Can anyone imagine her ranking out a president in some public forum, wearing a vagina costume or talking about blood stains on her bed sheets? What a Grande Dame. I’m not sure who I’m sadder for her or us.
Old Guy
January 25, 2017 5:45 pm
The Chuckles the Clown segment in the funeral parlor is arguably the funniest 5 minutes of television ever aired…….A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants………
She was a class act from start to finish. A true “lady”.
overthecliff
January 25, 2017 8:53 pm
MTM showed only her legs in David Jansen’s Richard Diamond detective series in pre VietNam times. They were very good to look at on TV.
Ed Asner,that commie bastard went to my high school . Shame.
Chubby Bubbles
January 25, 2017 10:23 pm
Just a reminder: in 1970, MTM became a famous, if “reluctant”, feminist icon.
In the 1960s, women couldn’t even have their own checking account in some places. We needed a man to co-sign to get any sort of credit. We couldn’t serve on juries, or go to Ivy League schools, or work as reporters for Newsweek (no girlz aloud).
People may not remember that the idea of MTM having her own career and apartment and independent life on the show was incredibly radical and even shocking or reprehensible to some at the time.
While feminism has jumped the shark with the pussyhats and other such recent embarrassing displays, the fact remains that I and many other intelligent and independent women would have been relegated to blithering and blubbering “Oh Rob..!” all the livelong day.. if some of the members of this list were to have their way.
I got to have a whole, human, and free life because MTM and Rhoda and Murphy Brown and other such “deplorable” characters encouraged society to open up to women’s civic equality.
Amen to that! I, too, grew up during this time and realized that if I worked hard enough, saved money, lived frugally and fought to earn everything I got, I could have a happy life outside of the captivity of marriage. MTM showed us it was possible… she never asked for anything for free, never demanded respect — she knew she had to earn it, as we all do.
RIP, Mary Tyler Moore. Thank you.
Ag
January 26, 2017 10:10 am
the captivity of marriage.
well said, anon.
Stucky
January 26, 2017 10:24 am
I’m not going to use the occasion of her death to rag on MTM.
On the one hand I understand all the love gushing forth. She was a funny, and very likeable, woman. But, how about some balance?
“Thirty-three, unmarried and unworried — Mary is the liberated woman’s ideal,” —— TV Guide, 1973
Google her name and you’ll find endless articles about her feminism. I guess we can overlook that cuz she’s funny?
By feminism, do you mean “sticking up for herself”?
Why shouldn’t the unmarried of either sex be “unworried”? Unless they *choose* to worry, of course. That TV Guide blurb shows you exactly the fear-mongering climate that’s mainly existed and still does, to some extent.
hardscrabble farmer
January 26, 2017 11:14 am
I’m sorry, but like Paula Poundstone, I must be missing something when it comes to getting her appeal. I could never understand why anyone found her shows to be anything other than a soporific. She may have been the stiffest, least humorous human being to ever have appeared on television and that’s saying a lot.
I thought her role in Ordinary People was terrific- she played the ultimate emotionless mother and it was clear in her interviews that she only took the role because of the death of her own son a year earlier. I think that’s called type casting.
“If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have pursued a career while I had a little boy to care for,” she writes. “My heart breaks when I think of the times missed, times with him.”
Too bad she didn’t, he may have survived her and given her the blessing of grandchildren instead of shooting himself in the head at the age of 25. At least she will always have her feminist CV as a legacy.
If I’d had to stay at home in tight capris and ballerina flats waiting for some man to OK my every move, *I’d* have shot myself in the head. So there!
I think you’re raising a straw man argument, though.. in that our evolved industrial society is super shitty for both men AND women, taking them away from families and communities for the sake of “careers”. There are any number of fucked-up families because the father is always away on “busy-ness”. We’ve all allowed that change away from community to take place.. it’s not just the ladies’ fault… but we get the bulk of the backlash. Sheesh.
I agree that I never clicked with MTM as a performer.
Nor Paula Poundstone ..ick. Give me Lily Tomlin. 🙂
She was hot on the Dick Van Dyke show.
RIP Butch Trucks also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr1dPUoLqMM
Can anyone imagine her ranking out a president in some public forum, wearing a vagina costume or talking about blood stains on her bed sheets? What a Grande Dame. I’m not sure who I’m sadder for her or us.
The Chuckles the Clown segment in the funeral parlor is arguably the funniest 5 minutes of television ever aired…….A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants………
She was a class act from start to finish. A true “lady”.
MTM showed only her legs in David Jansen’s Richard Diamond detective series in pre VietNam times. They were very good to look at on TV.
Ed Asner,that commie bastard went to my high school . Shame.
Just a reminder: in 1970, MTM became a famous, if “reluctant”, feminist icon.
In the 1960s, women couldn’t even have their own checking account in some places. We needed a man to co-sign to get any sort of credit. We couldn’t serve on juries, or go to Ivy League schools, or work as reporters for Newsweek (no girlz aloud).
People may not remember that the idea of MTM having her own career and apartment and independent life on the show was incredibly radical and even shocking or reprehensible to some at the time.
While feminism has jumped the shark with the pussyhats and other such recent embarrassing displays, the fact remains that I and many other intelligent and independent women would have been relegated to blithering and blubbering “Oh Rob..!” all the livelong day.. if some of the members of this list were to have their way.
I got to have a whole, human, and free life because MTM and Rhoda and Murphy Brown and other such “deplorable” characters encouraged society to open up to women’s civic equality.
Amen to that! I, too, grew up during this time and realized that if I worked hard enough, saved money, lived frugally and fought to earn everything I got, I could have a happy life outside of the captivity of marriage. MTM showed us it was possible… she never asked for anything for free, never demanded respect — she knew she had to earn it, as we all do.
RIP, Mary Tyler Moore. Thank you.
the captivity of marriage.
well said, anon.
I’m not going to use the occasion of her death to rag on MTM.
On the one hand I understand all the love gushing forth. She was a funny, and very likeable, woman. But, how about some balance?
“Thirty-three, unmarried and unworried — Mary is the liberated woman’s ideal,” —— TV Guide, 1973
Google her name and you’ll find endless articles about her feminism. I guess we can overlook that cuz she’s funny?
By feminism, do you mean “sticking up for herself”?
Why shouldn’t the unmarried of either sex be “unworried”? Unless they *choose* to worry, of course. That TV Guide blurb shows you exactly the fear-mongering climate that’s mainly existed and still does, to some extent.
I’m sorry, but like Paula Poundstone, I must be missing something when it comes to getting her appeal. I could never understand why anyone found her shows to be anything other than a soporific. She may have been the stiffest, least humorous human being to ever have appeared on television and that’s saying a lot.
I thought her role in Ordinary People was terrific- she played the ultimate emotionless mother and it was clear in her interviews that she only took the role because of the death of her own son a year earlier. I think that’s called type casting.
“If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t have pursued a career while I had a little boy to care for,” she writes. “My heart breaks when I think of the times missed, times with him.”
Too bad she didn’t, he may have survived her and given her the blessing of grandchildren instead of shooting himself in the head at the age of 25. At least she will always have her feminist CV as a legacy.
Sad.
If I’d had to stay at home in tight capris and ballerina flats waiting for some man to OK my every move, *I’d* have shot myself in the head. So there!
I think you’re raising a straw man argument, though.. in that our evolved industrial society is super shitty for both men AND women, taking them away from families and communities for the sake of “careers”. There are any number of fucked-up families because the father is always away on “busy-ness”. We’ve all allowed that change away from community to take place.. it’s not just the ladies’ fault… but we get the bulk of the backlash. Sheesh.
I agree that I never clicked with MTM as a performer.
Nor Paula Poundstone ..ick. Give me Lily Tomlin. 🙂
I agree with you 100% on the above.
Lily Tomlin had the best line ever-
“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.”
Speaking of cynicism: poking around some march-related stuff, I was reminded of Steinem’s CIA connection: