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.

Batman TV Series and newfound respect for TV shows I grew up with

I recently received the 1966 Batman TV series on Blu-Ray from a friend of mine.  I started watching it yesterday. I'm about 8 episode sin at this point. Its interesting to see the first appearances of each of the villains. And it also brought many things.

I didn't realize that the first villain to appear was The Riddler played by Frank Gorshin who is so damn good! (Side Bar: He was nominated for an Emmy for this. Did you know that?) I always assumed it was Caesar Romero.

I also assumed the big four villains would be the first four introduced. While Riddler, Penguin and Joker comprise the first three weeks of shows, Catwoman has yet to show up and I'm in week five now. What I found interesting about the first three is that each one of them escapes from prison. No back stories. Just they've been in jail and they've escaped. Gotham Penitentiary is not doing a good job. The warden is too progressive. Its actually in the dialogue. Oh, and the warden displayed by the original Edward Quartermaine form General Hospital, David Lewis.

With Episode Four, we get Mr. Freeze played by George Sanders (who frankly I don't remember.  I do remember Otto Preminger, the director, who replaces him later in the series.)If you don't know who George Sanders is, watch All About Eve. He is awesome in that movie. What I found most interesting about this episode is that actually give him a back story. He's out for revenge against Batman because he blames Batman for the accident that turned him into Mr Freeze. What?! Back story for a character in a superhero TV/movie made before the 1980s? Unheard of! I'm serious TV shows prior to the 1980s had no continuity!

Back on course here. The three things I'd like to discuss:

1) The cultural phenomenon and impact of this show. I've explained this to co-workers and other young-uns who are under the age of 40 or so that back in the day when we only had a few channels to watch, a hit TV series made it's stars superstars, rock stars almost. Shows like All in The Family, Dallas, The Cosby Show were not just TV shows they were pop culture zeitgeists. Batman was a HUGE cultural phenomenon. I was only about 4 and half when the TV series debuted. I was not old enough to stay up and watch but I certainly knew about it. We played Batman and Robin during recess. We also played James Bond. It was the sixties.

There is nothing like that now. American Idol perhaps in its early seasons. Friends was probably the last TV series whose stars became major celebrities (and filthy rich to boot).

But back then, we talked about shows around the water cooler the next day. Or on the playground during recess. I remember in 5th 6th grade on Tuesdays we'd be impersonating our favorite bits from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In the night before.  Or doing Flip Wilson bits. The Devil Made me do it! In high school, Mondays were all about what we saw on SNL over th weekend, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Jane, you ignorant slut, But Nooooooo!, Cheeseburger cheeseburger, cheeseburger, no coke, pepsi, and so on. Now you know how old I am.

And damn, when JR was left lying on the floor from gun shot wound and we had to wait an entire summer to find out who did it? Big news! (The cover of Time magazine)

Batman merchandise was every where. Most every celebrity in the business wanted to be a guest villain. Some made cameos either as themselves or in character (Colonel Klink from Hogans Heroes, Lurch from The Addams Family, Dick Clark, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis, etc...)

Like most cultural phenomenons, it burned out rather quickly. Three seasons and it was done. But the re-runs lived on throughout the 1970s on afternoons when we came home from school.


2) Re-watching TV shows I grew up with as an adult. As a kid I liked Batman. In fact, I could get a little scared of some of the villains, The Joker in particular. He scared me a bit.I knew there was humor in there but I don't think I fully appreciated it until watching it again as an adult.

This show is a comedy...on purpose for those of you don't realize that. It was made as a comedy. Hell, the Batusi is in the pilot episode. Batman walks into a discotheque where Jill St. John is waiting for him. He walks in, The maitre'd asks if he wants a seat. Batman, in full costume, says I want to blend in. I'll just stand at the bar. LMAO! And then he and Jill St. John start dancing and he does the Batusi.

The show is hysterical. Never got that as a kid. As I got older yes. Its fun to re-watch it now after I don't know how many years. It was in fact nominated for Emmys in its first season in the comedy categories. Its interesting to note that it ran simultaneously with Get Smart, another sitcom that spoofs the spy genre and that I also love and won on DVD.

This brings to mind other shows I watched as a kid but didn't fully appreciate until adulthood. Namely, the Norman Lear shows. My entire family sat down and watched the CBS Saturday night lineup in the 1970s. All in the Family, whatever they put on at 8:30 cause it changed very season one year it was MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Carol Burnett.

What 10 year old really gets all the talk about abortions, and miscarriages and the IRA and racism and rape and cancer and "the change" that was discussed on All in the Family. All I knew was it was funny because the studio audience was loud. really loud. And the Mary Tyler Moore show. Love the characters. But it wasn't until re-watching as an adult that I truly appreciated how well written, directed and acted that show was. There's a reason The Mary Tyler Moore Show is the gold standard by which all sitcoms since are measured up to. It holds up. The scripts are beautifully written.  Callbacks to earlier jokes in earlier scenes. Key information given at the beginning of the scene that are key to later developments. The Veal Prince Orloff episode is a prime example of what I'm talking about. And its got a pre-Fonzie Henry Winkler as Rhoda's date to boot!

Batman was re-run after school growing up for us kids to watch. And while there are certainly things there for kids to enjoy, it was really written for the adults. And it can be appreciated on a whole other level. Besides, Adam West is pretty damn funny. He knows it. He created that character very carefully. And while it may have defined his career, he seems to have always been in on the joke. Witness, his recurring role on Family Guy. I also saw him along with Burt Ward and Julie Newmar on a panel at Comic Con two years ago and he has still got it. Julie Newmar not so much. He made a lot of jokes at her expense that she was a little slow to pick up on. Hilarious!

3) How shows develop after the first couple of episodes. One thing I enjoy about watching old TV shows over again in their entirety from the start is to see how they develop. They don't necessarily start out as what they end up being.

Some shows make a change in characters or direction after one season (Taxi - remember Randall Carver? or Newhart - remember Stephanie Holmes as Leslie or how about Kirk who at least made it through season 2 before being written out). And whatever happened to all the girls from the first season of The Facts of Life? Dallas originally focused on Bobby and Pam. It was supposed to be a modern re-telling of Romeo and Juliet with Juliet marrying into Romeo's family. But the show quickly re-focused on JR.

The Golden Girls: They had a house boy in the pilot episode. Rose never mentions her hometown in the first season. St. Olaf gets mentioned for the first time in Season Two and once the name is attached, the stories become more outrageous.

Delta Burke's character on Designing Women, while established early on as a multi-marrying man-eating former beauty queen from the get go, she doesn't become quite so outspoken and outrageous in her viewpoints until around Season Two.

Green Acres isn't initially so absurdist. Its a gradual progression. I love when they acknowledge the writing and directing credits on the screen in the opening scenes. What are those words floating in the air like that? Or Eb doing chores outside while lip synching to the theme song!

Karen on Will & Grace is a little different in the first season than who she becomes. The shrill voice isn't quite so shrill in the early episodes.

Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show isn't that big a buffoon in the first season.

Likewise, Batman, I'm about 8 shows in and there have been no cameos yet when they're climbing up the walls of buildings.  Robin's Holy (fill in the blank) exclamations aren't in full use yet. And I;'m looking forward to seeing them all again.

BTW: The Blu-Ray is amazing! The show is so colorful and the Blu-Ray brings it all out.

My Not So Secret Love Continued

Yesterday, I told you about my love for television growing up. Today, I give some details about how active my imagination was. Some of this is embarrassing so please kind. I know was a little weirdo.

When I was a kid I fantasized that Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore might be my real parents. I fantasized about being discovered by no less than Lucille Ball.  She would have me a guest star on her show and from that I would get my own Monday night sitcom on CBS...The Richard Van Slyke Show. I would have annual specials too so I had an opportunity to sing and dance of course.

In the Fifth grade, my friends Bob Pohl and Nick Mangus would play The Odd Couple during recess. Bob was Oscar, Nick was Felix and I was Murray the Cop. Murray the Cop. Really?  I fancied myself the star. Instead I'm the fat guy with the big nose? Great!

As I entered later high and into college, my favorite show was Guiding Light. This happened when it expanded from a half hour to an hour and pushed my All in the Family reruns back a half hour. So when I got home from school at 2:30 Guiding Light was just tarting. So I watched and it quickly became my favorite show on TV. I loved it! Rita and Ed. Holly and Roger. Alan and Elizabeth and Justin and Jackie and Mike Bauer of the core Bauer family.  Roger raping Holly. Holly shooting Roger and Roger "dying". The failed kidnap attempt of Christine leading Roger in full clown makeup chasing Holly though a carnival hall of mirrors while Enough is Enough played in the background? Awesome! The introduction of the younger characters, Nola and Kelly an Morgan. The episode that opened with 15 minutes of Kelly confronting Nola about al her lies that had been building for about a year and a half? Brilliant!

Late nights in my college years, CBN (now known as ABC Family) ran reruns of 1950s sitcoms and discovered Burns and Allen, My Little Margie, Private Secretary, I Married Joan.  Then Nick at Nite went on the air and boom! More 1950s 1960s shows.

Now, TVLand and Nick at Nite shows are from the 1990s and even more recent. And we have Retrotv Antenna TV and ME TV. But they are analog channels and without cable, who can get them? Plus they air the same old shows.

So now I collect DVD sets. A lot of DVD sets. I have the complete series of Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Newhart, Family Affair, Hazel, That Girl, Get Smart, Green Acres, All in the Family, Rhoda, WKRP, News Radio, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Odd Couple, Soap, Will & Grace and selected seasons of other series.

Yeah, I think I may have problem!