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Global Telly Talk
Classic US TV
Mary Tyler Moore Show and Its Spin-Offs
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 440136" data-attributes="member: 57984"><p>Strangely enough, a percentage of the public <em><strong>cannot</strong></em> distinguish between real life and fiction. Just ask anybody who's been in movies or TV for six months, let alone played the same role for years.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, she was to be a divorcee. And the network freaked about it in the way networks always freaked-out over the wrong things (while ignoring things that mattered, like Donna Reed and Pam Ewing's Dream years later).</p><p></p><p>Divorces were only seen as routine for movie stars, like naughty home wreckers Lana Turner and Elizabeth Taylor. Yes, "regular people" got divorced also, but it was always with a vague odor of disapproval or discussed with discomfort.</p><p></p><p>I'm just old enough to remember how references to "divorce" and "cancer" were, in impolite society, uttered literally in hushed tones. That was still somewhat the case as the '60s collided into the '70s. (I still jump a bit when Leo G. Carroll mentions "cancer" near the end of REBECCA in 1940!)</p><p></p><p>Barbara Parkins made a really good point during an interview about VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and she described how any kind of scandal in the '60s, especially sex scandal, was seen "as being <strong>really </strong>dirty." And it <em>was. A</em>nd in a way quite difficult to effectively articulate today, the nuance of the zeitgeist at that time. (If you want to appreciate the utter moralistic shock/titillation that arose and surrounded the Burton/Taylor romance, where the biggest star on the planet stole two husbands, place it in the context of the era). It's not just because it "was a more innocent time," which it certainly was not, but an era of seismic transitions that <strong><em>felt </em></strong>more dramatic than they even were on paper.</p><p></p><p>That atmosphere was, more or less, still mostly in place when the stark, volatile ambiance of the late-'60s became the deeply melancholy early-'70s.</p><p></p><p>Within just a couple of years, there was little or no prohibition of lead characters in TV series from being divorced at all; in fact, by the mid-'70s, it was almost a prerequisite.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/11/screen-shot-2014-11-02-at-15-45-47.png?quality=80&strip" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 776px" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarky Oracle!, post: 440136, member: 57984"] Strangely enough, a percentage of the public [I][B]cannot[/B][/I] distinguish between real life and fiction. Just ask anybody who's been in movies or TV for six months, let alone played the same role for years. Yes, she was to be a divorcee. And the network freaked about it in the way networks always freaked-out over the wrong things (while ignoring things that mattered, like Donna Reed and Pam Ewing's Dream years later). Divorces were only seen as routine for movie stars, like naughty home wreckers Lana Turner and Elizabeth Taylor. Yes, "regular people" got divorced also, but it was always with a vague odor of disapproval or discussed with discomfort. I'm just old enough to remember how references to "divorce" and "cancer" were, in impolite society, uttered literally in hushed tones. That was still somewhat the case as the '60s collided into the '70s. (I still jump a bit when Leo G. Carroll mentions "cancer" near the end of REBECCA in 1940!) Barbara Parkins made a really good point during an interview about VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and she described how any kind of scandal in the '60s, especially sex scandal, was seen "as being [B]really [/B]dirty." And it [I]was. A[/I]nd in a way quite difficult to effectively articulate today, the nuance of the zeitgeist at that time. (If you want to appreciate the utter moralistic shock/titillation that arose and surrounded the Burton/Taylor romance, where the biggest star on the planet stole two husbands, place it in the context of the era). It's not just because it "was a more innocent time," which it certainly was not, but an era of seismic transitions that [B][I]felt [/I][/B]more dramatic than they even were on paper. That atmosphere was, more or less, still mostly in place when the stark, volatile ambiance of the late-'60s became the deeply melancholy early-'70s. Within just a couple of years, there was little or no prohibition of lead characters in TV series from being divorced at all; in fact, by the mid-'70s, it was almost a prerequisite. [IMG width="776px"]https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/11/screen-shot-2014-11-02-at-15-45-47.png?quality=80&strip[/IMG] [/QUOTE]
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Classic US TV
Mary Tyler Moore Show and Its Spin-Offs
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