Being Mary Tyler Moore

I grew up watching "The Dick Van Dyke Show", so I was exposed to the talents of Mary Tyler Moore at a young age. At the time, I perceived that she was lovable, funny, and somewhat innocent. After watching this documentary, I think those descriptors are accurate.

This biopic provides insights into MTM's point of view throughout her career. It also tries to define her place in (mostly) TV history, as society was redefining itself in the 1960s. To that end, the documentary includes numerous quotes from notable feminists of that era, primarily to skewer her Laura Petrie role as a bad influence. This raises a couple of questions.

First, was the "Dick Van Dyke Show"---and its characters----a reflection of the changing times or a cause of change? Probably both, but primarily the former.

Secondly, if the Laura Petrie role is iconic, is it due to MTM or the producers, directors and writers of the show who defined the role and gave it life through the scripts? I can admire MTM as a person and actor without trying to make her a social icon. As we learn from the documentary, the public really knew little about MTM, the woman, at the time.

The film does illustrate how dramatically MTM evolved and became more self-actualized as she dealt with career challenges, personal tragedies, and relationship issues. It is easy to feel sympathy for her, because she always maintained a sense of humor and she always tried to improve, professionally and personally.

This might not be a very objective overview of her life, but it is enjoyable.

To say that iconic actress/dancer/comedienne Mary Tyler Moore was a gifted, complicated, reserved, often-misunderstood individual is indeed an understatement. However, director James Adolphus's new HBO documentary presents a reverent, insightful and respectfully candid biography of the famed star of TV, stage and screen, showing Moore in all of her magnificent multidimensionality. As the winner of seven Emmys, three Golden Globes, a special Tony Award and the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as an Oscar nomination for her tremendous lead performance in "Ordinary People" (1980), she significantly changed the face of television comedy and demonstrated a degree of acting versatility rarely seen. In her TV roles as Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, she opened doors for actresses by portraying characters who hadn't been seen on the little screen before. And, in a wider sense, in her role as Mary Richards, she significantly bolstered the growth of the women's movement in the world at large, a role she championed despite her own somewhat conventional off-screen lifestyle, a way of life for which she was often criticized by feminists. However, Moore's personal life often ran counter to the perky, cheerful on-screen persona she routinely projected, and she rarely spoke openly about the many challenges she faced - a sometimes-troubled relationship with her parents, two divorces, the loss of her only son in a gun shot accident, the untimely deaths of her two younger siblings, alcohol abuse and coping with complications from type 1 diabetes. As she aged, however, the fighter within her found ways to work through the anguish, such as choosing projects that enabled her to purge her pain, receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Clinic, becoming an advocate for her favorite causes and finding true love in a third marriage. The filmmaker tells Moore's complex, moving and inspiring story with an array of clips from her work, archive interview footage with renowned journalists and celebrities, and ample voiceover observations from those who knew her and admired her work. The narrative is admittedly somewhat straightforward and formulaic, but it presents an excellent composite of images and insights into the life and work of a legend, one that's bound to cause her to be seen in a new light and could well introduce her to a new generation of fans who may not have previously been aware of her many accomplishments. Take a bow, Mary.

A recent HBO documentary on the ultimate woman of television. Using archival footage & audio interviews, we learn of Moore, who was a dancer, who made her way to Hollywood in bit parts & who all but decided to quit the game, after a long series of rejections, before she got her seminal berth alongside Dick Van Dyke on the Dick Van Dyke show in the 1960's which showed her to be more than just a pretty face who had excellent comic timing but also became the nascent face of feminism by her insistence to wear things most women in the world wore already, like pants, became revolutionary which was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg when the Mary Tyler Moore show launched in the next decade. In that incarnation, Moore became the clarion call for all independent working women out in the world as Mary Richards was the poster child for the women's movement navigating her life at a TV studio & standing up to the men in charge. Although her home life wasn't ideal (her son passed from a gun accident, her first 2 marriages went by the wayside & she accepted the fact much like her mother she was an alcoholic) she managed to get an Oscar nom for her turn in 1980's Ordinary People & racked up acclaim for a performance in the stage version of Whose Life is It Anyway? In her later years she found, in her own words, the love of her life, a doctor, marrying him who was by her side as she suffered from diabetes. HBO must've known something was in the air since this aired a few weeks after their Donna Summer doc, coupled w/the news that icon, Tina Turner, also passed (& who has a HBO doc of her own from a few years ago), making this viewing a must see but also bittersweet since in some ways a friend of the family & the world at large had gone into the great beyond.

As "Being Mary Tyler Moore" (2023 release; 120 min) opens, she is interviewed on the David Susskind Show in 1966, where she is being interviewed as one of the major breakout stars of The Dick Van Dyke show. We then go back in time to "Brooklyn, 1936" where MTM was borne and raised... At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from director James Adolphus. I read somewhere that supposedly he had no knowledge of Mary Tyler Moore before being hired for this project. Is that believable or even possible? In any event, Adolphus does ok, but to me it felt like it was all super-straight-forward. Yes, all the highlights are there. But where are the new insights? Maybe it is not possible to provide new insights on this TV icon. And at 2 hours, the documentary runs a bit long for its own good. Does this make it a "bad" documentary? Of course not. But it lacks the element of surprise or new insights.

"Being Mary Tyler Moore" recently started airing on HBO and streaming on Max (where I caught it). If you are a fan of MTM (as I am myself), I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

A fine bio/doc of, in my opinion, the best sit com actress of the twentieth century, and a damn fine dramatic actor as well. I especially admired how director James Adolphus avoided the Talking Head Trap by having voices over clips rather than cutting away from clips to shots of talking heads talking, as most docs do. Bravo. Also, I found the voices generally well chosen, mostly interested in imparting info and perceptions about Ms. Moore rather than pushing themselves. Again, I would credit the fact that the speakers were not shown on camera for this felicitousness.

As for the tone of this documentary, it's fairly doleful, wouldn't you say? Certainly, Ms. Moore's life had its share of sadnesses, what with a cold fish dad, possibly suicidal sister and son, and alcoholic brother. But there is a core of melancholy present in all her interviews, even at their most comic. Maybe all professional funny folks are subject to this trait, but it sure is present in this gal.

My only criticism is that there is too much time spent on act three (Moore's long decline after she moved to upstate NY) and not enough on act one (her early life with her parents, and first marriage). Act two, however, cannot be improved on, especially the treatment of The Mary Tyler Moore Show's influence on American popular culture in the 70s and even more especially that culture's changing views on women and the workplace. Let's just say that this doc effectively eviscerates Gloria Steinem's monumentally dumb remark that TMTMS was "anti woman". Give it an A minus.

PS...Forgot what a pompous bore David Susskind was.