Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: A History of the Mary Tyler Moore Show (49 page)

Ted, Lou, and Mary get bad news in the 1977 series finale.
Corbis Images

The cast celebrates the 1977 series finale, just after the famous group hug in the newsroom.
Getty Images

Mary Tyler Moore and producer James L. Brooks, reunited in 1984.
Getty Images

Moore, Ed Asner, Betty White, and Gavin MacLeod pose for a group shot in 2002.
Corbis Images

Allan Burns, Grant Tinker, and writer-producer Stan Daniels (with Writers Guild Foundation President Barry Kemp) catch up at a 2005 event.
Getty Images

Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper, Georgia Engel, and Ed Asner present together at the 2007 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Corbis Images

Grant Tinker in his office, taken by fan Joe Rainone during a 1977 visit.
Courtesy of Joe Rainone.

Mary Tyler Moore and writer Susan Silver reunite, three decades after the show ended, at a diabetes-research benefit.
Courtesy of Susan Silver.

This reading group guide for
Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted
includes discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club and a Q&A with author
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
.
The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

Topics & Questions for Discussion

1. How does this book fit into the history of the 1970s overall?

2. How does it fit into the history of Hollywood?

3. What do you think it says about women on television?

4. Who was your favorite “character”?

5. What surprised you the most?

6. How has reading this book changed the way you think of
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
?

7. Mary Richards: Feminist or not?

8. Which episodes did it make you want to watch (again, or for the first time)?

9. Discuss women’s role in the workplace and in Hollywood during the 1970s. How has life changed for women since the beginning of
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
? How has it stayed the same?

10. How do you think Treva Silverman felt back when she was the only woman in the comedy writers’ rooms where she worked?

11. Do you think the female writers in the book would ever have made it in the TV business without James L. Brooks and Allan Burns?

12. Do you think Mary Tyler Moore should have taken a more active role in creating her show and running her production company? Why or why not?

13. What do you think of Mary Tyler Moore as a woman, an actress, a producer, and a businesswoman?

14. Why do you think the influence of
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
has endured?

15. Which modern TV characters would you compare with Mary Richards?

Author Questionnaire

1. You’ve said that Mary Tyler Moore is one of your role models. How has Moore influenced your own decisions, goals or life path?

Specifically, I think Mary Richards — that is, her character on
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
— had quite a large effect on me throughout my life in different ways. When I was a little girl watching the show, I thought she was the epitome of glamorous, grown-up womanhood. She was fashionable, beautiful, smart, nice, and ultimately successful, and I wanted a life like hers. I don’t know that she was the main reason I went into journalism, but her influence certainly helped plant the idea in my head very early. I dipped back into the show in reruns on cable a few years ago and couldn’t believe how true it still rang. I was also shocked to be reminded that in the pilot, she had left a long-term boyfriend at the age of thirty — the same age at which I left my college-sweetheart-turned-fiancé. I found her strength and dignity throughout her dating adventures to be a new source of inspiration then.

2. The story has many female key players behind the scenes, such as Treva Silverman and Pat Nardo. Their stories and struggles served as inspiration when sitting down to write for television. How much did you know about the women behind the scenes before beginning this project? Were you surprised to learn anything?

Treva actually inspired this book in a lot of ways. I was originally researching ‘70s TV in general when I stumbled upon a great blog post by TV writer Ken Levine, in which he interviewed her about being one of the few women writing comedy at the time. I got in touch with her, and she told such wonderful stories that I envisioned her life as a sort of
Sex and the City
of the ‘70s. She was beautiful, funny, successful, a pioneer, and dating up a storm. She was, in essence, the real-life Mary Richards. When she told me that the show hired more women than any show before it, I saw that there was a behind-the-scenes story that hadn’t quite been told about this monumental show. The only thing that kept shocking me was how amazing these women were. I came away from every interview with a new role model for living a full life. These women were all rock stars, and still are.

3. You did an immense amount of research for this project, including many interviews with the central people involved. We definitely hear some great stories from both the actors and creators of the show. Do you have any favorite stories or tidbits that did not make it into the final book?

Well, I hope I put all the juicy stuff in there! But the good stuff that didn’t make it was everything from the experiences of actually meeting these people who I grew up admiring. I’ve always adored Valerie Harper as Rhoda — I used to wear a little headscarf when I was five or so to be like her — and she was even better in real life than on the screen. She patiently helped me with research, reaching out to her fellow cast members on my behalf. We talked about feminism. She asked me about my own life. Just beyond an amazing person. Ed Asner is the most riveting storyteller, and needs little prompting to give great details. I will never forget meeting him at his home, where he sat at a desk with a nameplate that said, “Edward Asner.” Gavin MacLeod, who played Murray and later the captain of the
Love Boat
, was a doll, and Cloris Leachman was reliably kooky. (To a fan who approached her in a Los Angeles Pain Quotidien: “You have fantastic tits.”)