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"?

Didn't feel ancient but timeless to me

I don't know. It's just stuck somewhere between "from another entire generation" and now, in the netherzone of "dated."

And it sort of is a "hangout comedy."

Never thought I'd see the number 2 film snob talk like this

wearing his sitcom-snob beanie

In the first season didn't they seem to be offering Murray Slaughter as the sexually ambiguous Queen Bitch of the newsroom (with the Ted zings) until his wife started appearing as a recurring character?

Mostly been watching seasons 2 and 3. He seems a little ambiguous still even after his wife shows up.

Mary goes out to lunch all. the. time.

Why does Mr Grant's office have no ceiling?? Are/were offices actually designed like that?

Usually just on soundstages.

Have you seen the one where Mary goes to jail for protecting a source? ("I never even had to stay after school!") Eric's right, it does feel ancient, these days she'd get prosecuted by the feds.

I've only got the S3 DVDs. Wish there was more Murray; what a queen.

Also I love how his wife's name is "Marie" since they already had another character named "Mary"

a comedian friend of mine used to do an impression of Gavin McLeod and Tony Curtis saying hi to each other. (They both had similar sandpapery, queeny vocal qualities, at least until Tony died.)

Swear I've heard Gilbert Gottfried do that routine.

maybe I'm confused and it was GG! It's a disorienting thing to get old.

I wouldn't put it past Gilbert to borrow someone else's material though.

I actually watched some of this one night. I'm a sucker for time travel movies even if they're really, really horrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRnUgDNPO2I

It was really, really horrible.

OMG! I take it all back. Ahead of its time.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/25331/the-mary-tyler-moore-show-my-brothers-keeper#x-0,episode,1,0

Also, 8:49

http://www.hulu.com/watch/25322/the-mary-tyler-moore-show-lous-place#x-0,vepisode,1,0

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

My Brother's Keeper is so great

Mr. Grant making everybody sing "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was hilarious.

Everyone knowing the words = dated.

Did anyone else know the words, apart from Mary and Rhoda who were somehow able to summon them up in order to avoid the wrath of Lou? In fact at that time most people probably wouldn't have known them, which was part of the joke you are missing, about how out of touch Lou was about what would have been fun for those people.

Me missing the joke = I'm not dated.

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

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

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."

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

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)

Valerie Harper has announced she has terminal brain cancer.

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.

very sad news

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.

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.

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

Ha, I'm the other way around.

E, you have your Sue Ann moments, honeybunch.

In short, I'm every woman but Mary.

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

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

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.

I want!!!!!!!!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

*Take off glasses, look concerned*

"Throws hat in air, freeze frames."

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Any thoughts on Rhoda, the series?

Only a few episodes in but it seems hard going.

I did not love the pilot

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

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.

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

Bosom Buddies

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

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.

Wasn't Phyllis worse?

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.

She had spiky hair.

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.

that poor show died a terrible death

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

Early on, very much so--he practically barks every other line in the first few episodes. It sounds like his own series continued the evolution of his character on MTM. I'm speaking from memory, but his sentimental side came to the fore more and more often as the series progressed. Don't recall that he ever crossed the line that Carroli O'Conner did, though (and I'm not sure if I'm remembering late All in the Family or his spinoff show), into an insipid shell of himself.

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.

Also famous in B-movie circles for his role in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Redd, Nancy Walker's other failed sitcom was called The Nancy Walker Show. (ran a half season, as did Blansky's Beauties which followed hard upon)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nancy_Walker_Show

I remember The Nancy Walker Show! I loved Sparky Marcus, he was one of my first crushes.

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

― Can One Hear the Shape of a Ron Decline Bottle? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, December 27, 2013 8:24 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the story is worse than that unfortunately.

On July 24, 1975, just three episodes into the TV series Phyllis, Colby and an acting colleague, James Kiernan, 35, were walking to their car following an acting class in Venice, Los Angeles, California, when they were shot inside a parking area. Colby was killed instantly; however, Kiernan was able to describe the shooters to police before he also succumbed to his wounds. Kiernan said that he did not recognize the two men who shot them, and that the shooting had occurred without warning, reason or provocation. Police noted that there was no attempt to rob the pair and concluded that it was a random drive-by shooting. The killers were never identified.[1]

Just watched Nancy Walker's debut on MTM. Sign of the times: right out of Woody Allen, but the word Jewish is never mentioned. Lou finally has a softer moment after threatening to fire Mary: "No...it's just a scare tactic."

the story is worse than that unfortunately.
Remembered this later but left it for someone else to correct didn't feel like bearing the bad news.

Paul Sand's brilliant as the tax auditor--first sustained bit of greatness in season one, I think (couldn't find a video clip).

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/data/725/MTM1anPaulSand.jpg

Just finished the book. Worth reading. The focus is more on Brooks, Burns, and all the female writers than MTM herself. Probably not a surprise that the show almost never got off the ground. The first thing CBS balked at was the idea of Mary coming off a divorce--that changed, of course--and even after giving the go-ahead for the first 13 episodes, they were basically waiting for the show to die.

I went back to season one, too. After the IRS episode I mentioned above, the next great one is the famous Christmas episode. Mostly for the sentiment, but Lou and the blank cheque was brilliant.

Wait for it: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117694/alex-trebek-last-king-american-middlebrow

All the seasons seem to have been repackaged and reissued at a cheaper price. I filled out the four seasons I didn't have for $8 each. I'm just not very diligent at watching them--still back where I was when I posted in January, just above.

Had to click on the link to see why I posted Trebek profile

“You got spunk. I hate spunk,” he told me one day,out of nowhere, then demanded to know if I could identify the source of the quote.

Nope.

He followed with another line, this one in a different, high-pitched voice: “Oh, Mr. Grant! ...”

Disappointment at my silence.

“Ed Asner as Lou Grant to Mary Tyler Moore.”

love this show so much but the version in syndication seems oddly hypersaturated (as in, with color). i mean the 70s could be gaudy but it just looks wrong. maybe i should buy the DVDs.

How will you freight it on your own … ?

http://i.imgur.com/MDS603E.jpg

This rig is awfully big, girl this lane you're all alone.

(many xposts ago...) Phyllis spinoff costarred Henry Jones, who left such a lasting impression on me in The Bad Seed as a kid that I couldn't stand seeing him in a sitcom.

https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=JN.Bl3YV1xIBajXTVg3NjhYtg&pid=15.1&P=0

I still have never seen The Bad Seed; before Phyllis, i'd seen HJ sell the bike to Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy, in Sipport Your Local Sheriff!, and i'm sure as guest judges or doctors on TV. Now I principally think of him in Vertigo and 3:10 to Yuma.

oh and the two Tashlin dillys in the '50s, Rock Hunter and The Girl Can't Help It... He was only about ten years older than Cloris Leachman, too.

Morbs, get yrself to Bad Seed asap. One of my alltime favorites, scared the crap out of me as a kid, amazingly campy as an adult.

i gen avoid camp (see also Mommie Dearest)

Aw, it's a way better movie than Mommie Dearest, though.

Shut the hell up.

^this is not his first time at the rodeo

http://www.pbs.org/program/mary-tyler-moore-celebration/

http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/john-amos-mary-tyler-moore-good-times.html

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihLJrcS8lsg

I haven't watched Dick Van Dyke since I was ten, probably, so this will alas hasten that vacuum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks0to2QuJtM

Was hoping I could find the ending of Season 1's Christmas episode, where Mary works late and Lou, Murray, and Ted come back to the station to surprise her. On the short list of most perfect Sappy Sitcom Moments ever. (Can't even find a still...)

fuck 2016

Hello I just recently started watching this for the first time and I love it SO much

Especially love Lou Grant & Rhoda but everyone is great & the characters are so well-defined right out of the gate

Shelley Berman as the hilarious weird dentist at the Better Luck Next Time divorcees club was a great touch.

I still have to resume season one from five years ago. In the interim, I've watched probably 15-20 Prestige Shows from the post-Sopranos era (including The Sopranos), maybe three or four of which I'd rank ahead of MTM. It's just a different dynamic--and maybe I take MTM for granted.

Someone I used to work with--someone I like a lot--just posted on Facebook about her "spunky" daughter's second birthday. It took every ounce of restraint not to reply with a certain famous MTM clip.

Believe that clip was often shown as part of the ad campaign before the show was even on the air.

And I see that five years ago I posted something upthread about Alex Trebek quoting that clip.

http://retrowatching.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/the-georgette-storu.jpg?w=300&h=226

Sweetest, most lovable character ever--in a way that didn't make you hate her. There was an episode I remember where she got really tough with Ted that was great.

RIP Valerie Harper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djvnArl1qcA

to watch later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5p65xzswoI

RIP.

To my great embarrassment, I’ve still never seen an episode of MTM. My main association with her is her 80s show that she had yanked away from her and rechristened as The Hogan Family after she asked for more money.

RIP.

Feel a bit guilty bringing this up now, but couldn't find mention upthread of one of Nancy Walker's most famous prior gigs, as the paper towel pushing diner lady.

I think that gig was contemporaneous with MTM.

To my great embarrassment, I’ve still never seen an episode of MTM.

I saw it in daytime reruns when I was a kid because my mom would watch it, but I dove in as an adult just starting last Sunday (it's on Hulu). I'm only about halfway through S1 now and VH passes away. Makes watching it a little more poignant for the time being.

Love Valerie so much, so sad to see her go ;_;

Especially now that I became a MTM fan late in life, seeing what effortless joy & comedy she brought to a show that was wall to wall effortless joy & comedy

And god was she beautiful <3

https://i.imgur.com/96KBFlF.gif

<3

anyone seen any other analytic pieces, esp on how Rhoda betrayed Rhoda?

https://themuse.jezebel.com/im-the-rhoda-1837795944

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

"One for My Baby"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIgmMr891BQ

We are up to Season 6 of MTM and wow Mary’s hair has really been on a journey lately

Last half of season 5 she had the medium-short permed blowout (long on top) that resembled my Mum’s hair - Mary’s got bigger and bigger until Mr Veg complained that it was her worst hair ever. then she went into a cut blown-out Dorothy Hamil pageboy bob that I really liked. But now we’re into a dead straight flat-ironed feathered bob that is maybe my least favorite so far, it’s like a dry equivalent of someone dumping a bucket of water over her head

Anything happening hair-wise with Murray? (I do remember there was a toupee episode.)

Same old same old

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

brilliant

i die laughing over this now *before* she even starts singing

I want to live inside the theme song.

otm

What uh selection were you planning to warble?

RIP, Murray Slaughter.

;_;

so sad. He was 90!

RIP Ed Asner <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jslAOzi_7sE

aww ed <3

What uh selection were you planning to warble?

Ha, should have quoted my screenname from then as well.

Betty White wins the MTMS tontine.

Gordy says hey

https://i.imgur.com/4LWEbiq.jpeg

gordy! :D

So he is! As is Marie Slaughter herself, Joyce Bulifant.

What uh selection were you planning to warble?

― Spiral "Scratch" Starecase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, November 1, 2020 9:04 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was in the neighborhood, visiting one of my favorite spas.

Watching season 6 now, which is very tight, despite Mary's disappointing new apartment.

And there's this bit from "Lou Douses an Old Flame": Despondent Lou tells Mary about receiving a Dear John letter from his sweetheart while he was serving on the front in WWII. This line that comes out of the blue...

Lou: That war cost me the woman I love, Mary, so don't try defending Hitler to me!

...followed by Mary's gobsmacked reaction... are SO SO good. I'm somewhat surprised it got past the censor in 1975.

I'm realizing now that the character of Lou Grant makes me laugh more than any of the others on this show.

You've got spunk.

Lou is the best <3

Mary has Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti on her record rack. Wouldn’t think that was her taste.

I continue to be fascinated by Mary Richards’ record collection, which becomes visible when she moves into a new apartment in season 6 and has a turntable and an album rack on display. One album cover can be seen on the rack at any given time.

I mentioned she has Physical Graffiti; she also has the Woodstock soundtrack. In season 7 I keep seeing a mysterious black & white album which turns out (thanks, internet) to be the back cover of A Slice of Cake by the ‘60s girl group The Cake. So random! There’s got to be a story there.

Debuts today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU5p79a7IgU

Will definitely watch that when and if I get access, but couldn't they come up with a better title? That Being... construction has been used to death by now. Something that plays on "spunk," a line or phrase from "Love Is All Around," something.

MTM: TMI would've been my suggestion

1976. pic.twitter.com/H38vWDDktP

— Kliph Nesteroff (@ClassicShowbiz) May 22, 2023

God, that two seconds of her dancing around the 45-second mark--so incredibly seductive.

Really enjoyed the documentary, the home-shot footage of people speaking at her drunken bridal shower in the 80s was especially touching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JFF64tPf5M
The hat store thing is pretty funny

This is near the end:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYvgHCvFjMc

Does anyone like season 7 of MTM? I find it too sentimental and a little too formulaic in terms of character… like we GET that Sue Ann is horny, Murray is snarky, and Ted is dumb… why are you beating us over the head with this? The show ended when it should have imo, if not a season too late

you do understand how sitcoms work, right. archetypes are like, half the point.

anyway yes i enjoyed season 7 a lot and I didn’t want the show to end

Yeahhhhh… but then when Ted is suddenly (out of character)… enjoying the sunset…. And then everyone else has to enjoy the sunset too… that’s sickly sweet to me

Like I wish for once Sue Ann could enter without making a horny comment. Is that too much to ask? I want her to be a little more multi dimensional

I felt the same and stopped watching a bit earlier on.

i can understand that totally … but imo it’s also a modern viewpoint that is kinda lost in the context of the show in its time. you kinda have to meet the show where it is

i dunno

for me personally the joy of the show lives ~within~ the confines of the characters, it’s the performances of the actors that keeps me coming back no matter what

like those scripts on paper is like 25% of what each episode ends up being. all the way through, right to the end, they can still delight me.

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.