Mary (1985 TV series)

For the 1978 variety series, see Mary (1978 TV series).

Mary
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	David Isaacs Ken Levine
Written by	David Isaacs Dennis Koenig Ken Levine Emily Marshall Merrill Markoe Tom Straw Douglas Wyman
Directed by	Peter Baldwin Jeff Chambers Rod Daniel Danny DeVito Ellen Falcon Dolores Ferraro Nick Havinga Will Mackenzie
Starring	Mary Tyler Moore James Farentino John Astin David Byrd Katey Sagal James Tolkan Carlene Watkins Derek McGrath Harold Sylvester
Theme music composer	Dan Foliart Howard Pearl
Composer(s)	Dan Foliart Howard Pearl
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Isaacs Ken Levine
Producer(s)	David Isaacs Ken Levine
Editor(s)	Andrew Chulack
Camera setup	Multi-camera setup
Running time	22 min
Production company(s)	MTM Enterprises
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	December 11, 1985 (1985-12-11) – April 8, 1986 (1986-04-08)

Mary is an American sitcom that aired on CBS during the 1985-86 television season. The series stars Mary Tyler Moore in her return to series television after an absence of over six years, during which time she appeared on Broadway in Whose Life Is It Anyway? and in the dramatic film Ordinary People. After The Mary Tyler Moore Show, her subsequent ventures into series television, the variety show Mary and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour had been short-running ratings disasters, and Moore decided to return to the sitcom format which had brought her the greatest television success.

Synopsis

In Mary, Moore plays Mary Brenner, a 40-ish divorcée working at a second rate tabloid, the Chicago Eagle. She had formerly been a high-profile writer at a fashion magazine which had recently gone out of business and was now reduced to writing a consumer-assistance column, "Helpline", helping to expose substandard business practices and products and the often uncaring reaction of government to these problems. Her boss, Managing Editor Frank DeMarco (James Farentino), concentrated on sensationalism as he was convinced as that was what really sold papers. He was also quite a ladies' man, and was attracted to Mary, as she was to him, but she found dealing with that situation to be quite awkward.

Also working at the Eagle were the cynical, chain-smoking columnist Jo Tucker (Katey Sagal), the condescending theater critic Ed LaSalle (John Astin), and Tully (David Byrd), a copy editor who could scarcely function because he was going blind but knew he wasn't going away; his job had strong protection from the union. Neighbors included Susan Wilcox (Carlene Watkins), Mary's good friend, whose fiancé Lester Mintz (James Tolkan) seemed to be somehow "connected".

The program never really found much of an audience; after February, Mary was moved to a different time slot in an attempt to save it. Susan and Lester were written out and Mary's personal life was generally downplayed in favor of her business one. There were some favorable reviews, although some critics pronounced it as more or less a clone of her previous sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The program was eventually cancelled in April 1986.^[1]

Cast

• Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Brenner
• John Astin as Ed LaSalle
• David Byrd as Vincent Tully
• James Farentino as Frank DeMarco
• Derek McGrath as Ronnie Dicker
• Katey Sagal as Jo Tucker
• James Tolkan as Lester Mintz
• Carlene Watkins as Susan Wilcox

Episodes

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
1-1	"From Pillar to Post"	December 11, 1985
1-2	"Make My Day"	December 18, 1985
1-3	"Chicago Hi-Lo"	December 25, 1985
1-4	"Everyone's a Critic"	January 1, 1986
1-5	"The Death Threat"	January 8, 1986
1-6	"Forest for the Trees"	January 15, 1986
1-7	"Same Old Song"	January 22, 1986
1-8	"Beans"	January 29, 1986
1-9	"Table for Two"	February 12, 1986
1-10	"Mr. Lucky"	February 19, 1986
1-11	"And the Winner Is"	March 25, 1986
1-12	"Little Jo"	April 1, 1986
1-13	"Steppin' Out with Mary Brenner"	April 8, 1986

References

1. ^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2007-10-17). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (9 ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 861–862. ISBN 0-345-49773-2. 

External links

• Mary at the Internet Movie Database
• Mary at TV.com