"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is absolutely my FAVORITE television show of all time, with "The Dick Van Dyke Show" falling a hair behind. I love all the characters of the MTM show...they all had great lines, and those actors knew how to deliver. Mary Tyler Moore exemplified true sportsmanship in making this whole show a wonderful example of COMPLETE ensemble acting. Every character had his/her shining moments, time and time again. I was about nine when this show debuted, and truly grew up with it. I used to hate Ted, because he was so unbelievably stupid. However, now that I've spent twenty or so years in the work world, I have had the complete displeasure of working with Ted Baxters everywhere....so many who rise to their level of complete incompetence. And over the years, in watching reruns, I have come to fully appreciate Ted Knight's genius in his portrayal of Ted Baxter. The episode in which Mary is simply feeling completely down in the dumps...her motivation is gone for no apparent reason, other than the fact that she has hit a slump (a "new apartment" episode). Ted Knight's portrayal of Ted Baxter imitating her in her slumpy condition, and repeating the whole scene with identical dialog but with a completely different attitude, basically showing Mary that she has to appreciate what she has in life, and look at it all with a different, positive perspective, was sheer comedic genius at its finest.
The final episode of this series portrayed my comment about Corporate America very realistically, and the episode itself is one for a time capsule....just bottle it up. Ditto for the "Chuckles the Clown" episode...and for the "Veal Prince Orloff" episode. Actually, I'd love to put all of MTM's episodes, along with those from the Dick Van Dyke Show, in a time capsule and send them into space. Nick at Nite should run episodes only from MTM, the Dick Van Dyke Show, Bob Newhart, and The Wonder Years. That is all that that station needs, and I'm sure that the ratings would go through the roof. But back to Mary....her show was a brilliant gem that graced the world of American television, and no other show will ever hold a candle to it....EVER. Yes, Seinfeld was funny, and "breakthrough", in being a show about nothing, and it even offered phrases that entered our vernacular. But it missed the one key element that MTM had in spades...heart. The Seinfeld show, as funny as it always was, really never made you cry or pulled at your heart strings...ever (other than maybe making you cry from laughter). The MTM Show, on the other hand, combined humor, drama, reality, the absurd, the sublime, and a lot of warmth all rolled into one magnificent, shining, seven-year love-fest for our pop culture, and I thank Mary for giving us this bright light. In a comic strip that was published I believe just the Sunday after the last episode aired, a man was depicted throwing his television set out his window, crying. The cartoonist captured the national sentiment quite beautifully. I miss Mary and her gang to this day. Thank goodness for the complete DVD set.
