So I just picked up a new book that I’m really excited about – MARY AND LOU AND RHODA AND TED – all about the groundbreaking sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
When I was a kid watching it for the first time, I didn’t really get it, I was too young. I got some of the one-liners, sometimes I understood the double meaning of a double entendre, but most of the time I was just watching with my brother because it was a Saturday night and we were too young to go outside. (We lived in very urban Hoboken, NJ at the time and Saturday nights were not child-friendly.) But even at that young age I knew I was watching something special.
But it was only until I watched the show in reruns and then later on VHS that I understood why it became an instant classic. The show and its title character were feminist, intelligent, modern, socially aware — not to mention having THE BEST TV APARTMENT EVER!! Seriously, I — along with thousands of other viewers I’m sure — would pay more-than-market value to live in that apartment. And personally, I wouldn’t change one stitch of the decor. Green floral curtains and brown velvet couches rock!
So tomorrow at the beach I will crack open this book and take a trip back in time. To read about a less complicated, but more compelling and thought-provoking time. A time when TV was based on reality and not reality-based. When there were characters and not caricatures. And when there were actors who were so funny and good they commanded your attention and made you believe in them. Even when you were so young you didn’t fully comprehend what they were saying.
Maybe I’m deluded, but Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted are far more interesting and real to me than Snooki and Teen Moms and the Bachelors and any Housewives from any state in the union.
And I can’t wait to read all about them.
Michael