During the peak of quarantine amidst the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, many had to find a new way to pass the time. Some picked up a new hobby, while others watched films or shows they used to love and relived the nostalgia for better times. During this time, I watched “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” for the first time on Hulu, and from the moment Mary Tyler Moore threw her blue beret in the air, I was completely hooked. To say that this show changed my life would be an understatement, and even 50 years after it first aired, it still holds up as an incredible story about female independence and friendship, successfully tackling many complex issues that still resonate with audiences today.
Airing on CBS from 1970 to 1977, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” follows Mary Richards, a woman who moves to Minneapolis, Minn., after breaking off an engagement with her boyfriend. There, she is hired as the associate producer for WJM, a local news station run by a stern, tough-loving boss named Lou Grant. Throughout the show, she bonds with several of her co-workers, including the buffoonish news anchor Ted Baxter and amiable newswriter Murray Slaughter. Outside of work, Mary is often shown interacting with her landlord, Phyllis Lindstrom, and upstairs neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern, a brash New Yorker who quickly becomes Mary’s best friend.
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” aired at the height of the Second Wave Feminist movement, which heavily influenced its plot and the issues it tackled. A show that focused solely on a single woman who did not depend on a man was nearly unheard of before “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” as many situation-comedies at the time were centered on a family unit. Additionally, the show was also not afraid to shy away from handling controversial topics; it showed Mary Richards’ struggles with sexism in the workplace, had her openly date, and showed many of the characters discussing topics like sex and birth control, all of which had never been done on a television show before.
The show also broke boundaries in other aspects, such as being the first television show to say the word “gay” on air. In the season three episode “My Brother’s Keeper,” Phyllis tries to set Mary up on a date with her brother, Ben, but is horrified to discover that he is getting along better with Rhoda. At the end of the episode, when Phyllis confronts her about the date she went on with Ben, Rhoda tells her that they decided not to see each other again. When Phyllis begins to question her as to why their date didn’t go well, mentioning all of her brother’s good qualities, Rhoda nonchalantly replies: “He’s gay.”
Each episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” also featured relatable, well-written characters, whose stories were intriguing and helped make the show as loved as it was. The character I had always resonated with was Rhoda Morgenstern, Mary’s best friend. Played by actress Valerie Harper, Rhoda was one of the first openly Jewish characters to have a major role on television, and would eventually be given her own spin-off show in 1974, “Rhoda.” One of my favorite aspects of Rhoda’s character was her humor; it was blunt and sometimes off-putting, which made her a great foil to the more mild-mannered Mary.
Other notable characters included Phyllis Lindstrom (played by Cloris Leachman), Mary’s judgmental, eccentric friend and landlord; Lou Grant (played by Ed Asner), Mary’s boss and later close friend; and Ted Baxter (played by Ted Knight), the ditzy, arrogant newscaster at WJM. In later seasons, Betty White and Georgia Engel joined the show as Sue Ann Nivens and Georgette Franklin respectively, both loveable and hilarious characters who filled the empty holes in the show following Harper and Leachman’s departures.
While “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was progressive, especially when it came to the topic of women’s rights, it was still held back in many ways because of the time period it was created in. Originally, Mary Tyler Moore pitched the show to CBS with Mary Richards as a divorcee who came to Minneapolis to rebuild her life after her marriage. The producers, however, believed that this was too radical of an idea and argued that audiences would confuse Mary Richards with Laura Petrie, Moore’s character on her previous show “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” After further discussion, Moore eventually compromised by having Mary Richards be a single woman instead. Additionally, the cast was not very diverse, save for one Black character named Gordon Howard, who left the show after only 10 episodes.
Despite these setbacks, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” still contains funny, heartwarming moments that still resonate with audiences today. Some episodes that stand out to me include “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” where Mary inappropriately laughs during her old friend’s funeral while the priest delivers a eulogy, and “Rhoda the Beautiful,” where Mary and Phyllis encourage Rhoda to join a beauty pageant.
The last scene of the show, however, is one that has always touched me deeply. After all of the major characters, save for Ted, are fired from WJM, they huddle together in the newsroom one last time. As the others exit while singing “It’s A Long Way to Tipperary,” Mary lingers to look in at the newsroom one last time, before she famously turns off the lights and shuts the door, bringing an end to the show. In his 29th primetime Emmys speech, writer Allan Brooks reminisced on the episode, saying that, “It was poignant, and I believe ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ was, in the long run, important for many women.”
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is one of the most important television shows in history, breaking boundaries and setting a precedent for the shows that followed it. I am grateful to have been able to watch the show in its entirety, and if you have not watched it, I suggest that you do at least once in your life. The significance of the show aside, it is a hilarious, heartwarming show that contains many lessons that still resonate with audiences today.
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