Mary Tyler Moore

I've been debating to what to blog about for over a week now. Do I talk once again about my lack of a love life? Do I whine once again about feeling all alone in the world? Do I get political and talk about whats happening in this country as of January 21? Or do I talk about my acting career?

Today, I got an answer...Mary Tyler Moore. I've talked about my love of the TV shows I grew up and their stars. At the very, very top of that list are two TV sitcoms: The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Both of course, starring Mary Tyler Moore. I've read the autobiographies of MTM, DVD and Carl Reiner. I've watched hours of interviews with all three of them as well as the creators and co-stars of both of their series. I know the story of how she got the part of Laurie Petrie when Danny Thomas remembered the girl with three names who auditioned as a replacement for the role of his older daughter on The Danny Thomas Show a year earlier. He didn't hire her because no one would believe a girl with that nose could be his daughter. He brought her in to Carl Reiner, she read one line, he grabbed her by the head and dragged her into Sheldon Leonard's office and said this is her.

She was a novice at comedy and 12 years younger than Dick Van Dyke. But she learned. She was originally supposed to be the straight man to DVD. But then they wrote an episode where she's thinks Rob would love her more if she's a blonde. So she dyes her hair blonde only to discover Rob loves his brunette wife. So she starts to dye her hair back before he gets home. He gets there and her hair is blonde on one side and brunette on the other. She starts crying through her lines. And the rest is history. In her book, she admits she stole the crying bit from Nanette Fabray who would eventually play her mother on two episodes of the MTM Show. The Dick Van Dyke Show was her college and she learned from Reiner, Van Dyke, Rose Marie and More Amsterdam.

Anywho, go to Emmy Legends to see the interviews. For me, DVD and MTM were the perfect pair. Absolutely believable as husband and wife. Sexy and sophisticated and talented to boot. They sang and danced in their living room. I wanted their life. I wanted them to be my parents!

She as well as two women Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett were my three comedienne idols.  To me, they are the three greatest female TV stars ever to live. Then there's everyone else. My generation grew up with them. Daytime reruns of Lucy's shows and the Dick Van Dyke Show. Here's Lucy on Monday nights and Mary and Carol on Saturday nights.



Saturday nights in the 70s. As my sister reminded me today. We would take baths, or get our hair washed and sit downstairs in the family room with our parents and watch CBS: All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart. And then we would beg our father to let us stay up and watch Carol Burnett. He would let us as long as we didn't give him a hard time about getting up for church in the morning.  We always gave him a hard time on Sunday mornings. I would turn off my alarm clock, get back under the covers and shut my eyes when my dad came knocking on the door. I would pretend to be asleep and not wake up. He would walk over to my bed, calling my name, I wouldn't budge. He'd pick up the alarm clock, turn on the alarm and hold it up to my ear.

Loved those shows as a kid. But re-watching them as adult made me appreciate their talents. My fave eps of MTM: The Lars Affair, The Dinner Party, Put on A Happy Face, The Good Time News, Ted's Wedding, Once I Had A Secret Love, Mary Midwife, The Last Show. 
The Dick Van Dyke Show: Coast to Coast Big Mouth, Pink Pills and Purple Parents, I'd Rather Be Bald Then Have No Head, It May Look Like A Walnut, The Curious Thing About Women.

Mary Tyler Moore was diagnosed with Diabetes back in the late 1960s and was an advocate and spokesperson for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation as well as Animal Rights for many years. In recent years, her health declined quite a bit. She was losing her eyesight and had brain surgery a few years back. She hadn't been out in public in about three or four years.

I am glad that she is no longer suffering but boy will I miss her. At least we'll always have reruns and DVDs and streaming.

All in the Family Season 8 and all the feels!

Tonight, I finished watching my the Eighth Season of All in the Family. This is the final season with Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers, which in my opinion should have been the final season of All in the Family. The final episode of the season even plays like it could be a series finale.

All in the Family is one of my favorite series of all time. But there is definitely change in tone in the series around the Sixth Season. I believe this is when new show runners took over and this is also the season where Mike and Gloria are pregnant and they move into the Jefferson's house next door. The audience reactions aren't quite as loud and wild as they were in the first five seasons. Still loud but not the same. And there seems to be an increase in the level of slapstick in the series. i.e. Gloria and Archie giving each other the raspberries all the time, Mike and Archie always getting stuck in doorways, Gloria hitting Archie on the head, pulling on his chest hairs. The show still deals with major topics but they seem more universal and less of the time as they were in the early years.

Also in Season Six, the show was moved from its Saturday 8pm time slot because of the FCC's new Family Hour which meant the no shows with adult content could be shown before 9pm. That ruling was overturned due to law suits from producers like Norman Lear. But by then the damage had been done. For Season 7, All in the Family moved to Wednesday where it fell from 1 to 12 in the Nielsen Ratings. Midway through the season it was moved to Saturdays at 9 and then in Season 8 it moved to Sunday nights where it bounced back up to 4 and stayed in that time slot.

Now Season 8. What can I say. This particular season in my opinion is the best of the later seasons. In this season alone, Archie forges Edith's signature to mortgage the house and buy Kelsey's bar (the two-part season opener), they go to Cousin Liz's funeral and discover she was a lesbian and her roommate was her lover and wants the family heirloom tea set (Emmy best writing), the next episode, Edith almost gets raped on her 50th Birthday (Emmy for direction) and also a two-parter. There's a bunch of two-parters this season. Archie opens the bar and gets very little business so he gets hooked on pills (two-parter).  Next up, he gets recruited by the local KKK who have targeted Mike to burn a cross on his lawn (even though he has no lawn!) also a two-parter, a nice flashback episode for Mike and Gloria and how they met (clearly a showcase for there soon departing Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers), then another two-parter where Beverly LaSalle is killed as the result of a hate crime and Edith loses her faith in God. Archie's Super Bowl party is held up at gunpoint. Archie and Mike get locked in the storeroom overnight and Archie reveals a great deal about his upbringing. And then the final three episodes leading up to Mike and Gloria leaving for Mike's new job in California.  There are a few lighter episodes in there but Boy! A lot happened to this family in the course of six months! I'm glad this wasn't my family. Oy vey! (Sorry Archie)

As for that last episode, I can never sit through it without balling, I just watched it again for the umpteenth time and that last scene where they say their goodbyes...well let's just say I was sniffling and tears were streaming down my cheeks. That last shot of Archie and Edith sitting there in silence staring out as the camera slowly pulls back (what happened to the TV set that's usually in front of their chairs?) and the slow fade out..wow! just, wow!

Season Eight swept the Emmys in 1978 winning in all but one category, Supporting Actress for Sally Struthers. She won the next year for her guest appearance in the Ninth Season. Like I said its the best of the later seasons. Season Nine is a different show. No live studio audience, No Mike or Gloria and instead an adopted seven-year old girl, the daughter of a second cousin of Edith's. Not so great and not a fitting end to a great series.

Saturday nights on CBS were a family ritual in my house growing up. It's comfort food for me, watching all these old TV series and re-living my childhood and teen years.