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I recently watched all the seasons of “Mary Tyler Moore”. I remember only watching a few episodes when it originally aired. Watching it now, I loved it. I love Rhoda and Mary together. I loved the “Rhoda” show too. I’m not a huge fan of Phyllis never watched that spin-off. The Lou Grant spin-off was excellent.
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Rhoda had Julie Kavner and Nancy Walker, both of whom were wonderful, especially Nancy Walker. I was not a fsn of David Groh's character. I was glad when he eas phased out of the series.
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Casually watching this and all of a sudden there's a kid named William "Bill" Campbell - is it some sort of common name in the US? First time I heard it was of course with Melrose's Billy "William" Campbell, which I assume must've been named after Dynasty's Luke actor Billy Campbell and now I see a teen character on Mary Tyler Moore showing up named Billy Campbell.
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Not the actor's name?
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No, the teen character (who was in love with Mary) was named Billy Campbell. Either way, I've now jumped to the season 4 premiere to see Betty White's (disappointingly) short introduction as Sue Ann Nivens. It's also funny to see Mary's style completely change between seasons 3 and 4.
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Taking a break-out, supporting character out of a parent series and making them the centerpiece of a spin-off series is a risky business. I can think of a half-dozen failed attempts to do this in various sitcoms. In many of these cases the parent show is harmed by the loss of a popular character. They have to cast a "replacement" character, or at least re-configure things to deal with the loss. This makes it difficult (if not impossible) to bring back that original character after the spin-off fails, causing the once-popular character to be left in limbo.
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Yes, the only exceptions I can think of are Joannie and Chachi (who returned to Happy Days) and Jeff and Fallon (back from The Colbys to Dynasty).
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Cleveland returned to Family Guy after his spin-off ended.
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I remember when Will & Grace was ending there was talk of a Jack and Karen spin off but I honestly didn't think that format would work. As Jack an Karen were normally the ridiculous over the top farce in the show. How would that have worked every week. They would have had to have given them something to play off against and that would always have been seen as a rip off of Will & Grace.
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I recall they spun off Florence the maid on The Jeffersons into her own show which bombed after about six episodes. Soon she was back working for George and Louise as if she'd never left.
I think the Mary Tyler Moore Show had such a strong ensemble that they could weather the loss of one member. It wasn't like Rhoda's departure mortally wounded the show. The show was strong enough that it didn't need her to come back, either.
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It happened with Alice, another popular sitcom in the 1970s. There was the short-lived spin-off Flo, which failed after two seasons, and Polly Holliday never returned to the parent show (not even for the series finale).
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Celebrating 50 Years of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; debuted on September 19, 1970
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I wonder if there's going to be a marathon anywhere? I very rarely watch straight-out television anymore, so I haven't seen anything about any marathons concerning the celebration.
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Granted I don't watch too much live TV either, so maybe I've just missed stuff -- but it doesn't seem like MTM is getting much in the way of commemorations for its 50 year milestone. I seem to recall it being something of a Big Deal with I LOVE LUCY turned 50; all kinds of specials, marathons and the like.
ALL IN THE FAMILY's anniversary must be hovering around here too.
ALL IN THE FAMILY's anniversary must be hovering around here too.
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Nick at Nite used to do pretty regular marathons. I remember in the 90's they did one got MTM called the "Marython."
I don't keep up with these channels now, so I don't know if they still do such things. I'd be surprised if someone didn't do something for the MTM show's anniversary.
I don't keep up with these channels now, so I don't know if they still do such things. I'd be surprised if someone didn't do something for the MTM show's anniversary.
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In Mary's defense, they had already shot several episodes of MARY & RHODA, and Moore and Harper thought they were okay, but ABC wanted them to all be as good as the best of the old MARY TYER MOORE SHOW and opted instead of airing the series, to do a TV movie. Then, when ratings were decent, ABC wanted them to make a second start at doing a series. But by then, Moore felt they'd been jerked around enough by the network, that she walked away from the project. Although Harper was willing to follow through.