RIP Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore has died at 80.
She had kept a very low profile in recent years. Diabetes (Moore was diagnosed at 33) can be a difficult taskmaster and exact a toll as time goes on.
Anyone of a certain age probably remembers Moore very well from her stints on TV, as Dick Van Dyke’s wife Laura and above all as the star of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Most remember her very fondly indeed; the show dominated the airwaves for years. Light comedy was her forte, charm her middle name, and she managed to do it all with more than enough grit to avoid any hint of cloying sweetness.
RIP.
Sad news. If she was half as nice a person in real life as she came across on TV, she was a very nice person indeed.
While growing up, I watched both these shows. I always thought she was lovely and enjoyed her in both comedies. I always looked forward to seeing her outfits on the 2nd series. Wishing her peace.
Not growing up in America I wasn’t familiar with a lot of her work but Thourougly Modern Millie is one of my favorite films.
“Light comedy was her forte, charm her middle name, and she managed to do it all with more than enough grit to avoid any hint of cloying sweetness.”–Neo
You really amaze me with your ability to succinctly state an insight. And your insights so often are spot-on. Truly remarkable.
it sucks to find out a friend you knew died
and i dont mean that in the funny way fans do
i worked with her and a friend a few years back
🙁
the older you get, the faster they drop
then its your turn…
I pay attention to insulin-dependent diabetics like MTM, who took insulin for 47 years. I am now in my 65th year on insulin. I do not think I will qualify for a record, because several years ago a 90 year-old made 85 years on insulin.
My brother the shrink observed some years ago that not 15 minutes go by that I don’t have to think about my blood sugar by self-monitoring how I feel, and he is right.
Eight glucose tests per average day make it easier, but glucose surprises, whether high or low, occur with annoying frequency. Counting carbohydrates with every meal makes for risky spontaneity! Gotta shoot up, so to speak, after every meal and snack. Eating pasta out is hazardous: how many carbs? how many insulin units for that?
She was easy to enjoy on the ‘boob tube’. I have imagined for 5 decades that she was a star with her feet on the ground. Time to watch Dick Van Dyke on netflix. RIP
Frog,
Keep on trucking.
Sad news. If she was half as nice a person in real life as she came across on TV, she was a very nice person indeed.
No disagreement from me.
A college roommate told me of seeing Mary Tyler Moore in a department store in NYC. “I know who you are,” he told her. “Shh,” replied Mary Tyler Moore, with the corresponding index finger to mouth. 🙂
She was a pro.
Maybe she was a neocon, or should I say neoneocon. From Wikipedia: Mary Tyler Moore.
I have friends and relatives her age. Her death reminds me that while I may have know them for decades,or for all my life in some instances, their lives and mine will come to an end.
While Mary Tyler Moore may have had some regrets, from my distance she appears to have led a rich, fulfilling life, whose life is to be celebrated, not mourned.
Rip I enjoyed her work. Off topic somewhat, in the 1990s she and her husband attempted to euthanize her terminally Ill brother. Mary ”s function was to ply the poor fellow with drug laden ice cream while the husband was pulling some hanky pank y with the chaps Morphine, he lived 3 more months BTW. In black humor I can hear her voice, “Mr Grant just finish this last spoonful”. Is it any wonder these Hollywood demi gods hector us rabble with, how to vote, how to think, how to protest,who to love,who to hate, what should be supported, what should be marginalized. Is there “anything” they respect about average people?
Deciding your brother is better off dead, without professional input evaluating it.
Sorry to hear it.
I knew MTM mainly as Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke which I saw in syndication.
My favorite was the science-fictionish Danny Thomas/Walnuts episode which went to a very different place than most sixties sitcoms.
Seeing Laura body surf into the Petrie living room on a wave of walnuts was one of the most unexpected moments I can remember on black-and-white television.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb-FCsGSW8w
My parents watched her show regularly when I was growing up in the 70s, so I watched it to. Most of that time I was too young to really appreciate the humor, only getting old enough to do so just as it was coming to a close. The theme song and opening sequence, though, are literally seared into my brain for all time- I recognize the music instantly and am always taken back to those days as a child. That iconic hat toss at the end of the opening credits is how I always see Ms. Moore, and always will. RIP
Maybe the best sitcom ever. I fell in love, TV love with MTM when I was in high school. Later when I returned from being overseas in the service in 1970 she started the MTM show and I suspect all young married guys had a crush on her. What an incredible performer with a wonderful cast for the Mary Tyler More show. It was funny and fun and what TV entertainment should be.
The theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show was written by Sonny Curtis, who also wrote I Fought the Law, made famous by The Bobby Fuller Four. That has always struck me as an incongruous combination of songs to have written.
RIP
A lady who was hopefully as genuine as her hype.
Regardless. her media persona embodied a wholesomeness that has become too rare.
I believe that WKRP IN CINCINNATI was a MTM production; both it and the MTM show were great fun, though the developing but funny cynicism of the ages crept into WKRP.
I actually remember her (legs only) as the receptionist on the Richard Diamond (David Jansen) private eye TV show. A great talent, may she RIP!