Althouse: It's a funeral, so no laughing....

January 25, 2017

It's a funeral, so no laughing....

Goodbye to Mary Tyler Moore.

39 comments:

Seeing Red said...: Good-bye, Mary. I grew up watching you.; 1/25/17, 2:27 PM
M Jordan said...: She was a great Laurie Petrie.; 1/25/17, 2:27 PM
mikeski said...: A little song
A little dance
A little seltzer down your pants

RIP.; 1/25/17, 2:28 PM
harkin said...: Find the episode of the DVD Show called The Curious Thing About Women - she was never better.

She also shined in the one about walnuts from the planet Twylo.

RIP; 1/25/17, 2:37 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aside, Ms. Moore once did a very interesting TV special called "Mary's Incredible Dream." It was not particularly well-received, and aired only once on CBS, in 1976. Maybe it was, as the cliché goes, ahead of its time. (It might help to know the original working title was "Mary Tyler Moore Explains the History of the World.")

Anyway, here's part one on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK9B7Kav9_M

(RIP, Ms. Moore.); 1/25/17, 2:40 PM
mikeski said...: She was also great, playing against type, as the ice queen wife & mom in Ordinary People.; 1/25/17, 2:41 PM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: The Mary Tyler Moore show was one of the funniest shows ever.; 1/25/17, 2:47 PM
Joe said...: I liked Mary Tyler Moore, though when I tried re-watching The Dick Van Dyke Show, by the middle of the first season she became way too shrill for me.

She was awesome in Ordinary People (So was everyone.); 1/25/17, 2:51 PM
Seeing Red said...: The Walnuts was hilarious!; 1/25/17, 2:51 PM
Michael K said...: She led a fantastic life as a type I diabetic.

She must have been very good at control.; 1/25/17, 2:59 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Related: Coupling - The Giggle Loop; 1/25/17, 3:01 PM
Seeing Red said...: Oh h h h h. ROB!; 1/25/17, 3:02 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: She led a fantastic life as a type I diabetic.

She must have been very good at control.

I don't disagree (certainly not with a doctor), but it's been reported that Mary Tyler Moore was legally blind in her later years. Maybe, for her, it was time to go.; 1/25/17, 3:05 PM
PackerBronco said...: Lou Grant: Chuckles the Clown is dead. It was a freak accident. He went to the parade dressed as Peter Peanut, and a rogue elephant tried to shell him.

...

Lou Grant: Lucky more people weren't hurt. Lucky that elephant didn't go after somebody else.

Murray Slaughter: That's right. After all, you know how hard it is to stop after just one peanut.

...

Ted Baxter: [ad-libbing an on-air obituary] Ladies and gentlemen, sad news. One of our most beloved entertainers, and close personal friend of mine, is dead. Chuckles the Clown died today from - from uh - he died a broken man. Chuckles, uh, leaves a wife. At least I assume he was married, he didn't seem like the other kind. I don't know his age, but I guess he was probably in his early sixties; it's kind of hard to judge a guy's face especially when he's wearing big lips and a light bulb for a nose. But he had his whole life in front of him, except for the sixty some odd years he already lived. I remember, Chuckles used to recite a poem at the end of each program. It was called "The Credo of the Clown," and I'd like to offer it now in his memory - "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants." That's what it's all about, folks, that's what he stood for, that's what gave his life meaning. Chuckles liked to make people laugh. You know what I'd like to think, I'd like to think that somewhere, up there tonight, in his honor, a choir of angels is sitting on whoopee cushions.; 1/25/17, 3:08 PM
JLScott said...: That episode of the MTM Show was flat out brilliant. The entire show was a slow set up for that final scene and it was hilarious.; 1/25/17, 3:16 PM
dreams said...: She became more conservative as an older woman, another reason to like her.; 1/25/17, 3:20 PM
ndspinelli said...: Mary was a Republican and respected by all who worked w/ and for her. Diabetes took its toll and she had severe dementia the last years of her life. Read an interesting book about the MTM show. The liberal Dem Ed Asner is a sexist, pig, asshole. Valerie Harper is a kind hearted, generous, woman. My hometown of Terryville, CT. is also Ted Knight[Konopka] hometown. All who knew him growing up same his MTM character was really him, not an act at all.; 1/25/17, 3:22 PM
Bob Ellison said...: What a lady! A beauty who could laugh at herself and make us laugh.; 1/25/17, 3:30 PM
Wince said...: Think of the people who called her "kid" who outlived her:

Ed Asner: November 15, 1929 (age 87 years)

Rose Marie: August 15, 1923 (age 93 years)

Carl Reiner: March 20, 1922 (age 94 years)

Cloris Leachman: April 30, 1926 (age 90 years)

Betty White: January 17, 1922 (age 95 years)

Gavin MacLeod: February 28, 1931 (age 85 years); 1/25/17, 3:46 PM
harkin said...: Seeing Red said
"The Walnuts was hilarious!"

Danny Thomas had perfect 20/20/20/20 vision.

https://youtu.be/eRjiXTvg9AU; 1/25/17, 4:20 PM
tcrosse said...: She admitted in an interview that she got a lot of her Laura Petrie schtick from Nanette Fabray (96), who appeared once playing her mother.; 1/25/17, 4:28 PM
rcocean said...: She died at the relatively young age of 80. Dick Van Dyke is 91. She'll be missed. Grew up watching her in re-runs and in prime time.; 1/25/17, 4:50 PM
The Godfather said...: This must have been in the early 1980's. My late-ex-mother-in-law was waiting for a table at the Griswold Inn in Essex, CT, when she noticed that Mary Tyler Moore was sitting next to her, also waiting for a table. They struck up a conversation, and my mother-in-law thought Mary was very nice. I don't think my mother-in-law acknowledged that she knew that Mary was a famous actress, or that she and the entire family were great fans, and it seems Mary never mentioned it.

What impressed me when I heard the story was that a BIG STAR was willing to wait patiently for a table at a busy restuarant without making a scene.; 1/25/17, 4:54 PM
Fernandinande said...: The beginning of the Era of Trump.; 1/25/17, 4:59 PM
Robert Cook said...: "She died at the relatively young age of 80."

Relatively young? Compared to whom? That exceeds that average expected life expectancy in the USA by a tad over a year.

Also, as a lifelong diabetic, it's amazing she lived to 80!; 1/25/17, 5:00 PM
Darcy said...: Loved Mary Richards. And Mary Tyler Moore.

Upon arrival for my first day of work at GM Headquarters I tossed my knit hat in the air in front of the RenCen. Thank you, Mary!

Gosh, sitcoms were lovely back then. And she was lovely.; 1/25/17, 5:03 PM
Quaestor said...: And I thought this was the incarnation of Modern Woman.

That funeral would be funner than average.; 1/25/17, 5:57 PM
William said...: She was very special in those two roles. She was so endearing, funny, and charming. Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett were in the same class so far as comedy goes, but only actresses like Audrey Hepburn or Myrna Loy were in the same class so far as wistful charm. I guess you could say she was in a class of her own........I read the obit. She had an extraordinarily difficult life. I dont know if all those troubles life dumped on her gave her a sense of humor, but she had a keen eye for the absurd......I'm glad we shared the same planet at the same time.; 1/25/17, 6:12 PM
traditionalguy said...: She was one of the first great ones. Peace.; 1/25/17, 6:59 PM
rcocean said...: "Relatively young? Compared to whom? That exceeds that average expected life expectancy in the USA by a tad over a year."

Look up the word 'Relatively' - Dummy.; 1/25/17, 7:04 PM
SukieTawdry said...: I knew her back when she was just a pair of legs (great legs). RIP Mary. Thanks for all the laughs.; 1/25/17, 7:15 PM
Curious George said...: "rcocean said...
She died at the relatively young age of 80. Dick Van Dyke is 91. She'll be missed. Grew up watching her in re-runs and in prime time."

"cocean said...
"Relatively young? Compared to whom? That exceeds that average expected life expectancy in the USA by a tad over a year."

Look up the word 'Relatively' - Dummy."

I'm with Cookie...and I know what the word means. In relation to what is she young?

And miss her? She hasn't done really anything in many years. Her family will miss hr I'm sure but the rest of us? No.; 1/25/17, 7:27 PM
MacMacConnell said...: Is there anything Mary Tyler Moore or her production company MTM did touch that wasn't gold? She was a class act, top drawer. RIP; 1/25/17, 7:55 PM
Unknown said...: The second (after the mermaid on Diver Dan) and still the #1 object of my celebrity lust - a real and funny and charming woman...; 1/25/17, 8:13 PM
BN said...: Some people are "naturals". They are easy to like, impossible no to, in fact--unless there's something wrong with you.

And she had natural wisdom. She was Dylan to some of us.; 1/25/17, 8:44 PM
William said...: Some people here have taken note of her performance in Ordinary People as a marker of her acting skill. I suppose it was, but I think there were probably twenty actors who could have done as well in that part. Perhaps she could have performed a credible Lady Macbeth, but that's not what made Mary Tyler Moore great........She came from a troubled background and the other landscape in her life wasn't that encouraging either. The cheery, upbeat woman you saw in those sitcoms was not the woman she was, but the woman she wanted to be. If only life were so effortless.......Eugene O'Neill wrote Ah Wilderness in nostalgia for a childhood he never had. Mary offered Laura Petrie in homage to a life she could never lead. Mary Tyler Moore was both greater and lesser than the characters she played in those sitcoms.; 1/25/17, 9:33 PM
BN said...: Great post, William.; 1/25/17, 9:46 PM
David Begley said...: Bravo William.; 1/26/17, 8:47 AM
Deb said...: Funniest Dick Van Dyke episode (to me) was the one where Laura accidentally revealed on television that Alan Brady wore a toupee.; 1/26/17, 11:22 AM