I was not alone in my Mary worship. Along with the rest of the nation, most of us little sisters of the womenâs movement loved Mary. Oprah Winfrey, for one, watched every episode as a teen âlike my life depended on it,â citing Mary as a trailblazer and an inspiration for her career. Anyone whoâs loved Mary or wants to know the inside story of how this remarkable series came about will enjoy Jennifer Keishin Armstrongâs well-researched appreciation,âMary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted.â  Taking a leisurely look at the characters and the people behind the scenes of one of the most successful television series ever, Armstrongâs book pleases on several levels. Thereâs the story of simply getting the show on the air. âMTMâ broke ground with its focus on the social and work life of a single career woman. The series began in 1970 as 30-year-old Mary relocated to Minneapolis after being jilted by her fiance. The producers originally wanted her to be divorced, but network research showed that viewers wouldnât tolerate that storyline.  The first quarter of the book takes us through launching the pilot episode, in which Mary is interviewed for an associate producer job by curmudgeonly Lou Grant. âYouâve got spunk,â he famously told her. âI hate spunk.â (Confession: Not long after grad school, I worked at âThe MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHourâ in New York. When I found out that one of the managers was named Lew, I was so tickled to be in a parallel Mary universe that I had to restrain myself from running into Columbus Circle to throw my beret into the air â an homage to Mary for which âMTMâ fans need no explanation.)  Mary was surrounded by a stellar cast, including Ed Asner as Lou; Valerie Harper as wise-cracking Rhoda Morgenstern; Gavin MacLeod as Murray, the married newswriter whoâd always have a crush on Mary; and Ted Knight as Ted Baxter, the vain and dimwitted local news anchor. Early reviews called the show âa disaster.â But the smart, character-driven humor won over the nation, and the same media outlet that initially called Mary âunmarried and getting a little desperate about itâ described her a few years later as âthirty-three, unmarried, and unworried â Mary is the liberated womanâs ideal.â  The womenâs movement of the late 1960s opened the door for female characters. Mooreâs then-husband, TV executive Grant Tinker, charged producers Jim Brooks and Allan Burns with creating a comedy series based more on realistic stories than on schtick. âMaryâs workplace, in particular, was rife with story possibilities,â Armstrong writes. âHow might it feel to be the only woman in a room? What was it like not to be paid the same as men in your position? How might you handle sexist talk and unwanted come-ons?â
Suzanne Allard Levingston is a writer living in Bethesda. The night before I headed off to journalism grad school, I stayed up packing and waiting for my girl Mary on 1Â a.m. reruns. Mary was Mary...