The Mary Tyler Moore Show thread

Hottest boyfriend was Bradford Dillman who played a handsome architect who takes an interest in Mary’s building.

MTM was a cunt who pushed Valerie Harper out and into the God awful Rhoda show because Rhoda was the most popular character.

Without Rhoda MTM was not good. Georgette was awful, Phyllis was a cunt and Sue Ann was a one note joke.

Some of Mary's friends were "feeb"

Rhoda: “What a fancy restaurant. Everything that came out was flaming! Including the bus boy.”

......

Funniest episode was the one where Ted enrolls in a writing course with Mary. A little of of Ted usually went a long way with me, but he was hilarious in this one!

My favorite line of the entire series is in S1 E2:

Rhoda: “I gotta lose 10 pounds by 8:30.”

At 11:22 in the link.

Phyllis was a cunt in the best sense of the word. She was delightfully self-absorbed and manipulative.

Sue Ann should be a DL fave. Eternally cock-crazed and great with one-liners.

Mary was beautiful, if almost painfully thin.

Rhoda was cross-eyed.

My favorite is Mary’s terrible week that starts out with a bad hair day and escalates to the climax where she must accept an award looking her all-time worst. Mary even caps the episode with a Porky Pig impression of “That’s All Folks!” in place of the MTM kitten.

^ "I usually look so much better than this..."

Link to first thread, OP?

I never appreciated Ida Morgenstern as a kid. I always thought why is this nosy and piushy old lady making funny Rhoda so miserable?

As an adult I think her guest appearances on the show made for some of the all time best episodes. I especially love the episode where she attempts to form a “modern” mother-daughter relationship with Rhoda.

Ida: “Im not wearing a bra. I’m with it.”

Rhoda: “You’re not with it. You’re without it! Go upstairs and change immediately!”

The first thread, r11.

Mary still looked good in r5’s clip. Her final appearance on that show was sad.

Nepo baby! The blond kid always seen as a background extra in the WJM newsroom was the son of one of the directors. He actually went on to have a long career in Hollywood as an editor.

[quote]My favorite line of the entire series is in S1 E2:

This was one of, if not the best episode.

You gotta love Rhoda's line, "I'd like you to meet my date, Mr and Mrs Armond Linton"

Or Rhoda saying to her real life husband, "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm another person in the room."

Or when she finds out the Lintons are honeymooners and then proceeds to dump all the bacon curls into her lap and gorge herself.

Phyllis) I don't understand why a girl her age that looks like her isn't married."

Rhoda) Oh but you CAN understand why a girl my age, that looks like me isn't married"

Phyllis) Of course

Rhoda) Well then will you please tell my mother, SHE DON'T UNDERSTAND

I don't like Stevie

Was the Stevie episode the one with Grammy award winning best actress Carole Larkey?

r19

Yes. "Anyone Who Hates Kids and Dogs" (Season 5 Episode 24)

With pre-hunk , Lee Montgomery as Stevie

R16, I was going to post that as my favorite line, too--Mr. and Mrs. Armand Linton!

Nice, r20! What the fuck was Mary’s problem? 😉

Me likely...

Sue Anne (sing song): Stevie, would you like some milk and cookies?

Stevie: No, those are for kids.

Sue Anne (lower register, annoyed) : How about a beer and some Fritos?

Every now and then goody two-shoes Mary really surprises me big time. Not only is she on the pill but apparently she is not shy of doing some kinky stuff - and not feeling bad about it. (Phyllis' reaction secured just as much laughter.) I wonder if this line was difficult getting passed the network, or if they simply missed it.

I, too, love the episode of Mary's terrible week, starting with a coffee stain and bedhead, ending with her terrible dress (Ted: That's not funny, Mary!) and yellow rain slicker, her false eyelash on her cheek and winning the Teddy.

Another favorite is when Rhoda enters the beauty contest at her department store. She and Mary are going through clothes for her to wear and Phyllis is droning on about some talent show she was in and she sings, "Ten Cents a Dance" crushing out an invisible cigarette and building to a big finish while Mary and Rhoda ignore her entirely.

I don't know the contest episode, but I laughed just reading your synopsis.

Phyllis singing Ten Cents a Dance ... that's what they pay me.

For the holidays...

Another great Phyllis scene starting at 16:45!

It's been discussed on DL, but the episode where Rhoda reveals that Mary didn't graduate from college is one of the most troubling in the series. First, it is totally impossible to believe that Mary would never have graduated. Second, she never would have lied on her resume for fear of being caught. Third, the manner in which Rhoda acted during the entire episode was appalling. She made light of the lie and then when she's called on it, acts all hurt and victimized. A very strange episode.

Maybe MTM hated Stevie because she foretold what he would look like.

IMO, it was believable that Mary didn't graduate and lied about it on her resumé. Rhoda's reaction (not being sorry about blabbing) was more unbelievable. Mary was supposed to have been more focused on getting married, before moving to Minneapolis. She became a career woman, in large part, because her engagement fell apart.

r25

That clearly was Mary making a joke by the way MTM delivered the line.

r31

No, that was Rhoda, she was abrasive, pushy and obnoxious. These are characteristics that Rhoda for the most part lost, when she transferred over to her own show.

It's also entirely believable Mary did not graduate. She was shown in episode one to have "practically supported her boyfriend through med school." It is believable Mary gave up her college to work for this.

As for lying Mary explains in the episode she felt funny about lying and that she specifically told Rhoda about how funny she felt BEFORE Rhoda spilled the beans

MTM was probably one of my favorite shows of all time. I've seen most episodes many times. But I've never been that much of a fan of the Chuckles episode as I totally don't buy it. In real life, had Mary started to lose it at the funeral, they ALL would have lost it. The fact that the others looked at her with annoyance after making all those jokes earlier would never have happened.

R31, it was a different time. Not only did fewer people go to college, but there were more dropouts among those who did. My sister dropped out of college in the early ‘70s, yet later became successful in commercial real estate, acknowledging she’d have never gotten her foot in the door if she had tried to do so years later.

I couldn’t stand Ida on either show. She looked like a gnome yet she was always on Rhoda’s case.

^ you kiss your mother with that mouth?

R34- It’s not a bad show but not in the same league as one of the FUNNIEST shows of all time-

All In The Family

Ida would have kicked Archie’s dick in, to the delight of Marty and Edith.

The first (half) season of AITF (it started mid-season) was pretty bad, just 2 dimensional characters saying shocking things. By the next season the characters had become more 3 dimensional and it just got better and better from there. Edith's cancer scare episode was probably my favorite. It literally made you laugh and cry at the same time. Pretty brilliant.

R40- All In The Family premiered in January 1971. I agree the characters were a bit TOO realistic. Archie wasn't funny just hateful and Edith was not funny either just dull. This after all was a comedy not a drama. They toned down Archie's hate a bit and made Edith more sympathetic and funnier by 1972.

I didn’t get a chance to say this on the other thread because I watched the documentary later and was locked out of the thread. But as a child the one show I was not allowed to watch was The Mary Tyler Moore Show, not because of any content issues, but because my mother could not stand the screech of Mary’s voice. It was like a dog whistle to her.

My Catholic friends were unable to watch One Day at a Time and I would tell them the plots of the episodes in secret on the playground, but it had to wait for me to get my own compact black and white TV to watch MTM in reruns with the sound turned down low in my room.

2008 reunion on Oprah.

[quote] In real life, had Mary started to lose it at the funeral, they ALL would have lost it.

I agree, in real life if this happened, Mary Richards would have turned the laugh into a fake cry and left the room.

As for Ida, she was good in small doses.

All in the Family was brilliant but I don't see how young people could find it funny. The references are so dated, you need an encyclopedia to figure them out, unless you lived through that time.

Is it possible an attractive, successful woman could stay single that long?

"It was like a dog whistle to her."

Dog whistles are undetectable by the human ear. Is your mother a jackal?

I remember the episode where Mary is talking to Rhoda and she says the Rhoda dates losers. To wit, Rhoda says, "Yeah but when they dump me, I feel so good."

I never saw Mary's dates as being much better than Rhoda's

Favorite line, in the episode where Lou buys a bar, tries to play jolly host, no one but Mary is responding, finally gives up:

Loud and annoyed: “What’s wrong with you people?!”

Rhoda's date Jonas, played by Steve Franken of course, was perhaps the best match for her but they never really showed them on a date or together alone.

r49

He was good, but I put him a close second to 60s beach hunk Michael Callan, who wanted to be a forest ranger.

Rhoda: When I said I wanted wild life, I meant WILD LIFE, not wildlife.

That should have been “What the hell is wrong with you people?!”

I always got the feeling that Rhoda had gay friends (I mean, come on, she was a window dresser at a department store) and had to educate Mary on the advantages of having gay men as friends...

Plus, I think Rhoda was probably more uninhibited than Mary...

[quote]I agree, in real life if this happened,

We have news for you, r44....

I'd like to think Rhoda was a really great "fag hag" to a lot of gay men in the 1970s...

just the way she was to Phyllis' gay brother

Starting at 4:55, one of my favorite scenes of the show. Mary's dating a handsome man, new to town, the center of attention at a social gathering, talking to a group including Mary, Georgette & Sue Ann. Georgette asks him if it's cold enough for him in Minneapolis. "Oh, it's more than cold enough for me," handsome man says. Sue Ann laughs uproariously as handsome man leaves to freshen Mary's drink. "Doesn't he have a wonderful sense of humor," Georgette asks the laughing Sue Ann. Without missing a beat, Sue Ann says, "No, but who cares?!"

The actor who played Mary's gorgeous date was Robert Wolders, who was Audrey Hepburn's campion for many years.

Wolders was also married to the much older Merle Oberon for many years.

* companion

Mary's mother: "Don't forget to take your pill."

Mary and her father responding at the same time: "I won't."

Phyllis: "Mary, do you know what happens to the worker be after, well...servicing the queen?"

Phyllis pauses.

Phyllis: "He dies." Phyllis pauses again, then says, "All in all, not a bad situation."

Sue Ann: "Mary do you know what happens to Veal Prince Olaf if he sits too long?"

Mary (frazzled because Congresswoman Gettys hasn't arrived for dinner yet): "No, Sue Ann. I don't."

Sue Ann: "He dies."

The doorbell rings and Congresswoman Gettys finally arrives.

Sue Ann, without skipping a beat, announces: "Mary, dinner is served!"

Betty White was never better as when she played Sue Ann Nivens.

I couldn't stand her character Rose in Golden Girls.

The show was so much better in its post-Rhoda years.

I knew Valerie Harper back in the day. She was gracious and very approachable with people in general. Valerie was not fat. MTM was skin and bones. Valerie was a normal sized person. I knew Cloris Leachman, who was also a very nice person. Occasionally I'll come across some bullshit about her that she was a bitch. She was not.

I like the early, mid, and late eras of “The Mary Tyler Moire Show” each for different reasons. I’ve always been fascinated by the 1970s and how dramatically the styles changed with each year.

A standout episode from the early years features Mary Frann as a new acquaintance of Mary who turns out to be an anti-Jewish bigot. A great and timeless episode. Most episodes hold up today.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show...the best television show ever.

This is probably my favorite Sue Ann scene. Betty White must have felt like she struck gold when she read the script for it.

R56, And after Audrey’s death, he was romantically involved with Leslie Caron and then Shirlee Fonda, Henry’s widow.

Betty White as Sue Ann Nivens was brilliant casting.

R1, I agree. And he looked good in that red turtleneck sweater.

"... who was Audrey Hepburn's campion for many years"

Oh, dear...

Is Dr. Levine now considered one of NYC’s most eligible bachelors?

I waited on Valerie Harper twenty some years ago, she was super sweet, kind and very chatty with myself and one of my co-workers who had just started working at Second City, where Valerie had also worked.

R9 I remember that one. It started with her having a bad cold and by the time she went to the awards, she had a horrible hair bump. It looked like one section was teased to the max and left there. Hilarious.

R73, Mary told Rosie O’Donnell years ago that that was her favorite episode.

Pilot Opening

Mary and Betty explain how Betty White was cast on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"...

for a single-episode guest appearance

[quote] With pre-hunk , Lee Montgomery as Stevie

Well, I like Stevie!!!

Trivia - Mary and Murray were in every episode of the entire series.

R25 - Because I'm a geek when it comes to this sort of thing...

Mary says that $20/wk was an 8% raise which means she her weekly pay was now $270. That time 52 equals just over $14K a year, which in 1975 is the equivalent to nearly $80K today. For a newly promoted producer for a third-rate local TV news station in Minneapolis? Did Mary have any experience or even a college degree? Lou was right to tell her to go jump in a lake.

BTW, her $175/mo rent would be $1,021.54 today. A fucking steal.

But Mary earned additional income by typing papers for college students, as she revealed in the episode where her tax returns were audited.

R80 - Plus we'd do a little hooking together on the side.

I never particularly like the "Chuckles the Clown" episode.

One of the few later season episodes I liked was "A New Sue Ann" in Season 5.

In general, the first four seasons had the better episodes.

Before dick.