-so; I didn't see those shows till after it left there. But on Lifetime the show was fantastic. It seems to have gone into oblivion now unfortunately. Maybe someday it'll be rebroadcast on cable... A great show with a soul.

The show started on NBC, which foolishly cancelled it, then the Lifetime cable network picked it up. Molly Dodd was similar to Ally McBeal, but she was not as neurotic. She was just a single woman trying to make it out in the world, and helped (and sometimes hindered) by the quirky characters surrounding her. My favorite was her doorman, who apparently had lived quite a life before he took the job in her building. My other favorite character was her crazy boss at the publishing company she worked at right before the series ended for good. There have been very few good shows with good women characters, and this is one of the best.

Blair Brown has had a great deal of success, and Days and Nights was acknowledged, but both Brown and her prime-time show were still under-rated. The series - at its peak - was as good as, if not better than, Seinfeld, and its excellence was largely down to Brown. And Molly Dodd became the template for certain type of 90s "gal" - smart, sophisticated but artless. Dodd was like every other young woman one met in the big city. We did not see enough of this type on TV or in the movies, and, unfortunately, the template now - for both real life and in the media - is the shallow, self-centered and completely self-involved flibbertigibbet portrayed in everything from Sex and the City to The Hills.

This show and her acting impacted my idea of comedy so much. It is a classic.