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

"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.

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.