This is a phenomenal episode. Mary is at work and spills coffee on her sweater. She slips on the floor and sprains her ankle. And that's just the start. A whole series of minor catastrophes take place, including a horrible cold and having to go to an awards banquet with Ted Baxter. The dinner is funny enough, but the scene where Lou Grant carries Mary to her chair after her sprain would rival the best "I Love Lucy" bit you've ever seen. Her misery goes on and on and on. The cleaners ruin her dress, her hair dryer breaks, and, then there is her appearance at the Teddy Awards. If you don't laugh at this you need to check your pulse. It was so good to see an episode where Mary wasn't fawning over some guy.
9 Reviews
My Favorite Episode
nbrice1825 August 2020
This is by far my favorite episode of the MTM Show. For once everything doesn't go perfectly in Mary's life. I'm a fan of MTM and the other day I was thinking about how I like Laura Petrie so much more than Mary's character in the MTM Show. Laura had problems, Laura made mistakes, and they were always hysterical.
Mare is too perfect most of the time. No matter where she goes some guy falls for her. Nothing ever goes wrong in her life. This episode is truly funny and has always been my favorite one.
Mare is too perfect most of the time. No matter where she goes some guy falls for her. Nothing ever goes wrong in her life. This episode is truly funny and has always been my favorite one.
Mary's bad luck is hysterical
UNOhwen14 April 2012
I've been a Mary-o-phile since it's 1st run. I grew up with her, and, I still love her.
I've said to people 'there's no problem that you have, that can't be solved by an episode of Mary.
This is one episode that is one of my favourites. So many aphorisms I live by, I learned here, e.g: colds; 'three days coming, three days with you, and three days going.'
Nothing goes right for our Mare. It all starts with a cup of coffee, that's spilt onto here sweater at work, and things only start to go downhill from that point.
It all leads up to Mary and the gang at the Teddy's, where Mary is nominated. I don't want to give away anything about this show, other than to say, this episode has me still laughing, all these yeas later.
I've said to people 'there's no problem that you have, that can't be solved by an episode of Mary.
This is one episode that is one of my favourites. So many aphorisms I live by, I learned here, e.g: colds; 'three days coming, three days with you, and three days going.'
Nothing goes right for our Mare. It all starts with a cup of coffee, that's spilt onto here sweater at work, and things only start to go downhill from that point.
It all leads up to Mary and the gang at the Teddy's, where Mary is nominated. I don't want to give away anything about this show, other than to say, this episode has me still laughing, all these yeas later.
Hillarious episode
FishHeadSweety25 April 2020
Mary's very bad week
kellielulu23 July 2022
Mary can't catch a break but she does catch a cold , sprains her ankle and that's just a couple of things that go wrong for Mary in this episode. There is literally no let up for her . I don't want to detail the episode it's much better and funnier to watch it . I watched it again today and laughed out loud several times. How often does that happen? You may still find it funny but you don't always laugh every time. This may be Mary Tyler Moore's best episode of the series ( like the episode on the Dick Van Dyke Show when Laura blabs about Alan Brady on national television). The supporting characters add just the right amount of support. This was a series that had some of the all time best scene stealers and MTM let them shine but this episode is hers straight through.
MARY SPOOFS MARY
dogeatdog74 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Many will argue that "Chuckles Bites the Dust" is the series' best episode, but I think that this lesser-known gem wins the prize.
Losers are funnier than winners, and this episode spoofs the sitcom's premise that Mary is a winner-pretty, perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect home, perfect job. Mary may experience minor inconveniences, but she usually wins . . . Except this time. Here, Mary doesn't just have a streak of bad luck, she has THE streak of bad luck from hell. It's as if the bad-luck gods have been stalking her her entire life to no avail and finally catch up with little miss perfect . . . And boy, do they let her have it. To top it off, her best friend, Rhoda, the poster child for bad karma, is having a streak of uncharacteristic good luck, or as Rhoda says, "Admit it Mary, suddenly, your life got crummy . . . I happen to be on a terrific streak."
As Laura Petrie, Mary Tyler Moore had more opportunities to showcase her comic talents than she did on her eponymous show. She turned in stellar performances as Laura stoned on Valium, telling the world that Alan Brady is bald, getting her big toe stuck in a bathtub faucet, a memorable passive-aggressive game of charades, and telling her husband that a nude painting of her has resurfaced. It's a shame that the MTM writers didn't put Mary into more of these types of vulnerable situations. But at least we have this episode where they pulled out all the stops.
Mary Tyler Moore has said that this was her favorite episode. I believe it. It must've been fun for her to play the loser and show off her comedy chops.
Best scene: When Mary walks out of the closet dressed for the Teddy Awards banquet wearing two different shoes and a yellow rain slicker.
Best line: Mary says, "I'm sorry, I don't usually get this way in front of the cleaners."
Losers are funnier than winners, and this episode spoofs the sitcom's premise that Mary is a winner-pretty, perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect home, perfect job. Mary may experience minor inconveniences, but she usually wins . . . Except this time. Here, Mary doesn't just have a streak of bad luck, she has THE streak of bad luck from hell. It's as if the bad-luck gods have been stalking her her entire life to no avail and finally catch up with little miss perfect . . . And boy, do they let her have it. To top it off, her best friend, Rhoda, the poster child for bad karma, is having a streak of uncharacteristic good luck, or as Rhoda says, "Admit it Mary, suddenly, your life got crummy . . . I happen to be on a terrific streak."
As Laura Petrie, Mary Tyler Moore had more opportunities to showcase her comic talents than she did on her eponymous show. She turned in stellar performances as Laura stoned on Valium, telling the world that Alan Brady is bald, getting her big toe stuck in a bathtub faucet, a memorable passive-aggressive game of charades, and telling her husband that a nude painting of her has resurfaced. It's a shame that the MTM writers didn't put Mary into more of these types of vulnerable situations. But at least we have this episode where they pulled out all the stops.
Mary Tyler Moore has said that this was her favorite episode. I believe it. It must've been fun for her to play the loser and show off her comedy chops.
Best scene: When Mary walks out of the closet dressed for the Teddy Awards banquet wearing two different shoes and a yellow rain slicker.
Best line: Mary says, "I'm sorry, I don't usually get this way in front of the cleaners."
Forced and contrived
Christopher37014 August 2023
I know this is a fan favorite among viewers, but it's not one of mine and I feel it could have been done in a much more believable way.
We all have these kinds of terrible days where everything seems to go wrong so it's very relatable, but Mary's bad day in this episode comes off a little too contrived for me.
Are we really supposed to believe that Mary Richards, with her endless closet of fashionable clothes for any occasion had no other appropriate evening wear for the awards? We've seen her in countless gowns worn for her dates in the past and any one of those would have sufficed for the evening.
Unless she's buying them all without removing the tags and returns them the following day, (which would be extremely out of character) there's no way that she couldn't have had a proper alternative dress to put on for the awards.
Even Rhoda has been shown to wear beautiful evening gowns for her dates, so loaning Mary that hideous print dress of hers made no sense, hence the contrivance.
If this was a lower level sitcom I would give it a pass, but it's not. It's solidly based in reality and usually very well written so these little inconsistencies become all the more glaring to me.
And she really couldn't have just put her hair up when the hair dryer broke? It was like she didn't even make an effort to look presentable and almost as if she purposely tried to look ugly which makes the comedy attempt appear all the more forced.
I think a rewrite having Mary choosing a nice alternative formal gown that gets ruined with red wine or since it was raining out that evening, she gets splattered and drenched with muddy water by a passing car outside the awards show and enters with mud all over her nice dress. That's both funny and believable.
I hope other fans don't take my review the wrong way because I do love this show and am not ragging on it---My expectations are higher for this show because it's usually so good and well written.
I'm rating it 5 stars which is average, (not good/not bad) but with a few tweaks here and there I think this could have been a 10 star episode.
We all have these kinds of terrible days where everything seems to go wrong so it's very relatable, but Mary's bad day in this episode comes off a little too contrived for me.
Are we really supposed to believe that Mary Richards, with her endless closet of fashionable clothes for any occasion had no other appropriate evening wear for the awards? We've seen her in countless gowns worn for her dates in the past and any one of those would have sufficed for the evening.
Unless she's buying them all without removing the tags and returns them the following day, (which would be extremely out of character) there's no way that she couldn't have had a proper alternative dress to put on for the awards.
Even Rhoda has been shown to wear beautiful evening gowns for her dates, so loaning Mary that hideous print dress of hers made no sense, hence the contrivance.
If this was a lower level sitcom I would give it a pass, but it's not. It's solidly based in reality and usually very well written so these little inconsistencies become all the more glaring to me.
And she really couldn't have just put her hair up when the hair dryer broke? It was like she didn't even make an effort to look presentable and almost as if she purposely tried to look ugly which makes the comedy attempt appear all the more forced.
I think a rewrite having Mary choosing a nice alternative formal gown that gets ruined with red wine or since it was raining out that evening, she gets splattered and drenched with muddy water by a passing car outside the awards show and enters with mud all over her nice dress. That's both funny and believable.
I hope other fans don't take my review the wrong way because I do love this show and am not ragging on it---My expectations are higher for this show because it's usually so good and well written.
I'm rating it 5 stars which is average, (not good/not bad) but with a few tweaks here and there I think this could have been a 10 star episode.
Mary's Hair
Littlelep9 February 2019
One of the episodes without a new gent for Mary, who mostly are spooky, and that is a relief. Her speech at the Teddy's is so out-of-place, it is embarrassing. But it defies belief that she didn't have a dress to wear -- she wore dozens on the show -- and she could have borrowed a hair dryer. Funny scenario, but one of the sitcom's episodes where the writers were out of ideas and just plugged in some humor that could not be justified.
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