Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic

Look, I am more than a little obsessed with the MTM show. I grew up watching first-run episodes with my mother along with The Bob Newhart Show and Carol Burnett. The lineup was something special I shared with my Mom but over time, Mary, Bob, and Carol became my Aunts and Uncle of comedy. And even though my own career as a comedy writer failed miserably, I only blame myself.It feels like the Mary Show has been with me my whole life. When I was a kid and the episodes were new, I looked up to Mary and Rhoda as a child sees grownups. When the show hit syndication, I caught up to the age of the characters and saw them as contemporaries. No joke, I even had a few dreams about the Mary Show. In one, I played a nonspeaking extra mouthing words in the WJM background and when I woke up, scrambled to add the credit to my resume.Now, I am a disgruntled and broken middle-aged man, older than even Lou Grant was in season one, and I still enjoy revisiting the show. Of course, it’s more bittersweet now that Mary Tyler Moore is gone. And yet a shadow of her lives on in this timeless bubble, perky and awkward, hopelessly codependent, and doomed to host disastrous dinner parties for seven seasons.I never imagined that anything on earth could enhance my lifelong affection for Mary and the gang until I bought this book. In a very special and powerful way, this behind-the-scenes account of how the show was developed and produced has deepened my appreciation for it and changed the way I watch the opening and closing credits! (I started rewatching the show on Hulu a few days after finishing the book.)I’ve watched numerous YouTube interviews with the key players of the show, but my understanding of how everything came together was superficial at best. I had no idea what a steep uphill climb the creators had to surmount to get the show on the air; the multiple TV execs that opposed it; the champions that went the extra mile to support it; and the capricious little moments that amounted to a crackerjack writing staff of talented men and women working under unique circumstances and perhaps the most perfectly cast TV ensemble of all time.It might have been an altogether different show if Ted Knight hadn’t sprung for that blazer at the audition, or if Ed Asner hadn’t asked for a second chance, or if Gavin MacCleod hadn’t expressed an affinity for Murray over Lou, or if Valerie Harper didn’t make herself look a little schlubbier at the callback.Author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong does a beautiful job at crafting moments like these into a lovingly fluid narrative that leaps off the page. It’s a well-rounded behind-the-curtain peek at the people and machinations behind a beloved show that was funny and charming, quietly groundbreaking, and a lifelong source of comfort and joy to this fan.Also, I feel like I owe Armstrong a thank you card for just writing this book.

No matter what new quality shows are offered by American television, I still view CBS's Saturday night lineup for the 1973-74 season as the ultimate. People still debate which of those programs was most groundbreaking (my choice would be M*A*S*H but that's a different debate). There's no dispute that The Mary Tyler Moore Show was important for its depiction of working women who lived independent lives, not helpless without husbands. The fact that it was consistently well-written did not hurt either. Armstrong's book details the history of this series from the perspectives of its actors, producers and writers. While I would have liked a little more discussion of what made MTM so important and comparisons to other '70s sitcoms, the book is rich with detail. I believe that Armstrong's book falters a bit when it gets away from the show to society of that decade, when she focuses on the WJM newsroom she offers nostalgia and perspective. Recommended for anyone who also misses '70s sitcoms.

"I'm an experienced woman. I've been around...Well, all right, I might not have been around, but I've been...nearby."-Mary RichardsWere you a kid in 70s? I was. Did your family gather around the TV on Saturday night to watch the great line-up on CBS? Mine did. One of our Saturday night favorites was The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I can hear the theme song playing in my head as I type..."Who can turn the world on with her smile..." I loved seeing Mary walk through the streets of Minneapolis and finally throwing her Turquoise and black knit beret in the air at the intersection of Nicollet Mall and Seventh Street. If these are familiar memories then Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong will be pure reading pleasure, not to mention, a real blast from the past.If you open this book looking for interviews with the key players of The Mary Tyler Moore Show then you may be disappointed. Interviews are not how this book is structured. Instead, you will discover how the show developed, from premise to execution, to iconic 70s TV, and finally, to its demise.Did you know that Mary Tyler Moore was involved in a catastrophic Broadway musical of Breakfast at Tiffany's? Did you know that most of the scripts for the Mary Tyler Moore Show were often based on true scenarios from the female writer's lives? Did you know that the series almost didn't last beyond its thirteen episode commitment? Did you know that James L. Brooks, one of the producers of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was one of the co-creators of a popular, but not too memorable TV show called My Mother the Car, These are the types of tidbits that litter the pages of Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong.One of several surprise takeaways from Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic was the history of women comedy writers. Hard to believe that this show allowed women to break the glass ceiling and join the "Male-Only" comedic writing force. The second takeaway was a study in human nature, that of Ed Asner. Such a great actor, but such a flawed person; he held to such rigid beliefs and advocacies, and in so doing destroyed a long-time friendship and his own TV show, Lou Grant. And finally, the third takeaway was what the character, Mary Richards, did for women all over America. From the girl next door to Oprah Winfrey, young women and young girls saw what they might achieve through Mary. "The show was a light in my life, and Mary was a trailblazer for my generation...She's the reason I wanted my own production company," stated Oprah Winfrey. In short, Mary Richard A.K.A. Mary Tyler Moore became a symbol for women for generations, which makes The Mary Tyler Moore Show something more than an interesting blip on the 70s pop culture radar.Additional Resources:After All-Mary Tyler Moore's AutobiographyI, Rhoda-Valerie Harper's Autobiography[ASIN:1451659202 Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic]]

If you loved the Mary Tyler Moore show then you will love this book!! So much history and information about behind the scenes of making one of television's best comedy shows.

An informative, well-paced, well-written book. Up there with 'MTM Quality Television,' which I read years ago. Makes me want to watch the MTM output again. In the UK the shows were last seen on The Family Channel in the pre-digital era.

For a TV lover like me this book is just like enjoying a nice ice cream sundae. Layers and sweet moments as well as brain freeze every once in a while.

As a big fan of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, I was looking forward to devouring this book. It starts a little slowly, but the history of how this show came to be and the people who put it together is quite good. Obviously it is necessary reading for fans of MTM.

A terrific read about a much-loved television classic and the people who made it happen, along with a few who got in the way.