… You are talking to a feminist, career girl friend and your realize that she’s too young to have been inspired by this…
Never mind, Mary, there are plenty of us who grew up wanting to make it on our own because you gave us hope.
(Sorry about the opening and closing ads, but this was the best version I could find on YouTube.)
I just barely remember the tune, and I know the show sort of theoretically.
Wow, that brings back some memories. It was one of my mothers favourite shows and the opening sequence has never left me. Of course I’m also old enough to remember MTM in The Dick Van Dyke Show before that. Assuming The Mary Tyler Moore Show showed in the UK a couple of years after first showing in the US (the usual kind of delay back then) we’d have got it in about ’72.
Your description of it as an inspirational show puts in mind of Take Three Girls which aired in 1969. That had a pretty cool theme too, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtYpJ8aqa2Y
Sigh. And I have trouble coming up with a modern programme about a woman working for herself, doing a job, and caring about her career (a point I’ve similarly made about Charlie’s Angels-it may have been crap, but it was the best we got until Cagney and Lacy came along, and where are *their* equivalents?)
Farah:
I suspect there are many reasons for that, but two that come to mind are as follows:
1. The people who might be making such shows are instead making shows about gay & lesbian characters; and
2. With the proliferation of channels, anything that is seen as “feminist” is likely to get sidelined onto a “women’s channel”.
That’s so true, Cheryl.
But wow how I got goosebumps about the trailer.
Now when there is a major backlash going on gender issues in Finland I have spent some time wondering how much people worked to get to change things in 1960’s and 70’s, and how much has been wasted during only the last couple of years. They are planning to shut down womens studies in our University here in Jvaskyla, for example.
Farah: probably not quite what you wished for, but I think Bones comes at least close: the main character is a scientist who leads her team of experts and works as an independent contractor for the FBI (so is outside their command structure, even if she is partnered with an agent for the detective work) and is clearly portrayed as the intellectual superior of her partner.
She (and to a lesser extent Julia, because she got less play and laster a shorter time) inspired a whole generation – this show was with me from 10 thru 17 – talk about formative years!
Every now and then I remember to thank my mum for sitting me down in front of it that 6th grade year :>.
And there’s a statue of Mary Richards in MPLS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mary_Tyler_Moore_Show#Legacy_in_Minneapolis
And this may be unnecessary, but I should point out that this is the intro for the first season. Starting with the second season, it was the more familiar “Who can turn the world on with her smile?”