"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" on DVD 9/24! (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I also noticed that dropout, but unless it's in more than one episode and is a major problem throughout the set which I haven't noticed at this time, than I seriously doubt that Fox is going to recall this disc.




Crawdaddy

 

[Rain]

That's probably true, but you never know. Fox has been pretty good about correcting problems in the past if memory serves.
I'll probably get through the whole set by next week. I'll report back with any other problems unless someone else beats me to it.
Other than that one tiny glitch, the presentation is pretty nice...and considering I don't get MTM reruns in my area right now, a very welcome addition to my collection.

 

[David Von Pein]

I'll probably get through the whole set by next week.

Yeah...me too.
Watching these pristine copies of this show makes you realize how really great this program was (and is)!

 

[Duncan_N]

My set arrived today.

I live in the UK and had never seen a single episode. I picked it up because I am well aware of it's reputation, great review at DVDFile, excellent priceat ABSound and I love TV on DVD. I figured I could trade it on if I didn't like it.

Boy, this set is fanastic. The colors are amazing - this is 32 year old TV. Great packaging and lovingly created extras.

I've only watched disc one and am trying to watch the show fresh without knowing too much about its history.

I may now even pick up future seasons - are they all up to scratch or did the show go into decline in its later years?

I did think that it would have been cool to see those sets in 16:9, had that ratio been used for TV back then, they are gorgeous.

Only critisism of the set is no 'play-all' feature for the episodes (with 8 on a disc it would have been handy).

Very cool set all round though.

And Mary was a babe!!

Friends S2 (my favourite season) arrived today also - sitcom heaven on DVD this weekend.

 

[Jefferson]

So what was the story on
Mary's "white christmas" (or most of it) song being
edited out of "Christmas and the hardluck kid"?

Man,this is a great set.

 

[Rob W]

Duncan :

The show only got better in later years ! Buy them all.

 

[Marty M]

This is my all-time favorite sit-com series. I will probably be buying all seasons of this show.

I'm not sure there has been an official explanation about the White Christmas song edit. There is speculation that it might have to do with purchasing or not purchasing the rights to this song.

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

Music rights for television programs are a tricky thing. Unlike movies, music rights for TV used to only be cleared for TV airings; even up to the 80s, when VHS was around, this was the case. That's why a ton of Christmas songs written in the 30s have been cut from A Muppet Family Christmas, and why many many songs have been cut/dubbed over on WKRP's videos, yet both programs retain the songs on TV.

 

[Steve Phillips]

The series suffered just a bit when Valerie Harper left to do her own successful RHODA spin-off, but they brought in other characters to help make up for it.

Cloris Leachman also left to do a PHYLLIS spin off, but that one never really worked and was dropped after two mediocre seasons.

Overall the show was great throughout the entire run. They went out on top, rather than keeping it on the air years after it had run its course (ala BEWITCHED).

If you like the first year, I bet you'll end up wanting the entire run.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Does anyone remember what season "Chuckles Bites the Dust" was in?

 

[Rob Ray]

"Chuckles Bites the Dust" (the most overrated episode of this fine series, IMO) is one of the early episodes of the sixth season.

 

[David Von Pein]

Does anyone remember what season "Chuckles Bites the Dust" was in?

Season #6 (of 7).
Aired 27 years ago this week (Oct. 25, 1975). A Classic indeed.

 

[LarryDavenport]

I finished watching the first season this weekend and overall I am impressed. I really enjoyed the 90 minute documentary and the commentaries (especially the one with Paul Sand). Put me down for the rest of the series and here's hoping that The Bob Newhart Show is not far behind.

A couple observations, several times when there was a "cut to" Mr. Grant's office door or Mary's apartment door, it was obviously a freeze frame (and a grainy one at that). Was this from the original series or was footage lost?

I have always been a fan of the show (especially since my third grade teacher was a dead ringer for MTM), but one thing that has bothered me in all the reviews was how MTM was the first show to be about an independent woman on her own in a big city. What about That Girl?

 

[David Von Pein]

What about That Girl?

Good point, Larry.
Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie was indeed a young single woman on her own. And, just like Mary, is struggling to make it in a big city. (A pretty darn good show too. Lew Parker, as Ann's father, IMO was one of the funniest characters ever created for a sitcom. Marlo wasn't half bad herself.)

 

[Marty M]

Don't forget that Ted Bessel (I think that's how you spell his name), who played Ann Marie's boyfriend, was also one of Mary's boyfriends in one season of the MTM Show.

The only real difference in the main characters of the two shows was that Ann Marie got married at the end of the series and Mary stayed single the whole time. It goes without saying that MTM was a much better show.

 

[Rob Ray]

MTM wasn't even close to being the first show about an independent single woman in the big city. It seems that whenever a really great sitcom comes along, everyone clammers to find all the "firsts" and finds several that aren't really there.

As far as sitcoms dealing with single career women,you can go back to "Our Miss Brooks" which began on radio in the forties, and probably farther back than that. Off the top of my head, I can think of "Private Secretary," "The Ann Sothern Show" and "Oh, Susanna" from the fifties and from the sixties we have "The Doris Day Show," "That Girl," "Mona McCluskey" (remember that one-season wonder, starring Juliet Prowse?) "Julia" and many others, I'm sure.

Shoot, even "The Lucy Show" dealt with a single, independent career woman, after Lucy Carmichael moved to California.

MTM is a terrific show and one of the high points of seventies television. But most of the ground-breaking work during her era was being done by Norman Lear. Mary's show only broke new ground in terms of the extremely high quality of its writing and to the extent that its characters grew over the years. And that's taking nothing away from this top-quality show.