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

Paper: STAR TRIBUNE (Mpls.-St. Paul) Newspaper of the Twin Cities
Headline: Luck made Hazel Frederick, 91, somewhat of a celebrity, after all
Date: 11/30/99
Section: NEWS
Page: 01B
Byline: Kay Miller; Staff Writer

The minute that Vivian Oliver flipped on the opening credits to the "Mary Tyler Moore Show," she knew that the older woman standing behind Moore with the quizzical look on her face was her mom. There Hazel Frederick stood - frozen in television time - as Mary tossed her beret into the air on Nicollet Mall.

There was no mistaking Frederick's green coat with the fur collar and matching scarf.

But her identity was a mystery to almost everyone but family - including Moore - until the TV star came to the Mall of America for a 1996 book signing.

Moore invited Frederick to join her on the mall stage, where she introduced her to the crowd of 5,000 as "my co-star."

Frederick died Sunday at Maranatha Care Center in Brooklyn Center. She was 91.

"We always used to call her our celebrity," Oliver said. "How lucky can you be? Go downtown, get in front of the TV cameras and be splashed all over the world?"

Frederick's brush with fame came in 1969. It was her day off from the Glen Lake Sanitorium, where she worked in the kitchen. She'd been shopping at Dayton's.

"She came out and saw all these people on Nicollet Avenue and thought, `What is going on?' " Oliver said. "She stood there and watched this girl throw her hat in the air. Mary's back was to Mom, so Mom didn't know who it was."

A neighbor spotted Frederick on the first episode and phoned Oliver, who waited a week to see the second episode. Sure enough, there was Hazel.

"So I called her. `Mom! You're on Mary Tyler Moore. Watch it next week.' Then we had to call the rest of the kids."

There were lots of them. Frederick had eight children, 24
grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.

She was born in northeast Minneapolis and was 17 when she married Ernest Frederick, whom she had met at a dance in Walker, Minn. He had serious asthma and later emphysema, so Hazel supported the family through 39 years of marriage - washing clothes, selling butter to tourists and cleaning cabins in the Ten Mile Lake area.

"She was raised by a strict German dad and a Norwegian mom," Oliver said. "That's where she got her strictness and
determination. She used to wade through snow to break a path for us kids to go to school."

She was mostly self-educated, having attended school until
graduating from eighth grade. When her children were growing up, she read the Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest cover to cover.

Ernest died in 1965. She worked right up until she had to retire at 65. Even well into her 80s, she bowled every Tuesday, hopping on the bus for the Hopkins senior citizens' bowling league, said granddaughter Carol Berg of Circle Pines.

At Maranatha Care Center, where Frederick moved in 1995, she was renowned for the speed with which she finished crossword puzzles, sometimes blurting out answers before other residents had even read the question.

One day, her granddaughter asked if she'd like to meet Mary Tyler Moore, who was coming to Minneapolis to promote her autobiography, "After All."

Driving to work earlier that day, Carol Berg heard KDWB's morning crew talking about Moore's upcoming appearance and speculating about the mystery woman behind her. Somebody said she was a librarian. Somebody else said that she was dead.

Berg called the station to say the mystery woman was very much alive; she knew because it was her grandmother.

"They asked if I could bring her to the Mall of America to meet Mary Tyler Moore."

Frederick got all gussied up in a new white pantsuit, with a white lace collar, and had her hair set. There on the mall stage, in front of everyone, Moore hugged her.

"This is Hazel Frederick," she announced. "My co-star."

Everybody applauded. Afterward, most of the 500 people who lined up for Moore's autograph waited for the onetime mystery woman to sign theirs as well.

"She never got a big head about it," Oliver said. "I couldn't imagine how many millions of people have seen her. That show was broadcast to every state in America and around the world. Everybody wondered: Who was that lady in the background? And, of course, we all knew."

(c) 2002 Minneapolis Star Tribune

Click to expand...

please tell me the MTM cat is on the discs, meowing at the end of every episode

He sure is!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

He sure is!

Excellent! I love that little guy.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Uh...It's already out.

A store might have broken street date, but it is not officially available yet. It's scheduled for release on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

A store might have broken street date, but it is not officially available yet. It's scheduled for release on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Mine's in the mail right now!
Thanks for all the info above guys! Sounds great!
I'll be interested in seeing what the Photo Gallery contains too (unusual, huh, for a TV set? But I love galleries!)
IMO, the first episode of MTM ("Love Is All Around"), is about as good as a sitcom episode gets! There's the inevitable humor (natch)....but we also seem to be getting "invited" right on into Mary's home and workplace. It's kinda hard to put your finger on just what quality it contains, but's it's there (for me anyway). A personal experience. The writers are so good at (right off the bat) making us care about each character. From Mary, right down the line, even the pompous Ted Baxter. In the hands of different writers, Ted would be ever-so-easily disliked. But, in TMTMS, he's just the opposite. You can't help but like him, despite his "Look at me--I'm God" attitude!
It's an absolutely wonderful show! One of my all-time favorites. And I want to thank Mr. Asner (and everyone else @ the MTM DVD team) for producing these season sets! Having a TV Classic like TMTMS on DVD forever puts a large smile () on my face indeed!
It'll still be a while yet before we get to see the "Chuckles Bites The Dust" episode in Digital glory. "Chuckles" (an episode regarded by many as the greatest in the series) aired during the 6th MTM season, in October 1975. But it'll be worth the wait...no doubt!
Ted: "If this had been MY funeral, the place would be packed."
Another all-time great ep. is where Mary & Rhoda monkey around with the WJM obituary file. When Ted has to read one on the air, as they say, hijinks ensue! A great show!
Season Two in March, someone uttered!!?? Fantastic! *does cartwheel*
I was hoping for a Ronald Epstein MTM review...but none has materalized as yet. Anybody know if Ron's doing one?
http://www.geocities.com/rickstvshow...ylermoore.html

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I'll be picking it up, too. Wow, the three greatest sitcoms of all time (to me) are on DVD -- I Love Lucy, All in the Family, and now Mary Tyler Moore.

Hi Brian W.!
Yes, it is nice to have the above-mentioned trio of classics on disc, isn't it?
But: Don't omit Dick Van Dyke! (Maybe by Christmas! *knock wood* )

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Don't omit Dick Van Dyke!

That would have been my fourth choice -- I almost listed it.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...