Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The first must-see film of the year.

MTM was a great program that reflected the changing lifestyles and social mores of the 70's. Mary Richards, indeed, was a spunky young woman, learning how to make it on her own, with optimism, humor, an adorable apartment, and the help of some friends and co-workers.How well I remember the Saturday night TV line-up. MTM was the highlight of my week as a young teenager. Each week we got to see the opening scenes of Mary driving into the city, and walking in the beautiful city parks in her gorgeous coats. Each week we shared Mary's excitement in starting a new life for herself, even though there was the inevitable humorous glitch.Time moves along and so do people. Five years later, Mary was clearly middle-aged and no longer believable as the slightly naive young lady. Several of the original characters had left to pursue their own thing. They were replaced by characters not as good, in my opinion. In particular, I did not care for Betty White as the horny homemaker, I just didn't find her funny at all. Mary Richards was intriguing because her sexuality was subtle. The homemaker was just disgusting.At any rate, the first several seasons were excellent. Towards the end, the writers were starting to run out of good ideas, so the show was wisely canceled.

This show is the great "sacred cow" of the TV entertainment business. Unlike anything that people like Bob Hope and the like did back then-it remains contemporaneous by virtue of its popularity-even today- and even though it was made years and years ago. I'm not much for sacred cows and I believe that credit should go where it is due. Fundamentally I think this show is odd. There are instances when I think the script could have been easily modified to send a better message than it did send. The lead actress is of course someone that everybody knows and probably watched even if they were born in the 1960's since the show ran in syndication until around 1980 and then basically vanished off the grid. The show vanished possibly due to the untimely death of MTM's only son-who died at his own hands in a tragic firearms accident that could have been easily prevented. You don't see any indication that this show even existed anymore even with cable packages that include many older films predating the MTM show by decades. The acting was well done but I think there were 'things' that cropped up on the show-like an episode where MR hides a job listing from her best friend and then the best friend rejects the job whole heartedly as 'crap' even though it wasn't a crap job. Such stuff would wreck most friendships because hiding a job listing is a decidedly unfriendly thing to do-even more surprising was her friends rejection of a job that was basically a sinecure as a 'crap job'-as if to say-'in your face all you artists.' Thats about as funny as a Volkswagen filled to the brim with thousands of baked beans. I found that script coy-impossibly saved by the dry wit of the character of Lou-MR's boss. Sometimes people write about how MTM got started in showbiz-doing "leggy" ads-the thing about that is the one thing you do notice about MTM is that she is skinny-and has very skinny legs. Legs that wouldn't look great in a "leggy" type of ad. That being said-I think the show enjoyed such a high level of 'connectivity' to luminaries of the era the show was filmed in- Presidents of the USA-people like Frank Sinatra-it doesn't allow space for any kind of constructive criticism of it-a show that featured a character that was frequently one of the most annoying characters to watch by way of the characters waffling way of dealing with things generally & then agreeing with anything at all type of attitude. The main character also smiled constantly. The shows best moments were when the character of Ted Baxter messed up his cue-cards on TV. Apparently MTM's real life son didn't like his mothers absorption into working on the show. I can see how a thing like that might be a real problem. It would have bothered me. I prefer the Carol Burnett Show in terms of comedy shows from that particular era. In over 20 of the MTM shows earliest episodes they never once mentioned either the Vietnam War, the NASA space program, or rock music-all things that were always in the news back then circa 1970. It begs the question-who are these people? Anyway-I think there's not much else to say about it. Bare pass only territory generally awarded excellence status.

This was my favorite show of the 1970s. I loved this series from the first time I saw it in 1970. This was a show that had it all. Humor, pathos, great scripts and great direction. The initial cast was one of the best in television history. Along with incomparable Mary we had Valerie Harper, Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Ed Asner and Cloris Leachman. Each one of these performers put a unique spin on characters which were allowed to be three-dimensional and grow. After a few seasons, when several of the main characters were spun-off into their own series, new characters, such as Georgette and Sue-Ann were introduced. Geogia Engel as Georgette was sweet and adorable, and Betty White, as memorable man-trap Sue-Ann were marvelous in their parts. A true classic that bears multiple viewings.

As i am writing this review (February of 2011), i have been watching all the episodes of the MTM show nonstop actually for some time now although i m just midway through season 5. I live in Greece and although we do love our US TV shows here too, Mary Tyler Moore was not exactly our icon through the 70's especially if you consider all the problems my country was going through at least up to 1974. I m 31 now (born in 79), and i ve known of MTM for quite some time and was always aware of the show and had heard from a lot of American friends and the web of course that the specific show was somewhat of a TV legend or a "sacred cow" especially for the people who watched it while it was on the air, and you know what?? I couldn't agree with them more! I LOVE THIS SHOW! i cannot find one thing that i don't like no matter how hard i try. i ve been laughing or at least smiling nonstop for 5 seasons now something that has happened (to me at least) only with a couple of shows p.e. Friends, Will and Grace. The feel of it, the look, the theme song, the opening credits, the characters, the actors (OMG!), and of course the writing. Quick, sharp, very very funny and with some subtext in a lot of cases considering the era! One thought that has occurred to me is that Mary Tyler Moore is the least egocentric actress in her or any other lifetime. I ve never seen an actress as famous as her, with her own show by the way, that didn't at some point sooner or later become obnoxious or cocky or have the writing serve her look or status. (God bless her but Lucille Ball take a bow!) Concluding i would like to say that it is incredible for a show to stand the merciless test of time (40 years!), and in 2011 i m proud to say that i d watch reruns of the MTM show any day than spend time watching some trash reality show about putting your hand in a box of cockroaches with order to win money. and you know what? i might just make it after all !