Mary

This show had a great cast. What it didn't have was any competent writing whatsoever. Mary Tyler Moore knew that from the start. Her performance looked dispirited and tired.

The problem was that the writers were so intent on force-feeding "characters" to the audience that they forgot to give the audience ANY character to actually like, including Mary's. They made every character so self-involved and irritating that the goodwill audience drawn by Mary Tyler Moore's presence stopped tuning in quickly. We're huge MTM fans and I think we watched three episodes and just couldn't take it any more.

This is what would have happened to the Mary Tyler Moore show if the ENTIRE cast had been written like Ted and Phyllis, just to make my point more clear.

They had a can't-miss cast, and they struck out looking.

This short season must have been cancelled mid-way through its first season presumably, due to there being only thirteen episodes shown. Are there more? Anyhow, I remember it as a being a good show, and of the style of sitcoms of its time - probably the production values looking like late Diff'rent Strokes (shot on video) or perhaps even shot on film and edited on tape (and the poor NTSC edit/telecine quality of the time). I guess this will remain 'lost in oblivion' due to the lack of episodes (so no syndication value), but I would welcome a DVD box set - but due to even the 'classic' Mary Tyler Moore Show struggling to get further DVD releases, it somehow seems unlikely. Good luck with hunting it down, it is worth the effort.

Such a shame that this Mary Tyler-Moore vehicle for the 80's failed. The format was similar to her smash hit 70's show, with a strong supporting cast and sharp writing, only this time she's relocated to Chicago and is in publishing, not television, but it didn't get past 13 hard-to-find episodes, more's the pity.

Also passing through were Katey "Peg Bundy" Sagal as her acid-tongued chain-smoking co-worker Jo, James Farentino as her matter-of-fact, good-looking editor Frank, Carlene Watkins, who I loved in another forgotten 80's gem "Best Of The West" and her boy-friend, James Tolkan resembling and generally putting it about like a latter-day Daddy Warbucks gone slightly bad and best of all John Gomez from "The Addams Family" Astin as the blow-hard theatre critic, "Lasalle, Ed Lasalle", extends handshake...

I still remember funny lines from the show 30 years on and would love to track down more than the few episodes I've managed to trace so far, they're quite as funny as I remember them originally. As before Tyler-Moore's own delivery is spot-on and if you don't like all her ticks, flicks and kicks by now, then don't bother tuning in. Sure the show revolves around her but she's such a good pivot that just like in the 70's you care about her and all the people in her world even as you're laughing both at and with them.

The 80's really was a golden era for American situation comedy, but not all of them survived the distance - I'm thinking of short-lived series like "The Associates", the previously mentioned "Best Of The West" and very definitely this one. Hopefully they're out there in the ether somewhere and will turn up in the future on some Retro Gold channel or two. That sounds like TV heaven to me.

I thought "Mary" was absolutely hysterical and its demise was premature. Great actors, great premise and chemistry with Mary and James Farentino. CBS missed the boat with this one. If given half a chance, this show would have been every bit as cherished as her earlier show. Mary, as an older and slightly jaded Mary Richards-type, just could not have been better. Her timing and her comedic skill were undiminished and had, in fact, grown. There was one episode where Mary goes to a restaurant to meet a date who never shows up. Mary could not have been more hilarious and simultaneously more lovable as she tries to be comfortable sitting alone with all eyes on her and a annoying waiter who doesn't believe anyone is coming. Brilliant. "Mary" is the one show that I am so sorry never got the chance (nor the acclaim) it richly deserved.

I remember this series well and was really into it when they cancelled the show. This was the last best thing Mary ever did. This is when networks stopped giving a TV show time to find it's audience. There were wonderful characters. Katie Sagal (soon to be on MARRIED WITH CHILDREN) as the chain smoking co-worker. And I'll never forget John Astin's character. He would enter a scene and introduce himself, hand extended... "Lasalle... Ed Lasalle." I seem to recall he was the papers reviewer- who never actually attended a show. This is very worthy of TV airing or a DVD Box. I guess the initial hope of TV Land actually resurrecting rare shows is long gone. Seek this one out if you can.- Dr. Mark