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September 19, 1970…”The Mary Tyler Moore Show” Debuts
In the first video below, Mary Tyler Moore discusses the problems with the pilot, and there were many…it was the lowest scoring pilot ever tested at CBS.
Below that is the first ever episode, but when you watch it, the story just doesn’t seem dated does it? This is the episode that sets up everything and where she meets “Lou Grant” in the famous “you’ve got spunk” scene. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
I remember that it did not go well and Grant Tinker sent the writers back to the proverbial drawing board.
I think I heard that network execs were fretting about whether MTM would be seen as a divorced Laura Petrie.
No AC in the studio, Ed Asner played it serious and Valerie Harper wasn’t likable (it’s why they added Lisa Gerritson’s say the line about “Aunt Rhoda not being so bad”), sound system was bad, James L Brooke did the warm up and bombed…
I heard in an interview somewhere, one of the problems during the first audience run through, was that the studio sound system was not loud enough. The audience had trouble hearing the jokes. Has anyone else heard that?
I have seen the pilot and I’ve always been amazed at how it just sat there. No response at all and yet the first episode, with a few minor changes, is classically hilarious.
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