Wednesday, January 25, 2017

What Mary Meant

A blog about children's books can also be about what stories mean to us, especially if that meaning starts when we're young. So here's what The Mary Tyler Moore Show meant to me when I was in middle school and began watching it on Nick at Nite, or maybe it was TVLand:

It was a very funny show with great characters.

I probably should've been more focused on the fact that it was a show about a career woman. I would've applauded it for that, if I'd thought about it. But I don't remember thinking about it back then, at least not much. Mary was a grownup. She went to a job and did other grownup things.

You know why Mary's career didn't seem like a big deal to this '90s kid? Because career women were fairly normalized by the '90s. You know how they got normalized? By shows like TMTMS. (Among other things, obviously. But as we know, representation matters.)

I've been re-watching a few episodes this evening, and of course, by now it's very clear to me how amazing this show was. Though it was an ensemble show (with one of the first explicitly Jewish characters I remember seeing on mainstream TV), it was Mary's name scrolling over the screen during the theme song, Mary who carried the show. (Her previous show, you may recall, had her TV husband's name on it.) There's no extended love interest on TMTMS, and though some episodes focus on her (rather feminist) dating life, others focus on many different aspects of her existence. Friend stuff. Job stuff. Personal growth stuff. In the episode I started with at random tonight, sweet Hufflepuffish journalist Mary Richards spends a night in jail rather than reveal a source. You. Go. Girl.

All this is to say how sad I was to hear of Mary Tyler Moore's passing. (My initial reaction, actually, was more like a yelp of indignation.) Her best-known character seemed like a friend when I was young because she was sweet and funny, and now that I understand more about her, she seems even more like a friend.

And if representation matters, then God bless Mary-as-Laura Petrie for wearing pants.


2 comments:

  1. Hello I am author Benjamin Boyd. I would love it if you could do a review of my book. The Adventures of Kid Humpty Dumpty. I think you and your followers would enjoy it. I will gladly provide you with a copy of my book for your honest review. You can get a preview of my book on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Kid-Humpty-Dumpty/dp/1606932659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464278127&sr=8-1&keywords=The+adventures+of+kid+humpty+dumpty My book is The Adventures of Kid Humpty Dumpty. Kids and adults will love entering into this fun, imaginative world. Young Humpty Dumpty wants to make friends with a new kid in town, but there is just a few problems. The first is Humpty Dumpty is way too nervous to talk to her and the second is the very anti-boy and very over the top sunny side twins. It is a funny Heart warming story of this famous and very clumsy egg adventures show that he is just like you and me. It all takes place in colorful and fun world where anything is possible.
    It makes a great bed time story with characters that kids can relate to and grow to love because the already love them. Every kid and adult has heard the rhyme of how he fell from the wall but with this they can see a beautiful world with lots of egg people and it just something that jumps out at the imagination. Thank You for your time. I look forward to hearing from you. contact me at bjessieb2@yahoo.com

    Thank You,
    Benjamin Boyd

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello I am author Benjamin Boyd. I would love it if you could do a review of my book. The Adventures of Kid Humpty Dumpty. I think you and your followers would enjoy it. I will gladly provide you with a copy of my book for your honest review. You can get a preview of my book on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Kid-Humpty-Dumpty/dp/1606932659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464278127&sr=8-1&keywords=The+adventures+of+kid+humpty+dumpty My book is The Adventures of Kid Humpty Dumpty. Kids and adults will love entering into this fun, imaginative world. Young Humpty Dumpty wants to make friends with a new kid in town, but there is just a few problems. The first is Humpty Dumpty is way too nervous to talk to her and the second is the very anti-boy and very over the top sunny side twins. It is a funny Heart warming story of this famous and very clumsy egg adventures show that he is just like you and me. It all takes place in colorful and fun world where anything is possible.
    It makes a great bed time story with characters that kids can relate to and grow to love because the already love them. Every kid and adult has heard the rhyme of how he fell from the wall but with this they can see a beautiful world with lots of egg people and it just something that jumps out at the imagination. Thank You for your time. I look forward to hearing from you. contact me at bjessieb2@yahoo.com

    Thank You,
    Benjamin Boyd

    ReplyDelete