Rom-com meets American dream in ‘Bob (Hearts) Abishola’
Television producer Chuck Lorre is all about winning when it comes to creating romantic comedies for television. He’s the guy behind such successful offerings as “Dharma & Greg,” “Mike & Molly,” “Mom” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Lorre’s next project, co-created by Gina Yashere, has a similar structure to past works, but he’s quick to point out that “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” is different.
Viewers will get to see how it follows a new formula when the series launches Monday at 8 p.m. on CBS.
Lorre says romance is merely the entrance point.
“The story we wanted to tell, the story I wanted to tell, is about the greatness of first-generation immigrants, about the focus and discipline, the hard work, rigorous, rigorous honesty that goes with coming here and grabbing ahold of the American dream. So the premise of the series is immigrants make America great,” Lorre said. “That was a story I felt worth telling. Yes, there is a romance here that will take a long time to play out. We’re in no hurry to do that part.”
The series focuses on Bob (Billy Gardell), a middleaged Detroit businessman who ends up in the hospital because of heart problems. During his recovery, Bob falls for Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku), his cardiac nurse, who is a Nigerian immigrant. That they are from two different worlds doesn’t stop Bob from romantically pursuing Abishola and creating a way of seeing what immigrant life in America is like.
Lorre’s approach is to go into the series knowing there could be backlash from viewers and station managers but keeping an optimistic view that the show will connect with most viewers because, in the end, the vast majority of Americans are descendants of immigrants.
Lorre stresses “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” is not a political show.
“There’s no reason to view it as politics. It’s about people. It’s about people trying to get some safety in this world,” Lorre said.
Olowofoyeku, the youngest of 20 children, grew up in Nigeria and moved to New York after coming to the United States on her 18th birthday for a vacation. She decided to stay and go to college, but while her parents wanted her to enter the family profession of law and politics, Olowofoyeku was more interested in the arts.
“I knew what I wanted to do professionally, and that was to be an entertainer. And I come from a family of lawyers and politicians. So that was a ‘no.’ So I stayed and chose to make America my home simply for creative liberation really,” Olowofoyeku said. “It wasn’t going to happen back home. There weren’t as many opportunities as there are now in the arts and in music and in acting.
“And so I moved to Long Island (New York) and found the school furthest away from Long Island, which was Harlem. And I moved there and pursued theater.”
Before landing the new CBS comedy, Olowofoyeku appeared in “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Modern Family,” “Transparent,” “The Gifted” and “Westworld.”
Olowofoyeku’s co-star is a familiar face to fans of the comedy “Mike & Molly,” as Gardell spent six seasons starring with Melissa McCarthy. The decision to cast Gardell came down to how much Lorre and his team liked working with him.
It helps that Gardell is a complete opposite to Olowofoyeku in how he looks and the character he plays.
“Bob is a guy that’s in a place where he owns a business, and there’s a void in his life because that’s all he does,” Gardell said. “His family is insane, and the stress of that drives him to a heart attack. And then he wakes up in the hospital, and there’s this lovely strong presence near him.”