"Just Between Friends" (1986)

Timothy Gibbs, who plays Mary Tyler Moore's son, played the cop who dates Miranda after Carrie's shoes are stolen on Sex and the City

It was a theatrical film. Lahti would have had to have been Oscar worthy.

Christine Lahti's boss Mark Blum died of Covid in 2020

I watched this and was surprised at the age difference IRL between Mary Tyler Moore and Ted Danson

Lewis Arquette, father of Rosanna/Patricia/David/Alexis, plays the studio security guard.

The studio where Christine Lahti works at the news is CBS Radford, then known as MTM Studios, owned by Mary Tyler Moore and where her show was filmed.

I'm sure Ms Moore LOVED this review on IMDB:

"I saw the name Mary Tyler Moore, and I decided to watch this film, not realizing that it was a horror film. Well, it's not really a horror film, but to be honest, having to watch Mary Tyler Moore in skin tight workout clothes for as long as we do...well, it was a horrifying experience."

In 1983 HBO released [italic]Between Friends,[/italic] with Carol Burnett and Elizabeth Taylor.

That Lahti bitch stole yet another movie

Their slap fight towards the end was pretty hilare.

“I was your friend!!”

“Fuh fuh fuh fuh you’re not my FRIEND!!!”

I remember seeing this a long time ago, wasn't it that Danson was MTM's husband who had an affair with Lahti and then dies and then Lahti is pregnant with his child and also MTM's aerobics teacher? That's a LOT... And yeah, MTM was at least a decade older than Danson.

Actually, I just checked and MTM was 11 years older than Danson, to the day. MTM: Dec. 29, 1936, TD: Dec. 29, 1947.

Lynda Obst, a producer, took a job running Mary Tyler Moore's company. I think this was after her divorce. They had a great first meeting and then she couldn't get MTM on the phone for most of that year, let alone create any new business or projects for her.

R7, I recently watched Between Friends on Youtube. It's not very good, though it is interesting to see Carol Burnett play a very callous, unlikable character who also happens to be promiscuous. Elizabeth plays an wealthy, alcoholic divorcee, so...

Sam Waterson's role is a good example of a guy you meet and think he's annoying, but ultimately become attracted to him. He wins you over. Mary might have ended up with him even if Ted didn't die, since he was a cheating douche.

Ted Danson was miscast. He made Mary look old. She fit better with Sam since he was about the same age.

There's actually a scene where Mary talks about having another baby, when in real life she was about 50. I think she always wanted a movie career like Meryl and Sally and Jane. But she started too late.

I picked up on a tension between her and the actor who plays her son in the film. And it reminded me of Tim Hutton saying she was chilly to him filming "Ordinary People". He chalked it up to her being in character for the film, but was it more? Did she loathe young men? Her own son killed himself, supposedly accidentally.

She once said that her dad had wanted a son (Tyler) but got her instead.

Robert Redford told Moore to be distant from Hutton to increase his feeling of alienation from her. Hutton tells the story of her giving him an enthusiastic greeting one day and then kind of catching herself and laughing like oops not supposed to do that.

I just posted this in another thread. Alan Burns showed the film in a film class I took at the time. (He seemed a bit depressed like he knew it wasn't going to be a hit.)

He told the story of asking Moore why she accepted a sitcom role right after the film ended. She said that she was over 40 and movies just weren't going to happen for a woman her age. She cited Shirley MacLaine to him. She said Shirley just won an Oscar 3 years ago and hasn't had a good role since. She felt even if this film was a hit she'd still be more welcome on TV.

MacLaine has said the same thing. Terms and the Oscar for it didn't really get her good parts. It was actually Madame Sousatzka which made people think of her for old lady roles and she got a bunch of good ones after that. She said she was even offered Driving Miss Daisy but said come on! I'm not that old yet!

Mary Tyler Moore was not a nice person in real life. At least to her fans. When she died a couple years ago, numerous stories were posted about how callous and nasty she was when asked for an autograph or to pose for a picture.

And that probably had something to do with the way her father -- and possibly her mother as well -- treated her. Dismissed her.

A few DL posts can't be trusted r18. All her co-stars and crew always spoke quite highly about her.

The scene where lahti tells MTM her husband is dead during an aerobics class is so bad it’s hilarious. The aerobics gets more intense as moore finds out danson died.

Ed Asner said she was a consummate professional but as a person she was 'a closed book'.

Moore was quite depressed for most of her marriage to Grant Tinker. There's a rather sad Barbara Walters interview online where she admits Grant is her only friend. ("intimate" she says.)

She seemed much more giggly and upbeat in her later years in interviews. The younger doctor husband made her happy I think.

I also thought this was made in the early 80s. Anyway, I enjoyed it when it first came out and still think it is the best film and performance of MTM.

Shame is was so little seen at the time.

R23, Buck would never say any performance was better than Ordinary People!

I always wondered if Mary Tyler Moore's story about almost being Mrs. Peanut was true since it was more similar to her own life than her character's.

DataLounge Group Watch?

Just Between Pointless Bitches?

what's the story r25?

She was up for a series of commercials as Mr. Peanut's wife, but the idea was cancelled because she got pregnant

Were there ever commercials with Mr. Peanut's wife? When? We could calculate how old MTM would have been.

Moore and Waterston co-starred in HBO’s “Finnegan Begin Again” - a much better film - the year before.

Christine Lahti at the Women's March in LA this weekend

MTM herself said she was more Beth Jarrett than Mary Richards.

She said she was a bit of both r33

She was ALL Beth Jarrett.

Mary's house and the setting made me want to move to Pasadena

Jesus Christ. I guess I was a little homo. I fucking loved that movie as a kid. I used to watch it on HBO all the time. I thought the "twist" was genius.

I dug anything about southern California and like Mary and ted Danson's house, and I thought Timothy Gibbs was HAWT.

I wish they would remake this.

Christine Lahti stole the movie, as always.

[quote]A few DL posts can't be trusted [R18]. All her co-stars and crew always spoke quite highly about her.

I remember reading last week that Betty White and Don Rickles were with Mary Tyler Moore at some event. Betty and Don were having a ribald conversation and Mary, disapproving, got up in a huff and left. Rickles said, "That's a cold one." And Betty did not come to her defense.

Christine Lahti was part of the hippie scene in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, and took part in a stage performance protesting Prop 8 so she seems like a good person

Ted Danson's character in this movie is so underdeveloped.

It's not on Hulu anymore but it's on youtube

I loved this movie back in the 80s. It was shown a lot on HBO. I watched it again on YouTube. It's still good, but now a bit out of date. Mary as Holly...it seems that it wasn't much of a character stretch for MTM, in her real life....a perfectionist who is a bit on the uptight side. Wow...was she ever skinny.

This was a good movie but there were so many rushed moments and missed moments that Rodger Ebert couldn't recommend it.

There are a lot of great locations in Pasadena used in this movie - and Travel Town in Griffith Park.

The movie theatre parking lot in the 80s where Mary invites Christine over for dinner is now the big box store clusterfuck strip mall hell known as the Hastings Ranch area of Pasadena

I loved Holly's house...

Ted had more chemistry with Sam Waterston than either of the ladies.

[quote]It was a theatrical film. Lahti would have had to have been Oscar worthy.

Bitchy comment, R2? This is DL after all.

This would be released straight to streamer if it were released today and probably would have more viewers than the theatrical run

It's a women's pic-chuh.

MTM’s last years were plagued with health problems. She nearly lost her eyesight, as a result of juvenile diabetes. She was very fragile and I think this made her hostile. She was a cold, stand-offish person anyway, and her health issues exacerbated it. This doesn’t justify her rudeness, yet her fans should have read her body language. She was not a warm, approachable woman. She was unlike the Mary Richards character on the MTM Show.

Christine Lahti makes this movie

OP: "Mary Tyler Moore at her acting/producing/owning 80s peak."

Thanks. That was funny.

Movies like that could never get made today, with Moore pushing 50 and the other pushing 40.

There is a moment in this movie that always makes me laugh. It's when MTM finds out that Christine Lahti is pregnant. Her take is SO OVER THE TOP. It's how Mary Richards would react, very comedic but completely out of place in this MOW that got released in movie theaters in a bid to get MTM another Oscar nom.

This was a guilty pleasure for me. I watched it on HBO all the time when it aired in the 80s.

Same with “Six Weeks”, the critically panned film that MTM did with Dudley Moore. I never understood the bad reviews. I haven’t seen it in over 25 years though; I might feel differently now!

R4. Danson’s own wife at the time was about the sane age as MTM.

What's so bad...?

Salome Jens

The Shapeshifter villainess in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

R56 I saw "Six Weeks" in the theater with my older sister

In Mary's A&E Biography, she talks about being the Hotpoint Pixie until she got pregnant, which is similar to the story she tells in the movie about losing out the Mrs. Peanut gig because she "got knocked up by Mr. Peanut"

This film was a mega-bomb. Poor Maaaaaary! I think it was her last film in which she had a starring role. In 1996ish she had a supporting part in Flirting with Disaster.

I saw this in college with a friend. All I remember is nearly-pornographic close-ups of Mary Tyler Moore's Lycra-clad ass in her aerobics classes.

Roger Ebert gave it⭐1/2 out of⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rotten according to Rotten Tomatoes

0/10 from Friends share same (4-word reviews)

R63 Pauline Kael on Moore in JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS

For two hours we're invited to admire what terrific shape Mary Tyler Moore is in.

There are so many shots of her tight, trim rear end in leotards as she gyrates for the camera that the film begins to seem a vanity production.

She looks agonizingly ill at ease about her age and this exhibition of her beautiful state of preservation makes her seem much older than she is

Mary stole the ass-focused performance idea from me in my smash 1979 movie "The Main Event." Too bad she wasn't able to steal my tighter, trimmer ass too--audiences didn't shell out to see her sagging ass or that flabby movie!

Hey, Babs, what about my ass in Perfect? MTM stole *my* aerobics/leotarded look!

And what about Mike grinding in shorts R69

my grinding (^.^)

This was —and remains— a lousy movie.

I was an usher in a mall movie theater when this POS came out. I used to time my appearance during the Lahti's revelation about being pregnant since MTM's take is HILARIOUSLY OTT! It's more of a sit-com reaction than one meant to create another Oscar nom for Mary. Lahti steals everything she's in, btw..

[quote]R16 I picked up on a tension between her and the actor who plays her son… Did she loathe young men?

Surely not. In her 50s she married one!

Having a young Ted Danson as the husband made Mary look old.

Mary *was* old in 1986. But Ted Danson didn't look like a spring chicken in the '80s either!

Moore is 11 years older than Danson

Her face lift did her no favors. She already had a large mouth, but it worked with her original face - she was adorable. But after the lift (lifts?), her mouth looked so much wider. I would much rather be a little jowly than look like the joker.

DL fave Stockard Channing had a s(h)itcom in 1979 named Just Friends.

I prefer “Joust Between Friends.”