Swoosie Kurtz: One Sassy Mama

Thankfully, Mike & Molly's big sugary romance comes served with a heaping spoonful of hot spice. "Skip the foreplay!" Molly's mom, Joyce, demands, digging for details after her daughter's first overnight date with her new boyfriend. "I don't wanna know how the sausage was made — I just wanna know how it was served!"

Svelte and thoroughly bawdy, Swoosie Kurtz's Joyce is the perfect foil to the full-figured, demure Molly (Melissa McCarthy) — and lewd enough to shock even the actress who plays her. "The things that come out of her mouth!" says Kurtz. "I can't even walk my dog in the neighborhood anymore!" And wait till you see what she has to say on tonight's Christmas episode.

As a mom, though, Joyce is all good intentions. "She just feels she has this vast and extensive knowledge, and doesn't hesitate to pass that on to her daughters," she laughs, adding, "even though it is often highly inappropriate." 

Etiquette aside, Kurtz is loving that the mom character finally gets to be the one who's the saucy sexpot. "I really applaud producers Chuck Lorre and Mark Roberts for allowing a woman over 25 to have that kind of sexual presence," says the 66-year-old actress. "It's not just young women in big cities who have a sexual life." As Joyce's boyfriend Vince (Louis Mustillo) puts it, "Old soup is still good if you heat it up!" And on Mike & Molly, Kurtz is at full boil.

Mike & Molly airs Mondays at 9:30/8:30c on CBS.

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