Mary Tyler Moore Show Promo

Asner is really creepy and inappropriate with her in this version.

It's excellent. Thanks, Op. Makes me want to get the old DVDs out.

[quote]Asner is really creepy and inappropriate with her in this version.

They changed it?

Mary had such weird Jacquelynn Susann hair back then.

Was that the original layout of his office? His desk is in the "wrong" place. (Agreed, R2, now I want to watch my DVDs.)

I only have season 1 on DVD - in which season did the show really heat up?

I think this is just the scene redone for a promo for affiliates.

The orchestration/arrangement of the theme song is somewhat different as well.

It's a good little scene. It looks like theater. A two hander.

Lou Grant is a two hander...and I speak from experience!

Everybody please come in!

What's a two hander?

It’s Lars Lindstrom on my left and Lou Grant on my right, r12.

When he said “You’ve got spunk”, she should have said “That’s actually the answer to why I haven’t been married; lots of spunk but no marriage proposal.”

The whole scene plays like a "Me-Too" moment waiting to happen.

I found it very disturbing.

I grew up in England. They only ran this once as far as I can remember, so it's really not the much loved iconic show to me it is to Americans. I saw re-runs in the 80s in NYC and thought it was cute. BUT I just streamed, which was apparently the best of the best episode, Season 6, Ep. 7 "Chuckles Bites the Dust".

and I thought it was very lame. The humour was rather infantile. I was expecting a lot better. WAY better.

and by 1976, cute 1970 Mary had been replaced by a very frau middle-aged Mary, by the look of things. She really aged in a very short time. I thought the whole premise was this cute rather innocent woman being taken advantage of. It doesn't ring true to the dowdy old frump she became.

[quote]The whole scene plays like a "Me-Too" moment waiting to happen. I found it very disturbing.

Yes. How old are you? What's your religion? Why did you never marry? It's illegal for me to ask this? What are you gonna do, call the cops?

R16, The chuckles episode is often noted as one of the best, it really is not representative and there are a far better episodes available for viewing

R16 is that cunt, Joanne Forbes.

Could you recommend one, R18?

I'm glad they re-staged the scene before airing it, the dialogue seems the same but the set and the blocking is very different

The blocking gave it a #metoo ickiness that isn’t nearly as strong in the actual first episode, which comes off as more typical of a woman’s job interview fifty years ago. Ed Asner isn’t so close - or physically aggressive.

Hot scene!

R20, here are some personal favorites (it was fun looking over the lists, now i want to rewatch a few...!)

Season 1: "Today I am a Ma'am" (episode 2)

Season 2: "The Square-Shaped Room" (episode 13)

Season 3: "Farmer Ted and the News" (episode 9 but this season has many top episodes, including "Rhoda the Beautiful" (#6) and "My Brother's Keeper" (#17))

Season 4: "The Lars Affair" (Episode 1) Also, "Lou's First Date" (#8) (my very favorite)

Season 5: "Menage-a-Phyllis" (episode 8)

Season 6: "Mary's Delinquent" (episode 8)

Season 7: "Murray Ghosts for Ted" (episode 20)

As a child I watched this show with my mother right from the first season and found this to be completely fascinating. Looks like an early run through — maybe part of a pilot made for the cbs management but never aired?

They changed the office (lou’s desk moved over to camera left), and their read of the scene was made less confrontational in tone. And of course the s1 theme was improved a bit. (S1’s theme was always my favorite.)

Loved Mary getting on that old bus from the house! Thanks OP this is a treasure.

[quote] and I thought it was very lame. The humour was rather infantile. I was expecting a lot better. WAY better.

I guess it’s just a matter of national humors being different. I had a friend who worked in my office (long since left) from the UK and he was constantly going on about how the two ronnies was the funniest thing ever on tv, especially the fork handles sketch. We watched it together one day and I politely laughed but it wasn’t at all what I’d expected.

Thank you, R24.

& out of all of those which is your number one? 🔝

[quote]I guess it’s just a matter of national humors being different.

Usually I get American humo(u)r perfectly well. Much more than British. I just think a lot of the love for this is the nostalgia aspect. I also think the great theme tune helps and the cute intro. It's adorable. It's better than the show that follows.

Mary had a LOT of coats for a working gal. Suspicious outlay of cash.

Lou's First Date, because it combines the best of humor, outrageousness and heart. The script is top-rate and the cast carries it off with grace and class but never losing sight of the really funny premise of Lou's reaction to his unexpected date and how it may appear to those around him.

(Sorry so vague but if you haven't seen it yet, the surprises are worth avoiding spoilers for.)

I’m American, r27, but agree with you completely. The show is a warm fuzzy memory for me but if I watch it now I find it dated and not particularly funny. The theme song, though, instantly transports me to to a simpler, happier time.

[quote]and by 1976, cute 1970 Mary had been replaced by a very frau middle-aged Mary, by the look of things. She really aged in a very short time. I thought the whole premise was this cute rather innocent woman being taken advantage of. It doesn't ring true to the dowdy old frump she became.

r16, you really had to watch the show in the context of the times. Women were moving from being secretaries in the workplace and trying to branch out and show they could do more. I think Mary's arc during the show was reflecting that. They were attempting to take her from wide-eyed "Gee, Mr. Grant" to a woman who would be taken more seriously. By the mid-1970s, Normal Lear had set the tone and all sitcoms had to be more serious. Gone were the days of clown Lucille Ball. Sitcoms had to have a message.

And if you look at the sitcom Alice, it's exactly the same premise as the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Wide-eyed woman enters new world and interacts with a gruff boss and an array of sidekicks. Ted Baxter becomes Vera, Rhoda becomes Flo.

How can this be a porno? She keeps her clothes on.

r30

Probably doesn't like Stevie as well

[quote] She really aged in a very short time.

I agree. Mary (the actress) was diabetic and alcoholic and, I suspect, anorexic. On top of all that, the hairstyles they gave her were atrocious.

MTM...best show ever on television.

R30 was speaking of The Two Ronnies as a show that is dated and not particularly funny

OMG!! "People who need lawyers most desperately because they're ignorant or poor or black or lost..."

This came up on my feed after OP's Mary clip.

Chuckles Bites The Dust is funny, but different than most of the rest of the series.

It's definitely a little more slapstick than normal - and really leans into gallows humor for laughs.

Mary's reactions are what really sell it.

MTM was the best ever. There were so many funny, memorable episodes. The acting and writing were outstanding for the entire run. I am the number one fan of MTM, but even I have to admit that the Chuckles the Clown episode was nowhere near the funniest. Humorous, silly, sure, bust certainly not the best my any means.

Mary wore a wig in Season 1.

R16 Was Mary wearing a wig there?

That promo said the MTM show would air on Tuesdays.

Network obviously changed its mind before the September debut because MTM always aired on Saturday nights.

It was [italic]All in the Family[/italic] that started on Tuesdays before joining MTM on Saturdays after beating it for the Emmy.

[quote] The show is a warm fuzzy memory for me but if I watch it now I find it dated and not particularly funny.

So what shows are funny for you?

British poster back again

I just watched the first two eps.

That was tough.

And boy, several of Mary's "dates" were so bizarre looking, wearing the most terrible wigs. Who cast this thing?

& gee, people fell so in love with Rhoda they gave her her own show?

Also, first ep. Mr Grant, her new boss, shows up at Mary's apt DRUNK and tells her she's got a great ass! Hilarity ensues....

I'll leave you gurls to get on with your nostalgia-fest.

Considering how much of English comedy is based on sexual double entendres, I wouldn’t complain much if I were you.

And as for Mr. Grant’s inebriation, does the name “Patsy Stone” ring a bell, Big Ben?

I'm not sneering at "American" comedy. Merely commenting on this show.

& Mr. Grant was her boss - he turns up smashed, tells her his wife is out of town for a month and then compliments her on her ass, way different to the Patsy scenario.

The first season of MTM has a few gems, but it IS uneven and somewhat dated. It was really the second season on that the relationships started to gel.

Between the massive changes in American culture of the prior few years, and the fact that MTM had been Dick Van Dyke's wife on his show, CBS and the production company seemed to be very timid in the first year about where to take Mary Richards.

Once the show sort of caught on enough that they knew they were coming back, then they started to be more confident in their storytelling and more sure with the characters. It's where we really see them coming together as an ensemble, and they were one of the best ensembles around.

[quote] you really had to watch the show in the context of the times. Women were moving from being secretaries in the workplace and trying to branch out and show they could do more. I think Mary's arc during the show was reflecting that. They were attempting to take her from wide-eyed "Gee, Mr. Grant" to a woman who would be taken more seriously.

Yes, this absolutely.

There's a great later episode that's a bit more serious, where Mary gets stressed out and Mr. Grant calls her out on not taking care of herself (I think pills were involved). A window into trying to have it all and maybe not succeeding so well.

[quote] Mary wore a wig in Season 1.

And a merkin!

The promo clip in OP's post is a different take and set up from the one used in the first episode. This may have been when the Lou Grant character was extremely disliked by the test audience. They changed it a bit in the actual episode and it was a hit.

"Mary had such weird Jacquelynn Susann hair back then."

Most all of Mary's "hair" was WIGS. She had Type 1 diabetes, and it took a toll on her looks and hair. I cringe when I watch the show now, which I loved when it was first on, because what looks like Mary's anorexia. She is frighteningly thin. I didn't pay any attention to it in the 70s. Btw, the Chuckles episode sucks, imho.

Actually, the whole last season of MTM looked tired, with more stories about Murray and his boring problems, and Ted and Georgette's unbelievable marriage. She was right to end it there.

I also think the Chuckles show is a bit overrated, but Sue Ane has a great line delivered with glee to Lou and Murray: "I don't know what you're laughing about, but I bet it's dirty."

"I also think the Chuckles show is a bit overrated"

It was IMPOSSIBLY overrated. That's because new viewers, or old, that didn't like the Mary-Rhoda-Phyllis dynamic got all male and loved it.

Rhoda (Valerie Harper) also loved her wigs. Lucy loved her wigs, at least on her later series. A lot of sitcom stars relied on their wigs for their signature look.

I remember watching ALL IN THE FAMILY recently with my former hairstylist friend who asked why Jean Stapleton didn't wear a wig. She didn't have very good hair and the style was deliberately unflattering and prematurely aging. She should have had a custom wig designed.

Anyway... re: Mary. Did we ever see her natural hair on the MTM Show?

Late season wig.

Poor Mary, in post-MTM years. Bad surgery and poorly-disguised hair loss.

Wig.

I call wig. But it's one of the better ones.

r54 Tell your hairdresser friend that Jean Stapleton looked like a middle-aged, working-class Queens housewife. You know, the character she actually played.

[quote] I'm not sneering at "American" comedy. Merely commenting on this show.

Ah so what “American” comedy do you love? What British comedy?

That's a great wig at R57 and she looks great!

Wig.

I don't even remember this look, but it's very Eva Gabor Collection.

This was and always will be my favorite Mary Tyler Moore look.

I think it was her bad wigs that caused the rift in her marriage in "Ordinary People." I think the son's embarrassment over her wig choices pushed him to suicide.

Mary's best look.

Buck would never have pointed out how obvious this wig is.

I own the series my husband and I are going to have a weekend watch fest, very soon.

I'm of the company that believes "Chuckles Bites the Dust" is not only the best episode but is one of the top three sitcom episodes of all time. It's one of the few episodes where they really let MTM show what a brilliant comedian she is--she has about the best timing of anyone in the world. The whole episode builds up to the big joke at the wake, and MTM times her snickers so brilliantly, and the stifled sounds she makes trying to hold them back in are hilarious. Then when the clergyman makes her stand up, she is so hilariously mortified. And then the big climax--where the clergyman tells her to laugh openly in front of everyone for Chuckles, and she instead bursts into inconsolable tears--is so great, and so human.

The only other episode of The MTM Show that really let her let loose like that is "Sue Ann's Sister," when she has the great dumb show at the end of the episode where she sneaks back into Sue Ann's bedroom, climbs up onto the circular bed, watches herself in the mirrored ceiling, and switches on the vibrating mechanism and the Rachmaninov--she happily lets her freak flag fry for just a second, and then she turns it all off, and reasserts her proper "good girl" face again.

MT was just so amazing at comedic timing. She's also responsible for one of the funniest of all DVD episodes, "Coast to Coast Big Mouth," both when she tearfully explains to Rob everything she won on the game show n(before she reveals to Rob that she was tricked into revealing Alan Brady was bald on live television), and then her hilariously humiliating scene where she has to apologize for Alan in front of all his wigs.

[quote]I own the series my husband and I are going to have a weekend watch fest, very soon.

When MTM died, did she give you the series in her will or did you have to pay millions to become owner of it?

"Today I am a Ma'am" is by far the best Rhoda episode. It's only thre second episode of the whole series, and she gets almost all of her best lines for either The MTM Show or for the Rhoda Show in one half-hour:

"I don't understand why i don't apply these directly to my thighs."

"I know you're gonna think I'm kidding, but you can really get close to someone fast when you hit him with a car."

"I've got to lose 10 lbs by 8:30."

"Allow me to introduce myself, I'm another person in the room."

"And this is my date, Mr. and Mrs. Armand Lynton."

I love the series. The episodes where Lou is talking about Mary's ass, etc., don't hold up. I liked Rhoda and Phyllis a lot. After Rhoda and Phyllis got their own shows, I liked Sue Ann Nivens (Betty White), the Happy Homemaker. I really hated Georgette, how she talked like a baby, ugh.

Lou was hilarious. Ted was funny, except towards the final season(s), he was like JJ on Good Times (Dy-No-Mite!, i.e., clownish). Murray is so obviously gay; I didn't see that when I was younger.

IMO, "Chuckles Bites the Dust" was not funny. The Emmys just felt like they needed to give the MTM show a "lifetime achievement" award.

R57 Great wig. R58 Real hair.

R69 I love MTM in the "Coast to Coast Big Mouth" episode of the Van Dyke Show.

Alan Brady (enraged): Now that my secret is out, what am I supposed to do with all my toupees?

Laura Petrie (meekly): Well there must be some needy bald people.

Alan Brady (further enraged and banging his cane) Needy bald people?! Laura, you're a kook!

Buck would never have WORN a wig!

She also had a facelift in 1978/79.

She had a facelift after her Rolling Stone cover story came out, which was pegged to Ordinary People.

The writer basically said she looked like wrinkled, sun-damaged shit and her appearance was an affront to everyone who loved Mary Richards and Laura Petrie.

Her mouth looked like the Joker. I thought it was the late 70s before she had a variety show.

R69, if those are your two best episodes, it shows you never saw the first three seasons of the show.

R76/ R77, MTM had a face lift before Ordinary People, yes.

If anyone thinks this is all Mary's hair, I have a bridge to sell you:

[quote]She had a facelift after her Rolling Stone cover story came out, which was pegged to Ordinary People.

Buck never would have gotten pegged.

[quote] [R69], if those are your two best episodes, it shows you never saw the first three seasons of the show.

But I did see them, Madame Know-It-All. And I didn't say "Sue Ann's Sister" was the second best episode--I said it was one of the only ones that let Mary show her gift for comedy. I enthused about 'Today I am a Ma'am" (which to me is the other best episode) at r71.

Mary wore a fall the first season and I think the second season as well.

I think the best episode is when Mary has the worst week of her life. She really shined in that episode. I believe that episode was submitted for the Emmy that year and also one of the years she won it.

I think you're exaggerating a little, R77.

[quote]Age has played some middling cruel tricks on Mary Tyler Moore. A career of ear-to-ear smiles has creased her face; years of a too-luscious tan have left her skin a little tired looking; and her perpetual dance classes and dieting (she is diabetic) have made her impossibly thin. It’s too bad; but on the other hand, it’s a very monied, Lake Forest look, and all things considered, better the body should err in favor of class. Yet the exuberance of youth is still with her – or perhaps it’s just arrived.

The photo however is very unflattering and that in and of itself was probably enough to lead to a facelift.

My favorite episode was at the end of Season 4 - "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Writer"-when Ted (badly) plagiarizes Mary's story for a writing class they're taking. Ted's delivery and Mary's pissed-off look at the end are perfect. Rhoda wasn't in the last few episodes of Season 4 as they must have been training the audience to get used to her not being there.

Shot Down Over Ecuador Junior

R83 That's an old 43. She looks 10-15 years older.

R83 She had already had the facelift.

1) That promo was a bit creepy which is why they completely restaged it for the actual episode where it's charming.

2) The first season was a bit up and down...it still felt a bit like an old school sitcom but it found its voice and really started to click in Season 2.

3) I also very much like "Chuckles"...funny script and great performances. The problem is, it's been so over hyped as the "best/funniest" episode that it's tough to live up to that reputation.

4) All opinions are subjective but...if you don't like "The MTM Show", I will not so silently judge you just a wee bit.

You're in deep trouble if your first season is your best.

From Season 6. At 8:34, Mary wears a wig.

I'm glad they ditched the long hair Mary. She was never a long hair kind of gal.

[quote]Mary had a LOT of coats for a working gal. Suspicious outlay of cash.

I was thinking the same thing -- it was like That, Girl -- far too many expensive clothes for the character.

Speaking of working girls, I think it was smart to ditch the original backstory that she was a very successful call girl who had to flee town because of her pimp's mob ties.

[quote]Georgette, getting the Ted Baxter dick every night

Enjoy it while it lasts.

[quote]I was thinking the same thing -- it was like That, Girl -- far too many expensive clothes for the character.

At least with That Girl, you saw her father every so often, so you could believe he would buy her stuff for birthdays and Christmas. Plus, she had a boyfriend. Mary was too picky and never had a boyfriend.

R92 At least Mary's apartments (both of them) were income-appropriate, unlike ANY show set in NYC.

[quote]At least Mary's apartments (both of them) were income-appropriate, unlike ANY show set in NYC.

That Girl's apartment was fairly income-appropriate for 1960s NYC.

Really? For someone who didn't even have a steady job?

[quote]Really? For someone who didn't even have a steady job?

Her father paid the rent.

[quote] My favorite episode was at the end of Season 4 - "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Writer"-when Ted (badly) plagiarizes Mary's story for a writing class they're taking. Ted's delivery and Mary's pissed-off look at the end are perfect.

Yes - I love that episode! I’m not a huge Ted fan but that was probably the funniest scene of the entire series 🤣!

[quote]I think the best episode is when Mary has the worst week of her life. She really shined in that episode. I believe that episode was submitted for the Emmy that year and also one of the years she won it.

I also love that episode. That and Veal Prince Orloff (sorry, don't know its actual title) are possibly the most memorable.

And maybe "The Lars Affair" where Phyllis confronts Sue Ann. "Do you know how to remove chocolate stains?"

I like the episode where Lou (now divorced) moves upstairs from Mary, into Rhoda's old apartment. He put all his furniture on roller (casters) for ease of movement.

I also like the episode where Lou has a one-night stand with Sueanne.

Phyllis Whips Inflation is my favorite episode.

I agree with the others that Season 1 is merely cute; the humor picks up in Season 2.

Pat (Patte) Finlay made two memorably funny appearances in the first season. She played two characters "Sparky" and "Twinks" in separate episodes who were basically the same person.

It's amazing that one has done a homage to the opening sequence, and throw their wig into the air instead of their hat.

[quote] At least Mary's apartments (both of them) were income-appropriate, unlike ANY show set in NYC.

[quote] That Girl's apartment was fairly income-appropriate for 1960s NYC.

Even with the dated color schemes and the use of videotape, [italic]The Jeffersons[/italic] and [italic]Diff’rent Strokes[/italic] looked fairly appropriate for rich people in Manhattan during a recession.

"I agree with the others that Season 1 is merely cute; the humor picks up in Season 2"

ALL great sitcoms have a good first season, second and third much better. Fourth is running out of steam, fifth and sixth spotty. Being a Dick Van Dyke Show fan, I watched MTM since episode one in Sept 1970. Even season one was quirky and different than other sitcoms - the characters Rhonda, Phyllis, Ida Morgenstern, Lou, Ted - different and convincing, and great writing - for grown ups. A very important point since most sitcoms at the time were infantile and sophomoric.

A incredibly funny episode was the one with Barbara Sharma playing an inept waitress Mary hires to be her incompetent secretary after getting her fired - in season two. More: Rhoda's apt fire when she and Mary have to room together for a week, when Mary has to work on Christmas Eve, Ted's competitive brother (Jack Cassidy), when Phyllis asks Mary to explain the facts of life (sex) to Bess, Mary trying to avoid an overbearing date (Stuart Margolin), any show with Rhoda's mother.

The reason she wore the fall was that they wanted a separation of Mary Richards and Laura Petrie.

[quote] A very important point since most sitcoms at the time were infantile and sophomoric.

Most sitcoms now are infantile and sophomoric. The difference is we are not limited to three networks and PBS like we were then.

No, Mary.....

I think "The Dinner Party", the Veal Prince Orloff episode, is the single best episode of the entire series. Everyone telling Mary her parties are disasters. Ted bribing his way into the party, Mary telling Lou to put some of the meat back on the platter, Rhoda bringing Henry Winkler as her date.

And one of the best lines ever written for the show:

Sue Ann: Mary, dear - do you have any idea what happens when you let Veal Prince Orloff sit in an oven too long?

Mary: No, what?

Sue Ann: He dies.

One way season one was trying to find its feet was the jarring transition from 3-camera to one-camera when Bess and Mary have their day out and keep hiding from one another. It's like a scene that was cut from "Change of Habit."

Here are some personal favorites from each season:

Season 1: "Today I am a Ma'am" (episode 2) with Mr & Mrs Armand Linton

Season 2: "The Square-Shaped Room" (episode 13) where Rhoda redecorates Lou's place

Season 3: "Farmer Ted and the News" (episode 9) where Ted's agent (played by Lurene Tuttle) renegotiates his contract

"Rhoda the Beautiful" (#6) where Rhoda enters the department store beauty contest

"My Brother's Keeper" (#17)) -- Phyllis' gay brother...!

Season 4: "The Lars Affair" (Episode 1) where we meet Sue Ann Niven, a truly hilarious creation brought to life by a fearless Betty White

"Lou's First Date" (#8) my very favorite, with the elderly Martha Dudley as Lou's date -- charming and sweet, with real character development

Season 5: "Menage-a-Phyllis" (episode 8) where John Saxon plays Phyllis ' cultural escort

Season 6: "Mary's Delinquent" (episode 8) where Mary and Sue Ann mentor a couple of troubled teens ("Mine's black!) with Mackenzie Phillips

Season 7: "Murray Ghosts for Ted" (episode 20) another really good episode, this time Murray keeps his promise to keep Ted's secret

"Mary's Delinquent," God how I had that show - and every show from season 6.

[quote]I think "The Dinner Party", the Veal Prince Orloff episode, is the single best episode of the entire series.

The only problem I had with that episode was the stupid premise. They are entertaining a political figure, was it a congresswoman, and they entertain her in Mary's crackerbox studio apartment? That didn't make any sense.

Another bad episode when the the series ran out of gas - the one with the Veal Prince Orloff congresswoman when they get stuck in the elevator with Johnny Carson.

I love the episode in which Mary had a bad day. This ended with her attending the Teddy awards with Ted and she had a cold, a sprained ankle and looked like shit. Hilarious.

Lou’s Place - great episode with a hilarious ending😂!

I watched the high school reunion episode today.

[quote]A incredibly funny episode was the one with Barbara Sharma playing an inept waitress Mary hires to be her incompetent secretary after getting her fired

Feeb!

I’ve been watching these on You Tube and some hold up better than others. The Lars Affair is still funny as hell. IMHO , Sue Ann, Phyllis and Ted were the best written characters.

In comedy, you express anger and frustration at the situation (Lou hating spunk, for example is more funny than Lou hating Mary). In drama, you express anger at the individual.

The direction changed from this version to the final product, thankfully.

In her autobiography, Mary said she had the facelift* in 1980, after her run in the play Whose Life Is It Anyway, which closed in May.

So that's why Joan being mad at the dirt and not Helga was funny, r121?

“I’m Mary...Queen of Scots!”

Watch it, punk R120.

R122, where did the confession that Mary's marriage to Grant Tinker was almost sexless - and that she wouldn't even undress in front of him - come from? I read about it in the NYTimes... never heard about it prior.

[quote]The only problem I had with that episode was the stupid premise. They are entertaining a political figure, was it a congresswoman, and they entertain her in Mary's crackerbox studio apartment? That didn't make any sense.

Mary did a story on the congresswoman who mentioned she traveled so much, she never got a home cooked meal. Thus Mary Richards promises her one thinking she'll never take her up on it.

It's not so hard to imagine.

I was surprised to read the highest rated season was its third. And it was never #1.

However, most of its competitors are long forgotten.

R124 - this is tangential to the thread but the image you posted of Betty Ford made me remember her pretty drastic, and successful “makeover” after she got sober - I think around the time she opened the BF Center.

I was just a kid so she seemed really old as First Lady but she changed her hairstyle and makeup to something age appropriate but much less matronly, and I think also had some work (eyes?) done. She really looked 10 years younger; but also much prettier - you could finally see the sexy performer she had been as a young woman. She was always unpretentious and cool, but she also became a looker again.

[quote] Another bad episode when the the series ran out of gas - the one with the Veal Prince Orloff congresswoman when they get stuck in the elevator with Johnny Carson.

Say what?

Earlier I watched the episode where Lou has to do the news and the one where Ted has to take vacation time.

It's a testament to the show's high quality and great characters that one just needs to hear an episode's premise and you're already laughing at the possibilities..."Lou has to anchor the news", "Sue Ann and Ted team up to do a weekly show", "Ted Decides to Open A Broadcasting School", "Rhoda Enters a Work Beauty Contest".... If you love these characters you're like, "I gotta see this!"

That's what my brevity was counting on, r132.

One of my very favorite moments.....

One of my favorite scenes is from Season 7 "Murray Can't Lose". Mary is put in charge of the entertainment for the Teddy Awards and asks Mr. Grant's advice about including herself in the show. She sings a hilariously cringey version of "One For My Baby" which always makes me laugh.

When Mary moved to the high rise, the series was OVER.

Here's Mary singing "One for My Baby." Unfortunately, it's montaged with some Dick Van Dyke stuff.

There’s Something About Mary!

R58 What episode was that from?

r135, that's a great scene. Mary's performance is hilarious and perfect for the character. The hand gestures kill me! And I love Mr. Grant's interjections during the song. I can't hear that song and not think of Mary Tyler Moore.

r130 That was one of the episodes at the end of the run which featured clips. Johnny Carson was in an elevator, but the lights were out and the gang reminisces about shows passed.

r135 Murray can't lose was simply a reworking of the first year episode where Rhoda gets mad at Mary and tells her she won an award, knowing she didn't, so Mary runs on stage to get it only to find out she lost.

r136

To bad Penny Marshall wasn't made the "new Rhoda," her nurse character of Paula worked well. But then again, we might not have had L&S had it worked out.

[quote] It's amazing that one has done a homage to the opening sequence, and throw their wig into the air instead of their hat.

I'll get right on it and make that happen!

[quote]To bad Penny Marshall wasn't made the "new Rhoda," her nurse character of Paula worked well. But then again, we might not have had L&S had it worked out.

What about ME?

r144

MKP was in one episode, PM was in two as Paula and another as a different character

Penny Marshall wasn't made the new Rhoda because Mary Tyler Moore didn't want the Marshall dynasty interfering in her show. She already knew Garry as a writer on The Dick Van Dyke Show and she didn't want them overshadowing her.

Buck would never have ridden a motorcycle over a great white shark!

I wanted Lou Grant to put me on top of his desk and fuck me seven ways to Sunday.

I'm watching the chain mail episode with the second appearance of Armand Lynton.

[quote] I wanted Lou Grant to put me on top of his desk and fuck me seven ways to Sunday.

Fine, you can have him. I already did.

r148=Sue Ann Nivens

I can't believe Betty will be 98 (!) years old in January.

Cloris is 93 and Asner just turned 90. Gavin McLeod will be 89 next February.

[quote]I can't believe Betty will be 98 (!) years old in January. Cloris is 93 and Asner just turned 90. Gavin McLeod will be 89 next February.

Youngsters!

I recently read Gavin McLeod's autobiography. To use Murray terminology, "it's terrific!"

[quote]Then he must be a lot more interesting than "Murray" or "Cpt. Stubing," the most bland character on TV at the time.

[quote]I recently read Gavin McLeod's autobiography. To use Murray terminology, "it's terrific!"

Does he mention that when he found Jesus, it ended his career? He now only gets the "grampa" roles on the Hallmark Channel.

That’s all he would get anyway. Crap actor and easily the weak link of the cast of MTMS.

In Season 7, there's an episode called "The Critic" starring Eric Braeden (Victor in Young & Restless). Very funny episode, IMO.

Synopsis:

[quote] A very negative critic is hired by the station manager to do a spot on The Six O'clock News, and immediately attacks Minneapolis's population as a whole. Lou wants Mary to go out with him in a futile attempt to get him to put a more positive spin on his reviews.

Ed Asner posted on Twitter about Ted Knight.

awww.

^ ewwwww

I think they both look kinda hot 😏