Mary Tyler Moore 

The lives and trials of a young single woman and her friends, both at work and at home.

Creators:

James L. Brooks, Allan Burns

Stars:

Mary Tyler Moore, Edward Asner, Gavin MacLeod

Won 3 Golden Globes. Another 39 wins & 82 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Mary Tyler Moore	...	Mary Richards 168 episodes, 1970-1977
Gavin MacLeod	...	Murray Slaughter 168 episodes, 1970-1977
Edward Asner	...	Lou Grant 166 episodes, 1970-1977
Ted Knight	...	Ted Baxter / ... 165 episodes, 1970-1977
Valerie Harper	...	Rhoda Morgenstern / ... 93 episodes, 1970-1977

Storyline

Mary Richards moves to Minneapolis after a relationship goes bad. She finds work as an associate producer in a small television newsroom where the characters include Lou Grant, her gruff boss, Murray Slaughter the humorous writer, and Ted Baxter the Anchor Man who spends his time mispronouncing country names. Mary continues to hope for romance, but finds that her friends are more dependable.

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Plot Keywords:

woman | producer | single | single woman | television | 

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Taglines:

Being Gal Friday at a television station lands beautiful Mary in hilarious jams seven days a week. Watch Saturdays and see. (season 1)

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Filming Locations:

Stage 2, CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

MTM Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (168 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gavin MacLeod first auditioned for the part of Lou Grant, in addition to Edward Asner. As the latter gave such a terrible first reading, he insisted on a second chance. It landed him the role.

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Goofs

In the first season installment "Divorce Isn't Everything", Mary mentions that she can't speak French but can speak Spanish. Later in the series, while at a Mexican restaurant, she indicates that she can't read the menu because she took French in college.

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Quotes

Lou Grant: Rule number one: never hire friends. I hired a friend once and you know what happened? Worked out great. But that's me. You couldn't handle it.

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Crazy Credits

Throughout Season 5, scenes of Mary and Rhoda walking down the street can be seen in the opening credits for a few episodes despite Rhoda having moved to New York.

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Connections

Spin-off Phyllis (1975)

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Soundtracks

Love Is All Around
Written and Performed by Sonny Curtis

User Reviews

The Original

This truly was one of the first ensemble driven situation comedies in the history of television. Even though Mary Tyler Moore was the star of the show, the fact was that the series truly revolved around her relationships with not only her friends at home, but her friends on the job and when those two worlds collided, sparks usually flew. Also, this show was really funny when Valerie Harper was still on the show playing Rhoda. She and Mary were polar opposites (Mary the cheerful optimist and Rhoda the angry cynic). However, those differences was what made their relationship shine. Cloris Leachman was also perfect as the over bearing Phyllis Lindstrom. And lets not forget the other characters; cynical Lou, the optimistic Murray and, of course, dimwitted Ted Baxter. This show definitely one of the all time classics and made Saturday nights worth staying home.

Another interesting fact about this show is the fact that it debuted during the final season of the original series about a single woman trying to make it, "That Girl". However, while Ann pretty much was still an innocent little girl at heart that had a boyfriend and often still relied on him and her parents to get her out of jams, Mary Richards proved that she could be single and live her life on her own terms.