Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: A History of the Mary Tyler Moore Show (51 page)

when Reiner and Van Dyke started craving more variety
: Carl Reiner interview, Archive of American Television.

Moore felt insecure
: Moore interview, Archive of American Television.

“a nervous chorus girl”
: Mary Tyler Moore,
Growing Up Again
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009), p. 3.

“the fantasy girl of the American dream”
: “Moore: Healthy, Zany, Sexy,”
Newsweek,
Aug. 1, 1966.

closed in sixteen days
:
Playbill
Vault,
http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/4498/The-Loves-of-Cass-McGuire
.

lasted only a week
:
Playbill
Vault,
http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/4360/We-Have-Always-Lived-in-the-Castle
.

airplane-ride argument
: Howard Kissel,
David Merrick: The Abominable Showman
(New York: Applause Books, 1993), p. 338.

“Get me Abe Burrows!”
:
Webster’s Online Dictionary,
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Abe+Burrows?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=Abe+Burrows&sa=Search#906
.

Moore grew terrified
: Sheilah Graham, “Boston and Philadelphia Critics Broke Mary Tyler Moore’s Heart,”
Milwaukee Journal,
Dec. 4, 1966.

lack of TV’s retakes
: Moore,
After All,
p. 154.

admired her intense work ethic
: Kissel,
David Merrick: The Abominable Showman,
p. 340.

trashed the original script
: Ibid., p. 341.

looking for Moore’s old boss
: Moore,
After All,
p. 156.

“Why drown in two feet of water?”
: Kissel,
David Merrick: The Abominable Showman,
p. 341.

“All those awful jokes”
: Ibid.

“masterful”
: Moore interview, Archive of American Television.

ran four hours
: Koenig, “The Queen of Comedy.”

“a vocal range”
: Moore,
After All,
p. 154.

Audiences in Philadelphia
: Kissel,
David Merrick: The Abominable Showman,
p. 340.

Who’s Afraid of Holly Golightly?
: Ibid., p. 343.

“She was a dream”
: Ibid., p. 340.

throw her arms around the stage manager
: Josh Wolk, “The King of Comedies,”
Entertainment Weekly,
March 26, 2004.

“What have I done wrong?”
: Kissel,
David Merrick: The Abominable Showman,
p. 343.

thought she was always about to be fired
: Moore,
After All,
p. 155.

$1 million in advance ticket sales
: Frank Rich, “David Merrick, 88, Showman Who Ruled Broadway, Dies,”
New York Times,
April 27, 2000.

“my Bay of Pigs”
: “Quotable Quotes,”
Ocala Star-Banner,
Feb. 19, 1967.

“I told everybody”
: “Rhoda and Mary—Love and Laughs,”
Time,
Oct. 28, 1974.

“Step aside”
: Ibid.

smoking and drinking
: Moore,
Growing Up Again,
p. 9.

doctors discovered she was diabetic
: Ibid., p. 7.

“caved in”
: Moore,
After All,
p. 170.

forget about the
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
debacle
: Ibid., p. 177.

As soon as CBS executives saw
: Ibid., p. 178.

2,063 feet
: “N.D. TV Tower No Longer World’s Tallest,” NPR,
All Things Considered,
Jan. 5, 2010.

chapter 2. the producers (1969–70)

only skyscraper ever designed
: Jayson Blair, “CBS’s ‘Black Rock’ Building Is Said to Be for Sale,”
New York Times,
Aug. 30, 232.

83 million TV sets
: Les Brown,
Televi$ion
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971), p. 3.

particularly his competition
: Seth Scheisel, “Paul L. Klein, 69, a Developer of Pay-Per-View TV Channels,”
New York Times,
July 13, 1998.

Ratings were born
: Martin Mayer,
About Television
(New York: Harper & Row, 1972), p. 33.

$8,389 annual average
:
http://www.infoplease.com/year/1969.html
.

NBC’s 1970 “Product Usage Highlights”
: Mayer,
About Television,
p. 47.

“You are scum!”
: “Television: Dann v. Klein: The Best Game in Town,”
Time,
May 25, 1970.

To pull off a last-minute victory
: Brown,
Televi$ion,
p. 92.

“My [contract] option is coming due shortly”
: “Television: Dann v. Klein.”

20.3 percent to 20 percent
: Ibid.

“
HAPPINESS IS BEING
”
: Ibid.

“I’ve never known”
: Ibid.

“a bit of wire”
: Cecil Smith, “Tough Sledding for New Concepts,”
Los Angeles Times,
Jan. 28, 1970.

“A stirring up of the schedule”
: Ibid.

“broads, bosoms, and fun”
: Andrew Grossman, “The Smiling Cobra,”
Variety Life,
June–July 2004.

“The American public”
: Lance Morrow, “Goodbye to ‘Our Mary,’ ”
Time,
March 14, 1977.

moon landing was viewed
: “1969: Man Takes First Steps on the Moon,”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_263541/2635845.stm
.

two failed pilot episodes
: Museum of Broadcast Communications,
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=allinthefa
.

chapter 3. not quite making it yet (1970)

met Holly in the ’50s
: Ellis Amburn,
Buddy Holly
(New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995), p. 25.

from Iran to the United States in 1955
: “Reza Badiyi, Set Record for Directing Most Hours of Episodic Television,” Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Aug. 22, 2011.

wear a wig
: Moore interview, Archive of American Television.

would symbolize Mary’s graduation
: Reza Badiyi interview, Archive of American Television.

“Run out into the middle”
: Moore interview, Archive of American Television.

pronounced
Mary Tyler Moore
’s fate
: Cecil Smith, “A Gloom Sayer Could Be Wrong,”
Los Angeles Times,
April 29, 1970.

chapter 4. casting call (1970)

CBS casting executive Ethel Winant
: Ethel Winant’s pieces of the
Mary Tyler Moore
story are constructed from others’ recollections of her, most notably her son, Bruce Winant.

Anne Nelson
: Josef Adalian, “CBS Loses Its Longest Serving Staffer,”
TV Week,
June 24, 2009.

dropped out of high school
: Burt A. Folkart, “Hollywood Star Walk: Ted Knight,”
Los Angeles Times,
Aug. 27, 1986.

host of a kids’ show
: Kenneth W. Parker, “WJAR-TV’s Ted Knight,”
Providence Journal,
Feb. 23, 1955.

Jack Cassidy
: David Cassidy,
C’mon Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus
(New York: Grand Central, 1994), p. 50.

channeled her own aunt
: “Love Is All Around,” Oprah.com,
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Cast-of-The-Mary-Tyler-Moore-Show-Reunites_1/2
.

chapter 5. technical difficulties (1970)

careful not to leave stray syringes
: “The Needle That Keeps Mary Tyler Moore Alive,”
Photoplay,
March 1971.

“Having worked with Mary”
: John Rich interview, Archive of American Television.

Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich
: Ann O’Neill, “Marilyn Monroe Slept Here,” CNN.com, Nov. 30, 2011.

could feel the audience’s patience dwindling
: Moore,
After All,
p. 197.

pulled herself together
: Ibid., p. 199.

made Tinker and Moore an offer
: Ibid., p. 203.

“I firmly believe”
: Mayer,
About Television,
p. 67.

“cancelled everything with a tree”
: Anthony Harkins,
Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 203.

a group of about one hundred feminists
: Megan Gibson, “A Brief History of Women’s Protests,”
Time,
Aug. 12, 2011.

“wholesale upheaval”
: Percy Shain, “CBS Shifts Six Shows to Different Time Slots,”
Boston Globe,
July 22, 1970.

chapter 7. pulling through (1970–71)

Nixon’s approval rating
: “Nixon: The Pursuit of Peace and Politics,”
Time,
Sept. 28, 1970.

“
The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
on opening night at least”
: Richard Burgheim, “The New Season: Perspiring with Relevance,”
Time,
Sept. 28, 1970.

“unmarried and getting a little desperate”
: “Fall Preview,”
TV Guide,
September 12, 1970.

“preposterous”
: Tom Shales, “The Mary Memory Tour,”
Washington Post,
Feb. 18, 1991.

“the return of a delightful and talented actress”
: “Comedies Appear Back to Back,”
St. Petersburg Times,
Sept. 19, 1970.

“may take getting used to”
: “Tube Filled with Series Openers,”
Eugene Register-Guard,
Sept. 19, 1970.

“she seemed to act”
: Alan Rafkin,
Cue the Bunny on the Rainbow: Tales from TV’s Most Prolific Sitcom Director
(Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998), p. 69.

“Mary should be presented with a problem”
: Dwight Whitney, “Mary, It Needs Just One Beat of Wistfulness,”
TV Guide,
Feb. 26, 1972.

hated it
: Fred Silverman interview, Archive of American Television.

had reduced earnings
: Mayer,
About Television,
p. 251.

“patient capital”
: Norman Lear speech at the Securities Industry Association, Wharton School, March 13, 1986.

Wood killed more programs
: “CBS, in Big Sweep, to Drop Sullivan Show, Oldest in TV History,”
Wall Street Journal,
March 17, 1971.

“You know there’ll be other times”
: Rafkin,
Cue the Bunny on the Rainbow,
p. 69.

chapter 8. success (1971–72)

“thirty-three, unmarried, and unworried”
: Mary Tyler Moore,
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Mary_Tyler_Moore.aspx
.

20 million viewers
: Verne Gay, “Cronkite Was Lucky, but So Were We,”
Newsday,
July 18, 2009.

“of singular value”
: Cecil Smith, “Ed Asner Comedy Find of the Year,”
Los Angeles Times,
March 15, 1971.

During the week, Moore
: Details of Moore’s habits on set are from Whitney, “Mary, It Needs Just One Beat of Wistfulness,” as well as Robert Kerwin, “Can You Find the Boss in This Picture?,”
Chicago Tribune,
Nov. 24, 1974.

“when people don’t do their work right”
: Kerwin, “Can You Find the Boss in This Picture?”

“A television job”
: James L. Brooks, “What I’ve Learned,”
Esquire,
January 2011.

“the best show on television”
: Benjamin Stein, “A Slice of Life Every Saturday,”
Wall Street Journal,
Jan. 4, 1974.

chapter 9. girls’ club (1970–73)

Leslie Hall
: Leslie Hall’s story is told from the recollections of her son, Gary Hall, and those who knew her on the set.

promised its readers
:
Ladies’ Home Journal,
September 1976.

“I do interviews”
: Kerwin, “Can You Find the Boss in This Picture?”

asked Holly Holmberg out
: Ann W. O’Neill, “The Court Files,”
Los Angeles Times,
Oct. 1, 2000.

five foot seven and 118 pounds
: “Editor TV Times,”
Los Angeles Times,
Aug. 30, 1970.

“It’s a discipline in itself”
: “Mary Tyler Moore: Enjoying Her Three Ds,”
Edmonton Journal,
Nov. 30, 1973.

encasing her thighs
: Susan Cheever Cowley, “The Scavullo Look,”
Newsweek,
Nov. 22, 1976.

comparing herself to the models
: Moore,
After All,
p. 368.

crab salad with diet cola
: Kerwin, “Can You Find the Boss in This Picture?”

“It’s all well and good”
: “Rhoda and Mary—Love and Laughs,”
Time.

“I love her”
: Mark Goodman, “TV’s Reigning Queen,”
People,
Sept. 30, 1974.

“it’s like Dorian Gray”
: “Rhoda and Mary—Love and Laughs,”
Time.

“On the big screen”
: Kerwin, “Can You Find the Boss in This Picture?”

chapter 10. the writers wore hot pants (1972–74)

“breakthrough”
: Mary Murphy, “Lou, Wife Split,”
Los Angeles Times,
Oct. 5, 1973.

“On MTM”
: “Victorious Loser,”
Time,
Sept. 3, 1973.

“We’re going to do a story about women”
: Mollie Gregory,
Women Who Run the Show: How a Brilliant and Creative New Generation of Women Stormed Hollywood
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), p. 91.

could still find talk show host Jack Paar
: Don Shirley, “Sexism on Television Crumbling in Laughter,”
Los Angeles Times,
June 10, 1973.

Of the Writers Guild’s nearly three thousand members
: Gregory,
Women Who Run the Show,
p. 7.