Being Mary Tyler Moore

Greetings again from the darkness. It's borderline unfathomable that someone who has worked for almost 20 years as a cinematographer and a decade as a TV director could be "unfamiliar" with the work and career of one of the industry giants, yet that's the claim of director James Adolphus ("Soul of a Nation" mini-series) when it comes to Mary Tyler Moore. His film does play a bit as if he's opening a Christmas present that everyone else in the room knows what's under the wrapping, and it's because of this, the film works as not just a retrospective of her career, but also a tribute to a woman who influenced so many.

"The Dick Van Dyke Show" ran for 158 episodes between 1961 and 1966, and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ran for 168 episodes between 1970 and 1977. These were two immensely popular shows during their respective eras, and because of her characters in each, Mary Tyler Moore spent time as both America's favorite wife and America's favorite single woman. These characters were cutting edge (for different reasons) for their time. Director Adolphus also provides insight into her childhood and early career. Mary was first married in 1954, not long after high school graduation. She found work as 'Happy Hotpoint', the dancer on Hotpoint advertisements, and clips of the ads are included here. Even after she became a world-famous actor, she remained a dancer at heart.

Betty Friedan and "The Feminine Mystique" are referenced a few times, and the point is made, even if it's in a subtle manner, that Mary's impact on feminism has long been overlooked. We hear from such industry folks as Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Asner, James L Brooks, and Treva Silverman, as well as friends and family, but it's really Mary herself that we see on screen for the vast majority of the two-hour run time. In particular, a loose structure is formed from clips of her appearances on "The David Susskind Show" and an interview with Rona Barrett. These segments allow for some rare personal insight into Mary Tyler Moore as a person.

So many rare pictures, clips, and home movies are included that we easily follow a career that spanned 50 years ... and three marriages. The first marriage produced her only child. The second marriage, to Grant Tinker, resulted in MTM Productions and her greatest professional success. However, it was the third marriage to Dr. Robert Levine, where she found true and long-lasting love, as well as the motivation to find herself with a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic for rehab in 1984. We learn of her Broadway redemption with "Whose Life is it, anyway?", after her setback on stage many years earlier with a musical "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Probably the most surprising segment here revolves around the original pilot for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ... it has great video and behind-the- scenes scoop.

Given her comedic chops displayed in her two most famous sitcoms, many of us were caught off guard with her Oscar nominated performance in Robert Redford's ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980). What we discover here is that Mary's personal life was nearly as rosy as Laura Petrie's or Mary Richards', and many real-life personal losses allowed her to reveal a bit more of her true self on screen. Most of us know that Mary was the female lead in Elvis Presley's final feature film, CHANGE OF HABIT (1969), but we might not have known that Carl Reiner was her comedy hero, or that her own struggles with diabetes (over decades) led her to become International Chairperson of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). For one who seemed to constantly define the contemporary woman, Mary Tyler Moore's story is impressive, and her personal archives bring more meaning to "Love is All Around."

Beginning May 26, 2023, the documentary will air on HBO and stream on MAX.

It was more than just her smile that did it for me, and I was probably about 7 years old at the time. This special includes a clip from "The Dick Van Dyke Show" 1st season episode, "Washington vs. The Bunny". The "costume" Mary Tyler Moore's character, Laura Petrie, wears during Rob Petrie's dream sequence is simply ever so lovely. Most certainly an inspiration for the "dream sequences" of young boys across the ages.

This is a wonderful glance at the life and amazing career of an incredibly talented and obviously very special woman - Daughter, Wife, Mother, Actress, Producer and Friend. So many lives this woman touched or perhaps, truly graced. This special also makes it quite clear that Mary Tyler Moore was very much simply, a human being.

Included are countless clips from TV shows, films and plays she starred in. A surprise, and something I had never seen before, is a clip from a camera rehearsal of the pilot episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". My goodness, this woman had spunk!

An incredibly wonderful inclusion is that of home videos. No, they are not exactly "TV-Ready" clips. They're unprofessional, fuzzy and don't have the best sound quality. And they are amazing to watch. That these personal moments are being shared with her adoring fans here in this presentation... Well, all I can really say is, Thank You.

10 Stars, A+, 100/100. I would hope to see biographies like this of other Major Stars like this from these same Producers, etc.

I loved the actress Mary Tyler Moore. I have watched the Dick Van Dyke Shoe, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the film Ordinary People. On screen she was a wonderful actress and performer.

I only have to say that that the documentary did not get deep enough into Ms Tyler Moore's private life.

I loved everything I saw but I wished there was more. I just didn't learn enough about her that I didn't already know.

I saw that Ms Moore's sister and son died young but I wanted to learn more about Ms Moore's background.

She had a happy marriage. But she was a political conservative.

I just wanted to learn about her last years. She was let go by Neil Simon while preparing for a role on Broadway.it would have been interesting to understand what occurred as she was suffering Ming from diabetes.

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.

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.