Mary Tyler Moore, who died this week at 80, led a couple of revolutions for women on television playing Laura Petire and Mary Richards.
In the early and mid ‘60s, she was Laura, wife of Dick Van Dyke on his classic television series. Laura was bit zany, but she was also beautiful, intelligent and signaled a change for newly-married women coming of age during the 1960s.
She didn’t look, talk, act or dress like the wives from the ‘50s sitcoms.
“As Laura Petrie, the naive and slightly flaky heroine of The Dick Van Dyke Show, she brought wit and intelligence to a medium in which the portrayal of women had not yet evolved beyond Lucille Ball-Donna Reed clowns,” Michael VerMeulen wrote in Rolling Stone.
“While Laura did not hold a job outside her home, at least she wasn’t chained to the sink; her lack of pretension and her healthy self-respect put forth an idea, new at the time, that women were good for more than making babies and casseroles.”
Even Moore’s wardrobe as Laura made a statement.
“Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie was a spirited presence and a far-from-typical housewife,” wrote Linda Napikoski on the website About Education. “She even caused a small controversy by wearing Capri pants. The standard sitcom housewife wardrobe was heavy on dresses and pearls.
“Television executives were in no hurry to deviate from that, but Mary Tyler Moore rightfully insisted that it was an unrealistic, fabricated TV image; nobody wore a dress and pearls to do housework.
“She wasn’t the first woman to wear pants on television, but she was a lasting, iconic image, and the decision was based on depicting reality instead of glorifying a non-existent happy homemaker look.”
Here’s a scene with Rob and Laura from one of my favorite episodes, when they are thinking they brought home the wrong baby from the hospital:
Laura Petrie was just a warmup for Moore’s next major female breakthrough: Mary Richards on the 1970s “Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
Mary Richards was a full-fledged single woman, working for a living, living in her own apartment and dating all kinds of guys. She could battle her boss, Lou Grant (Ed Asner), and cope with co-workers like sexy Sue Ann (Betty White), goofy anchor (Ted Knight) and best friend Rhoda (Valerie Harper).
At the center of this circus was Mary Richards, somehow getting by in a world dominated by male bosses and crazy co-workers.
Here’s a scene from my favorite episode, the death of Chuckles the Clown.
Moore’s private life was not as happy as her on-screen characters. She was married three times, and her son died from an accidental gunshot wound. She suffered from diabetes and had brain surgery in 2011.
Professionally, though, Moore’s life was filled with success. She won sevenEmmy Awards. She was nominated for an Oscar in the film, “Ordinary People.” In 1987, Moore was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
Death is sad, and we all grieve for the loss of this wonderful actress and comedienne. But you know, I’ll always smile when I think of Mary Tyler Moore.
Like Chuckles the Clown, she made us laugh and feel good. And the happiness she gave us, lives on.
As Mara Buxbaum, her longtime representative, stated in a press release: “Mary will be remembered as a fearless visionary who turned the world on with her smile.”