Billy Gardell Says Melissa McCarthy Taught Him How to 'Trust' During Mike & Molly's Romantic Scenes (Exclusive)

Looking back on his time as star of Mike & Molly, Billy Gardell praises Melissa McCarthy for being an on-screen partner he could trust — not just for achieving laughs, but for romantic moments too.

“The funny is easy, but when you have to play a romantic moment or a sad moment, you have to really trust your partner's going to be there for you,” he tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I learned from Melissa to trust and be able to do those romantic scenes, which I didn't think I would be able to do. But because of the trust level with her, she made it safe to do that.”

The Emmy-winning sitcom, which ran for six seasons from 2010 to 2016, made Gardell and McCarthy stars. While McCarthy, 53, has gone on to a successful film and TV career, Gardell found success once more starring in the CBS sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola, which is in its fifth and final season.

“The idea that I got back-to-back sitcoms is just staggering,” says the actor, 54. “I mean, you should rub me for luck.”

For Gardell, the road to Hollywood wasn’t a quick and easy one.

One of three kids, Gardell spent his early childhood growing up in Pittsburgh. In high school he moved to Florida with his mother and siblings after the 1978 divorce of his parents.

He says of his father William, who died at age 75 of lung cancer in 2018: "I got my humor from my dad and my guts from my mother [Linda]. She was the hardest-working person I know," he recalls.

Gardell started working after school at age 15 to help pay the bills. A janitorial job at a local comedy club led to a couple of open mic performances and his first official standup gig in 1987.

"I did five minutes and was really funny, and then I just sucked for two years, but the bug was in me," he says.

He spent the next nine years on the road performing ("If it had a corner and a 2-ft. stage, we were on it") before moving to L.A., where his slow-burn standup success and appearances on smaller shows like Yes, Dear led to Mike & Molly, playing one half of a couple who meet at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.

After landing Mike & Molly, everything changed. “Man, that was a once-a-lifetime meteor. … That cast lifted me to a height that I didn’t know I was capable of,” he explains. "I've been very, very lucky for the people who have spotted me and said, 'You know what? I think there might be something there.'"

And beyond the lights of Hollywood, one of those people is his wife of 23 years Patty, with whom he shares 23-year-old son William and whom he calls “the reason I’m a decent human being."

“My wife always says marriage isn’t a ‘give and a take.’ It’s a ‘give and a give,’” he explains. “That’s why I think we’ve lasted.”

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Bob Hearts Abishola airs Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS.