DVD The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Second Season (1971):
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DVD The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Second Season (1971)
The Emmy-winning first season was an auspicious beginning. By its second season, the classic theme song "Love is All Around" has been revamped with an even more optimistic outlook: "You're gonna make it after all." In the sophomore season of this instant gold-standard sitcom, the ace writing staff and peerless ensemble begin to flesh out the iconic characters. Gruff Lou Grant (Ed Asner, enjoying his second Emmy-winning season) reveals his more loveable side when he discovers his son-in-law out with another woman in "The Six-and-a-Half-Year Itch." Vain Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) becomes a more sympathetic character in "Cover Boy," featuring the hilariously preening Jack Cassidy as Ted's competitive brother, and "And Now, Sitting in for Ted Baxter," in which a substitute anchor earns higher ratings than the vacationing Ted. Mary, the sweetheart of prime time, is still something of a pushover (in "Feeb," she feels compelled to write a letter of recommendation for an extraordinarily incompetent secretary), but she develops the backbone to stand up to an anti-Semite who disapproves of Rhoda in one of the season's best episodes, "Some of My Best Friends Are Rhoda." The indelible friendship between Mary and Rhoda (Valerie Harper, also earning her second consecutive Emmy) is sorely tested when they become temporary roommates in "Where There's Smoke, There's Rhoda." As with the most enduring shows, The Mary Tyler Moore Show eschewed topical humor that would date the series, and instead, mined its more universal and timeless humor from the wellspring of the characters. More than 30 years later, there is still, as ever, something about Mary. --Donald Liebenson
Review(s): DVD The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Second Season (1971)
One of my all-time favorite sitcoms!
Although the show ran throughout the '70s, its appeal is still lasting today, in the story of Mary Richards and her eclectic co-workers in the WJM newsroom...
In the pilot, 30-year-old Mary has just moved to Minneapolis, eager to start a new life as a single careerwoman after her breakup with her fiance. She answers an ad seeking a secretary, and finds herself associate producer of the six o'clock news at WJM. There, she works for Lou Grant, a tough guy with a soft exterior and a ready bottle of booze, and alongside kindhearted news writer Murray and self-centered, idiotic reporter Ted Baxter.
On the home front, Mary decides to rent an apartment in the home of her college friend Phyllis Lindstrom...incurring the wrath of New York native Rhoda Morgenstern, who had her heart set on moving in. Despite their rocky start, the two opposite personalities quickly become best friends, creating the basis for much of the show's humor.
In Season 2, several episodes center around Bess, Phyllis' precocious adolescent daughter; Mary's dating hijinks; newsroom mishaps; and visits from Rhoda's stereotypically Jewish mother.
If you've never seen this show, I urge you to give it a try! You'll soon be looking for the rest of the seasons.
Moore of the same, please!
In the golden years of Television - indeed in the golden years of Entertainment - quality was important. Performers on TV had honed their skills, during years of endeavour in halls and theatres across the country, perfecting their work. Musicians - of all forms of music - played proper instruments with virtuoso ability. Lyrics could be understood and the musical sound replicated - because it was written down and 'scored'. Actors, musicians, dancers, etc., all had 'great ability'.
Even in this milieu, some performers stood out as exceptional. When thoroughly competent TV directors and skilled television technicians were able to work with these outstanding performers, shows of exceptional quality and were produced.
Mary Tyler Moore had an ability and an aura about her that was rare. The 'situation comedy', a long cherished and much loved TV art-form, seemed to have been made for her and her many skills. Moore's first great TV success was in the Dick Van Dyke Show. Then, when she starred in her own shows, Moore was magnificent.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was produced and directd by consumate experts. Add to this a particularly high standing of casting, which ensured only the best supporting actors,and the Mary Tyler Moore Show was destined to be in the 'Top Flight' of its gendre.
Importantly however, unlike the crass and peurile content of so much 'entertainment' today, the Mary Tyler Moore Show ( and other great shows of the era) contained no gratuitous violence, no explicit sex or nudity, and no foul or blasphemous language. The show was humourous without being coarse and was, truly, a delight to watch.
MTM2
I actually didn't love the first season (although it is far from "bad" in any way); but this one got better and they all found their rhythm.
Legendary cast, of course. And has anyone ever credited Ed Asner for being one of the greater comedians of our time? He is pitch-perfect.
Related DVD's The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Second Season (1971)
In this third season, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore), she of the "bright smile and infectious vivacity," got to display some of that celebrated "spunk" of hers. In the season–opener, "The Good-Time News," she demands to be paid the same amount of money as her predecessor. In "The Georgette Story," she defies her boss, Lou Grant (Ed Asner), and vainglorious anchorperson Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) by counseling Ted's new girlfriend, whom he takes for granted. And in "Romeo and Mary," she finally stands up to an overzealous suitor (guest star Stuart Margolin), which hilariously backfires on her.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show endures because its timeless comedy is drawn from the wellspring of its fully drawn characters, who were allowed to grow beyond one-note caricatures. Mary's... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 17 January 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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She finally made it after all... to DVD! Created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is the very model of a tailor-made star vehicle. It transformed Moore from Dick Van Dyke's wacky housewife to empowered thirtysomething single woman determined to make it on her own. Moore was the anchor of a peerless ensemble who brought to life characters so indelible that three of them, Ed Asner's Lou Grant, Valerie Harper's Rhoda, and Cloris Leachman's Phyllis, would each get their own series. The 24 episodes that comprise the Emmy-winning first season (1970) hilariously set the stage for what would become one of television's most beloved sitcoms, ranked by TV Guide in 2002 as the 11th greatest of all time (it should have been higher!). The classic pilot episode... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 24 September 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The multi-Emmy-winning fourth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show showed us the sassy side of Betty White and the softer side of Ed Asner's Lou Grant. Cast against type, White makes a memorable first impression in the season-opener as steely "Happy Homemaker" Sue Ann Nivens, who makes Martha Stewart look like June Cleaver. The episode "The Lars Affair" earned an Emmy for Cloris Leachman, and it is arguably her finest half-hour, as the ill-equipped Phyllis tries to domesticate herself after her husband has an affair with Sue Ann. Consider the bee, a dejected Phyllis tells Mary and Rhoda (Valerie Harper). "Once the male bee has... serviced the queen, the male dies. All in all, not a bad system." Sue Ann's debut is but one of this superb season's historic moments. The other is when... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 20 June 2006 Usually ships in 5 to 12 days
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In its sophomore season, The Bob Newhart Show became an integral part of CBS's phenomenal Stay Home Saturday lineup of now-immortal shows that included All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Carol Burnett Show. Audiences were initially slow to pick up on Bob, but by its second season, the show was on a roll, and enjoyed the highest ratings of its six-year run.
Watch our exclusive interview with Bob Newhart: high bandwidth or low bandwidth
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In addition to inspiring a college drinking game that's never gone out of style, The Bob Newhart Show gave one of America's greatest stand-up comedians a perfect sitcom showcase. This wasn't Newhart's first TV show (following the success of his comedy albums, he hosted a short-lived variety show in 1961-62), but it was the first to transfer his wry, inimitable wit to an effective alter ego, and as mild-mannered psychologist Bob Hartley, 43-year-old Newhart found a sublime character conduit for stone-faced sarcasm that was biting but never malicious.
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