Mary Tyler Moore Show and Its Spin-Offs

[Snarky Oracle!]

Just enough that every variety show was like a drug induced fever dream.

Yes, this MARY one is almost impressive in its mesmerization factor: unwatchable and yet un-unwatchable simultaneously.,, You don't want to see it, but you can't flip it off.

Mary's subsequent two attempts at a late-'70s variety show were almost as strange. If not quite. But the genre had died and Moore wasn't going to revive it.

 

[Daniel Avery]

the genre had died and Moore wasn't going to revive it.

Yes, and the desperation to "save it" motivated various producers to try nutty stuff like this. They likely thought they could "drag variety shows into the 1970s" but all they did was hasten their demise.

 

[Crimson]

But the genre had died and Moore wasn't going to revive it.

Mary appeared to be misguided about her own talents. She was often quite self-effacing about her skills as a comic actress, but had aspirations as a musical star. Despite her background as a dancer, all of her attempts at musicals on stage, screen and TV were kind of flops.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Rhoda is a terrible show. Without Mary and the gang she was a loud mouth.

Phyllis was funny anywhere its too bad it wasn't rescued and returned for a third season. Lots of bad luck. I like the idea of moving her out on her own, a loose roommate- an unofficial Odd Couple pairing... .

Lou Grant- I didnt pay attention to this until recently. I love films and tv shows about newspapers and finding the story and digging for information. Such a fascinating concept. I'd have been a newspaper guy if the internet had not ruined such things. LG is solid in all ways and such a brilliant idea to make it a drama.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I kind of wish they used this alternative cut of the Season 1 opening theme for the pilot episode -- it's slightly different, rawer, and has its own appeal:

‏‏١١٤ ألف‏ مشاهدة‏ · ‏‏٣٫٩ ألف‏ تفاعل‏ | MTM - Love is all around | Christopher Sebright

MTM - Love is all around

www.facebook.com

 

[Bobby Southworth]

I kind of wish they used this alternative cut of the Season 1 opening theme for the pilot episode -- it's slightly different, rawer, and has its own appeal:

‏‏١١٤ ألف‏ مشاهدة‏ · ‏‏٣٫٩ ألف‏ تفاعل‏ | MTM - Love is all around | Christopher Sebright

MTM - Love is all around

www.facebook.com

I remember coming across this on youtube a few years ago, and then I couldn't find it again. Thank you. I actually like it better than the intro they used for the entire first season. Not that it's 'that' different, but I like what it does once the music picks up better, and there seems to somehow be more shots of Mary around town. Yes, some of the shots look a little rough, or somehow less professional, but I like seeing some scenery we didn't get with the chosen intro.

I agree it should have at least been used for the pilot, but honestly, I would have kind of liked it the whole season, or maybe at least for the first handful of episodes.

The only thing I don't really like is the change in the lyrics. "Girl, you'll be so far from home"-"Girl, this time you're all alone". I like what they ended up going with better.

One of my thoughts has always been that I wish so much of the intro wasn't taken up by the goodbye party scene, combined with Mary just driving. I realize this was the late 60's, early 70's, and intros were still kind of evolving into the lovely, sometimes 2+ minutes we would have by the end of the 70's , but still..I liked the changes made(at least with the scenes) for season 2 better.

Again, thanks for sharing.

 

[Bobby Southworth]

I remember coming across this on youtube a few years ago, and then I couldn't find it again. Thank you. I actually like it better than the intro they used for the entire first season. Not that it's 'that' different, but I like what it does once the music picks up better, and there seems to somehow be more shots of Mary around town. Yes, some of the shots look a little rough, or somehow less professional, but I like seeing some scenery we didn't get with the chosen intro.

I agree it should have at least been used for the pilot, but honestly, I would have kind of liked it the whole season, or maybe at least for the first handful of episodes.

The only thing I don't really like is the change in the lyrics. "Girl, you'll be so far from home"-"Girl, this time you're all alone". I like what they ended up going with better.

One of my thoughts has always been that I wish so much of the intro wasn't taken up by the goodbye party scene, combined with Mary just driving. I realize this was the late 60's, early 70's, and intros were still kind of evolving into the lovely, sometimes 2+ minutes we would have by the end of the 70's , but still..I liked the changes made(at least with the scenes) for season 2 better.

Again, thanks for sharing.

Ahh.. I see how this worked better. There was more music before the singing here, and some of the goodbye party/driving was taken up during that instead, so therefore, they were able to get more shots of Minneapolis and Mary. I think that I like this better, but then there's something to be said for the timing between the visuals and the music, the sequencing somehow being better with the version they went with.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I remember coming across this on youtube a few years ago, and then I couldn't find it again. Thank you. I actually like it better than the intro they used for the entire first season. Not that it's 'that' different, but I like what it does once the music picks up better, and there seems to somehow be more shots of Mary around town. Yes, some of the shots look a little rough, or somehow less professional, but I like seeing some scenery we didn't get with the chosen intro.

I agree it should have at least been used for the pilot, but honestly, I would have kind of liked it the whole season, or maybe at least for the first handful of episodes.

The only thing I don't really like is the change in the lyrics. "Girl, you'll be so far from home"-"Girl, this time you're all alone". I like what they ended up going with better.

One of my thoughts has always been that I wish so much of the intro wasn't taken up by the goodbye party scene, combined with Mary just driving. I realize this was the late 60's, early 70's, and intros were still kind of evolving into the lovely, sometimes 2+ minutes we would have by the end of the 70's , but still..I liked the changes made(at least with the scenes) for season 2 better.

Again, thanks for sharing.

Ahh.. I see how this worked better. There was more music before the singing here, and some of the goodbye party/driving was taken up during that instead, so therefore, they were able to get more shots of Minneapolis and Mary. I think that I like this better, but then there's something to be said for the timing between the visuals and the music, the sequencing somehow being better with the version they went with.

As much as I like the better known Season 2 and beyond version of the opening theme, musically and lyrically, they had to have the Season 1 version (the above-posted, alternate version was used in a promo, sent out to the affiliate stations months before the series began airing in fall 1970) because it just taps into the deeply melancholy zeitgeist on the cusp of the '60s & '70s... As I've said before, the motange-y style and more forlorn lyric from Season 1, Mary emerging from her past and headed into her future, evokes a period-specific bittersweet mood which can also be found in things like the wordless snow angels/ice skating montage in LOVE STORY, maybe the street montage sequences from MIDNIGHT COWBOY, and the entire movie of HAROLD & MAUDE, among other things.

The point being that, as a person -- alive and on the planet at that particular moment in time -- the world actually felt like that. It really did!

Reza Badiyi and Mary went to Minneapolis in February 1970, before the show was even cast, to get the footage of Mary trudging through the snow. By happenstance, shortly thereafter Sonny Curtis came in with his "Love is All Around" song and was met by a pleasant-but-detached Jim Brooks (the co-creator and co-producer) who expected to politely dismiss the singer/songwriter with a "don't call us, we'll call you; we're seeing a lot of people" response -- until Curtis performed the song. Was asked to do it several times. And they bought it on the spot.... which, even then, was not the way the business ordinarily worked.

 

[Bobby Southworth]

The more I've watched this promo version, the more I dig it, and think it would have been a better intro for season 1, Mostly because it does a better job of showing both seasons of Mary's transition, but I can see, to your point, that showing too much of what's yet to be discovered kind of takes away from the intended essence.

 

[Crimson]

As much as I like the better known Season 2 and beyond version of the opening theme, musically and lyrically, they had to have the Season 1 version

I admit I prefer the season 1 lyrics. Perhaps the lyrical match to the first season's delicate melancholy wasn't as applicable from S2 onward, but "Who can turn the world on with her smile?" -- iconic as it became -- seems overly extravagant for sweet Mary Richards; better suited to the final seasons.

Someone -- you? -- once suggested that perhaps the lyrics should have been gently tweaked season over season to reflect the show's evolution; although maybe constantly changing it would have prevented it from becoming iconic.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I admit I prefer the season 1 lyrics. Perhaps the lyrical match to the first season's delicate melancholy wasn't as applicable from S2 onward, but "Who can turn the world on with her smile?" -- iconic as it became -- seems overly extravagant for sweet Mary Richards; better suited to the final seasons.

Someone -- you? -- once suggested that perhaps the lyrics should have been gently tweaked season over season to reflect the show's evolution; although maybe constantly changing it would have prevented it from becoming iconic.

I do hear in my head, when they re-orchestrated the jingle for Season 7, a harmonizing with Curtis vocally dueling with himself. Finishing up with a "looks like you've made it after all...!" It only exists inside my mind, but has remained unchanged for half-a-century. So maybe I was right.

Publishers are so stupid. When Mary wrote her autobiography in the mid-'90s, she wanted to call it "Hide the Blue-Eyed Horse." But the publishing house insisted she call it "After All" -- like her old theme song, as if that would make the book fly off the shelves. So Mary reluctant conceded.

Idiotic mothah-phukcin' business people.