ONE SEASON WONDERS: Mary

MARY

Programming Details:
December 11, 1985 - April 8, 1986
13 episodes
CBS

Starring: Mary Tyler Moore, James Farentino, John Astin, David Byrd, Katey Sagal, James Tolkan, Carlene Watkins
Created by: Ken Levine and David Isaacs

Plot: Mary Brenner (Moore) is a Chicago divorcee working for a high profile women's magazine but then forced to work for a tabloid after her magazine goes out of business. She tries to deal with her sense of journalism with a boss (Farentino) who values sensationalism. At her new job she also has to deal with columnist Jo (Sagal), theater critic Ed (Astin) and copy editor Tully (Byrd). Rounding out the main cast Mary's neighbor Susan (Watkins) and Susan's fiance, Lester (Tolkan).

Brief Pilot Review:

This series marked Moore's first return to the sitcom format after her legendary run on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She had spent some time doing failed variety shows and gained acclaim and an Oscar nomination for her dramatic turn in Ordinary People, but the sitcom format called her back eight years after her title show left the airwaves and they were clearly trying to go back to the same well. Once again her character was in a new job within the media industry so it made the comparisons to her crown jewel pretty natural. However, Moore did a nice job of not seeming too close to Mary Richards. Her character here was definitely more hardened and more jaded. I think that was necessary considering how many similarities there were.

There were some really strong cast members here besides Moore. Katey Sagal was excellent right before she started her long run on Married... with Children (in fact, Sagal may not have been able to do Married if Mary had been a hit). My only real experience with John Astin is Gomez Addams so it was interesting to see him play a different role but even in this very different part, he still gave me some memories of Gomez. I think this show set itself up for success well. It's hard to watch Moore be someone different but we all bought her as both Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, so I have no doubt she could have made Mary Brenner work as a character has this show lasted longer. With a winning cast and a workable if not promising premise, I'm surprised this show didn't find an audience.

What Went Wrong:

Mary did not launch in the Fall of 1985. It was held off until December and paired with another new comedy, Foley Square. Given the auspices of Moore's return to sitcom land, it's surprising that it was buried with a December premiere. Interestingly, the first two episodes of the series were directed by Danny DeVito. Reviews were mixed with obvious comparisons to the old show. Despite the anticipation of Moore returning to TV, the pilot did not set the world on fire in the ratings, ranking #31 for the week. After airing a couple months, the show was put on hiatus and underwent creative retooling including the departure of Carlene Watkins and James Tolkan. The series re-emerged on Tuesdays late in the season. It actually had a shot at renewal but there were creative clashes between Moore and the producers and a mutual decision was made to end the series. 

It's no secret that Moore could be difficult to work with at times especially in her later string of failures after back to back iconic sitcoms in the 60s and 70s. Writer Ken Levine, who worked on Mary, has alluded to the difficulties with Moore at times but there's two sides to every story and I'm sure Moore was not thrilled to be on a show where things weren't clicking as quickly as she was used to. Moore had one more sitcom failure in 1988's Annie McGuire. Of course the actor who has had the most success since this show is Katey Sagal who has been a near constant presence on TV since Mary. Sagal admitted in a 2016 memoir that she was heavy into drugs when doing this show and a co-star helped get her into rehab and turn her life around, but she didn't mention who that was.

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Next Wednesday: A look at 1990s flop The Faculty!