There's Something About Mary ( Tyler Moore , That Is )

The MTM Show was one of the only programs my pop would watch with us kids. Always a pleasure to hear him crack up at Ted Baxter!

 

It was a compromise for letting her wear capri pants.

 

Don't make me make the "Rosebud" crack...!

 

She was a master. Maybe she picked up some of her comedic cadences from Dick Van Dyke but when she had her own show she played her voice like Itzahk Perlman played the fiddle. One thing that bugged was the hemlines going down in the second season. I was around at the time and can say it warn't so!

 

Recently watched the complete
series of TMTMS, very enjoyable,
and a time-machine back to those
days.

 

The networks were so uptight in those days,I'm surprised they let em kiss.

 

The Petries have a son so they did something to let the stork in.

 

But the hospital gave them the wrong baby to take home.

 

That episode has to have one of the biggest audience laughs ever.

 

i did like her show. I also like her on the Dick van Dyke show. that man is truly incredible. he's got a "face" MTM and DVD made an excellent team

 

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..I thought they just got him from central casting!

 

I much prefer her face...

 

I think I mentioned here that I had a major crush on Mary on the DVD Show, and even on the MTM Show, but I slowly realized that though I still had a thing for her, Rhoda's personality was more my style for dating or just hanging-out purposes.

I was working on the CBS lot not long after MTM Enterprises was sold to TVS Entertainment, and the scuttlebutt was there was 25 to 35 million missing in action when the goods were finally delivered.

Don't know what was actually missing, all I know is TVS came up short.
I kinda heard that it was something tangible like maybe film or video masters, rights, or maybe the actual net worth was padded, if that's possible?

 

I watched that show too and remember being impressed with Katey Sagal at the time. One of the episodes referenced Positively 4th Street.

 

I also thought the 1985 Mary show had a lot of potential. It also had a good pedigree, with Ken Levine and David Isaacs - of Cheers and later Frasier - producing. Ken Levine has an excellent blog - kenlevine.blogspot.com - where he has mentioned that Mary was unhappy with and on the show and didn’t push for a renewal. Ken didn’t like working with her. At all.

On the original MTM show, Mary was made out to be the woman all the men wanted. But in reality, Valerie Harper’s Rhoda was the real beauty (only on TV could a beautiful woman like Harper play a character who was supposed to be man-hungry and not that attractive).

 

I talked to Ken about that in email and he said that he wanted to save all his recollections about working with Mary Tyler Moore for his book. What he has said on his blog was that the experience of working on the 1985 Mary show was so terrible that he and writing partner David Isaacs actually quit the business for a year or two to recover from the trauma, and he became a baseball announcer (which he loves) for awhile.

I've told this story before: I worked a little bit on the boxed DVD set of The Dick Van Dyke Show, and I was told that Mary was the most difficult person the "Making of" documentary crew had to deal with. She had to be paid, she had to have first-class accommodations, limo, and there were certain questions she would not answer. She also asked for special lighting and no close-ups, and was pretty difficult on set. Carl Reiner, Rose Marie, and Dick Van Dyke were extremely down-to-earth, fun, and reasonable, as was Larry Matthews ("Little Richie").

I worked on the original Valerie show and the later Hogan Family replacement, and Valerie Harper was a total pro, very nice, really good in the role, and extremely nice to her co-actors and the crew. It was only the producers she didn't get along with. I was sad to see her depart -- and she ultimately won her lawsuit against the producers.

 

It’s really a shame what happened with Valerie, but it was clearly a mismatch between lead actor, who was from the James L Brooks school of comedy, and producers, who cut their teeth on Happy Days. The first two seasons with Valerie were the best. Once the producers won total control of the show, it went started exclusively catering to the kids, and went downhill. And I believe they cost themselves a top 10 hit that would have had greater syndication value later on (it started moving into the top 10 in summer reruns shortly before Valerie was fired, and never ranked that highly again).

 

We have been binging the show and are already half way through Season Four. Its a very enjoyable series but man the inconsistencies in the show drive me crazy. I know it was a fun 70s sitcom and I should cut it some slack, but jeez its annoying. I mean Rhoda's apartment burns down and two episodes later its exactly the same as it was.

 

She could have been with the Man from Nazareth but she chose the Man From Memphis.

 

This is based on nothing but my gut feelings, ok? I never met her, knew her, I don't think I ever even read or saw an interview. She is most memorable to me for her role in ORdinary People. I get a very strong feeling each time I watch it that she didn't have to try very hard to portray that woman.

 

It's a song I either whistle or sing the first few bars at least once every couple of weeks or so. Catchy and brings me right back to that time.

 

It's funny, my Mother felt the exact same way when she saw Ordinary People.

 

She has a steely ici-ness that was apparent in the early episodes when Laura was higher strung and a tiny bit matronly. The character and Moore as an actress loosened up by the second season and she definitely held her own with the more seasoned vets like Amsterdam and Marie and Reiner. Mary Richards was less self-assured in the early years and actually came off younger than Laura Petrie would have been in the 70s. Funny that the charisma she showed on her TV shows never translated well to the big screen. Other than Ordinary People of course.