Feeb

Since she is just a fictional character, we must accept Mary Richards for who she is. In my place of employment, as incredibly attractive as she is, her way of dealing with things as a person of authority, wouldn't have lasted long. In this one the gang gone to a restaurant for Ted's birthday. The waitress is horrible. She isn't just incompetent; she is rude and disinterested. Mary complains to the manager and she is fired. Wouldn't you know it, when a job opens up at the station, she applies and Mary, rather than hire a really competent person, filled with guilt, hires her. She is worse at her job there than she was at the restaurant. Mary has to do her own work and the new girl's work. And this person simply accepts it without any gratitude. Rhoda warned her and she went ahead anyway. It was fun to watch Mary, wearing her heart on her sleeve as Lou accuses her of being jealous.

A funny show with our WJM friends, but what was with Mary, Lou, and Ted all acting a little out of character? I mean, Mary's a sweetheart, but this one crossed over into parody. Leaving an undeserved tip under the plate was one thing, hiring Randy over Doreen was another, and then Mary slid headlong down the slippery slope to guilt-ridden doormat with her rewriting the letter over her lunchbreak coupled with offering to come in early and stay late to help Randy. It grew increasingly vexing, and her moment's hesitation when Lou wanted to fire Randy had me yelling at the screen. By the time of the reveal in the phone call tag scene I was just shaking my head in resigned exasperation.

And what was with Ted? In "Ted Over Heels" a couple shows ago he's awkward and unsure of himself with women and leans on Mary for confidence. Here he's a smooth player, commanding Mary to stand down as he escorts Randy off to lunch and what--? Did you catch how tousled her hair was upon returning? A lunchtime tumble with Ted? That is not our Ted.

Lou hates spunk but loves a cute caboose? Hey, Lou can be gruff, but he's not coarse, and certainly would never be so shamelessly blatant to Mary about his leering. Lou is usually portrayed as a benevolent micromanager, glaring and hovering when Mary has guests or personal phone calls, so I couldn't believe he would delegate to Mary the hiring of a secretary, especially one he'd be so dependent upon. And why would "Mr. Graham" want to give a raise to someone who couldn't bother to get his name right? Lou enjoying firing people? Now that's our Lou, and I welcomed his return at the bottom of the ninth.

So what happened? This was the first of four episodes written by Dick Clair, and it's obvious he didn't have a firm grasp on the characters. Sure, some exaggeration of character was played for laughs, but these were all defined and nuanced characters by this point in the series and Clair's characterizations often rang false and even unsettling.

Closing observations: Credit Randy for being a go-getter. As a single mother with a three-year-old daughter she could just as easily slept in late and watched soaps while awaiting her welfare check. I just hoped she was more invested in being a parent than she was an employee. Randy's application noting she's divorced stirred up a memory of Mary's interview in the opening episode: "I don't think you're allowed to ask that."

The restaurant was a slightly redressed set of the bar the strikers gathered in back in "Thoroughly Unmilitant Mary." And while Randy was a terrible waitress, the restaurant must bear some blame for being woefully undersupplied on goulash and swiss steak (lotsa liverwurst, however).

And lots of laughs amid the frustrations, so by no means a "feeb" episode. Alas, those will come in later seasons....

... I gain more and more sympathy with a certain modern day movement, which I won't name so as not to atract skimming trolls. As I was growing up during the period in which this show was produced, I can personally attest that what it depicted was not overboard - it was perhaps even worse, in fact.

A boss is having his female subordinate screen candidates for a job which could only be filled by a young woman, because no real Man would take such a job, and a male applicant would immediately encounter gay panic!

Said boss rejects an apparently qualified (female) applicant because her "caboose" wasn't adequate. And Mary Richards, the pioneering single female career woman, shrugs it off and introduces a wildly incompetent candidate, who at least appears adequate in the "caboose" department, at which her boss lears, "Back her in here."

The more episodes I rewatch, the more I question, was this show really so groundbreaking, or was it just a beating-down of women starting to protest against what was such a prevalent attitude, even in the 1970s...

If anyone thinks I'm exaggerating, watch a season or two of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show; a constant joke of the series was about how Gracie was the real moneymaker of the couple, and yet, how many episodes revolved around the purportedly ditzy Gracie coming up with elaborate schemes to bilk George out of a smidgen of the couple's money, the source of which she was acknowledged to be. Because, of course, he was the husband, and thus the lord and master of all earnings.

Granted, Burns and Allen were a decade prior to the MTM Show, but it's hard not to see how ingrained such attitudes were on all sides. In Moore's earlier series, The Dick Van Dyke Show, how many episodes revolved around Rob feeling emasculated and declaring that he was the husband and he was putting his foot down!

Anyone who tries to deny long-standing sexism, as well as other prejudices, is either being disingenuous or obtuse.

It pains me now to see that what I found funny as a teen was so blatantly awful.

This episode has a bit more negativity and unpleasantness than usual which can be hard to stomach. Even the episode title seems a bit mean.

Lou is exasperated as the (suitable) applicants Mary has lined-up for the new secretary job aren't attractive enough. Since the last two are good looking, Lou lets Mary make the final decision. (He even checks out Mary's rear as she leaves the room.) Instead of an ideal candidate Mary hires the inept waitress Randy (Barbara Sharma) who was fired after Mary complained of bad service, as she feels so guilty.

Randy is terrible at the job, but Mary covers for her. The situations are well acted - too well acted! It gets very frustrating to watch.

I felt bad for the good applicant who didn't get the job.