TMZ: Mary Tyler Moore 'In Grave Condition'

[DramatistDreamer]

[MissLlanviewPA]

I posted this in the status section, but I'll post it again here.

 

What's incredible is that the death count for The Mary Tyler Moore Show is very small--Ted Knight died almost 31 years ago, but Mary is only the second cast member to go. We, amazingly, still have everyone else. 

In 1996, when I was seven years old, I watched Nick at Nite for the first time. This was back when its line up included shows like I Love Lucy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, The Odd Couple, The Bob Newhart Show, and That Girl. But one of the shows that made the biggest impact on me from those days has always been the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

As I began to grow up and struggle with all the questions I have about my future--will I ever get married, will I have a job that I actually like--especially now at almost 28, when I sometimes fear that I haven't done enough or that it's too late for me to do much better--I became so GRATEFUL for a character like Mary Richards, one who had reached 30, wasn't married, but had a successful career, good friends, and a life she loved in a city she loved living in. She wasn't opposed to the idea of getting married, but she wasn't rushing to do so, either.

As corny as it may sound, in my more uncertain moments as a single woman, one whose life has often been more successful in a professional sense than a personal sense, it always gives me so much hope to see someone like Mary, who didn't need a man to define her life, and who, in one way or another, inspired every single working woman character on television that came after her, whether they realized it or not. I am proud to have shared a first name with you.

RIP, Mary Tyler Moore, and thank you. I'll be sure to go to Minneapolis someday, and toss a hat in your honor, preferably in front of your statue that TV Land dedicated to you some years back.

 

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When Oprah Met Mary.

 

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[DaytimeFan]

She had an incredible, trailblazing career. An American original. RIP Mary. 

[BetterForgotten]

Betty White is "Too Upset" to Speak Out About Friend Mary Tyler Moore's Death

[All My Shadows]

My heart hurts for all of them. You can tell they were a very tight-knit cast, and it's great that so many of the gang are still working and still visible. Their heyday was 40 years ago, but you still just can't fathom the thought of the likes of MTM or Betty White or Cloris Leachman getting up there in age and ultimately leaving this life. It's almost perfect the fact that the way we know them, through our TVs, will never go away. Mary's gone, but we can still tune in and watch her for hours the way we all did growing up. It's a fantastic legacy.

Didn't Grant Tinker pass only a few months ago?

[MissLlanviewPA]

Yes, not too long ago.

 

The rarely seen final curtain call of MTM:

 

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[Mr. Vixen]

As incredible as the MTM show was/is, I will always remember her most for Ordinary People. One of the films that encouraged me to pursue my passion of writing.

 

Rest in peace to a true legend.

[Faulkner]

MTM still the greatest sitcom and great acting ensemble (comedy or drama) in TV history. Holds up beautifully today.

[DRW50]

When I started watching the Mary Tyler Moore Show reruns, new sitcoms, the sitcoms I’d sat in front of the TV watching at night, were often either family focused (complete with “aww” peppered on the soundtrack), raunchy Married With Children-esque shows designed to contrast with these, and the occasional workplace character-based comedy that I could never entirely connect to either because it wasn’t on long enough or it had already been on for years by the time I’d started watching.

The MTM Show was a revelation in a sense, as it was both workplace and home comedy (especially in the early seasons). It was often warm and sentimental, but rarely without a more honest edge. Everyone involved felt real - the nastiest characters could be kind, the sweetest characters could snap. No friendship felt too simple. People could - and did - annoy each other. My favorite episode came about 4 years in (not long before Rhoda left for her own spinoff) was when she and Rhoda fell out after Rhoda stopped by the station and unwittingly humiliated her in front of her coworkers - something the “old Mary” would have taken on the chin. Harsh words were said on both sides, and a close bond was broken. They reconciled by the closing credits, of course, but now as the women they were, not the girls they’d been. 

Typical caricatures slowly blossomed with each season, and Mary herself believably changed with the passage of time - becoming more assured at work and in her love life, shaking off what were the last vestiges of her younger years (her hairstyle, her trusting nature, her decor). The most pivotal moment of the series was when she moved into her new apartment (no longer living in one big room), dark and atmospheric compared to the bright, cozy home of the show’s first 5 years. She still had her “M” sign, but it was clearly a statement that the girl was gone and Mary was now free to live her life on her own terms. 

In those last few seasons the show went through many changes, above all else Mary Tyler Moore’s decision to fully shake off sitcom crutches. She considered giving Mary a permanent boyfriend, but realized it wasn’t going to work. With Rhoda and Phyllis on their own shows (rather than buried into obscurity or outright fired as some egomaniacal stars/producers do with popular supporting players), she brought in new “best friends” for Mary, but soon realized this wasn’t going to work either. That was the thing about Mary Tyler Moore - she knew the ensemble was paramount, not her ego. She expanded the idea of the show even at a bit of cost to her own character, and doing that helped the last few years feel refreshed, end on a creative high.

The show became more and more about the complicated dynamics of the workplace, as relationships Mary thought she knew weren’t what they seemed, and everything became a bit colder, harder. The end of the show was probably the most honest of all in what was happening at the time (and still happening today), as everyone in the newsroom was fired - everyone but Ted Baxter, the anchorman they’d always treated as a buffoon, always assumed was only lucky to be around because of their help (Ted too had become a more complicated character in the show’s last years, falling in love rather than falling into bed, then marrying, and finally, adopting a child). Everyone cried and hugged, Mary had a happy reunion with her old friends, but as Mary turned the lights out in the WJM office one last time, it was a definitive end to everything the show had been - everything that era of sitcom (which respected and appreciated the intelligence of its audience) had been.

Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker brought so much to television - Mary on the Dick Van Dyke Show (which probably did more to change sitcoms than almost anything before and few things since), and then with Tinker, forming MTM Enterprises, home to so many wonderful comedies, and also to St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues, the two shows that are largely responsible for allowing most of the quality, difficult dramatic television so many enjoy today. In the world of films,  She also had a fun role in Thoroughly Modern Millie during the difficult career gap between her two big sitcoms - certainly not something that would fly today, with the cod Oriential stereotypes popping up here and there, but a movie where her charm and buoyancy was the perfect match for Julie Andrews. Years later, the “adult” Mary went on to make Ordinary People, a harsh take on motherhood and suicide. And she continued to try to find new identities and roles for the rest of her career. 

I have to admit she’ll always be Mary Richards to me. And Mary Richards meant more to me than I can ever say. 

[ChitHappens]

 

I used to be glued to the tv watching reruns. I was addicted. Amazing show!  

[DRW50]

They changed this after a year or two, likely in part to make it more fitting for a move away from a That Girl type of show, but this more melancholy version of the song and visuals is always my favorite version.

 

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[vetsoapfan]

I did not just love the MTM Show. I lived it. The final episode had me literally sobbing. We will never see a show like this again, and I will always be grateful to MTM for bringing such joy to so many millions of viewers. Thank heavens I have the entire series on DVD. I am now in the mood for a marathon, and ready to connect with old friends.

[BetterForgotten]

Not to mention, MTM and Grant Tinker nurtured so much talent on the show (and other MTM Enterprises shows) that went on to do so many amazing things.

 

James Brooks, Allan Burns, Jay Sandrich, Glen Charles/Les Charles/James Burrows to name a few...

 

 

Cloris Leachman Shares Touching Mary Tyler Moore Memory: ‘I Had a Feeling I Wouldn’t See Her Again’

 

Mary Tyler Moore Dies: Robert Redford, Carol Burnett and More Stars Mourn the TV Icon's Death

[BetterForgotten]

James L. Brooks Remembers Mary Tyler Moore: "She Was Brilliant. Nobody Ever Found the Thing She Couldn’t Do"

[MissLlanviewPA]

Flowers are being left at her statue in Minneapolis:

 

http://www.fox9.com/news/231710113-story