The cheesy TV shows Melissa McCarthy watches every day: “It’s great”
In our age of carefully curated self-surveillance, social media and productivity, it’s easy to imagine that most high-profile actors either have a lavish or wildly overpacked day-to-day, but that’s not always the case.
For Melissa McCarthy, her days might be thoughtfully organised, but they don’t include any obscure skincare routines, being waited on hand and foot, or wild wellness habits.
According to The New York Times, her days start at 4:30am. This might seem like the usual eye-rolling, holier-than-thou, wellness nonsense touted by many celebs, but McCarthy isn’t waking up early to do an ice plunge or transcendental meditation. Apparently, she’s not even checking her emails. No, she’s starting her day much like many of the rest of us proles, by watching TV: “I’m treating myself right,” as she puts it.
Well, after she sneaks downstairs, trying not to wake her family or dogs and makes a cup of coffee, it’s TV time. You might be thinking her go-to, like many others, will be the news or early morning talk shows, maybe it’s a comedy, given her profession. Yet again, no. She’s starting out her day with one of two cheesy throwback television shows.
Her first option is Knight Rider, which she thinks everyone should be re-watching. Yes, that’s right, the 1980s crime drama show starring David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a sleek, be-coiffed crime fighter and his self-aware car sidekick, KITT, reminiscent of the self-driving Teslas we have been burdened with these days. While the show was laughed off by critics at the time, it has since garnered a cult following by those who long for the simplicity and candid campiness of ’80s television, and McCarthy is clearly part of the retrospective fan club.
In fact, the show is even being given a second go-round in the form of a movie reboot by the creators of The Karate Kid sequel television show, Cobra Kai, but considering McCarthy’s love and insistence on the underrated nature of the original, she might not be too happy to find this out. Although it’s safe to say her second daily watch has been adapted more than enough times.
This choice is equally as ridiculous, campy and cheesy as the first: The Incredible Hulk. By which, she means the original 1977 series where Bill Bixby’s Dr David Bruce Banner turns into a green-painted Lou Ferrigno with a terrible green shag wig. As McCarthy lovingly explains it, she watches “Lou Ferrigno freak out, throw a clearly rubber tree. Bixby’s high-waisted super chambray-colored pants. They’re always so pristine. Even though he’s backpacking in the woods, he’s so freshly laundered.”
She also apparently loved seeing the softer side of the Hulk, for example, when he lifts a baby bird from a tree and replaces it, and, “The music. There’s. So. Much. Score”. You can just imagine the exact emphasis of this line from her. As with many shows from the era, The Incredible Hulk had an intense score that would just as easily tell you what’s about to happen as the action unfolded.
For McCarthy, this way of starting her day keeps her lighthearted and tuned into the campy comedy she so loves and thinks is missing from the world. So she watches one episode, before tuning into reality with no less than three different print newspapers. It’s a very different start to the day than what most of us are used to: think immediately scrolling on our phones or punishing ourselves with ten-step wellness routines. Maybe it’s something we could learn from.
