The Mary Tyler Moore Show Thread (Love Is All Around)

Because this show doesn't seem to have a stand alone thread.

First, some Season One Theme Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiW3pyMdp3w

Now, an introductory lecture from The Ted Baxter's Famous Broadcasters School
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqkJmy8ygig

Remember a clip from this running in the promos before the show was actually on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNyj4FV56JY

The surprise birthday bash Mary threw for Lou, where he locked all the guests out until their individual entry was negotiated, might've been the best of Mary's Awful Parties episodes.

Forgot about that.

The reason I was moved to start this thread was that there is one episode where Mary sings a song really amateurishly in Mr. Grant's office which I was reminded of watching clip LDR on SNL. Don't know if I'll find it on youtube though.

A few years ago, for the media component we have to include as part of language arts, I had my grade 7 students compare The Mary Tyler Moore Show to the old Dick Van Dyke Show to Seinfeld. They watched three or four episodes of each, took some notes, and wrote a two-page comparison. It became a running joke when Mary's credit sequence ran where I'd pause at the 41-second mark, sigh, and then hit play again.

Mary sings a song really amateurishly in Mr. Grant's office

"One for My Baby"

grew up on this show, nick at nite. i now own the dvd's.

great times.

and my teddy bear's name is baxter btw

not to mention sue ann!

I forget the exact context--Sue Ann was depressed over something, and everyone went to her apartment for some kind of intervention--but I loved the scene where you got to see Sue Ann's bedroom for the first time, with the vibrating (or maybe rotating) bed and the ceiling mirror.

Thanks, Morbs, that was it!

Are these worth owning on DVD or is the image too shot at this point?

I love this show and The Dick Van Dyke Show so much I had to buy the DVDs.

As a kid I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Lars. Rhoda looked like a lot of my mom's friends. I'll never get over the colors in her apt though...hot pink and orange? Ouch!

lol at Lars. Always wonder what happened to Lisa Gerritsen, who was really good as Phyllis's daughter Beth, and also appeared with William Windom in My World and Welcome To It, a show based on the work of James Thurber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LmYZb6PdAf4#!

Try again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmYZb6PdAf4

phyllis - that episode she won the emmy for. soo good. i think it's the 1 she thought lars was cheating on her.

Forgot about that. Still haven't found seen Lisa Gerritsen in that video yet, although her name is in the titles. Did see Lee Meriwether though. That makes two people on that show who made memorable appearances on Star Trek:TOS. Want to say but that wasn't Lisa Gerritsen but Pamelyn "Edna Unger" Ferdin who was one of the children enthralled by the evil alien played by Melvin Belli.

Meanwhile:
http://www.mtmshow.com/castremcast.html

Arrgh not Beth, Bess.

Not a Star Trek fan, but the Melvin Belli episode gets mentioned in Zodiac.

Typed in Lisa Gerritsen's name and got this (first two minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8qrVdfriTs

Ingmar Bergman jokes!

ugh mar was so perfect tho

Thanks, clemenza. Her is a really great episode in which Lou Grant babysits Bess:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/15895/the-mary-tyler-moore-show-baby-sit-com

When the show was first on, the little logical Vulcan inside me often wondered why Mary would even be friends with Phyllis, so pretentious and so dismissive of her other friend Rhoda, but after being around humans so long I don't ask anymore.

well mary's perfection was in part her ability to be open to many different kinds of people

Indeed. And without being two-faced about it or talking out'n both sides of her mouth.

I've got to say a word here for Gord-o. That nickname's stuck with me forever; all Gords and Gordons are Gord-os to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbQ5rqcic3M

isn't a lot of canned laughter taken from the studio recordings of the MTM show? i'm sure i read that on ilx actually one time.

Baby Sit-Com episode not as funny as I remembered, but still liked the interaction between Bess and Mr. Grant and plenty of other stuff.

Back before it all went topsy-turvy, I used to have this overly simplistic pop-psychology theory that in general, films were about having growing up, having an adventure and separating from your family, whereas television shows were about staying put, dealing with your family, warts-on-all, even if it wasn't actually a real family but a stand-in metaphor for the family made up of co-workers and neighbors, and watching this show again reminds me of why I thought that (Though I'm waiting for, say, Alfred, to come on thread to give a million counterexamples and say sentence one does not imply sentence two which makes no sense anyway)

Hmmmmm I never noticed that but yes...that is how it was.

Thanks.

Watching Episode 1 on hulu right now. I guess they are all there and you can just watch them in sequence, although I suppose everybody knew this already.

The first interaction between Mary and Rhoda is a meet-cute variation.

OK, watched the first three eps one after the other. All keepers

Ted Baxter is one of those characters where just seeing him walk onscreen makes me lose my shit

"It all started at a small 500-watt radio station in Fresno, California...."

River: I agree....

"It all started at a small 500-watt radio station in Fresno, California…."

My dad says this on the golf course, warming up before a shot. I'm pretty sure he knows it's not from Caddyshack, but who knows.

I don't remember that - is that Ted's Rags to Riches/Born in a Trunk origin story?

Never get tired of that four note Motown Andrew "Mike" Terry-style baritone sax at the very beginning of the theme music.

I think my favourite Ted Baxter exchange was an episode where he'd broken up with Georgette--something bad had happened, anyway.

Mary: I know just how you feel.
Ted: No you don't.
Mary: I do, Ted.
Ted: Look, Mary, whenever something bad happens, people always say "I know just how you feel," but they never do. I say it all the time, and I haven't got a clue.

That's good.

Hulu has the first three seasons. Didn't remember the hand percussion on the theme music.

only three notes on the bari

Starting to think Tony Soprano borrowed heavily from this credit sequence for his own.

yes on the Ted speech, Blecch

happy birthday betty!

"We're back at election headquarters, where it's still Turner 85, Mitchell 23"

MTM receiving a lifetime SAG award. She's also tripping over her dogs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/arts/television/mary-tyler-moore-to-receive-screen-actors-guild-award.html

That was great, thanks for the link. Mrs. Redd sent it to me yesterday but I didn't get around to reading it until now.

Guess I've gotta watch "Chuckles the Clown" episode again one day, though I still feel like it may be overrated while the Stretch Cunningham funeral episode of AiTF doesn't get enough love.

the twist was Stretch was Jewish, right?

Love that Chuckles the Clown episode....

Yes. (xp)

This thread got me to watch some episodes of MTM for the first time since the early '90s or whenever it was on Nick @ Nite.

This show feels downright ancient! And not just because the linking shots show the IDS still being built.

I hate to ask, but how else does it "feel ancient"? Like, it's not a "hangout comedy"?

Probably shouldn’t go there, but never know how I should feel about what I consider to be the Dirty Old Lady character on a show. Is it a healthy expression of something or is it too much?

Alright I can pretty much get with that, I don’t think our opinions are so far apart here. I’m laughing a lot at s7 of MTM, but I’m also watching the contemporaneous s5 of The Bob Newhart Show and I think that wins in terms of overall LOLs. Both shows get a little far fetched at this point in time. And I love ‘Bewitched’ and ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ so realism shouldn’t matter, but Mary and Bob both started on a more down to earth tip so I view them differently

xp for me

fair enough!

xpost to james

idk - personally i think the point of Sue Ellen IS that she’s too much, because it’s an intentional counterpoint to her inshow tv persona as the perfect housewife

I don't remember S7 specifically; Sue Ann used to kill me.

One thing I didn't like about classic-era sitcoms...maybe it was primarily a '70s thing, and I don't know if it happened on MTM...was when a certain chuminess set in between audience and cast, and a character's mere appearance triggered the audience to start howling with adoring applause. Happy Days was the worst offender. I remember it even started happening on Seinfeld with Kramer in the second or third season, and they were smart enough to stop that immediately.

OMG, hated that chumminess. Feel like Cheers was a big offender.

(xp) Oh, good point!

Back to the doc. Watched about a half hour. So far really good. Hadn’t known about Nanette Fabray influence or Lucy passing the torch.

Yeah, Cheers had it bad. So not a '70s thing.

David Susskind is an ass.

But Mary holds her own very well.

omg hard agree

why even have a guest if you’re just going to blow up their spot with your bombast bleh

Just remembered for the first time in ages seeing Morey Amsterdam in an airport when I was a kid.

Details please

Not much to say. We were seeing off some relatives and people started making a bit of a stir about seeing him sitting near the next gate. We went and approached him and he signed the back of some second grade Scholastic Book Club book of my sister’s. I don’t remember if he even said a word to us, he certainly didn’t smile, his expression was of a kind of classic comedian’s face which makes one think “is he depressed or just off duty?” He was wearing a tan trenchcoat.

Glad the doc mentions That Girl, which I often think of as a comparable but lesser show. A quick search reveals that the creators has also worked on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I knew better than the other kids in the airport who thought Morey was going to be trying to crack us up that early in the morning but was still a bit surprised by his somber mood.

Ha! I'm sorry that encounter was so underwhelming. So you kind of knew who he was and he didn't really deliver. I've been there.

Seems like that happens more often than not. But usually there is some kind of negative experience that is ultimately a story to tell, as with Jonathan Richman and Alex Chilton rather than this kind of “maybe the guy was still hungover that early in the morning to give us anything” sort of deal.

What is Joel Grey doing here?

Maybe he was a friend.

Along with Bernadette Peters.

Anyway this doc really hit the spot.

Also was reminding me of seeing Penélope Cruz dancing in a recent movie and reading how she also started out with dance.

Painful to ponder, but I was wondering how her alcoholism mixed with her diabetes and then read about her blindness.

that is really sad! watched the doc, my favorite thing was seeing her play with her dog

my mom has a great story about trying on a dress at some dept store. suddenly, MTM appears and tells her the dress looks *fantastic* on her and she should buy it. so she bought it even though she hated it, and it's just sat in her closet unworn ever since.

i once saw her at of Giggles, of all places (unglamorous but popular after work hangout on w40th st, now closed). she was with a big party and i didn't approach her.

Just watched this again, which has come and gone in previous embeds on the thread and also reminds me of Morbius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_XquQO_kHg

the funniest ever, cracks me up every time

It's kind of the epitome of the kind of thing she does best, radiating embarrassment. In a way she is somehow aligned with Andy Kaufman. Maybe that's why Dick Van Dyke worked so well with both of them.

70s talk on other thread reminded me of this one which started me thinking about an interesting fact I learned from the documentary, which was that Mary originally had negotiated creative control right of refusal of the roles she was offered, but gave that up as part of a deal when she wanted to do a Broadway show, which is why she ended up in stuff such as A Change of Habit with Elvis.

Which play was a musical entitled Holly Golightly and then Breakfast at Tiffany's before Merrick pulled the plug.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEyQ0JypP8E

We’ve been watching S1 of this show… I had never seen it, but I’m obv aware of its rep. You can sure see how later shows are directly in its bloodline, particularly ones set in broadcasting (like Murphy Brown and NewsRadio).

The jokes aren’t quite at a consistent level (yet – I know this is still early), and scenes sometimes end abruptly, in a weird way; but the characters are great and there are some genuine laughs. Ed Asner is just terrific!

The conceit that Rhoda is supposed to be Mary’s “dumpy, frumpy” friend is, uh, pretty funny (if you look at Valerie Harper). She’s also one of the best parts of the show… will have to watch the spinoff, when we get there. (Has any other sitcom had three (3) spin-offs? there must’ve been at least one, right?)

No disrespect to Cloris Leachman (who is cool), but I don’t think we’ll be checking out Phyllis… that character is a drag! (Leachman looks great, though… she’s 10 years older than MTM, but you wouldn’t know it.)

On that note, looking up these actors on Wikipedia, you’re hit by that thing where people “aged differently” back then. Ted Knight is basically my age here(!!) And Asner is like 41, but looks 15 years older.

Has any other sitcom had three (3) spin-offs? there must’ve been at least one, right?

All in the Family had, I believe, something like six or seven, but some of those were spinoffs from spinoffs

Think Phyllis is paired with Beth to soften the blow.

We’ve had this discussion on other threads, about how old the drinking, smoking and bad food made people age faster back in the day, maybe it was in reference to The Wild Bunch.

Think Phyllis is paired with Beth to soften the blow.

We’ve had this discussion on other threads, about how old the drinking, smoking and bad food made people age faster back in the day, maybe it was in reference to The Wild Bunch.

Sorry, some wormhole anomaly caused a bifurcation.

Starts here: The Wild Bunch Poll
Bonus points for Morbs appearances on his flapjack weekend.

re: spinoffs, Happy Days had Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Joanie Loves Chachi, and a bunch more less successful ones

I acknowledge that if I had a head of white hair like Ted Knight did, I would look older (…it is more than that, though).

On the other hand, he sort of still looked the same in the ‘80s… he’s one of those guys who grew into a certain “look” early, and then maintained it.

(Thx, I forgot about Happy Days)

Yeah, Ted Knight and Leslie Nielsen both had that "look" achieved by, seemingly, age 38

👍

It’s interesting how (at least in this first season) the office setting is used fairly sparingly. Most episodes are random stories about Mary—her apartment is robbed; she gets her tonsils out; etc. I get she’s the focus of the show, but I was expecting more office politics!

the fascinating life of the single woman!

i love the apartment stuff, better still the crossovers when work colleagues come over to her apartment etc

Ted Knight’s character is so fuckin weird, I love it…

I haven't seen this show since it showed on Nick at Nite, and though that hardly counts since I was about 12 and probably didn't grasp most of the situations. I started re-watching one a week with the 50th anniversary of the premiere, up to season 4 now. It's been fun watching the show's fashions move decisively into the 70s with this 1973 season. I don't think Rhoda has worn scarves for a bit now, it's all jackets and pantsuits. Also a relief that they let Moore ditch the wigs she had for the first few seasons.

Whenever I watch 60/70s TV, I too always try to guess how old the actors are based on how they look, and am usually surprised when I find out how much younger they are than my guess.

A fun history of the show came out a few years ago called Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, which I recommend.

My partner also remains skeptical that Murray is meant to be a straight dude.

^right? that's a funny vibe.

I didn't realize he was (later) the Love Boat captain, until my wife pointed it out...

yeah the book is so good! great backstory on writer Treva Silverman for example

Oh yeah, really liked that book.

Ditto.