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The Mary Tyler Moore Show — Vintage TV Tee
Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Premiering in 1970, The Mary Tyler Moore Show changed television forever with a revolutionary idea: a single woman in her thirties could have a career, an apartment, a fabulous wardrobe, and an entire life without needing a husband to make it complete.
Mary Tyler Moore played Mary Richards, an independent woman working as an associate producer at Minneapolis television station WJM-TV. Alongside her were one of the greatest collections of oddballs in sitcom history: gruff but lovable Lou Grant, pompous anchorman Ted Baxter, sarcastic newswriter Murray Slaughter, and Mary's wonderfully outspoken upstairs neighbor, Rhoda Morgenstern.
And then there was Phyllis Lindstrom, played to neurotic perfection by Cloris Leachman, who could turn practically any conversation into a discussion about herself.
The show was groundbreaking without constantly announcing it. Mary dated, worked, made mistakes, negotiated friendships, and occasionally stood up to the men around her. She wasn't a wife or mother, and the series never treated that as something she needed to fix. For American television in 1970, that was practically revolutionary.
It also became a particular favorite among gay audiences, who recognized something familiar in Mary's chosen family of friends, her independence, her fabulous female costars, and the show's wonderfully dry, occasionally bitchy humor. Between Rhoda's wisecracks, Phyllis's theatrics, and Sue Ann Nivens's aggressively cheerful sexuality, there was plenty for the gays to work with.
Running for seven seasons from 1970 to 1977, the series won 29 Emmy Awards and helped redefine what a television comedy could be. Its influence can be seen in generations of sitcoms about independent women, workplace friendships, and people making their own unconventional families.
