The Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD

Season One

by Jim Bray

There's just something about Mary....

And boy, is it great to see a classy TV show like this again. In today's vast TV wasteland, where everything seems to be about sex, or body parts, “Mary” shines out as a beacon. No wonder it won the most Emmys ever until Frasier (also a classy show, another voice in the wilderness) knocked it off its perch in late 2002.

Mary Tyler Moore is Mary Richards, who in the opening episode has just moved to Minneapolis to start a new life after having dumped her long term boyfriend.

She's an “emancipated woman,” a feminist in the pure and true sense of the word. She's the equal of any man, but she isn't anti-man. She's strong and proud, but nervous and insecure as any person would be who's starting a new life in a strange place.

In short, she's a real person.

What a breath of fresh air!

We only received the first disc of the first season, which contains the first eight episodes of the series, two of which also include an audio commentary. These eight stories set the tone for the whole series, and I laughed more watching them than I have at a sitcom in many a year.

Episode One, “Love is All Around” (with optional commentary) kicks things off in grand style. New arrival Mary moves into her little apartment and introduces us to the main characters. She meets Rhoda (Valerie Harper) because, of course, Rhoda lives upstairs – but the meeting doesn't get off on the right foot because Mary's moving into the apartment that Rhoda actually wants. We also meet Phyllis (Cloris Leachman) and her daughter Bess (Lisa Gerritsen).

Then Mary goes for a job interview at WJM TV's newsroom and we're thrown together with the rest of the regulars: Ed Asner's Lou Grant, the crusty but lovable news director who introduces Mary to a whole new world – Gavin Macleod's Murray Slaughter, newswriter and foil for Ted Knight's Ted Baxter, the brainless buffoon of an anchor man who is basically a caricature but who's closer to today's crop of anchors than most of them would undoubtedly like to admit.

It's great stuff, funny without being cheap or outrageous, funny because the characters are good and the writing is better.

The DVD's are pretty good, too, at least this first one we watched is. The picture is presented in its original 4x3 TV aspect ratio, which means owners of 16x9 TV's will have to stretch/zoom it to fit the rectangular screen, but other than that the picture quality is very good. Audio is Dolby Digital mono and it's adequate.

Welcome back, Mary!

The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Season One:
24 Episodes on 4 discs, including some commentaires, The Making of Season 1, all-new 88-minute feature, CBS promos, Emmy Awards clips, Trivia challenge

The Mary Tyler Moore Show, from 20th Century Fox Home Video
24 half hour (minus commercials) episodes, 4x3 full screen (not 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Edward Asner, Gavin Macleod, Ted Knight

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