The female lead in “Frank’s Pretty Woman” wasn’t the only character that was given a “realistic” spin. Frank presents an even funnier and starker contrast to the leading man in “Pretty Woman” than his fiancée does to Julia Roberts.
But Frank wasn’t the only one that went through a transformation in the season 7 premiere. Mac had also undergone a massive weight gain in the gap between seasons 6 and 7, and it had to be addressed in the very first episode — even though the full explanation wouldn’t come until much later.
“[In the season 7 premiere], we knew we wanted to do something addressing my character getting fat and so we decided what would be funny about that is if Glenn [Howerton, co-creator and star] and I went to the doctor and Glenn was going to prove to me how unhealthy I was and found out he’s just as unhealthy as I am,” McElhenney explained to The Futon Critic. He continued:
“We thought that would work really well with this particular storyline of Charlie trying to show Frank how he’s worthy of getting a wonderful woman and pretending to go on this date. Also, someone had just [watched] ‘Pretty Woman’ and said ‘That is such a ridiculous movie and we’re supposed to believe that Julia Roberts is a prostitute?’ […] and like ingredients of a soup we just throw it all in together and stir it up.”
