MTM is a top notch sitcom from beginning to end, but some of the magic of the first season starts to fade. The wistful, melancholy vibe doesn't carry too far into the series. Maybe it was very era-specific, but it also reflects Mary's development. In the first season, she was hesitantly starting a new life. By the second season, she was settled with a solid career and good friends.
It's kind of an inevitable trade-off. That forlorn, lost thing from the cusp of the '60s/'70s was so resonant at the time -- and the first season theme actually reflects what it felt like to be a person, alive and on earth, at that specific moment in time (much like my frequently referenced snow-angels scene from LOVE STORY and all of HAROLD & MAUDE). The Beatles' last #1 song, "Long and Winding Road" was released in 1970 and seems to tap into that same, heart-broken, world-weary zeitgeist --- at the end of a terribly transformative and difficult decade like the '60s and making our uncertain move into an unsure future (as Mel O'Drama said), wiser, sadder and very, very tired.
Little did anybody realize that '60s would continue, arguably, for several more years.
(Speaking of DYNASTY, that's kind of how I feel about its excellent 1980 pilot, the scene which closes its second hour, the camera panning slowly over the Carrington gardens and closing in on Linda Evans in a second floor doorway, looking into the past she's preparing to leave --- which I always interpret, subjectively or objectively, as Krystle and her new series saying goodbye to that '60s/'70s hyphenated dual-decade as we enter that loud, revisionistic, delusionally aspirational, ridiculously self-conscious period called "the '80s" which lay ahead).
Anyway, I remember at the time, nubile though I was, noting the gentle tonal shift -- almost analyzing it correctly -- and accepting it as unavoidable. Accepting that modification of the cozy, romantic vibe to something that held additional wit (David Lloyd's entry into the show midway through helped the punchline precision) and further character development.
At the end of the day, MTM is still fundamentally "'70s," and the decade's innate melancholy likewise reduced as it went on -- although it was detectable, to a degree, even as late as the calendar year of 1980.
Interestingly, they sent director Reza Badiyi and Mary out to Minneapolis around February 1970 to get ample coverage of Moore trolling the streets and byways of the city during the winter. They came back with some choice footage, and Badiyi told the creators, Brooks & Burns, that he intended to have Mary toss her hat into the air -- and freeze frame it -- for the conclusion of the opening theme, as if Mary was somehow graduating.
The producers were incredulous. But then Sonny Curtis showed up, because he'd heard this new show with Mary Tyler Moore was in pre-production and that they might need a theme song. Brooks was pleasant but detached, assuming most song offerings wouldn't be appropriate and assured Curtis that it was too early to pick a song. Still, Brooks listened. And listened again. Started looking for a phone. Called more people in to listen to it. Asked somebody to find a cassette tape recorder. And by the time Curtis had played it maybe ten times, the producers said, essentially, "Yes, this will be our new theme song," to which Curtis responded, "You can have it if I can sing it," and the bosses shrugged in their agreement. (Curtis also wisely hung on to the publishing rights, something that was less of a point of focus back then).
Brooks & Burns wondered:
how did we get this lucky??
Curtis later said that he would never demand today that he be allowed to sing it (the industry's different now, obviously); he also confessed he was glad he had no idea of how iconic the song or the show would become, because if he
had known, he's afraid he might have perfected the song to the point of ruining it.
Brooks, Burns and Curtis were all three Taurus -- and that's how the decision was made to make Mary Richards a Taurus. Seriously.
Anyhoo, the song and the Minneapolis footage of Mary occurred so early in the year (the show was mostly un-cast and they wouldn't start shooting the actual pilot episode until June) that it allowed Reza Badiyi to do his magic and use an early cut of Sonny Cuirtis' song as a template for Badiyi's montage edit.
One of the producers later said that the first rough cut of the theme, especially that early, gave them as additional sense of what the show "could be."
This is an early cut of the Season 1 theme (maybe they should have used it for the pilot) followed by a not-quite-right promo scene sent out to the affiliates:
Child actors are often the bane of a TV series, even when they're the star. Lisa Gerritsen was an unusually at-ease and amusing child performer, so it's a shame she wasn't utilized more often.
Oh, those Moon in Capricorns -- they make the very
best child actors (think Gerrison, Ronny Howard, Billy Mumy, etc...) or the very
worst (think Shalane McCall) who go for the simpering "I'm-so-cute/don't-you-like-me?" crap... Which explains Victoria's shift from not-so-great to
totally great 4 years into DALLAS ... not that Victoria was ever a child, despite her preferred birth year.
