Why so much hype?

Really Surprised!

Absolutely brilliant

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Molly's life was a collage of bits and pieces that never really made any sense!! She perennially engages in a personal synopses vindication analysis every time she wants to switch brands of coffee!! She will spend her last $300.00 on a dress at MACY*S, but,if she wants to tell a friend of hers off, she will call them collect!! This show thrived on the unconventional! Moving to cable after being on NBC for two years, and having a largely female audience, it was anything but estrogen laden sap!! Molly Dodd's priorities dictated that, on a caprice, she should be more concerned about what happened to her when she was 12 years old, than she should be about constructing her precarious future! Molly Dodd was impervious with regards to matters such as her career and/or her relationships, or, shall I say, lack of them!! A potpourri of emotional misconfiguration is what gave this show its identity!! NBC's attempt at dialog driven programing for the esoteric, in the late 1980's, did not catch on the way they wanted it to!! Nevertheless, "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" was a definite cut above your average run of the mill television show!!

People who watch the sociological trends in television often cite important series that are milestones and landmarks for various factions. When discussing "independent female" roles, programs from the 1960s such as Diahann Carroll's "Julia" and Marlo Thomas' "That Girl" are frequently pointed out as important, and certainly in the 1970s, a big boost was given by "Maude" and "Mary Tyler Moore." I offer up the next important series in that chain: Blair Brown in "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd." Ten years and two months after Mary Richards exited WJM-TV, Jay Tarses (who happened to be in the MTM stable as a frequent writing contributor to "The Bob Newhart Show" back in the day) created this next logical evolutionary step for "The Television Woman." Molly Dodd was an attractive, 30something, single Manhattan woman who was, basically, a mess. There was nothing together or even mildly prepared about this woman, either in her work, her home life or her romantic relationships. She had been married to, then divorced from a modestly successful saxophonist who somehow wasn't quite out of her life and whose only worthwhile contribution to her was his surname. Her door/elevator man was an amateur philosopher. Her mom was a reflection of herself, and not in a good way. Her career was stuck in dead-end jobs. And when relationships did come along, there were always bizarre complications attached: such as her relationship with an NYPD undercover detective named Nathaniel Hawthorne, or when it devolved into a love triangle with a bookseller named Moss. Or when it got even more complicated, and then tragic.Somehow, Molly managed to take everything that happened to her in stride, at least in many cases, and that approach helped make her situations bearable, at least for the audience! The other charming and wonderful thing about the lead character was in her imperfections, and her willingness to be OK with them. She rarely had the answer, and even when she did, she often didn't know it! Yet, even as her world was spinning out of control, she kept her equilibrium, and continued on her way, in a sprightly manner. If she could make it there (with all of the people in her life *attempting* to help), she just might make it after all.Clearly, Molly owed some things to Mary Richards, and definitely paved the way for a character like Ally McBeal, who also had many of the quirky traits that Ms. Dodd had, albeit Ally was a successful lawyer. The "Dramedy" genre that Ms. McBeal dwelled in was first presented here, and that makes this series a very important link in the "History of Women on TV" chain.As such an important part of television history, the series should be available on DVD for everyone to see! There were only 65 episodes, so this shouldn't be that difficult.

Among Mollys' many suiters was a handsome Black man, who turned out to be the father of her baby. Their whole relationship and resulting pregnancy was done with such sensitivity and class and humor, not by focusing on their differences, but by simply examining how anyone deals with the perils of dating and the difficulties of single parenthood. This show, eventhough short-lived, was simply one of the best in terms of the writing and acting. For a series featuring a female character, I think "Molly Dodd" is right up there among the classics.

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.