This was before
Gavin MacLeod captained the Love Boat, greeting the has-beens of Hollywood.
Before Ed Asner’s newspaper covered L.A. with two reporters, a weird
photographer and a half-assed assistant city editor who did little but crack
jokes. Before Ted Knight ran Bushwood Country Club in the classic movie
“Caddyshack.”
Bet you know
where this is going …
All three were in
the original cast of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” a groundbreaking series that
ran seven seasons on CBS in the 1970s. Ms. Moore was already an established TV
star, having done five seasons of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
This time around,
with the women’s lib movement rising, she was a role model producing local TV
news as a thirtysomething single woman. (Many successful women, including Oprah
Winfrey, cite Ms. Moore as an inspiration.)
Work/life
balance? Sure. Ms. Moore went home every night and dealt with Valerie Harper
and Cloris Leachman. Both characters were spun off into successful shows, as
was Mr. Asner’s.
The series was a
ratings juggernaut until 1977, when the numbers slipped and the producers
decided to end it. Ms. Moore went on to Broadway, then played against type in
the 1980 coming-of-age movie “Ordinary People,” which picked up four Oscars in
Robert Redford’s directing debut. She was nominated for best actress but lost
to Sissy Spacek of “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
Oddly, Ms. Moore
never had much success on TV after her signature series. Two variety shows
flopped in the late 1970s. So did her 1985 comeback sitcom, “Mary,” canceled
after 13 episodes. But down periods of her career were brief. Research tells us
she was never deemed washed up enough to sail on the Love Boat, even though she
knew the captain.
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