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

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funny how things that are 40 years old address the collective experiences of 40 years ago, eh

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 February 2012 19:38 (twelve years ago) link

(see if I'd said 50 that'd be easy zing pickins)

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 February 2012 19:39 (twelve years ago) link

There's also an episode that relies heavily on Ted trying to tell a joke punning on the lyrics of, um, "The Darktown Strutter's Ball."

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 February 2012 19:41 (twelve years ago) link

I'm not being serious. I am, after all, a MST3K superfan.

dead-trius (Eric H.), Monday, 27 February 2012 19:49 (twelve years ago) link

knock knock

who's there?

Anna Maria Alberghetti

Anna Maria Alberghetti who?

(sings) Anna Maria Alberghetti in a taxi, honey....

(jeez you have to have heard of A.M.A. too)

Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 February 2012 19:54 (twelve years ago) link

one year passes...

Valerie Harper has announced she has terminal brain cancer.

Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 March 2013 13:59 (eleven years ago) link

Poor Rhoda, she was my favorite.

I miss the MTM show being on Nick at Nite every night, it used to be a way for me to help unwind when I couldn't sleep.

Ulna (Nicole), Thursday, 7 March 2013 14:17 (eleven years ago) link

very sad news

"Bellini." (DJP), Thursday, 7 March 2013 14:18 (eleven years ago) link

The fun in being married to a foreigner is having a 30-minute conversation, as we did the other night, on the transition from "Valerie" to "The Hogan Family" - was it the end of Harper's career, is there a parallel world where Kirk Cameron is the star of Arrested Development, Do we have Harper to blame for eight years of "Coach", who is Sandy Duncan and what are Wheat Thins.

pplains, Thursday, 7 March 2013 15:29 (eleven years ago) link

one month passes...

Still coming back to this one in two- or three-episode bursts.

"Dated" works great when you're in the mood for a fast nostalgia binge ... only in my case, it's making me nostalgic for the early '90s, when I was a preteen watching this show on Nick at Nite and getting nostalgic for the Minneapolis that existed for the decade leading up to my birth, never realizing I'd one day work at a TV station in downtown Minneapolis. Tangled webs, et al.

cacao nibs (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 May 2013 15:04 (eleven years ago) link

Wish I could be more like Phyllis; pretty sure I come off more like Rhoda.

cacao nibs (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 May 2013 15:06 (eleven years ago) link

Ha, I'm the other way around.

pplains, Thursday, 2 May 2013 15:11 (eleven years ago) link

E, you have your Sue Ann moments, honeybunch.

Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 May 2013 15:19 (eleven years ago) link

In short, I'm every woman but Mary.

cacao nibs (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 May 2013 15:21 (eleven years ago) link

lol, what's on 3rd St these days?

The '90s is on 4th Street, actually.

cacao nibs (Eric H.), Thursday, 2 May 2013 15:26 (eleven years ago) link

three months pass...

Saw this in a book store today:

http://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/cvr9781451659207_9781451659207_lg.jpg

Love the cover, of course. Will buy and read eventually.

clemenza, Monday, 5 August 2013 02:11 (eleven years ago) link

I want!!!!!!!!!

*tera, Monday, 5 August 2013 02:59 (eleven years ago) link

I flipped through it briefly and it looked solid--not a scrapbook-type thing, but an actual book. Came out in May, but I've heard anything about it. I look at that excellent cover, and it's one of those books that seems so obvious, I can't believe it hasn't been done till now.

clemenza, Monday, 5 August 2013 03:38 (eleven years ago) link

Just to quibble a bit, Rhoda's stay on the show didn't last long the way I remember it (ditto Phyllis)--Murray was obviously much more integral (even if you didn't care for him), and for me, Sue-Anne and even Georgette eclipsed Rhoda in the end.

clemenza, Monday, 5 August 2013 03:43 (eleven years ago) link

four months pass...

Just watched the episode where Mary has to work the Christmas late nite shift. It's really tender and alleviates the holiday sads a little.

mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 03:28 (ten years ago) link

Man, I feel lucky that in all my years working in TV news, I've only had to work one single Christmas Eve night shift.

Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 07:01 (ten years ago) link

You can have the night off, why don't you take it

queen bey backers (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 12:08 (ten years ago) link

*Take off glasses, look concerned*

The Cantor Dust Brothers (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 December 2013 20:48 (ten years ago) link

"Throws hat in air, freeze frames."

nickn, Wednesday, 25 December 2013 00:36 (ten years ago) link

Just read the first half of that book clemenza posted. Pretty good. Plenty of good stuff I didn't know perhaps will post some later.

The Cantor Dust Brothers (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 December 2013 01:59 (ten years ago) link

In The Betty White Show, she would play a character named Joyce Whitman, a TV actress who has to work with her ex-husband as the director of her new show. Georgia Engel would play Joyce’s best friend. White had watched Star Trek from its beginning in 1966, often to her husband’s chagrin, so she pitched the idea of Joyce’s series being a space show. It would not only provide two contrasting worlds for Joyce, but it would also be hilarious, she thought.

The Cantor Dust Brothers (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 December 2013 04:46 (ten years ago) link

OK, definitely recommend that book to clemenza and others. A few things I learned, which maybe you all knew already

Ed Asner nearly didn't get the job because he gave a too-angry reading of "I hate spunk" during his audition.

Gavin MacLeod originally read for Lou but turned around as he had his hand on the doorknob to leave and asked to read for Murray.

Creators Brooks and Burns prior show was Room 222. Before that Allan Burns' biggest show was perennial gag-line My Mother The Car , which was where he gave James L. Brooks his first break into TV writing.

Guy who directed the famous credit sequence also did the same for the Hawaii Five-O and Get Smart among others.

The Cantor Dust Brothers (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 December 2013 17:23 (ten years ago) link

Your revive reminded me that this was out there, so I ordered a copy from Amazon yesterday. Love the episode LL mentioned above.

clemenza, Thursday, 26 December 2013 01:54 (ten years ago) link

Just watched the episode where Mary has to work the Christmas late nite shift. It's really tender and alleviates the holiday sads a little.

Watched the election returns snowstorm one a few times which is also a good one to watch around this time of year.

Can One Hear the Shape of a Ron Decline Bottle? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 26 December 2013 04:19 (ten years ago) link

Any thoughts on Rhoda, the series?

Only a few episodes in but it seems hard going.

mohel hell (Bob Six), Friday, 27 December 2013 12:20 (ten years ago) link

I did not love the pilot

queen bey backers (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 27 December 2013 12:27 (ten years ago) link

That's Valerie Harper's whole career right there. She kept trying to be a lead, but she's really just a support.

Johnny Fever, Friday, 27 December 2013 12:28 (ten years ago) link

then they married Rhoda off outta desperation. still think of Julie Kavner as Brenda rather than Marge tho.

and Nancy Walker got TWO leads in a sitcom after that.

eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Friday, 27 December 2013 14:15 (ten years ago) link

One was Blansky's Beauties, iirc. What was the other?

Bosom Buddies

Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Friday, 27 December 2013 15:22 (ten years ago) link

never ever ever think about the theme song for "valerie's family/valerie" or you will not get it out of your head for daaaaaaays possibly weeks

to cleanse your brain immediately
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50k-dCwV6SU

mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:10 (ten years ago) link

I could never get into Rhoda either. I liked the set dressing, clothes, etc but the stories were boring, or I didn't understand them bc I was a kid.

mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:14 (ten years ago) link

Wasn't Phyllis worse?

Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:22 (ten years ago) link

Phyllis was cursed. Lady who was playing her boss died in some kind of car crash, had to be replaced in third episode.

Ha, probably. I don't think I watched that one at all. By the time I knew Cloris Leachman, she was Beverly Anne on Facts of Life and I was just like ok who is this lady now? She was such a weird character.

mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:26 (ten years ago) link

She had spiky hair.

Alfre, Lord Woodard (Eric H.), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:31 (ten years ago) link

She was quasi den mother for adult women/store owner/adoptive mother of a cute blonde boy who appeared to have come out of nowhere.

mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:36 (ten years ago) link

that poor show died a terrible death

mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:37 (ten years ago) link

anyway, phyllis!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8--8V7bVeI

mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:43 (ten years ago) link

I may be jumping the shark here, but Phyllis gives out a strong TS vibe to me.

mohel hell (Bob Six), Friday, 27 December 2013 16:49 (ten years ago) link

Book showed up a few days ago, will get to it soon. Also found the third season on sale, so I resumed watching the first season, which I bought many years ago (along with the second) but put aside after the first episode. In the second episode, I recognized the office gopher who remarks on Mary's age but couldn't place him; it's David Hayward, the assassin in Nashville. John Schuck's hard to take for most of his episode, but by the end, the story comes together nicely.

clemenza, Wednesday, 1 January 2014 17:58 (ten years ago) link

When I recently rewatched the Xmas Eve episode learned that the familiar-looking actor who played the character Mary subbed for, Fred, was a guy named Ned Wertimer who was best known for playing the doorman on The Jeffersons.

Can One Hear the Shape of a Ron Decline Bottle? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 1 January 2014 18:58 (ten years ago) link

i am watching LOU GRANT

i don't know why there's not a thread for it, it seems p. good

he seems like such a weird character, i can't quite get a bead on what sort of masculinity he's supposed to have. but then i've never watched much late-70s tv.

j., Wednesday, 1 January 2014 19:04 (ten years ago) link

The famous spunk scene notwithstanding, he's really conceived very broadly (gruff, gruff, and gruffer) the first few MTM episodes. One of those sitcom characters who got better and more shaded with time. (Never watched his own show, so I can't speak to that.)

clemenza, Wednesday, 1 January 2014 19:07 (ten years ago) link

well, he's in a position of authority, and when he exercises it he usually sounds kind of the way he stereotypically looks - decisive boss, long experience of work. etc. (which they underscore w/ the early backstory: a varied career, time in different cities - detroit as well as minneapolis, no problem with picking up and transferring to l.a. for a job), seen many things as a journalist - but that's blended in with i guess some career uncertainty (having just been fired from a long-term tv job, not confident about being able to handle the city desk job he didn't even know he was applying for) and different sorts of timidity w.r.t. the other editorial staff (lots of editorial meetings, hashing out what goes in the day's edition) and the publisher nancy marchand (of a different sort, since she's rich and imperious and everyone's afraid around her). but then despite some standard mid-century middle-american manhood signifiers (eats lots of cheeseburgers, red meat, thinks tacos are weird, but will wolf them down once they taste good; p. chauvinistic despite some well-intentioned instances of fairmindedness), he's all bashful and incompetent with women outside of a work context. also a strange but endearing tendency to walk into getting sonned by those around him and then doubling down on owning up to embarrassments / blunders / shortcomings out of some kind of integrity / honesty that goes beyond the sort which is a point of principle for the journalists around him.

like, what's the good counterpart of a schlub called?

whereas yeah from what i know of MTM and had picked up before, from wherever, i just thought of him as like a cigar-chomper.

j., Wednesday, 1 January 2014 20:10 (ten years ago) link


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