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♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

There can't be anybody
in the United States

that doesn't know,
like, and admire Laura Petrie

of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Otherwise known as the beautiful
and talented, Mary Tyler Moore.

- Welcome.
- Hello. Thank you.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

DAVID SUSSKIND:
Uh, Mary Tyler Moore,

the world should know
that your name is really

- Mary Tyler Moore Tinker.
- Yes, isn't that darling?

SUSSKIND: It should be
"Mary Tyler Tinker Moore."

MARY TYLER MOORE: Yes.
(CHUCKLES)

SUSSKIND:
Was the wife you played there

kind of an idealization
of the American wife?

There is no such woman.

- Most of them are wretched nags.
- I don't think so.

Yes. I think
we all have our moments.

Some of us have
the nagging personality

come to the fore
more often than others.

But Laura Petrie broke down
and cried,

and she used ploys
to get her way,

and she was nasty
and short-tempered.

And she was also sweet and soft.
And she was many things.

Oh, no, I think she was sort
of a strained idealization

of the American woman
as she thinks she is.

But they had no connection
with reality.

- I mean...
- Well--

...the woman that's talking
all the time in a restaurant.

I claim that you can walk
into an average restaurant

and if you
have observed life enough,

American
female-male relationships,

you can look in the restaurant

and tell who's married
and who's single.

- Yeah. Sometimes you can.
- Where the woman is just

yakking like crazy.

- MARY: Mm-hmm.
- SUSSKIND:
And the man has a hurt,

- bored expression.
- MARY: Yes. (CHUCKLES)

They're real married
at that point.

I know, I know. I--

SUSSKIND:
And where she's listening

and he's just elocutioning,

and she's just wide-eyed
and attentive. They're engaged.

MARY: Oh, gosh! I'll probably
get in trouble saying this

but I really do think more wives
should investigate

the possibilities of working

because I agree
with Betty Friedan

and her point of view
in her book,

The Feminine Mystique,
that women are,

or should be,
human beings first,

women second,
wives and mothers third.

It should fall in that order

and that if there's
enough thought and effort

put into this attempt

that it will not
hurt the family,

it will not hurt the work,

that they can function
very nicely together.

I'm proving it.

♪ (EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

GLORIA STEINEM:
Just consider what visitors

from outer space might think

if they were confronted
with the last 20 years

of television and films
as the only evidence

of what American women
were like.

It would be quite clear

that we slept
in false eyelashes

and full makeup,

and indeed
spend all of our lives

with such ornamentation on us.

Some of us would be taken to be
a servant class of some sort.

Some of us would be taken
to be sex-crazed,

others, totally puritanical.

Most of us would be man junkies,
very strange creatures

who were thought to need men
for our identities.

If we lived alone, we would
almost have to be widows,

at least until recently
on television.

- That's begun to change.
- ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

And I could discover
the secret of immortality

and people would still say,
"Look at that single girl."

MARY: It stems from a love
of what you're doing.

It would be unnatural
not to have ambition,

I would think.

JAMES LIPTON:
Her seven Emmy Awards,

her three Golden Globe Awards,

- and her
Academy Award nomination...
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

...are only the beginning
of the story.

MARY: While I would never

consciously choose pain
for myself,

sometimes you have
to have a little pain,

a little disappointment.

Oh, Rob!
Are you saying it's my fault?

DINAH SHORE:
Every woman in America

must have dreamed
about being just like her.

Please welcome,
Mary Tyler Moore.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

Believe me, Millie. It--

- It wasn't quite like this.
- JERRY PARIS: Oh. (CHUCKLES)

Well, I believe you
but how you gonna convince

forty million other people?

What should we know about you?

Uh, well, most of the things
that you should know about me,

I'm not gonna tell. (CHUCKLES)

I don't take huge risks, though.

I'm not a foolish person.

You know
what's got me really upset?

- I have no idea.
- I just sounded nuts.

- REPORTER 1: Mary!
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

REPORTER 2:
It's your first nomination.

- How do you feel tonight?
- Wonderful!

MARY: What she really needed
to do, and ultimately

gets the last chance to do,
is have a life of her own.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

RONA BARRETT:
I don't think anyone

in the entertainment business...

has gone through more changes
than you have...

- in this--
- Wait a minute,

that can't be true. (CHUCKLES)

RONA: In this past year,

I guess one would call it
a midlife crisis.

I hate
that term "crisis" though.

- A midlife change.
- RONA: A midlife change. Okay.

And the courage
to follow through

with what you perceive as...

a necessary change.

It may be difficult
for people to understand,

because they see
somebody like me

who has been working
for a long time

and has been
relatively successful

and they think,
"Oh, that's independence."

It is not necessarily true.

♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(ENGINE RUMBLING)

MARY: I was born
December 29th, 1936

in Brooklyn, New York.

As my father reminds me though,
of impoverished nobility.

I was a feisty kid.
I was always in fights

- with the neighborhood kids.
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Possibly because it was
an ethnically charged situation.

By that time, it had become
an Orthodox Jewish community.

And here I was,
this English-Irish Catholic kid.

I knew at a very early age
what I wanted to do.

Some people refer to it
as indulging in my instincts

and my artistic bent.

I call it just showing off...

(CHUCKLES)
...which was what I did

from about
three years of age on.

And my grandfather
once said of me,

"This child will either end up
on stage or in jail."

RONA: What part did your father
play in your life?

MARY: A very important part.

He was a rather
intimidating force.

- ♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- MARY: I always

wanted his respect.

I knew I could never reach him
on the intellectual level.

So, in order to win him over,

I had to do it
on some other plane.

And for me
then it was performing,

which my father
was never very good at.

My mother was an alcoholic.

She was most at ease
at a party or having a party.

Everybody's good-time best gal,

not the most attuned
to parenting

that I would have liked.

She would start drinking
in the day

and she would not stop

until somebody found the bottle
and took it away.

I didn't know anything
about alcoholism at the time

and I thought that she was
getting drunk at me.

That if she really,
really loved me, she could stop.

My aunt and grandmother
who lived together

had taken me for weekends
from the time I was an infant,

making it easier for my mother
and father to have a good time

on their own.

I thought the best way
to get my parents' attention

and approval,
is by succeeding as a dancer.

I started studying
when I was eight years old

- when we moved to California.
- ♪ (CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- (SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

MARY: That was
just after World War Two.

And I had
a very successful uncle

named Harold Hackett,
who was with MCA.

He had been
luring the family to come

to this land
of sunshine and promise for all

called "Hollywood."

And since my father
was working for ConEd

and didn't really have
what you'd call a career,

and my Aunt Birdie
who was working for radio,

she decided that she could
take care of herself out there.

And so the whole family moved.

And at that point,
the whole family included

my seven-year younger brother, John.

I started taking dance classes
right away

that my Aunt Birdie paid for
and drove me to.

And for which my grandmother
made the costumes

for the recitals.

It was pretty locked
into my mind and heart and soul

that that's what I was gonna do.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

RONA: When you went out
for your very first job...

- Mm-hmm.
- ...did you get it?

Yes. Yes.

♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

VOICE OVER:
♪ Every day's a holiday ♪

♪ With Hotpoint ♪

MARY: The very first job
was the day

after the high school
graduation prom.

RONA: And what was the job?

MARY: And that was the series
of commercials

on the Ozzie and Harriet
television show,

in which I played a pixie

representing the Hotpoint appliances.

I was Happy Hotpoint.

- (SIGHS, LAUGHS)
- (RONA CHUCKLES)

Happy Hotpoint

- at your service.
- ♪ (AD JINGLE PLAYS, FADES) ♪

MARY: I really liked doing that.

- ♪ (MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- MARY: But I had also married

very soon after

that first commercial
was filmed.

And despite my best intentions,

I found myself pregnant
two months later.

And that was a difficult moment
to live through

for the Hotpoint people too

because there I was
with these emerging breasts

in my little gray leotard,

not looking
very much like the logo

they had in mind. (CHUCKLES)
So, that had to be truncated.

Then I went on
to become Richard's mother.

I think there's
a terrible contempt for women

still in our society,

implicit in this
glorified image of women

only as a sex object.

Implicit in this glorified insistence

that woman's fulfillment
is motherhood

and only motherhood.

Cows can have babies

but women have minds
as well as breasts,

as well as sexual organs.

And women are made
to feel guilty

if they really use their minds.

We don't know.
We don't know, you know.

We really don't know
what women can do,

what women can be.

MARY: My mother
became pregnant at age 40.

So, my mother's child,
my sister, Elizabeth,

was three months older
than her nephew, Richard.

And they grew up
in the same playpen

because as I began
to work more often,

my mother,
who was now a sober person

that I could count on,
watched those two.

I married very early.

I married
right after high school.

And... I think that choice
had to do with the pressure

that was put on young women
during the '50s,

which said
that the ultimate goal in life

is marriage, children,

and career
if you can work it in.

- (TELEPHONE RINGING)
- ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

- Hello.
- MARY: Who's this?

This is Richard Diamond
of the disintegrating Diamonds.

MARY:
Well, at least you're awake.

Don't take any money on it,
Samuel. (EXHALES)

MARY: You wanted me
to make sure you were up.

She's due at your home
in about five minutes.

- DAVID JANSSEN: Who's due?
- MARY: Dorian Crane.

She lives on the right side
of the tracks in Beverly Hills.

- Which side is that?
- ♪ (SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

'Cause I did
a really strange part.

- DINAH: Did you?
- Yeah.

- Because my--
- DINAH: Not in a porno!

- No, no. (CHUCKLES) No.
- (DINAH CHUCKLES)

On a series called
The Richard Diamond Show.

- Which starred David Janssen.
- DINAH: Yeah.

MARY: I played
his telephone operator.

- DINAH: Oh!
- MARY: But you never saw

- my face.
- DINAH: Never?

MARY: Never.
You just heard my voice.

(IN A DEEP VOICE) Which was
quite a few octaves lower

than the voice
you're used to hearing.

- DINAH: Really?
- Yes. Sexy Sam.

DINAH: That's funny.
They never saw your face?

MARY: (IN NORMAL VOICE)
Never saw my face.

The most frustrating thing...

- DINAH: That's not fair!
- ...that I ever experienced.

- DINAH: Well, are you--
- Yes, it was

because this would've been
such a letdown.

- You--
- That's not a sexy face.

- Yes. Oh, tell them.
- Is this it?

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

MARY: She became
every male viewer's fantasy.

And there was big hype about her
because the producers decided

to create some interest
by not revealing who she was.

Now I was making,
for each episode, 85 dollars,

and I decided that

because of all the attention
that the character was getting,

that I should go in
and ask for more.

And I did. I went
into the producer's office

and I said, "I really,
really think that I should get

a little more money
for this role that I'm playing."

And without letting me
finish the sentence, he said,

"Do you know, my dear,
anybody with a good pair of legs

and a sultry voice
can play this part

so goodbye
and good luck to you."

♪ (ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ Ten cents a dance
That's what they pay me ♪

♪ Gosh, how they weigh me down ♪

♪ Ten cents a dance
Softies and rough guys ♪

♪ Tough guys who tear my gown ♪

DINAH: Did you ever start out
like everybody else,

having frustrations and periods
when you couldn't get...

- Oh.
- ...couldn't get arrested?

- Many, many.
- DINAH: Really?

And when I could get arrested,
it was on a television show

that was probably
really very badly done.

Carrying microfilm
of government property

- is illegal.
- (GASPS)

You're under arrest,
suspicion of espionage.

- Vern, you can take her in now.
- ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MARY: I did a lot
of those boring shows.

- ♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- DINAH: I never heard of any job

you didn't get.

Well, there was one part
I didn't get

and I'm really very glad
I didn't.

It was to play the part
of Danny Thomas's daughter.

- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
- Now, ladies and gentlemen,

a formal introduction please,

for our guest star,
Mary Tyler Moore.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

A few years ago, we auditioned
a lot of young girls

to play the part
of my older daughter, Terry,

in the family series.

And Mary was one
of the two finalists.

But it was left to me
to have to tell her

that she wasn't right
for the part.

- (SIGHS)
- And I'd like you to see

why she wasn't right
for the part.

- Come here.
- (CLEARS THROAT)

- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
- Now, tell the truth.

Would anybody believe
that that nose

could be the father
of that nose?

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

The day that I read
for the part of Laura Petrie

- on The Dick Van Dyke Show...
- ♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

...had followed a week
of rejections,

and I was having coffee
with a friend,

and my agent tracked me down
and said,

"You've gotta get over
and see Carl Reiner.

He wants to read with you

for the part
of Dick Van Dyke's wife."

And I said,
"No, I'm not going. I'm sorry.

I can't take
any more rejections.

You know I'm not
gonna get that part." (CHUCKLES)

I was terrified
because it was my hero,

Carl Reiner,

who was the writer-producer
of this show.

ROB REINER:
The Dick Van Dyke Show

was originally
a show for my father to star in.

- (LAUGHTER)
- ROB: My father had been
on television

for many years with Sid Caesar
in the Show of Shows

- and Caesar's Hour, and then...
- (VOCALIZES)

...when the show was over,

he started writing
a series for himself.

And he played the character

that Dick Van Dyke
plays ultimately.

It was called
Head of the Family.

They'd made the pilot
and it didn't sell.

And he had a meeting
with Sheldon Leonard,

with Danny Thomas and they said,

"The show is great
but we gotta find a new you."

So, they recommended
Dick Van Dyke.

And I'm glad
Dick wound up doing it

because it's what we say,
"We take the comedy of the Jew

and we push it through the goy."

I never knew that
there had been a prior pilot.

So I went over there
and thank God I did.

Do you remember me
grabbing your head?

I think you got scared.

You thought I was gonna--
Because producers in those days,

and maybe still,
have a reputation

of wanting something more than--

- GUEST 1: Bodies. Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, something more
than the talent.

And I heard her,
there was a ping in her voice.

You only read--
I read about 60 girls

and I read
the full script with 'em

- hoping to find something.
- GUEST 2: Yeah.

She read three lines.

I don't like you.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

At all!

Three simple lines.
There was such a ping

- and an excitement
and a reality to her.
- GUEST 1: Really?

RONA: What attracted you
to Laura Petrie?

The chance to work
with Dick Van Dyke

and Carl Reiner.

I mean... (CHUCKLES)
...what more do you need?

Carl,
it was such a platonic love.

- He was my father, my brother.
- ♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MARY: He was my teacher,
my member of the audience

for whom I wanted
to do the scene well.

When I heard him laugh,
that's all I needed.

How often does my boss ask us
over to his house?

How often is one called upon
to be a responsible parent?

ROB:
They just immediately gelled.

- ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
- (PAN SIZZLING)

The president of the network
will be there.

ROB: It was seamless.

Well,
then I think you should go.

Oh, I mean it, honey.

There's no sense
both us staying home.

After all,
you have a responsibility

to your work
and I fully understand that.

We just liked each other,
right from the beginning.

- You do?
- Sure I do.

- You don't mind if I go alone?
- Not at all, darling.

There was right away, a sense
of being very comfortable

in the humor that we shared.

Well...

It's just that I couldn't go
to a party

knowing my son was on the verge
of being sick.

I couldn't enjoy myself.

Such chemistry. Such charisma.

I watch the reruns
of The Dick Van Dyke Show

- and I remember every one of--
- (MARY CHUCKLES)

- And I break up, you know?
- MARY: I do too.

I watch them
every once in a while

just before we do our show.

I have a little television set
in the trailer...

- DINAH: Really?
- ...and I catch it.

But it's a little like

the portrait of Dorian Gray
in reverse.

- DINAH: Oh, no. Oh, no.
- I hate it. (LAUGHS)

- I was such a baby then.
- No, we're getting--

- Oh, we're getting better!
- That's true. Yes!

We look much better,
don't you think?

We're not getting older.
We're getting better.

- Right! Better and prettier!
- (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

So, eat your hearts out,
you 22-year-olds!

- DINAH: Yes! Let's not forget...
- (CHUCKLES)

- ♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- MARY: Going in, I knew I was in

with a bunch
of black belts in comedy

and I had
no real experience at it.

I didn't know what I was doing.

DICK VAN DYKE:
There was no hint at all

that Mary could do comedy.

I said she may be
the next Katharine Hepburn

but I don't know... (CHUCKLES)
...about comedy.

MARY: Early on, Carl saw
some spark of humor in me.

He wrote a script called
My Blonde-Haired Brunette.

That was my initiation.

- Oh, Millie, I'm getting old.
- Oh, come on, Laura.

One gray hair
isn't gonna make you old.

Yeah, well,
it's not just a gray hair,

it's Rob's whole attitude
toward me.

We each know exactly

what the other
is gonna think and do.

There just aren't
any more surprises left.

- Well, you have to make them.
- Well, how do you do that?

Well,
whenever Jerry starts taking me

for granted,
I have a simple remedy.

- What?
- I just bleach my hair.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

Millie, do you think
that if I bleach my hair that--

No I couldn't.

Why not?

Well, I don't think Rob
would approve of me as a blonde.

How does he feel
about Marilyn Monroe

and Brigitte Bardot?

- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
- ♪ (SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

Millie, I'll do it.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

Why? Why would...

MARY: I had always been
a big fan of Nanette Fabray,

who worked with Carl Reiner

and Sid Caesar
on the Show of Shows.

Twelve long glorious years
of marriage,

twelve years out the window.

(GLASS SHATTERS)

MARY: And I loved her humor.
I loved the way she cried.

Who do you think you are anyway?

- (SOBS HEAVILY)
- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

MARY: And so,
when I was called upon

to bring forth the tears
in my scene,

I'm not sure
how much of it

was out and out stolen
from Miss Fabray.

...self?

We are dyeing it back
to its natural color.

Laura's been a blonde
all afternoon.

MARY: And he wants to know why,
what happened?

- And then I try to tell him.
- Honey, why?

(WHIMPERS) "Why?"

(GASPS) Well, yesterday morning,

when I kissed you
and you said, "Don't do that."

And you came down to breakfast
in your yucky shirt

and all you do is...
(MUMBLES INDISTINCTLY)

And that proved
that I could handle comedy.

And the gray hair!

DICK: It was just fascinating
to watch Mary Tyler Moore

just grasp it so quickly.

...yucky! (SOBS)

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)

MARY: A housewife
on a situation comedy

had never been given
the opportunity

to do this kind of stuff.

And it was at that point

that Carl started writing
show after show

and scene after scene
for me to be funny.

ROB: Mary and her
being beautiful and being funny,

that combination was looked at
as being unfeminine.

I mean, Lucy was a rarity

but even Lucy had to resort

to much more
physical kind of stuff.

It wasn't thought of
as a feminine thing to do.

MARY: I was the voice
of the audience.

I was the single voice of sanity
in amongst all these lunatics.

YOUNG LARRY MATHEWS:
Ellen's got a disease.

Well, Ellen's got a temperature.
I wouldn't call it a disease.

Well, whatever she got,
I hope I get it too.

LARRY MATHEWS:
Mary was a combination to me

of a mother figure and a sister.

She would always take time
if she saw me struggling.

It was important to Mary
to have that connection,

since I was playing her son,
to me to be that child of hers.

And I think it did help her
through things.

BEVERLY SANDERS:
She had Richie, her son,

but she and her husband
had separated,

so she had to make a living

- and she did.
- ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

- Sally, you know the bit.
- I'll do it.

- I need the chair and the hat.
- TV ACTOR:
I got it right here.

(INDISTINCT CLAMORING)

(CHUCKLES)
Oh, your husband's awfully cute.

He must be
a lot of fun to live with.

I laugh all day long.

MARY: Laura actually had
opinions of her own,

and while
she was asserting herself,

she also
didn't make Dick Van Dyke

- look like a dummy.
- ♪ (CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MARY: Society's expectations
at that point still said,

"Hey, wait a minute, lady,
you'll only go so far here."

I think we broke new ground
and that was helped

by my insistence
on wearing pants.

I said, "I've seen
all the other actresses

and they're always
running the vacuum

in these little flowered frocks
with high heels on,

and I don't do that,

and I don't know
any of my friends who do that.

So, why don't we try
to make this real?"

BEVERLY: She brought
her own style into sitcoms.

She wore pants,
which was the first time

on television
a woman wore pants.

She brought that
into the world.

BILL PERSKY:
The network was horrified,

but Carl said,
"No, this is what sells."

MARY: The network asked that,
when she does wear these pants,

make sure
they don't "cup under,"

so that you didn't see ass.

BILL: She wasn't someone at home
waiting for him

to solve all the problems,

- making dinner in high heels.
- (WHISTLES)

BILL:
She was a contemporary woman.

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

ROB: Mary was very private
and very guarded.

But she gave something out,
and whether it was not

- how she felt inside...
- (YELPS)

...but the way
she projected herself on screen,

you just fell in love.

(SCREAMS)

Women liked me.

They were not envious
of the fact

that their husbands
had a crush on me.

It was okay with them.

When I would meet people,
they'd say,

"My husband loves you so much,
and he thinks you're so sexy."

And this was an odd thing

because they were also able
to identify with me as a friend.

There was no resentment,
no fear.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ Mary, Mary Tyler Moore ♪

♪ I would run a mile or more ♪

♪ Just to get a smile
Or more from you ♪

♪ Mary, Mary Tyler Moore ♪

♪ You're the image
Of the lady next door ♪

♪ Polishing the furniture
Fussing in the cupboard ♪

♪ Looking so adorable
And you're Mother Hubbard ♪

- (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
- DANNY KAYE:
♪ Cookies in the oven ♪

♪ Chicken in the pot ♪

- Mr. Kaye?
- Yes, ma'am.

- Thanks a lot.
- ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

The winner in Hollywood

is Mary Tyler Moore
for The Dick Van Dyke...

- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING)
- ♪ (JOYOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- Oh! (CHUCKLES)
- ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

Oh, thank you so very,
very much.

I can't tell you how happy I am.

And I wanna thank
Dick and Rosie

and Maury and Larry...

(EXHALES) ...and Jerry,
and Carl and Sheldon

for making me look good.
Thank you.

- (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
- ♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

Was that you sort of up there,
the sweet, giving,

kindly dispositioned woman?
Or are you really

- a wild mad swinger?
- (CHUCKLES)

I think I fall
somewhere in between.

I'm not sure just where.

But the disposition was a result
of the writing of Carl Reiner,

and the attitude
was very often my own.

I always tried to make
the character as close

to me and my own reactions
as possible.

Simply because it's easier
to sustain a character

week after week after week
if you do it that way.

♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MARY: Lucille Ball
was our land lady.

She owned Desilu.

And we'd be rehearsing
on the set

and then we'd hear a laugh
that wasn't coming

- from the floor.
- (LUCILLE BALL LAUGHING)

MARY: We looked up
and there she was

on the catwalk.

And she'd be up there
watching us, just observing us.

And I will never forget,
one day,

she came up to me and she said,
"You're very good."

That was the greatest gift
I ever received.

LUCILLE: Hi, this is Lucy.

For my money, one of
the brightest young talents

to have appeared
on the television horizons

in the last few years
is a vivacious,

Emmy award-winning brunette

from The Dick Van Dyke Show,
Mary Tyler Moore.

- Hi, Mary.
- MARY: How are you, Lucy?

LUCILLE: I am very, very happy
to see you today

and I mean sincerely what I said

about your being one
of the brightest young talents

I have ever seen
in the industry.

I guess you're kind of aware
of my admiration for you

because through the years,
I've sort of sent wavelengths

- your way. (CHUCKLES)
- MARY: You are awfully kind.

I have been made aware of it
and I'm thrilled.

Believe me, I am.

LUCILLE: Now then,
about your husband.

You have a very
handsome husband, Mary.

- MARY: Oh, thank you.
- LUCILLE: He is as handsome

as you are beautiful.
And you are beautiful,

- inside and out.
- MARY: Thank you.

LUCILLE: How long
have you been married?

MARY: Two years.
A little over two years.

- LUCILLE: Mm-hmm.
- MARY: He's a wonderful person.

- ♪ (SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- MARY: I had just separated

and was about to be divorced
from my first husband.

Grant was
with the advertising agency

that then handled
Procter & Gamble.

So, he was a sometime visitor
to the set,

although his office
was really in New York

and we were working
in Los Angeles.

GRANT TINKER: I came out here
to see them shoot the pilot

and met Mary on the set.

She was dynamite,
and what was great about her

was that she wasn't actressy,
she was a real person.

And I just fell in love
with her.

MARY: There was definitely
an attraction.

He asked me to have dinner.
It was in fact the same day

that it was announced
in the trade papers

that I had separated
from my husband and I said,

"Well, I don't think I should.

I think some time should elapse
before I begin to see people."

About a month later, I was told

that I was expected to go
to New York on a publicity tour,

and I found out
that it was maneuvered

by Grant Tinker.
He is the one who said,

"She needs to come
to New York to do...

(CHUCKLES) ...some publicity,"
which is where he was,

and it was love
at first meeting.

GRANT: And out of that meeting,
came a relationship that grew

and by this time I was divorced,
and ultimately we were married.

MARY:
It felt very, very special.

Not only were we alike
in many ways

and attracted to each other,

but there was this recognition
of drive that each had.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

How can a woman be wed
to two forces in life?

In other words,
you're only half married

if you're in show business

because that demands
so much of your ego,

so much investment
of your energy.

I don't think so.

I think I could waste
an awful lot more energy

sitting at home,
having nothing to do,

other than just talk
with the girls

about what gossip they've heard
or just chase after the kids

instead of spending time
with my son

because I know we don't have
as much time

as most parents
and children have.

- I make good use of that time.
- ♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- MARY: I don't waste it.
- SUSSKIND: Don't you think

working mothers,
whatever their jobs,

sort of shortchange
their children emotionally,

- or even just physically?
- Hmm.

SUSSKIND: They're not there
enough of the time.

- They're not together.
- I guess, sometimes--

They're not relating.

- They're not--
- Sometimes it happens

but I don't let it
happen that way.

I refuse to travel without--

I refuse to be separated
from my husband.

And I'm very blessed.
I'm very lucky in that

I have been able
to work out a career

and still hold to this.

JOHN TINKER: I knew
that my stepmother was famous.

I had little interest in that

but I really wanted
to get to know Mary

and thought that she was
a very natural parent

with me and my siblings

and a little less so
with Richie.

Is this too much?

JOHN: I think there may
have been some tension

and some guilt on Mary's part.

She tried but the vicissitudes
of that business

just require long hours
and long absences.

Rich had so little interest
about the business

and watching
his mom practice her craft

that there was
a lot less time spent together.

I know he liked spending
a lot of time with his dad.

And they went fishing
and hunting,

and that was
far more Richie's speed

than being in a studio.

LARRY: When he came on set,

I think he was
so excited to be around Mom.

I always loved
when Richie was there.

Richie was able
to bring out the bad boy in me,

running around the rafters,
running behind the scenes,

sneaking a cigarette.

So, we were pretty devious

about what we were doing
at the time, just being kids.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ I'm deep just like a chasm ♪

♪ I've no enthusiasm ♪

♪ I'm bored when I'm adored ♪

♪ I'm blasé! ♪

MARY: That era was
an unenlightened time in which

most women felt that
the only thing they could do

with their lives
was to serve their husbands

and children.

I still believe in marriage
and children,

but also looking at yourself
and saying,

"Hey, if I have something else
to contribute,

I can figure out a way
to do that,

and I can figure out a way
to get my husband

to help me do it and my children
to help me do it too."

Laura Petrie led
a very dull life, didn't she?

- RONA: Yeah. It--
- I think looking back.

- RONA: You think so?
- Yeah.

I mean,
she didn't really light up

until Rob walked in the door
and tripped over the ottoman.

- (LAUGHS)
- (RONA LAUGHS)

- So, she depended upon a man?
- Right.

RONA: And in parallel situation
in your life,

you depended upon a man.

Yeah, except that I always
had the work too.

- ♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- DICK: We're now off the air.

To all intents and purposes,
we stopped shooting our show.

That little group of people
down there at our table

know how gratified I am to them.

You know, the first day,
Carl said, "Five years is it.

If we go five years, that's all,

because you get repetitive.
You get stale."

None of us
really wanted to quit.

I've often been blamed
for taking the show off the air.

(CHUCKLES) I had nothing
to do with it.

In Hollywood,
the winner is Mary Tyler Moore.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING)

Oh, gosh!

Of course I wanna thank
the Academy

for giving me this great honor.

But I wanna also wanna take this
opportunity publicly

to thank everybody connected
with The Dick Van Dyke Show

for five of the happiest years
of my life.

There's never gonna be another
occasion like that again.

And this is gonna serve always

to be the most
wonderful reminder

of that experience. Thank you.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

BILL: They turned down
incredible offers

from the network
to continue the show.

MARY: Dick had done Mary Poppins

and was anxious to go on
and try other movies.

Carl was writing
a Broadway play.

It was devastating to me

because it was the end
of a family.

- ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- BEVERLY: Van Dyke

went off the air

and she, of course,
thought her life was over

because, you know,
what was she gonna do?

SUSSKIND: You said
that you would have no regrets

in leaving
The Dick Van Dyke Show

because you were sort of tired
of playing Miss Goodie-Goodie.

- That you were always
ordering milkshakes in public.
- Oh. No. (CHUCKLES)

And now,
you could have straight scotch.

Oh, goodness! Now, you see--
Now, it probably took me

two and a half hours
to say that,

and they capsulized it
down to a point

where I sounded
really terribly shocking

and dismal
and kind of bitter about life.

I assure you I'm not.
And I assure you

that I miss
every one of the people

on The Van Dyke Show desperately.

They became my good friends.
My only friends.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

♪ (MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BILL: When she left
The Van Dyke Show,

Universal Pictures
gave her a five-picture deal,

and the unprecedented condition
that she had the right to refuse

what pictures
she didn't wanna do.

So, that was
a very powerful position

that she could never
be in anything

she didn't feel
was right for her.

Her first picture
was Thoroughly Modern Millie,

where she played a co-star
with Julie Andrews.

So, that was her entry
into movies.

She wasn't a star
but she had a great part.

Well, I'm looking for life,
raw and real.

I'm going to be an actress
on the stage.

An actress? How exciting.

Yes, but I've got
to live a lot first.

You should do very well
on the stage.

Pictures too.
You're very pretty.

(SIGHS)

- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- BILL: After that film,

she got an offer
to play Holly Golightly

in a musical version
of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

And it was everything
she ever dreamed of.

- ♪ (SENTIMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- BILL: Mary always wanted

to be on Broadway,

but Universal would not let her
out of her contract to do it.

And she said,
"What if I give up the right

to approve of the pictures I do,
and you can put me in anything."

And that was very attractive
to them.

So, they let her do the show.

- ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
- (FILM PROJECTOR RUNNING)

- ♪ (MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- (RAIN PATTERING)

JIM BURROWS:
I was the playwright's son.

I said,
"Can I work on the show?"

And he said, "Sure."

So, I became the assistant
to the assistant stage manager.

It was not my dad's best work

but he had Mary Tyler Moore,
Richard Chamberlain,

two of the biggest stars
in television,

who would sell tickets.

We opened in Philadelphia.

MARY: (OVER MIC)
Infinitely sweeter!

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(MARY CLEARS THROAT)

♪ A girl should hide
in this world of men ♪

♪ A breakfast at Tiffany's ♪

♪ Now and then
To make them feel ♪

♪ There are solid things... ♪

JIM: She was wonderful.

She had been a dancer before,
so she had stage presence.

And then the producer,
David Merrick, decided

that he was gonna fire my father

and replace him
with Edward Albee.

And I said to my dad,

"Can I book passage
on the Titanic?"

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JIM: We opened for previews
on Broadway

and it was an utter disaster.

In the audience,
you heard somebody say,

"Why don't you
write a better show?"

So, Mary would come off
in the wings

and she was weeping.

She was sad for a long time.
It was a bad experience.

MARY: It was a disaster.

Just awful.
Everything fell apart.

INTERVIEWER:
Mr. Merrick, what went wrong?

DAVID MERRICK:
Just not a very good show.

That sometimes happens
on Broadway.

INTERVIEWER: Truman Capote,
who wrote the original book

from which the musical
was adapted,

said he didn't like the score

and he didn't like
the leading lady.

Well, I disagree
with him on that.

I think the score was good
and I'm--

I like the leading lady
very much

and I'm going
with Mary Tyler Moore

and I'm going to try
to find another play for her.

♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BILL: Mary was the reason
that all of the New York press,

"Well, it shows you can't take
a television star..."

And she was brutalized.

MARY: That was
a very difficult...

part of my life then.

BILL: And on top of it,
Universal could put her

in whatever pictures
they wanted her to be in.

So, she played
a couple of meaningless roles.

ANNOUNCER:
It stars Mary Tyler Moore.

MARY:
Well, don't just stand there.

Zip me up
while I put on my stockings.

That's the way
you kiss your sister?

You gotta be kidding.

I'm a member of the Order
of the Little Sisters of Mary.

BILL: She had gone from being

the most popular woman
in America

to being a has-been in three
and a half, four years.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

♪ (SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MARY: We came back
to Los Angeles

with three tails
between our legs. (CHUCKLES)

But it was about at that time
that I had a miscarriage.

And when I was in the hospital

for the routine procedures
that follow,

they discovered that
while normal blood sugar levels

are to be somewhere between 70
and 110, mine was 750.

And they were amazed
that I was still walking around.

And to this day, they don't know

which came first,
the miscarriage or the diabetes.

I don't know
how I got through that year.

It shook me to my core.

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

- (FILM PROJECTOR RUNNING)
- (DRUM ROLL)

ANNOUNCER:
Tonight, "Dick Van Dyke

and the Other Woman,"
Mary Tyler Moore.

- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
- ♪ (MELLOW MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BILL:
We were doing these specials

for Dick Van Dyke, one a year,
and I said to Dick,

"It's now four years since you
and Mary have been together.

I think it would be a great idea
to have a reunion show.

And also,
I think Mary could use it."

So, we did a show and in it,
we really featured Mary.

And normally that phrase,
"the other woman,"

implies a relationship
between two people

which might be

- considered unsavory.
- Yeah.

But of course, the relationship
between Mary and myself is...

is, of course,
completely savory.

- Completely.
- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

Actually,
when we were doing the series,

people thought we were married.
(CHUCKLES)

Oh, boy! So much so that,
I often had trouble

checking into a hotel
with my real wife, Margie.

And I had trouble
checking into a hotel

- with my real husband, Grant.
- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

And Margie and Grant

had trouble checking in
anywhere. (CHUCKLES)

- ♪ (FUNKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- ♪ If they could see me now ♪

♪ Those noble suffragettes... ♪

They gave me
a wonderful opportunity

to sing and dance and clown.

♪ We got the situation
Firmly in hand ♪

♪ The weaker sex controls
The wealth of the land ♪

♪ (SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BILL: The show went on the air,
got huge ratings, great reviews,

very happy that we did it.

They suddenly rediscovered
Mary Tyler Moore.

MARY: CBS noted
how successful it was

and they asked me
if I wanted to do my own show.

To which I said yes.

- (TELEPHONE RINGING)
- ♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BEVERLY: She called me
and she was screaming

into the phone and I said,

"Stop screaming. What?"
And of course she got her break.

It's like God took over.

For Mary to step off
of that show and into

The Mary Tyler Moore Show
was really something.

She was scared.

But to be on a series
of her own,

there wasn't any discussion.

- She was just perfect for it.
- ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

- ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- (MEOWS)

MARY: My husband thought
that it would be wise

to form a company
that he could manage

and that I could use as
the foundation for a commitment.

- It was 22 episodes.
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

- (INDISTINCT CHATTER
OVER SPEAKERS)
- ANNOUNCER: It was Grant Tinker

who hired Jim Brooks

along with Alan Burns to produce
The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

JAMES L. BROOKS:
Every male comedy writer

of that time had had a crush
on Mary Tyler Moore.

She was our dream girl.

(INAUDIBLE CHATTER)

ALLAN BURNS: She represented
everything you wanted.

Her intelligence,
she gets it so quickly.

Hardly anybody knows comedy
like she does.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

MARY: They and I had a meeting
and, you know, I said,

"I think from my experience
on The Dick Van Dyke Show

that it's smart for me to play

somebody who's close
to my own persona."

And they agreed with that
and they said,

"Well, we're thinking maybe, uh,

she works
in a small television station

and that she's looking
to be married

but she's not
desperate about it."

And I said,
"That sounds good too.

I like that 'cause
that's kind of progressive."

BROOKS: We were two guys
at an office

for a company
that hadn't happened yet,

kicking around ideas that--
I don't think there'd been

a divorced woman yet
on television.

We went to CBS
to pitch with Grant,

maybe 20 executives,
the big boss there.

And we told him this idea
and they were polite

and they asked us
to step out of the room.

We found out later,
they told Grant to fire us.

They had three rules
that couldn't happen

on a CBS show at the time,

"Jews, somebody with a mustache,
or a divorced woman."

MARY: They had to come
head-to-head with CBS

over the premise
that you will be divorced,

and that you would be moving
to Minneapolis

for the first time
to start life afresh.

It was real
but it was not funny.

You couldn't make fun
of divorce.

And not only that, they said,

- they'd think you were divorced
from Dick Van Dyke!
- (SNEEZES)

BROOKS: Just a career woman
was unusual then.

She was America's sweetheart,

so I think
what we ended up doing,

is the show allowed her

basically to be
a contemporary woman,

at a time when
contemporary women

were speaking out, being noticed
as they never were before.

This inhuman system
of exploitation will change,

but only if we force it
to change.

- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- (TELEPHONE RINGING)

TREVA SILVERMAN: So,
the phone rings and it's Jim,

and he said,
"What are you doing right now?"

I said, "I'm just about
to wash my hair."

And he said, "No, no, no,
I mean in your life."

He said, "Because
Mary Tyler Moore's show

got picked up.

And you're the first writer
that I'm calling.

We would like you to write
as many as you want."

At that point,
I was the only woman

writing alone in comedy writing.

We were writing
what we believed in.

Jim and Allen believed
in it enough

that they pushed things through.

♪ (MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪

BROOKS: This is somebody
who immediately was a soldier.

She was a star of her show.
It was her company,

and yet she was
in the trenches with you.

MARY: So, here I am
in Minneapolis, new life,

new job.
Well, not a new job yet.

First I had to go
on an interview

at a local TV station.

BILL:
I went to the first taping.

I thought it was very smart.

As they would say,
"It had legs."

MARY: The head
of the news department

seemed interested
in my experience.

- How old are you?
- Thirty.

No hedging?
No, "How old do I look?"

Why hedge? (CHUCKLES)
How old do I look?

Thirty.

When we did
the first attempted show,

we made it
under awful conditions.

An awful studio.
Not too many audience laughs.

Look, miss, just so you're not
the first person

I get overtime
on a job interview...

BILL: The testing was not good.

The network hated it
but they had committed

to a season of shows.
They would've had to pay them.

...personal questions
that don't have a thing to do

with my qualifications
for this job.

ED ASNER: And Mary was in tears.

Grant's statement
to the guys was, "Fix it."

And the guys looked
at each other and said,

"What's wrong with it?"

BROOKS: I'm in a fog,
I'm destroyed.

I'm sitting at a desk just numb.
They trusted us and we bombed.

And then, Marge Mullen,
who was our script supervisor,

saved us.

Marge said,
"What if the kid, Beth,

who was in the pilot,
said how much she liked Rhoda?"

♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BROOKS:
That and cutting the script

turned the bomb into the pilot
that people talk about.

♪ ("MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW"
THEME SONG PLAYING) ♪

♪ How will you make it
On your own ♪

♪ This world is awfully big ♪

♪ Girl, this time
You're all alone ♪

♪ But it's time
You started living ♪

♪ It's time you let someone else
Do some giving ♪

♪ Love is all around
No need to waste it ♪

♪ You can have the town
Why don't you take it? ♪

♪ You might just make it
After all ♪

♪ You might just make it
After all ♪

- ♪ (THEME MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
- ♪ (JOLLY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

ROSIE O'DONNELL: I was eight
when the first episode came on

and I hadn't seen one
where a woman,

especially a single woman
without a man to depend on,

was making her own way in life.
It seared into my brain.

Look, miss, would you try

answering the questions
as I ask 'em?

Yes, Mr. Grant, I will.

But it does seem
that you've been asking

a lot of very personal questions
that don't have a thing to do

with my qualifications
for this job.

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS:
There was no other show

like The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Her morphing from Laura Petrie
into Mary Richards

was such a feminist statement
and one that got into my bones.

KATIE COURIC:
Watching this incredible woman

who was strong and funny,
and independent,

then gets her own apartment
with the wooden "M" on the wall.

- So you're, uh, Rhoda?
- Morgenstern.

Ah! And I'm Mary Richards.

Oh, hello. (CHUCKLES)
Get outta my apartment!

KATIE: She had funny neighbors
like Rhoda and Phyllis.

But Mary,
it's your duty as a woman

to take whatever
you could get... (SNIFFS)

...whether you want it or not.

KATIE: And a great crew
of people with whom she worked.

I'd tell you to stop reading
over my shoulder

but you need all the practice
you can get.

- Hi.
- You're late, Mar.

I know.

KATIE: It opened my eyes to,
"Wow, I wanna do that too."

A beautiful romance
just blew up in her face.

It did not blow up.
I made the decision.

♪ (SOLEMN
PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JULIA: It wasn't
just Mary Richards

who was this extraordinarily
single ambitious career woman.

She was surrounded

by very strong
comedic female characters.

- Yeah, I--
- You're talking

about Midwestern love,
I'm talking about Bronx love.

There's a certain amount
of guilt that goes with that.

MARY: Part of being
a successful artist

is being open to new ideas
and input.

TREVA:
She was a big, big supporter

of what the pilot
said about her.

She was on the side
of risk-taking.

- Divorced?
- MARY: No.

- Never married.
- No.

- ED: Why?
- Why?

Hmm. Your type?

Mr. Grant, there's no
simple answer to that question.

MARY: There had been some shows
about single women before

but as in the case
of The Marlo Thomas Show,

boy, it was
about getting married,

and Jim and Allen
didn't wanna do that.

They wanted to show a woman
enjoying her life and her career

and meeting these challenges.

BROOKS: They each
had a great backbone.

- (DOORBELL BUZZES)
- BROOKS: The character and Mary

had a great backbone
that was real.

You know,
that kind of substance,

intrinsic dignity of being

and of other people's dignity
of being.

So, in a way,
you're describing class.

Uh. Mary, Uh, uh. Did--
Did you just say goodbye?

Uh-huh.

(CHUCKLES)
That's what I thought you said.

Take... take care of yourself.

- ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
- I think I just did.

♪ (QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RONA:
You were kind of locked up.

I mean, I say locked up in that
that the image on the screen

in the series, certainly
never matched the real Mary.

That's right. Right.
I was never single.

Mary Richards. Hmm.

It is still Richards, isn't it?

Uh. Yes.
It's, uh, still Mary too.

So, you've never been married,
Mary?

- No, Estelle, I haven't.
- Hmm.

I've been married twice.

She liked it so much
the first time.

I think you can look
at a show like ours

and look at some
of the relationships

and say to yourself
after you've laughed...

"Son of a gun.
That happened to me once."

♪ (LIGHTHEARTED MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BROOKS: There's no way
we can deal

with how humbling luck is.

- They programmed us...
- (MARY YELPS)

...in a death time slot

because whoever was in charge
of CBS then, didn't like us.

Where we were in mourning
when we learned about it,

it meant they were eating us up.

They were just
throwing away the shows.

The president of the company,
the businessman,

he was promoted
from head of sales

to head of the network.

First thing he did

was all those
situation comedy shows

that had ruled the airways, canceled,

lots of top ten shows.

And then he put
All in the Family on the air

and gave us the best time period
he had and saved us.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

Hi, I'm Mary Tyler Moore
and I just want you to know

that starting this fall,

Bob Newhart and I
will be back-to-back

every Saturday night on CBS.

Why do you fight it?
The world's changing.

ROB: They were on the same night

we were on for
All in the Family.

It was M*A*S*H.
And then Bob Newhart

and Mary Tyler Moore,
and then Carol Barnett,

we had a great lineup.

ROSIE: You had to wait
until it was on.

(CHUCKLES) Y'know?

And if you missed it,
you missed it.

- It was appointment TV for me.
- ♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RONDA RICH TINKER: I would lie
on the floor, on my stomach

right in front of the TV.

DEBRA MARTIN CHASE:
My mother and I would watch

Mary Tyler Moore together.

DEBRA: Mary spoke to all of us.

Women could be independent,
could have careers,

could stand
on their own two feet

without a man.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

KATIE: I just remember
it being part of my routine

on the weekends.

BROOKS: We had an audience
right away and we kept it.

And that was when everybody
stayed home and watched.

Grant Tinker used to say,

"You could fly across
the United States,

jump out of a plane
and very likely land

on somebody watching your show."

JOEL GREY: If you transcend
all of the expectations,

- changes everything.
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JOEL: I'm sure her expectations
of her life changed after that,

as did everyone else's
expectations of her.

- I need to get ready.
- Yeah, I hope.

- Boy, I hate those meetings.
- You never used to.

Yeah, well, it used to be I felt
I could be myself.

Now, I feel
I represent women everywhere.

JOHN: Mary was so stellar
at being that center

that held everything together.

And she always wanted her folks
to be proud.

They weren't effusive.

I've often wondered
how much time

was spent with Mary in her mind,
with her folks.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

MARY: (OVER MIC) Would you all
like to meet the producers

of Mary Tyler Moore?

- My mom and dad.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

MARY: (OVER MIC)
And February 14th,

they're celebrating
their 50th anniversary.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING)

So, what's the secret
of 50 years, Mom and Dad?

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)

- Lots of love and respect.
- MARY: (OVER MIC) That's right.

I go along with that.

MARY: (OVER MIC) Okay, why not?
That's a smart way.

BETTY WHITE:
You probably remember

seeing this great cover
on TV Guide.

Well, right now, right here,
on The Pet Set,

we have this very star
as our very special guest.

I'd like you
to meet Dis William. (CHUCKLES)

Oh, and he brought a girl
with him, Mary Tyler Moore.

- (LAUGHS)
- Hello there. (CHUCKLES)

- Hi.
- (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

I noticed on the set of,
of course,

The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
very prominently displayed

on the set is a picture
of these two.

- Is that for luck?
- Yeah, it's for luck.

And also
because the prop man said,

"Do you have any pictures
of anybody in your family

you'd like to have on the show?

The set needs
a little warming up." (CHUCKLES)

- (BETTY CHUCKLES)
- And I don't know
why I brought in pictures

of the poodles
instead of my mother or father.

Ow. (CLICKS TONGUE)

- What happened?
- Nothing, I just cut myself.

It's okay. It's just a...
it's just a tiny one.

- Come on, let me look at it.
- No.

- ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
- When you were a little girl,

you wouldn't let me look
when you cut yourself.

I was always afraid
you'd stitch it up.

JOHN: There was a scene
where her father

tells her how much
he cares for her.

Mary just wanted
to get it right.

You don't cry when you...
cut your finger anymore?

No. (SCOFFS)

What does make you cry?

Oh, mostly dumb things.
(CHUCKLES)

JOHN:
And I remember being there

and I don't know that
that was very easy for her.

I keep a few in here.

JOHN: That scene
even then moved me

because when her folks
would come over

on the rare occasion for dinner,
it was always a little,

you're just waiting
for something to happen.

Something that would
light the fuse.

Mary...

are you ever lonely?

No. Not too often, Daddy.

I have a good life.

I'm glad...

because... (SIGHS)

...I'm sorry
about your graduation,

anything else I missed.

I love you, baby.

(SNIFFS) Well, it isn't always
dumb things that make me cry.

(SIGHS) There. That...

That should be all right.
Careful how you handle knives.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

- Hey, Daddy? (SNIFFLES)
- Mm-hmm?

You bandaged the wrong finger.

- (CHUCKLES)
- ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

INTERVIEWER: Why do you think
it's such a winner,

The Mary Tyler Moore Show?

I think because of the casting,
primarily me.

- No. (CHUCKLES)
- (INTERVIEWER LAUGHS)

No, but it really
is an extraordinary cast.

And I think
because of the writing.

SUSAN SILVER:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show

hired the most women
of any show.

And it changed
the language of television.

TREVA: It was wonderful
of Jim and Allen.

They really wanted to...

(CHUCKLES) ...get it
from the horse's mouth.

BROOKS: It didn't seem
like we were having

a eureka moment when we said,

(CHUCKLES) "Women would be good
to write on this show

about these women."

Totally logical thought pattern.
It was the right thing to do.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

MARY: Jim said,
"I can write a lot of stuff.

I'm very seldom stumped

but you've got stuff
in your purse

that I don't know anything about

and that's what I want you
to empty out for me.

I wanna know what women know."

SUSAN: And I said,
I was the last person

to get a bra. I love it.

I'm not burning it

but I will make
a contribution to feminism

by having my own career
and being a feminist,

but not by marching.

Women speak differently,
and we have different ideas

and we have different stories.

I'm sure a man has never had
to wear a bad bridesmaid dress.

- Mary.
- MARY: Yeah?

Oh, it's bad, huh?

Well, come on out, kid.
How bad could it be?

That bad, huh?

I'd say, uh,
about the only thing worse

than this dress...

- would be this dress in purple.
- In purple.

SUSAN:
Mary Tyler Moore was real.

And it was the way real women

talked to their parents
and their dates,

and their girlfriends,
and Mary was the example.

A Chicago guy had written
an article saying,

"Mary doesn't have enough sex."
So I went in, and I said,

"I have a show
where she can have sex."

- MARY: Rhoda?
- What?

- Do you think I'm under-sexed?
- (SIGHS) I hope so.

Really. I'd like to think

there's one thing I'm better at
than you are.

SUSAN: All those things
we were learning

were okay to talk about

and to do at the same time
that the show did them.

But it changed the way
women saw themselves.

- Have a nice time, you two.
- You too, Mom.

Don't forget to take your pill.

- I won't.
- I won't.

BROOKS: It was a throwaway joke

and... (CHUCKLES) ...it was racy
at the time and it was huge.

I call it creeping smut.

I see it everywhere,
in bookstores, in movies,

in libraries,
and now in television.

Look what happened

on The Mary Tyler Moore Show recently.

She went out on a date
and she stayed out all night.

BEA ARTHUR: All night?
Our little Mary?

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

You can sneer
if you want, Maude.

But let me tell you this,

as Mary Tyler Moore goes,
so goes America.

Look, I'm not sure
if this fits right.

NORMAN LEAR:
Mary Tyler Moore for television

represented America
at that moment

in that fresh release
from the ancient womanhood.

In a landmark ruling,
the Supreme Court today,

- legalized abortions.
- ♪ (UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- Murray, your marriage?
- Mary,

you know I love Marie.
Marie is not Gloria Steinem.

Well, what's this
"Gloria Steinem" thing you have?

I mean, you take away
Gloria Steinem's super intellect

and what do you got? (CHUCKLES)
Never mind, bad example.

(HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING)

BROOKS: I was asked to speak

to Lady Bird Johnson's

- conference of women...
- (BIRDS CHIRPING)

...and it was a theater
holding 1200 people, all women.

And Gloria Steinem
spoke just before me,

and derided
The Mary Tyler Moore Show

- and that we're anti-feminist.
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

GLORIA: The question is,
"Why does Mary Tyler Moore

still call Mr. Grant,
'Mr. Grant?'"

BROOKS: This comes up
every once in a while...

GLORIA: (LAUGHS) Oh, yeah?

...and it just...
it just seems right.

We talk about doing a show--

- (CROWD BOOING)
- BROOKS: No, no.

And they booed me. (CHUCKLES)

(GLORIA LAUGHS,
SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

BROOKS: Just based
on what seems right to us

about the character's behavior.

- Mr. Grant, you should--
- Now, it won't work

if you're calling me
"Mr. Grant." Call me "Lou."

Well, wait, uh, would that be
for, uh... just for the purpose

of this conversation?

We, uh... for,
you know, all time?

I'll decide later.

- You think you can, Mary?
- Call you not Mr. Grant? Sure.

- Well, I'm glad it's okay.
- Oh, yes, it's okay to say it.

- Really, Mary?
- Really, Lou.

♪ (MELODIOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

- Call me Mr. Grant.
- Thank you.

Was there some talk one time
about the Mary Tyler Moore Show

being anti-women's lib or...

- or too pro-women's lib...
- Oh, well, it depends...

- ...or something.
- ...on where you're sitting.

I... I don't think
it's anti at all.

I think there are two ladies,
living by themselves, working.

Very-- As realistically
as you can get

on a television series
at the time.

But the viewers see it
in those terms sometimes.

Sh-- Oh, yeah,
you see what you feel, you know?

But do you ever find yourself

pandering to the people
who are your fans

so that you can keep them
your fans?

- No.
- INTERVIEWER: Anyway...

- No, not at all.
- ...in any way? Get around?

See, there is a perfectly
logical explanation

for what you heard.

Oh, really, Mary?
And what is it?

We were having an orgy.

JIM: If you wanna do a show
on network television,

you have to appeal
to the whole country.

You had to appease
40 million people.

- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)

RONDA: Mary was what I like
to call a feminine feminist.

I know she didn't like
to call herself a feminist.

BEVERLY: She didn't think
feminism was so hotsy-totsy.

There were women
that just didn't like it.

She identified with it
up to a point.

RONDA: She loved the spoils
of femininity.

She loved the clothes, the hair
and the makeup,

and she loved to take that
and dress up how tough she was.

It was a good costume for her.

BEVERLY: One day I said,
"You are a woman's libber.

You have your own show.

You have a child
and you were divorced.

You have set the standard
for a woman

to be on her own."

JIM: She was aloof.
She was reserved.

She had an incredible veneer.

I only saw power from her.
I didn't see underneath.

JOHN:
Mary was either fully engaged

in the activity around her
and giving you her attention

or she was completely disengaged,

virtually in thought
all the time.

BEVERLY:
She always wanted to be better.

She always wanted
to be different.

I just thought she was marvelous

and every time
she would be insecure and say,

"I'm so worried. I mean,
I have to be really good."

The Sunday show,
Mary Richards, producer.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS, CHEERS)

BEVERLY: Who was Mary
really in real life?

She was insecure
about buying lipstick.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

I usually look
so much better than this.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

JOHN: I have this image
of Mary walking.

It's evident in the main title
of her show.

She looks proud and almost regal
and she wasn't that way at all.

It just was
how she carried herself.

ED: There's the actress Mary

who was the best civilian
in charge I've ever seen.

She was cold-blooded in her way.

And there's the character Mary
who was an adorable doll.

There's not a great deal
of control in acting.

RONA: Did you have
a lot of control over

MTM Enterprises?

No, I was never
involved in that.

- Nor am I.
- RONA: It just bore your name?

Yes.

JIM: MTM is Mary's company.
People don't realize that.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
That's all, folks.

JOHN: The portrait
that hangs in Mary's house,

that was in my father's office.

It was always clear
who the boss was.

She was of course
the figurehead.

But running the day-to-day,
my father was always

at his post,
as he would call it.

At that desk was the happiest
I'd ever seen him.

That was his business to run.
And she was fine with that.

If Grant had come to me
and asked

my feelings about something
opinion of, people or script,

I would certainly give them.

JOHN: While they may have
talked about it, I don't know

how much he would've
solicited her advice.

I think they had lanes
in which they both stayed,

and it worked out well.

The lead actress of the year
in a series is...

- Mary Tyler Moore.
- (AUDIENCE CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

JOAN: I never saw Mary

actively involved
in the business side of MTM,

but there was no question
the company reflected

her sensibilities.

Mary was very instrumental,

certainly in setting
the tone on set.

RONA: Looking back,
do you regret

that you didn't put
your own imprimatur on things?

MARY: No. You know, one can be
guilty about the things

one has never done in life.
I try not to do that.

Sure. that would be nice
were I an entrepreneur

and I had been involved
in that aspect of our business

but it has never interested me.

And nor has directing
or producing.

And I really love acting
and that's all I want to do.

JAMES: MTM became
a large company

with a lot of shows on the air

and a lot of different people
coming in.

JIM: That was the west wing
of writing back then.

- They had six sitcoms running.
- (AUDIENCE CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

JIM: The network
would have a lot of notes

and then Grant wouldn't
give them to the writers.

JAMES: And the one thing
we all had in common

was loving
the ass off Grant Tinker.

We're grateful to our cast,
you know that.

We're grateful to Grant Tinker
for helping us

to always preserve
our creative freedom.

(AUDIENCE CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

The winners are...
Ted Knight and Valerie Harper.

VALERIE: I do all my scenes
with Mary and she's the best.

She's a winner
and she lets us all win Emmys.

I mean, it's incredible. Truly.

JAMES: Her modesty,
her humility,

her need to have people
happy around her,

created the tent
that went over all of us.

Then don't make a mistake.

No goody two shoes,
Mary wasn't goody two shoes.

Nothing got in the way
of the work.

Thank you so very much.

ED: I'd like to thank
our two producers,

Alan Burns and Jim Brooks,

for choosing me to be a member
of the best

damn ensemble company
I've ever worked with.

I really am so proud
to be in that company

- and I am so grateful.
- Thank you very much.

ED: Grant Tinker,
our godfather Jay Sandrich.

- Most of all, we have Mary.
- ED: Treva Silverman.

TREVA: I was first woman
writing alone

to win an Emmy.

I didn't know what it would
look like from here. (CHUCKLES)

It looks terrific.

Marty Cohen,
Susan Silver wrote those words,

and without them,
I'd just be another pretty face.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

JIM: To be around that energy

on the Radford lot
in Studio City,

I'd like to say
it was the best of times.

It was the best of times.
It was Camelot.

ED: Well, I would like to say
to actors everywhere,

may you have the pleasure
and joy...

of being with and working with
Mary Tyler Moore.

- Thank you. Thank you all.
- (AUDIENCE CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JOAN: Mary,
with all of the accolades

she's gotten, I think
she's a much better comedian

than anybody ever
gave her credit for.

ALLAN: "Chuckles the Clown"
was named by TV Guide

as the funniest single episode
in the history

of television comedy,
when it's about death.

Chuckles the Clown
was just killed.

He was dressed as a peanut
and an elephant crushed him.

Stop trying to cheer me up, Lou.

ALLAN: And it was about

how different people react
differently to death,

and some people have
to laugh it off,

and Mary didn't think
it was proper.

Why is everyone being so callous
about this?

"Callous"?

Well, I'll have you know, dear,

that Chuckles and I
were very close.

I baked the first custard pie
he ever sat in.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

Life's a lot like that.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

From time to time,
we all fall down

- and hurt our foo-foos.
- (CHUCKLES)

JOAN: She was just masterful,

but she was also
incredibly inventive.

REV. BURNS: If only we could
deal with it as simply...

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

...and bravely and honestly
as Mr. Fee-Fi-Fo.

And what did Chuckles ask
in return? Not much.

(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

BURNS: In his own words...

"A little song, a little dance,

a little seltzer
down your pants."

(LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY)

JOAN: There's a moment
in "Chuckles"

where she's laughing and then
the minister talks to her.

- Excuse me, young lady.
- And he says, "You, young lady."

And she goes, "Huh?"
And she looks around

hoping there's somebody
behind her that he's talking to.

Yes, you.

Uh. Would you stand up, please?

- (WHIMPERS)
- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

Please. Please. Won't you?

(CLEARS THROAT)

You feel like laughing,
don't you?

(LAUGHS)

JOAN: That kind of invention
only comes from someone who has

such a deeply rooted sense
of human behavior.

BURNS: Go ahead,
laugh out loud.

Don't you see?
Nothing would've made

Chuckles happier.
He lived to make people laugh.

So, go ahead, my dear.
Laugh for Chuckles.

(SOBS)

JOAN: Mary Richards
was Mary Tyler Moore inside out.

Everything that was inside Mary

was right there
in front of the camera

for people to enjoy, and admire,
and root for.

We have our very last show...

- Oh, yeah.
- ...coming up on the filming

- schedule in three weeks.
- GUEST: No!

- Yes!
- Yes. And this one's gonna be
a guest on it.

JAMES: It was on our fifth year.

And they say,
"Let's go out on top.

Let's go out
on our sixth season."

And I said, "Seven."
And they said, "Okay."

Ted, you're staying.

And the rest of you guys,
I'm gonna have to let go.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

- You're letting us go?
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JAMES: "The Last Show"
was murder

because of all the attention
we had.

People writing
about nothing else.

The world stopped.
She wanted to go out on top.

Thank you for being my family.

(SOBS)

TREVA: Each year,
we all would give

Christmas presents
to each other.

You would think a lot
about what to get somebody.

And a lot of my friends
were reading a book called,

How to Be Your Own Best Friend.

I thought of Mary
as been a little way isolated

and so I bought that for her.

This was the beginning
of my getting to know

the fragility.

And she said,
"Oh, you lovely lady.

Somebody understands
that I'm not Mary Richards,

that I'm not happy
all the damn time."

- ♪ Its a long way to Tipperary ♪
- ♪ Long way to Tipperary ♪

- ♪ To the sweetest girl I know ♪
- ♪ To the sweetest girl I know ♪

(SMOOCHES)

MARY: It had been a whole week

of intermittent bursting
into sobs for everybody.

- ♪ Farewell Leicester Square ♪
- ♪ Farewell Leicester Square ♪

♪ It's a long, long... ♪

MARY: That moment of going back,
opening the door

and looking around
at the seven years that faced me

and that was about to go off,
was sublimely tough.

ANNOUNCER:
Ladies and gentlemen,
for the last time,

Mary Tyler Moore.

MARY: Thank you.

The best cast ever. Ed Asner.

(CROWD APPLAUDING, CHEERING)

- SPECTATOR: Yeah!
- Ted Knight.

- SPECTATOR: Yeah!
- Gavin MacLeod.

SPECTATOR: Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Betty White.

Georgia Engel.

Valerie Harper.

And Cloris Leachman.

Thank you.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

♪ (SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
PLAYING) ♪

RONA:
You're not a perfect person.

- I'm not a perf--
- Yes, I am.

- RONA: Come now, Mary.
- (CHUCKLES)

RONA: We know, I'm not perfect.

- You are not perfect.
- Exactly.

- RONA: You know, there's this...
- Yeah.

...other side
and you've coped a lot,

and I'd like to know
how you get through it.

What do you use in order to get

through those
very, very rough times?

You lost a sister.

MARY: She was 21.

She had been living
with a young man

whom she loved,

and he broke it off with her
and she couldn't handle that.

And so she drank
and she took barbiturates,

and nobody is sure

whether or not
that was a purposeful act

but she died that night
of an overdose.

RONA: What do you call upon

to get you through
those kind of times?

I don't know how to describe it,
except--

You know, to use the word, survivor.

One who survives.
I believe in tomorrow.

I believe
that things that are painful...

uh, will not be as painful
in some time.

ANNOUNCER:
From television city
in Hollywood.

♪ I want to be happy ♪

ANNOUNCER:
How to Be Your Own Best Friend.

♪ I want to be happy ♪

ANNOUNCER:
How to Survive the 70s

and Maybe Even Bump
Into Happiness.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Mary Tyler Moore.

♪ I want to be happy
But I won't be happy ♪

♪ Till I make you happy too ♪

RONA: What does friendship mean?

- Trust.
- RONA: You're kind?

And respect for intelligence.
Um, a compatibility.

It's almost like a marriage
without sex.

Um, isn't it?

- Really. Yeah.
- RONA: Of sorts?

Enjoying the same things,

being able to fight
and fight fairly.

RONA: Do you think
that's what ruins marriage?

- Sex? (LAUGHS)
- RONA: Is that the sex-- Yeah.

REPORTER:
Actress Mary Tyler Moore

has filed for divorce
from her husband, Grant Tinker.

The two were married
for 18 years

and together they created
and ran MTM Enterprises,

the television company

that gave us
The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

RONA: What really started
the process

of Mary Tyler Moore
saying to herself,

"The time has come for me
to become an independent person,

no longer attached
to a husband."

You moved back
to New York City.

- MARY: Yes.
- RONA: And you said to me,

New York City
was gonna provide me

with a new kind of life.

You divorced after some 17,
18 years of marriage.

Is it difficult
to be on your own?

MARY: Oh, yeah.
It's very difficult.

Marriage relationships
or lover relationships

are destined to last
a certain amount of time.

Never think of that
as a failed marriage.

And it has nothing to do
with why a marriage ends.

Who wants it to end,
who doesn't.

It's just completely alien
to you

after that amount of time.

It's a big transition to make.

In my case, it coincided
with a change in career

and it may have looked
as though I calculated,

"Oh, now, I'm going
to end my marriage.

I'm going to do drama.
I'm going to move to New York."

And it truly didn't happen
that way.

TREVA:
I knew she was in New York

because she was starring
in a play

called Whose Life Is Anyway?

which was diametrically
different from Mary Richards.

It was a drama

with a lot of sarcastic,
sardonic humor

of a woman fighting
for the right to die.

MANNY: The phone rang
and it was Mary Tyler Moore

who said,
"I want to do that play."

The extraordinary part was,

Mary Tyler Moore was a major,
major star in this country

and she decided
to walk away from that.

And she came
to the first rehearsal

fully memorized.

MARY: Well, I didn't really
leave television.

What happened then was
that I was offered the play,

Whose Life is it Anyway?

And it was
so beautifully written and...

had already been a success
with Tom Conti starring in it

that I wanted to try that.

MANNY: Mary Tyler Moore
replaced Tom Conti

who had won the Tony.

And it's a rare item
that somebody goes in

after a star
and replicates the role.

I'm not quite sure

what the impetus for her
doing that play was.

Everyone will take credit for it
because it was a unique moment

that hadn't been done before.

I suspect
it was always her idea.

The truth is,
I didn't think of it,

nor did the director.

MICHAEL LINDSAY-HOGG:
We talked about it and she said,

did I think it would work
with a woman playing the part?

And I thought,
"Why wouldn't it?"

And so, Mary came to New York
and we started rehearsing.

MANNY:
She was ahead of the game.

Not only did she replace the man
who won the Tony,

but this was one of the most
glamorous women in America.

And she decided to play a woman
that was paralyzed

and had a sheet covering her

in a hospital bed
for the entire evening.

You were so successful
for so many years,

it's just like
people are waiting

for someone as successful
as you are to have a failure.

And they were--

It seems true
that they were hoping

maybe you'd just retire
from show business

but you didn't.
You went to the Broadway play,

which was not an easy thing
to do.

Oh, I... I don't have

such a jaded view of people.
(CHUCKLES)

It's that, I think there are
maybe about 17 people

who hope you fall
on your face...

- LETTERMAN: Yeah.
- ...but we tend to magnify that.

I don't think it's true.

I'm awfully glad
I did that play.

TREVA: She was extraordinary.
She got incredible reviews.

MARY: It was
a terrific achievement for me.

It exonerated me
from Breakfast at Tiffany's,

and again it showed

a rather skeptical
New York contingent

that there might be something
to television after all.

TREVA: I went backstage
to see her and I told her

there was not one gesture,
not one single thing

that was a Mary Richards
kind of thing.

And she said...
(GASPING) "...I'm so glad

because you're the first person
from the show who's been here."

And she said,
"I was very, very intent

on not doing any Mary Richards."

Funnily enough,
The Mary Tyler Moore Show

now mirrors my life.

Uh, when I was filming
that show,

I was married,
I was born married.

I'd never had
the single experience, you know?

And for the last three years,
I've been on my own,

and now living almost every one
of the episodes

that we filmed. (LAUGHING)

All those situations,
I can now say,

"Oh, now, I really understand
what was happening."

I decided to stay in New York

and try to capture my life
for myself.

TREVA: Here she was, 40,
seeing what life

for an adorable single person
was like.

And she loved what it was like.
(CHUCKLING)

The only way I could say it is
that she was more like Rhoda.

It was wonderful.

Adolescence.

I think that's what
I'm going through now.

And I think
that's a positive term

as opposed to a negative one.

And I think it will make me
a better actress.

MARY: I dated, I made friends.
I had a little apartment.

I did my own shopping.

I sort of played house,
but in real life.

New Yorkers
are really very friendly.

I get truck drivers and cabbies,

"Hey, Mar, it's good to see you.
Love the show." (CHUCKLES)

MARY: You're in it, in humanity
and all kinds of people,

not just one class of people.

Because Grant was so much
a part of my life,

I felt no need for friends

except those people
with whom I was working.

But now, I have many friends.

TREVA: Her humor
didn't come out so much in L.A.

But in New York, she was loose,
and free and funny,

which was adorable.

BILL: Everybody wanted
to take out Mary Tyler Moore.

RONA: Are you dating?

MARY: Oh, I hate that word.
(CHUCKLING)

I see people.
I go out to dinner with people.

I travel with people
and I consider them my friends.

MICHAEL: We had a relationship
while the show was going on.

We were helping each other.

I was trying to make her
really good in the play.

There was a part of Mary
which was absolutely delightful

and very funny.

But then,
there was another part of her,

which was nervous as a person
who is wondering

if they've made
the right choice.

PRESENTER:
A good evening and welcome

to the 34th annual presentation
of the Tony Awards.

The ultimate test
for a performer

is the naked stage.

It takes courage for someone
who's made a successful career

in another medium
to chance this.

So, when someone does
take a chance and brings it off,

she, in this case,
she wins our respect.

The people who administer
the Tony Awards

have this year in their wisdom

decided to give a special award
to Mary Tyler Moore.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

This, um, will symbolize for me

forever the absolute joy
in creative risk-taking.

It's the essence of live theater

and I am so very proud to be now
a part of that community.

My deepest thanks
to Manny Azenberg

for inviting me
and to all of you

for this very warm welcome.
I love the neighborhood.

Thank you.

MICHAEL: At one point,
Mary wanted

an exclusive relationship

but then she said,
"But I don't know what I mean."

It wasn't like she wanted
to get married again.

There was the issue,

which was an occasional issue
then of Mary's drinking.

One vodka on the rocks
at dinner, she'd be great.

Two vodkas on the rocks, same.

But usually if she had
a third cocktail and some wine,

she got slightly belligerent.
She'd lose concentration.

And so whatever conversation
you were having

might take a wrong turn.

MARY: I found myself
not going out after five o'clock

and making sure that everything
was set up for me near the phone

that was near the television.

And that I had my blender
full of drinks

that I was concocting

in an attempt to do something
worthwhile in the kitchen.

(CHUCKLING)
It was a pretty sad lady

that was emerging.

LETTERMAN: I saw
this movie, Ordinary People.

What a-- It's a killer.
It's just terrific.

- Thank you very much.
- And...

(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

Did you have to wait in line
for a long time?

I waited in line
for about an hour.

- (GASPS)
- Oh, I'm sorry.

Don't do that.

Who had the foresight to say,
"She'd be great"?

Well... Bob Redford, um...

told me that when he had
first read the book

in galley form,
four years before

he had envisioned me
as... as the mother

before he knew
he was going to...

buy the... the property
and make a movie.

And he said also that he had
always been fascinated

by what might be the dark side
of Mary Tyler Moore.

because in most
everything I've done,

it's been sunny, and open,
and optimistic.

And he knew, that little devil,
that there... (CHUCKLES)

...there was a lot
of other stuff happening.

ROBERT REDFORD:
I had a place in Malibu.

I was sitting there
just looking out the ocean

and suddenly
this woman walks by.

What it looked like to me
was that she was sad.

I said,
"Oh, that's Mary Tyler Moore."

And we had always seen
Mary Tyler Moore as this

happy-go-lucky, upbeat,
wonderful, wonderful character

who was full of joy
and innocence.

In the film,
Beth's... barrenness of emotion

derives from the fact
that she lost her son Buck

in an accident

and that she can't deal
with the surviving son

because of what
this has done to her.

- CALVIN: That is great.
- Do it.

- Calvin.
- Just a second. Smile.

- Calvin. Give me the camera.
- No, I didn't get it yet, Beth.

- Come on, give me the camera.
- Dad, give her the camera.

MARY:
That was such a change of pace

that a woman
could be so brittle inside

that she could alienate her son.
I saw her as a victim.

All right. What do you think?

Very nice.

I saw her as very reminiscent
of my own life.

If it's starting all over again,
the lying, the covering up,

the disappearing for hours,

I will not stand for it.
I can't stand it.

- I really can't.
- Well, don't then, go to Europe.

ROB: When I saw her
in Ordinary People,

I thought
that's more like who she is.

She didn't want
to talk about things

that were uncomfortable.

JOHN: I'd seen some of that
in Mary

in her more serious moments
with my father.

I'd seen that pensiveness,
the hand wringing.

You drink too much
at parties, Calvin.

JOHN: I'd seen anger,
hurt, confusion,

the inability
to connect with Rich.

I'd seen flashes of that.

You were, uh, loved and adored
as Mary Richards,

who was anything
but what Beth is.

And now you're loved and adored

because you're just
kind of a... a nas--

- Not a nasty person, but--
- MARY: I don't know

if I'm loved and adored.

In times past,
people would come up to me

in the street and say,
"Hey Mar, how are you?"

Now, they're going, "Ah, hi."

(CHUCKLES)
But that's terrific, I mean...

JAMES: In 1980,
in a grim instance

of life mirroring art...

you faced a new torment,
did you not? That echoed...

the death of that son
in Ordinary People.

REPORTER 1:
The son of television star

Mary Tyler Moore is dead.

REPORTER 2: But the coroner
is still doing tests

to determine if 24-year-old
Richard Meeker

deliberately shot himself.

MARY: He died in an accident
with a gun.

JOHN: The reports
that it had been a suicide

would further cause anguish
and it just was so unfair.

There was no doubt in my mind
from the very beginning

that that was an accident.

I knew Rich,
I knew he could be... careless.

He loved life too much.

He was a really lovable goof.

He explored. He loved people.
He had a huge heart.

Yet he had a side of him

that was just a little
accident prone.

MARY: He had a gun collection.
He was lying on his bed

and he was fooling
with one of them.

RONDA: When I viewed that movie,

I thought
Richie had already died

when she played that role.

And then it turned out
that life imitated art, sadly.

TREVA: Richie died three weeks

after the premier
of Ordinary People.

So, the Oscar nomination
for best actress

that followed was bittersweet.

DUSTIN: For her role as a mother
unable and unwilling

to bend her own
self-imposed restrictions

on the meaning of love and life,

Ms. Mary Tyler Moore
in Ordinary People.

(AUDIENCE CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

Ladies and gentlemen
of the Academy,

your choice is
Miss Sissy Spacek.

BILL: When Richie died,
that really changed her.

She was, like, really
searching herself.

That had an effect on her
that lasted.

RONA: There are people
who have the same experience

and then they stop living.

They don't know how to go on.
They don't know how to cope,

and they don't know
how to make the next step.

Yeah, well,
he would've hated that.

He would not have wanted
that to happen.

I'm still angry.

I haven't quite reconciled it.

Um...

I don't have
a religious belief that...

I can rely on that says,
"Well...

we are here on earth to put--

To prove ourselves
worthy of heaven."

So, I have anger
and I'm working through that.

♪ (SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
PLAYING) ♪

DR. ROBERT LEVINE:
In her high school yearbook,

Mary wrote, "The world is ready

to welcome talent
with open arms."

It was through talent
that she could gain acceptance.

She understood
that talent was the thing

that was going to be her life,
was going to save her life.

And was going to gain
the attention that she craved.

I wouldn't call her reserved.
She was determined.

Just because you have a smile
on your face

doesn't mean you're not ready
to go to battle.

The full story of Mary was both,

the fighter and the person
so willing to offer a smile.

TREVA: How she and Robert met
was out of a fairytale.

BEVERLY: Her mom and her dad
and Mary had gone to Rome.

She got an audience
with the Pope.

MARY: My mom and dad and I
were coming back from Europe

and the plane landed
in New York.

My mother was very ill
with a bronchial infection,

so I called my doctor
and it was Rosh Hashanah

He was at temple.
But there was a Dr. Levine,

who for whatever
his own personal reasons,

was not at temple.

ROBERT: I was the only
Jewish doctor working.

I really didn't know
who Mary was.

MARY: So, we took her
over to Mount Sinai Hospital

and while he gave her
the once over,

- I did the same to him. (LAUGHS)
- (LAUGHS)

- MARY: And... and thought...
- Mary!

Well, now,
exactly my very words, Sarah,

- "Mary!"
- Okay.

Because I was a few years older
than he

and, well, probably still am.

ROBERT: I went to her apartment
a couple days later

just to examine her mom.
Her mom was doing well.

So, I said, "You're clear
to go back to Los Angeles."

Mary then said,
"You know, Dr. Levine,

I haven't been feeling
that well either.

Could you listen to my chest?"

As I was leaving,
I said to Mary,

"If anything comes up,
just give me a call."

So, Mary said,

"Is acute loneliness
a good enough reason to call?"

And I said, "I can't think
of a better reason

to be awakened at 3:00 a.m."

(RINGING)

BEVERLY: She called me
on the phone

at 2:00 in the morning
and she said,

"I have just met
the most wonderful man."

I said, "It's two o'clock
in the morning."

She said, "He's just wonderful.
He's young."

And I said, "So?"

ROBERT: So, a few days later,
3:00 a.m., she did call me,

and she said to me,
"Do you cook?"

And I lied and said, "No."
And so she said,

"Well, I guess we'll have to go
out to dinner."

BEVERLY: The minute he came
into Mary's life,

she fell in love
for the first time in her life.

I wasn't well equipped

to have a first date
with someone like Mary

because I wasn't a person
who dated at all.

I didn't have any moves,
if you will. I had no game.

I think that was what Mary
may have liked about me.

Welcome to Malibu East...

- (CROWD CHUCKLE)
- (CHUCKLES) ...here in Quehog.

- That's my mom.
- Beautiful downtown Quehog.

Are you good, Pam?

PAM: Yeah.
Now, I'm taking pictures.

- MARY: Dad, take a picture of--
- No, keep it, Pam.

- MARY: This is Robert.
- Hello.

ROBERT: So, Mary was 18 years
older than me.

I was an old man
by the time I met her.

And she was still a young woman.

MARY:
So, Robert is a very old soul.

And I'm probably the baby.

I'm the brat
of the relationship. (CHUCKLING)

But that's really not true.
Um, that's a joke.

Well, the truth is
that I have always depended

on an older, stronger influence
in my life,

whether it was husband
or father.

And there came a time
in my life,

coincidentally just when I met Robert

and the magic was there

that I was ready
to be my own person.

So, with Robert,
it was an opportunity to say,

"Okay, now this is truly equal.
You got nothing to fear here

'cause, look, how much younger
he is than you.

You have the experience now."
It always appears that I've been

vitally independent
but not truly

in my private life,
I was very much a person

who liked being directed
and led.

RONA: Does Mary Tyler Moore
wanna get married again?

I don't think so. No.
I don't see any need for that.

We're doing this roast
for Mary Tyler Moore

because soon
she'll be Mary Tyler Levine.

(BOTH LAUGH)

- You're sure?
- Yes, I am.

Okay. So, who will start? Betty.

Betty White will now start
with the roast potatoes.

BETTY:
It's not a roast, it isn't.

- It's a paean.
- BEVERLY: It's ham!

BETTY: It's a paean
of... of gratitude.

It's a... It's a thing
that we should all...

We all wanna do...

- Pretend to do.
- ...but we just don't know how.

No, we don't have to pretend,
darling. We love you very much.

And as far as I'm concerned,

I have answered
so many questions

about my career,
about how do I realize

how much Mary did for my career?

Oh, Christ.

- And I say, yes, I do!
- Forgive me, Robert.

I didn't mean that. (CHUCKLES)

BETTY: But what? No, no.

I'm so glad
we have holes in this.

I wouldn't know
where to put my arms.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

- Or my boobs. I can...
- (CROWD LAUGHING)

If there is any way
I could possibly help you

and any kind of advice
you'd like or any kind of poem.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

You just... call on your Bets.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

(MARY SCREAMS)

- Are you all right?
- I'm okay.

- I certainly...
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

- That was so perfect.
- She never drinks.

- (CHUCKLES)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

BEVERLY: Marge. Marge,
don't you have something to say?

Just a little something
to your daughter.

- Come on, Mom.
- BEVERLY: Come on, Mom.

Stand up here and say something
and be really good.

- (CROWD LAUGHING)
- Be the best you've ever been.

Roses are red,
violets are bluish.

You once were a Mick
and now you're Jewish.

(ALL CHEER, APPLAUD)

Cut. Stop.

He is one of those
rare doctors...

who truly cares about patients.

He sometimes can't go to sleep
without them... but not often.

And that's to his...

benefit too
that he's not a crazy person.

He can go to sleep...

and...

wake up in the morning.

Oh, shit!

(ALL CHUCKLE)

Anyway,
I think you'd all like him.

Now, go away.

REPORTER:
And one of America's favorites
had a wedding last night.

Mary Tyler Moore
married Robert Levine.

He's a doctor.

The wedding
was at a Fifth Avenue Hotel

with 250 of their friends.

MANNY: Was it unlikely?
Probably.

Was it unexpected? Absolutely.
But I went to the wedding.

I remember saying to her,
"Well, you finally achieved

what every New York Jew
or Catholic mother wanted.

You married a doctor."

BEVERLY:
Their wedding was wonderful.

I was her matron of honor.
It was great.

So, she had a priest
and he had a Rabbi. (CHUCKLING)

BILL: Mary's father
was the most gentile person.

He could walk past the synagogue
and neutralize it.

It would become
a Unitarian church.

He was standing half
under the chuppah and half out.

He was afraid
that if he got under that thing,

something was gonna happen
to him.

(GLASS SHATTERING)

ROBERT: We rehearsed
how we would address

the first dance together
and she didn't want to lead,

but she knew
that if I didn't step up,

that's what was gonna happen.

So, I had to figure out
how to take control.

But after that it all devolved
into a very special party.

MANNY: I made the blessing
all for the bread

with a full heart.

They were an odd couple.

She married a regular person,

but she was devoted to him
and he was devoted to her.

You can't ask for anything else.

He got up at 12
or one in the morning

and made a tuna fish sandwich.
Not for him and me but for me.

And it was the most loving thing

that anybody had ever done
for me before in my life.

I've been given jewels,

I've been given
a lot of... things that don't...

we all think
are obviously of value.

But for me, the most thing
that was of value was

that tuna fish sandwich...

that was for nothing

from someone,
who gave it only to me.

ROBERT: Loving Mary was easy.
She opened the door

to something about me
that I thought was shut forever.

RONA:
Today, I have this feeling

that I could
put my arms around you

and I could touch you...

and that you would respond.

But many years ago,
when we first met...

I think I would be scared
to death

- to touch Mary Tyler Moore.
- Of me? (CHUCKLES)

RONA: For total fear

that I would really
be rebuffed by you.

There was such...

- a coolness...
- I know.

- ...such an aloofness, Mary.
- Yeah.

And I see, I don't see
that Mary now. What happened?

I don't know.
I can't explain it.

I-- Maybe it's just growth,
maybe it's analysis,

maybe it's finally saying,

"All right, I'll let myself show
with all my flaws.

It's not the end of the world
if I'm not perfect."

And, uh, you know,
it was that misguided thinking.

I'm sure that kept the shield
around me that called--

That caused people
to call me the "Ice Princess."

I mean,
I was never cold to people

but I never really confided
in people

and I never shared
any of the... the ugly sides

or those things
that I thought were ugly.

And now I will do that.

- (TELEPHONE RINGING)
- Boy.

Hello? It's Mrs. Ford,
the president's wife.

MARY: The big turning point
of my life happened

after spending a year
with my husband, Robert,

who is a very tender, dear,
and very wise person.

I was able to see myself
and what I was doing

without realizing it,

how I was living
in the fast lane,

and how it just seemed to me
I had to live in the fast lane.

And so came that time
when I began to look at myself

and what I was doing
and I changed.

- Hello?
- Hello, Mary.

- This is Betty Ford.
- (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

ROBERT: She had had Betty Ford
on her show.

And she knew
of Mrs. Ford's treatment

of people with her difficulty
with alcohol

and the Betty Ford Center
in California.

- Hi, Betty.
- (AUDIENCE CHEERING, LAUGHING)

This is Mary, Queen of Scots.

MARY: Liza Minnelli
had just been there

and Elizabeth Taylor
had just been there. (CHUCKLING)

And I called
the Betty Ford Center

and I made my appointment

and they took me
the very next day.

And Robert, he said goodbye
to me at the jetway.

But the confidence
of having just been hugged

and kissed by him,

and the two bloody Marys
that I had on the plane,

got me there and began
the grand process

of chipping away
and chiseling down

to the real me
or the blob that was me.

That was going to become...
a person.

With the help of some counselors

and a lot
of group therapy sessions,

I was able to examine myself
and the way I handled my life

and the way I handled problems,

and I allowed myself
to be imperfect.

It was at that point
that we started looking

at the country house,
and looking at gardening,

and horses,
and... and stuff like that.

(BRAYS)

MARY:
It's nice, isn't it, Linus?

LINUS: Yes. Winny and Sundance.

MARY: Shut up, Dash.

You better get used to it, Dash,
they're part of the family now.

All right, so here we are
coming out of the barn

and this is the new arena

that eventually will have,
um, a ring in it.

ROBERT: A ring?

MARY: You know,
for the horses to ride.

- ROBERT: It has a ring in it.
- MARY: Around the edge.

- ROBERT: Look through the visor.
- MARY: Well, I can't really look

through the visor
because then it makes it

too bumpy. Shut up, Robert!

- (BLOWS RASPBERRY)
- MARY: And just to--
(CHUCKLES) John.

(BRAYS)

JIM: I went to see her
in Millbrook.

It was nice to see her
in a bucolic setting.

Nothing to do, but beautiful.
It was very sweet.

REPORTER: Mary Tyler Moore

is the woman
we're talking about today.

She occupies her own
very unique place in the hearts

of television viewers
coast to coast.

But at home, her five horses

and her two dogs
don't seem to know

that she's one
of the great comediennes

of American television.
They do know, however,

they occupy a special place
in her heart.

When she needs to take a break
from whatever she's doing,

be it a play, movie, TV show,
or charitable endeavor.

Self-styled workhorse,

Mary Tyler Moore
works with horses.

Her Palomino pal is named John

and the Philly
who's feeling her oats

is Laughing Lucy.

This handsome albino
is Mary's pride and joy in part

because she's known him
since the beginning.

John was born in Mary's stable
just about a year ago.

JAMES: Your book ends
so beautifully with a metaphor

inspired by a blue-eyed
albino foal.

- What is the foal's name?
- MARY: John.

JAMES:
What was your brother's name?

MARY: John.

ROBERT: Mary was largely
alienated from her brother

until a number of years
after we had met and married.

I think she was sorry
that she missed the years

that she missed
of having a family.

MARY: My brother John,
he developed kidney cancer.

And he died holding my hand.

- MARJORIE: Okay, one last photo.
- MARY: Which one?
In the middle one.

MARJORIE: So you've got it?
Last picture.

He saw pictures of Mary
taken by the Chuppah.

- JOHN: To Mary.
- MARJORIE: Yeah.

- JOHN: I love you.
- MARJORIE: Ah, that's good.

MARY: John is almost
five months old now

and looking very much
like a camel.

Very much like a camel.

Here you go, baby.
Look how tall he is.

See, he's right up to my face,

which is not looking
terribly great

'cause I don't have
any makeup on, all right?

Normally,
I'm so much cuter than this.

But anyway, John.

Hi. Don't I look
so much cuter today?

No, really?
Seriously. Look at my face.

See, I have eye makeup on.
My hair, properly dressed.

Let us proceed--
No, Dash is getting busy.

So, Dash,
you wanna get this ball?

Okay, watch it now.
Track it, good dog.

Again, again.
Wow! An almost mid-air catch!

RONA: The public,
did they expect

too much of you,
Mary Tyler Moore?

I've never felt
that I was restricted.

And I, as you know,
I've made a lot of changes.

TERRY SIMS: She wanted to leave
Mary Richards forever behind.

And so, it was challenging
sometimes to find new roles.

I want you to see something.

- NANCY: Very nice, Pearl.
- MEL: For God's sake.

I want you to consider my age

and ask yourself
how I maintain this?

MEL: Mom,
why are you doing this?

- How? I don't know. How?
- (MEL SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

I couldn't have a baby.

But I had to fight the laws
of gravity just the same

and you need the help
of a good bra.

And believe you me,
if you wanna keep

your husband's attention,
you'll get one pronto.

- (CROWD CHEERING)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I know that you've been
very active in the fight

- against juvenile diabetes.
- Right. Looking for the cure.

JAMES: You're the international
chairman, are you not?

Yes, of the
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

JAMES: And I believe
that your husband,

Dr. Robert Levine is active too,
is he not?

- Yes, he is indeed. Say, hello.
- JAMES: Please stand up.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

ROBERT: With the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation,

it really was a chance for her
to be back in the ensemble,

to be part of a movement

because the status quo
was not acceptable.

You know, the lives
that children were living

in those days were shortened.

BERNADETTE PETERS:
She went to Washington

to talk about juvenile diabetes.

She raised a lot of money.
She moved progress forward.

But we cannot lose momentum.
Not now, that we are so close.

So, I ask you, Mr. Chairman,
members of the committee,

look around once more.

Listen to the voices
of the children

who will tell you
their stories today.

And when you retire
to your deliberations,

promise to remember them.

ROBERT: Mary helped them raise
close to two billion dollars.

Hope, that very much depends
on actions, you, your colleagues

and the administration
choose to take.

(CROWD APPLAUDS)

RONA: From the moment
you decided

that this is what I wanted
to be.

I wanna be a dancer.
I wanna be an actress.

Were you ever rebuffed,
were you ever turned down...

- Well, now, I'll tell you this.
- ...I mean--

I will go to my grave
thinking of myself

as a failed dancer,
not a successful actress.

♪ (WHIMSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

It's all a fake
and someday they'll see it.

It'll all go away.

Now, this fake...

was in a show
that won numerous Emmy awards.

This fake and Dick Van Dyke
won best acting awards

in 1964, 1965.

And this fake won
the 1965 Golden Globe Award

as female TV personality
of the year.

♪ ("NUTCRACKER SUITE"
BY DAVID HAMILTON PLAYING) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

- (CHEERS)
- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

- (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
- (INDISTINCT CHATTER)

There's your mama.
Here's your mama.

♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RONDA: Mar was always
strong-willed.

She never gave
that strong will up.

She was very secure
in those last years

when Robert was around.

As for what the diabetes
caused her,

I firmly believe
without question,

Mary Tyler Moore
lived ten years longer

than she would've lived
without the care of Robert.

ROBERT: Being that person
for Mary, that loving protector

included making
tuna fish sandwiches for her

in the middle of the night

or getting up and getting her
a glass of orange juice

when her blood sugar
dropped too low,

whatever it took.

RONDA: We saw Mary Tyler Moore
fight her way back

from the edge of death
so many times

that she should have been gone.

She had been in the hospital
three weeks.

Robert was always there
but the man would get exhausted.

So, he would go home at night

and I'd sit in the hospital room
with Mary.

I'd read the Bible to her.

I'd talk about
The Mary Tyler Moore Show,

and I do remember
that she leaned back and said,

"It feels great to remember."

BEVERLY: When she was dying
in the hospital...

(SNIFFLING) ...I'd crawl
into bed with her

and just held hands.

I couldn't stand
that she was gonna die.

It's a horrible disease.

MARY: Hi, sweetie.
Um, I just had a low blood sugar

and I think we've...

we're on the way
to correcting it anyway

with some orange juice
and cookies.

So, gimme a call
when you can. Bye-bye.

REPORTER 1:
We begin with breaking news.

Actress Mary Tyler Moore
has passed away.

It is the loss of a true legend
in Hollywood.

She was a television icon
for a generation.

REPORTER 2: Mary Tyler Moore
could turn the world on

with her smile.

REPORTER 3: Her series,
The Mary Tyler Moore Show,

helped usher in a new era
for women on television.

REPORTER 4: The actress died Wednesday

with her husband and friends
at her side. She was 80.

BEVERLY: She was
something special.

There was no one like Mary.

She was steel. And I miss her.
I will always miss her.

She was just
my best friend ever.

BERNADETTE: Her work
as a comedian was unparalleled.

It's like a warrior,

someone that gets
through it all.

KATIE: Mary tapped into
something that is universal.

ROBERT: Mary's was a life
that need not end

with her passing.

It's how we hold on to her

and what she did, and why,
and how we carry it forward...

that gives her life
even greater meaning.

BEVERLY: She was
a wonderful symbol to womanhood

to the movement
as everybody said.

"But she doesn't do anything
for the movement."

She did everything
for the movement.

- (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
- ♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(SCREAMS)

You have no idea
what you've meant to me.

OPRAH WINFREY:
There are those of us

who we only
had the television...

- MARY: Yes.
- ...for inspiration.

And you were one
of those women...

- Yeah.
- ...who was a light.

JULIA: I think
Mary's legacy is that

she's fundamentally shifted,
in our culture,

how we perceive women
in entertainment.

Period. End of story.

REESE WITHERSPOON:
Her ideas weren't just siloed

to a character she'd played
on a television show.

Women like Mary Tyler Moore
cut a path

that I'm standing in right now.

PHYLICIA RASHAD:
For all of her positive

and radiant energy,

she was no stranger
to adversity and challenge.

She surmounted those things.
She continued.

LENA WAITHE: I think
she was meant to spark fire

with a very delicate match.

It impacted many people
that followed.

Those women weren't just White

and they may not
just have been women.

ISAAC MIZRAHI:
Why did I like Mary Tyler Moore?

'Cause I'm American
and I'm not a stone.

Because between her
and Jackie Kennedy,

they shaped this country,
between all of her portrayals,

between Laura Petrie
and Mary Richards,

it's what shaped
Americans' whole taste level.

JAMES: I think the real answer
to who Mary has inspired

is as many women
as Eleanor Roosevelt.

Knowing her, she deserves it.

- You know what? You got spunk.
- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

- Well, yes.
- I hate spunk.

ED: I loved her.
And she knew it.

How much Mary Tyler Moore
exists in Mary Richards?

- Oh, a lot. Oh, a lot.
- JAMES: A lot?

What of you is in her?

MARY: My good nature,
my earnestness

and my belief in a happy ending.

I treasure you people.

(SOBBING)

JAMES: I think
my favorite memory of her

is how dear she was
when we wrote "The Last Show."

We had everybody saying
their farewells on the show.

(SOBS, SNIFFLES)

I think we all need
some Kleenex.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

GEORGIA ENGEL:
There's some on Mary's desk.

JAMES: We'd forgotten her.

She was the only one
we didn't give a goodbye to.

And her coming to the office
for the first time

to ask for something
in the script after seven years.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

- Mr. Grant...
- (EXHALES, SNIFFLES)

...could I say
what I wanted to say now?

- Mm-hmm.
- Please?

(SNIFFLES) Okay, Mary.

JAMES: And that she was shy
and uncertain about it.

It just killed her.
And she had built the studio.

Well, I just wanted
you to know...

that sometimes I get concerned

- about being a career woman.
- (GRANT SNIFFLING)

I get to thinking my job
is too important to me.

And I tell myself...

that the people I work with

are just the people
I work with...

- and not my family.
- (SNIFFLES)

(SNIFFLES) And last night
I thought...

"What is a family anyway?"

They're just people
who make you feel...

less alone...

and really loved.

And that's
what you've done for me.

ROBERT: It's hard to look at

what others might call
our love story

from an arm's length.

All I know is
I carry her always.

(WIND BLOWING)

I'm walking literally
in wall-to-wall shit.

ROBERT: Okay,
we're gonna stop now, honey.

Okay.

- ROBERT: Say goodbye.
- Goodbye. Bye for now.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

♪ ("DISCO LOVIN"
BY THE MELLOPHONICS PLAYING) ♪

♪ ("DISCO LOVIN"
BY THE MELLOPHONICS CONCLUDES) ♪