It’s been a week since Mary Tyler Moore passed away at the age of 80,  and I suspect that I’m not the only fan who has spent a significant amount of time over the last seven days reflecting on my favorite MTM moments.  I think part of what has spiked all of reminiscing for me has been all the references that have been made to what some people regard as the best episode from The Mary Tyler Moore Show:  “Chuckles Bites the Dust.”  If you watched the show, then you surely know the episode I’m talking about: Chuckles the Clown dies unexpectedly, and for most of the episode the staff of WJM find themselves cracking one joke after another about it,  much to Mary’s consternation.  Frankly, she’s horrified by their insensitivity.  But then comes the actual funeral,  when her coworkers are finally grieving their loss and shedding tears-  while Mary, inexplicably,  is now finding herself unable to stop laughing.  And the more she tries to stop,  the harder she laughs.    And the big payoff at the end is when the pastor who is officiating actually says that it’s fine for Mary to be laughing because this is what Chuckles’s career was all about – and encourages her to laugh freely.   And Mary – you guessed it – begins crying uncontrollably.  A classic moment,  and certainly well acted by the incomparable Mary Tyler Moore.   But the trouble is that it’s the culminating scene of an episode that until that point is decidedly third rate.   All of that joking around by the WJM staffers is shockingly out of character (a very rare transgression for a series that presented such richly drawn characters) and downright offensive –  and what’s worse,  not one of those tasteless joke is even funny.   In short,  I really dislike this episode-  I really do.  And the fact that this episode garners so much praise just infuriates me.   (I was happy to see something posted recently that listed 12 great episodes for people to check out- and Chuckles Bites the Dust was not among them.  Thank you,  Vulture.com.)

But enough with the negative.  What I really want to do here is point you to five of the episodes that I think represent this superb show at its very very best.  If you’re a fan of the show and feel like revisiting it, this is a great place to start.  On the other hand,  if this is a show you have never seen before (and I know this to be the case for a number of my students at Carthage) then these episodes are worth seeking out to get a taste of this show’s impressive excellence.  Of course, you have to be prepared for the fact that this show takes us back to Ancient History ….  when there were no cell phones or personal computers.  There was no such thing as home video,  let alone streaming or Youtube.   At a distance,  1970 (the year the show began airing) might seem like an idyllically simpler time.  On the other hand,  someone named Nixon was president, the Beatles had just broken up,  the Viet Nam War was raging,   and a new magazine called Ms. was about to publish its first issue.   So it was a time of tremendous turbulence when this remarkable show first aired- and while the show never once offered the slightest commentary on Nixon or Viet Nam or Kent State,  it showed us a lot about what it meant to be a single professional woman making her way through the world and trying to be a good person along the way.  And maybe that’s why the show continues to both touch us and make us laugh all of these years later.

Anyway, here’s five episodes that I think represent the very best of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in no particular order:

“Lou’s First Date.”  This episode comes not long after Mary’s boss, Lou Grant, finds himself separated from his wife, Edie,  who essentially needs some time to herself to find herself.  (They eventually divorce.)  Mary believes that it might be time for Lou to go on his first date (especially when Lou learns that Edie is seeing someone) and through her friend Rhoda,  Mary offers to set up a date with someone who sounds perfect to accompany him to that weekend’s Teddy Awards Banquet.   Unfortunately,  there is a bit of a mixup – and when Mary calls the woman – a Mrs. Dudley – to set up the date,  she doesn’t realize that she’s actually talking to the woman’s mother,  Martha Dudley,  who is more than 80 years old-  perhaps 30 years older than Lou.  But no one realizes the mixup until the moment when dear, sweet Martha shows up at Mary’s doorstep.   Lou is absolutely horrified at the prospect of going to this awards banquet with this elderly woman on his arm as his date-  but Mary is able to persuade him that he has nothing to be embarrassed about.  (Although the moment when he’s told that Martha served as the flower girl at Thomas Alva Edison’s wedding,  he’s tempted to bolt for the door!)  And although there is some awkwardness once they arrive at the banquet,  the episode ends very sweetly with Lou’s decision to be kind to Martha and embrace the moment.

I love this episode first and foremost because it’s hilariously funny …. but I love it even more because it feels very real.   There is nothing outrageous farfetched about the central premise – and more importantly, the way it plays out is completely authentic.  Lou acts the way we expect him to act,  and even when he is at his worst,  we feel real sympathy for him and for his “plight.”   And when he finally sees how selfishly he has been acting and shifts towards kindness, it feels entirely authentic and not the least bit contrived.  It’s the perfect blend of hilarity and heart that was so often a hallmark of this show.

“The Good Time News”  One of the best things about the series was how it showed us quite a lot of the inner workings of a small, local TV newsroom without drowning us either in technical jargon or irrelevant minutia.   And while there were plenty of episodes-  perhaps even a majority of episodes- in which the heart of the story had nothing much to do with the newsroom and what happened there,  I always loved the episodes in which we really saw Mary at work, doing more than just answering the phone or meeting with Mr. Grant.  I loved seeing her in action as Associate Producer,  and never more so than this episode in which the 6:00 news is transformed into a more light-hearted, spontaneous telecast …  a prescient hint of what in fact has pretty much engulfed the whole TV news business in subsequent years.  But back in 1972,  most newscasts were quite glum affairs.    Anyway,  the experiment is undertaken with sportscaster Gordy Howe (wonderfully played by recurrent guest star John Amos) promoted to co-anchor because of his breezy, witty personality. (In a chat with Rhoda, Mary is optimistic enough to predict  that the new format will be “not awful.”  But she turns out to be very wrong about that.)

Pompous Ted Baxter (the brilliant Ted Knight)  is fine with everything until a station official takes him aside right before the newscast begins and thanks him for his selfless willingness to play the thankless role of Straight Man.   Insulted, the suddenly resentful Ted is determined to match Gordy joke for joke.  “I’ve got personality too!”  he thunders at Mary,  who desperately replies “Ted, you don’t!”  But it’s too late,  and there ensues one of the most disastrous newscasts in WJM history (which is really saying something!) –  culminating in that astonishing moment when an exasperated Mary – trying to deliver a grim editorial about the population crisis, only to be repeatedly interrupted by Ted’s tasteless attempts at humor – finally yells “Would you shut up, Ted!”- on the air!  On a lesser show,  all of this would have played out very cartoonishly.  Not on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

“Not a Christmas Story”  For the most part,  all of the principle characters on the show got along pretty well.  It was an odd and unexpected turn of events when things would go terribly sour between anyone,  but in this particular episode almost every relationship craters through the course of one misunderstanding after another.  (It doesn’t help that a terrible blizzard is raging outside.)  When it becomes clear that everyone is stranded at the station because of the snow,  Sue Ann Nivens (played by the irreplaceable Betty White) invites them all down to her Happy Homemaker studio to partake in the feast she has just prepared for her pre-taped Christmas Around The World show.   The sight of the shows main characters sitting around her dining room,  glaring at one other as they are forced to sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” is priceless – as is the moment when sweet Georgette (played by Georgia Engel) quietly sings the first verse of “Silent Night” and in doing so,  dissipates the rancor in the room.   Everyone is friends again by the end,  but wow!  There are some uncomfortable moments until then.  But it worked well because these are richly drawn characters – human beings with real feelings –  and not just cardboard cut-outs.

“The Lars Affair”  We actually first meet Sue Ann Nivens in this particular episode,  and Betty White is absolute perfection in the part.   But the episode is just as ideal a vehicle for Cloris Leachman as Mary’s intelligent,  driven, and maddeningly high maintenance friend Phyllis.  The core of the story is that Phyllis’s dermatologist husband Lars (whom we never see in the course of the entire series) is having an affair with Sue Ann,  WJM’s Happy Homemaker …  and Phyllis’s brave but ultimately ineffective confrontation scene with Sue Ann is a tour de force for both actresses.   Mary Tyler Moore is actually not in the spotlight for all that much of this episode, which speaks to her generosity as well as to the wisdom of the writers and producers of the show who knew that the comic potential of the supporting players should be generously tapped as much as possible.   But it is Mary who ultimately saves the day with a brief but devastating visit to Sue Ann’s studio that shows us the stiff backbone that one does not always associate with gentle Mary Richards, but that was actually there right from the beginning.

“Lou’s Place”  This is one of those rare episodes in which the climactic scene does not happen either at WJM or at Mary’s apartment-  but rather in a drinking establishment,  McClosky’s Bar.  The owner has died,  and Lou decides to buy it … but in order to do so,  it means taking on Ted as a business partner.  (Uh oh.)    Unfortunately,  business is terribly slow- which prompts Lou to try and create the same sort of warm, Cheers-like atmosphere that McClosky himself had created so easily and effortlessly.  That might have been a good idea if Lou had even a sliver of ability for making that happen.  His efforts to be warm, spontaneous and welcoming with his patrons fall terribly flat – culminating in the most awkward, disastrous sing along of all time.   As I read this description,  I realize that this does not sound like Great TV or Great Comedy …. but trust me, this is one of the funniest half hours you will ever see.   And what makes it so exceptionally fine is that we just ache for Lou as he tries so hard to be something that he’s not.   I also love the work of MTM and Valerie Harper (Rhoda) playing the supportive friends who are there to cheer Lou on – only to see him go down in flames.  (Mary Tyler Moore should have won three Emmys for the sing along scene alone.  You can just see the pain in her eyes and the tension in her throat as she and Rhoda gamely sing along to “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” – even though at one point they are the only people in the room who are singing.   Ah, the pain that can be part of friendship.)

Bonus pick:  One of the funniest running gags in the show is that Mary’s parties are always disasters- and an especially hilarious example of that was when she decided to throw a surprise party for Mr. Grant, not realizing until it’s too late that he hates surprise parties.  Unfortunately,  by that point she has dozens of well-wishers right outside her apartment door, ready to shout SURPRISE!    Desperate for the party not to be completely ruined,  she persuades Mr. Grant to let her welcome in just a couple of guests, one at a time, in the hopes that he’ll warm up to the idea.   My favorite line in the whole episode (and maybe in the whole series) is when a tired, cranky, bewildered Rhoda isqueezes her way through all of the party guests crowded on the landing,  walks into Mary’s apartment,  and announces in that inimitable Rhoda sort of way,  “Mary, I think we’ve come up with a theme for this party:  Hatred!”  At long last,  Mr. Grant finally lets Mary open the door to allow everyone in – but by the time the guests have finished singing “Happy Birthday,” Mr. Grant is gone.  One more catastrophic Mary Richards party has ended … and one more brilliant episode is ours to enjoy.

I’m not sure how the typical college student would react to any of these episodes.  Would they feel like they were watching something as removed from their own time and world as, for instance,  “The Waltons” or “Little House on the Prairie”?  Actually,  “The Waltons” isn’t too much of a stretch.  When Earl Hamner’s series began airing in the early 1970s,   it was portraying events from forty years earlier (the era of the Great Depression.)   The Mary Tyler Moore Show is about just over forty years removed from our current day,  so it represents a similar displacement of time …. the thought of which leaves me absolutely staggered.  Because wasn’t it just yesterday that we were sitting in front of our televisions as we heard for the first time “Who can turn the world on with her smile?”  Fortunately,  this show – for as much as it sprang from the tenor of its times – has a timeless quality that continues to touch and entertain us all these years later.