A smaller Billy wraps a big success

During the five-year run of “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” (shown here), lives have transformed.
Folake Olowofoyeku became a star, Gina Yashere became an American, Chuck Lorre became rich (well, richer). And Billy Gardell became barely more than half his size.
“I was in a place with my health that I needed to make a severe change,” Gardell told the Television Critics Association. He did, with bariatric surgery and careful living.
The Gardell we’ll see on the series finale (8:30 p.m., May 6, on CBS) is about 5-foot-11, 207 pounds. There were times when he apparently topped 370.
In a way, the change fit the show. Bob (Gardell) was in the hospital after a heart attack. He instantly fell for his nurse (Olowofoyeku), a towering Nigerian native. (The photo here is from early in the series.)
“The idea that this guy had a heart attack at the beginning of the show and was going to get healthy really lined up with where I was in my life,” Gardell said. “I hadn’t had a heart attack yet, but I was running in the red …. I had to make the change.”
Still, it took a while. The show opened in September of 2019. As Covid took hold the next year, Gardell found himself in all the vulnerable groups. The surgery came in 2021.
Others also went through huge changes, especially Olowofoyeku.
She had grown up in Nigeria, the youngest of 20 children. She moved to New York at 18, hoping to become a lawyer like her father (who was also a politician and, briefly, Nigeria’s minister of education). Instead, she became an actress.
With a few exceptions – she was Lyfe, a trans activist, in four “Transparent” episodes – she had small roles. Then came the big one as Abishola, a no-nonsense nurse and mom.
“The reflection of these characters in such a positive light is something we’ve yearned for,” she said. “It gives context to our experience as immigrants and as Nigerians.”
That was partly Yashere’s doing. The daughter of Nigerian immigrants, she was a stand-up comedian and TV personality in England, when she was asked to consult with Lorre, who had already produced “Big Bang Theory,” “Mom,” “Mike and Molly” (with Gardell), “Two and a Half Men” and more.
Yashere had grown up watching Black characters on American TV shows, but with some reservations. “We were never three-dimensional,” Yashere said. “It was always seen through the lens of someone else.”
Now it’s partly through her own lens. Yashere co-wrote the pilot and stayed as a producer, also playing Abishola’s noisy friend Kemi. She plans to stay in the U.S., possibly writing a series reflecting her wild London youth.
Along the way, she’s shown her heritage to viewers – and to her castmates. “I’ve gotten to experience the Nigerian culture,” Gardell said. “I’ve learned to eat very hot food.”
And, he said, he’s learned to savor different worlds. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that you’re putting a thing in the air that is about love and about learning.”