Not to be confused with the 1978 variety show of the same name (plus an exclamation point) this sitcom marked MTM's return to series television. The premise found Mary Brenner (Moore) looking for work after the magazine she wrote for was closed down. She lands at a seedy Chicago rag as a consumer advocate, where she must deal with a pandering managing editor (James Farentino), a lecherous theater critic (John Astin) and a chain smoking columnist (Katey Sagal). Her home life isn't much better with her love starved neighbor who is dating a shady underworld character (James Tolkan). There's some clever dialog and funny circumstances to be had, but the overall feeling of the show is somewhat bleak. I remember the theories at the time about why the show failed - Mary Tyler Moore was really America's sweetheart in a way, and we didn't want to see her down on her heels, we wanted to see her make good. They pointed to to Valerie Harper's sitcom at the time, Valerie (before the conflicts which sullied it and led to her character being killed off), which was much more of a hit because the character was in better circumstances than Rhoda was.
The clip above is part one of the pilot, uploaded to YouTube by bensonshow. This series has never made it to DVD, though several episodes are on YouTube.
Obscurity factor: 9 (vaguely remembered, not on DVD, on YouTube)
I liked this show a lot. You are right that it had a bleaker feel than "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Katey Sagal was hilarious. The only two things I really remember about the series is when Mary had a party and Katey brought top ramen, which she said looked like a big brain, and when John Astin's character had written a play and the rest of the cast went to the opening night performance.
ReplyDeleteInteresting - Mary throwing a bad party and one of the office mates writing a play - both scenarios were in her original show...
ReplyDeleteThat's true! I found this show to be a lot like her first one, which is probably why I liked it. If I remember correctly, John Astin's character was sort of like Ted Baxter.
ReplyDeleteYes, and Katey Sagal was sorta like Murray and the boss was a Lou Grant doppleganger, except there was more of a spark there. The main difference was that Mary wan't perky...
ReplyDeleteI liked this show a lot. Yeah it was bleaker, but it was till Mary so I went along with it. The writing was funny and the performances were charming but it didn't click with anyone else except me and a few diehard fans.
ReplyDeleteThe down-at-the-heels comment is interesting, and I can understand that. Where in her first series the opening credits showed a young woman who was moving to a big city to make her mark, in this show she plays someone who has "made it after all" but then finds herself back at square one. Even the credits reflect this, with her walking into the newspaper doors with a kind of "at least it's better than unemployment" look on her face and in her body language.
ReplyDeleteYes, that hits the nail on the head...
ReplyDeleteWow - I remember seeing a few episodes when they originally aired in 1985, and being extremely disappointed. It is a blatant rip-off of her previous sitcom - as if continuing right where "Mary" was fired at the end of her classic series. This was the same season that "The Golden Girls" began, and "Mary" just seemed so poorly constructed, in comparison. Of course, "The MTM Show" is one of my favorites, and its perfection just can't be topped.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's unfortunate there wasn't more originality at work there...
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