OUR HERO
Happy Birthday To Us, Mary Tyler Moore
MORE THAN THREE DECADES AFTER SHE ENDED HER EPONYMOUS TELEVISION SHOW, MARY TYLER MOORE still is remembered most fondly as “Mary Richards,” news producer of WJM-News in Minneapolis.
Moore celebrated her 75th birthday December 29th, and that was enough reason for fans (including me) to hark back to her critically-acclaimed comedy about a single career woman making a life for herself in the city.
Mary was the “token woman” in the newsroom, the girl with “spunk” who bloomed into a confident career woman in charge of her sexuality. Unlike any woman on television before or since, she lived on a budget, practiced prudence and frugality and refused to be rushed into relationships.
And though she wrestled with finding her voice, she showed us from the first episode that she had enough self-respect than to tolerate cads. When she bid her pompous doctor boyfriend adieu, he told her to “take care.” Her classy retort: “I think I just did.”
A lot of young women and journalists saw themselves — or wanted to see themselves — in the smartly-dressed character. As my fellow writer here at CrabbyGolightly once said of the character: “We are Mary.”
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of the “most acclaimed television programs ever produced” in the U.S., according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, winning 29 Emmy Awards over its seven-year broadcast history. Time lists it among “17 shows that changed television,” calling it a “sophisticated show about grownups among other grownups, having grownup conversations,” and credits Moore as making Mary “a fully realized person, iconic but fallible, competent but flappable, practical but romantic.”
Thirty-four years after Moore left the newsroom, her legacy lives on: the show continues to air, full episodes can be seen at Hulu, and DVD releases remain ranked among television’s top ranked shows, according to Wikipedia.
And every year on Moore’s birthday, we get to remember the dancer and actress who helped us get to know ourselves, and to thank her for her present.
Happy Birthday, Mary.
Here’s the opening credits and then two full episodes: the first is “Don’t Break The Chain,” and the second is “Christmas and The Hard Luck Kid.” Enjoy.
