"It's just incredible...the Fernwood Flasher. Mass Murders. Goats. Chickens. And my floor's yellow. I'm too keyed up to sleep." - Louise Lasser as Mary Hartman
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: Volume 1 DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Pigtailed, gingham-dressed Mary Hartman (Louise Lasser), a typical American housewife living in Fernwood, OH, has more than her fair share of problems. Her kitchen floor has a waxy yellow buildup. She's out of toilet cleaner and she likes to sanitize the john every Friday so that it's nice and fresh for the weekend. She can't decide which kind of coffee tastes better - the crystals or the instant. Her dishwashing liquid might not be keeping her hands looking youthful. Oh, and her husband Tom (Greg Mullavey) is no longer attracted to her, her Grandpa Larkin (Victor Kilian) is the Fernwood Flasher, and daughter Heather (Claudia Lamb) witnessed a mass murder (five people, two goats, and eight chickens). Yes, if John Waters made a soap opera, it might look a lot like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: Volume 1.
Executive producer Norman Lear was responsible for some of the most innovative TV shows of the 1970s, including All in the Family, Maude, and Good Times. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman may have been his most unconventional. Rather than selling the series to a network, he syndicated the show to local stations. Like a true soap opera, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman featured a new episode every day. A total of 325 episodes were produced throughout the series' 1975-78 run. The first twenty-five episodes are included in Volume 1.
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is an accomplished satire of our consumer culture. Mary is a TV watching, consumerist zombie. Emotionally numbed by television, she relates more to the products she sees advertised than to her actual family members. No problem can't be solved with a trip to the House of Pancakes or the use of a nationally-advertised consumer product. When she and her friends discuss serious problems over coffee (usually "black, with cream"), Mary keeps coming back to the subject of her favorite products' effectiveness. Someone killed the neighbors? Who would want to do that? And does my floor have a waxy yellow buildup?
When Mary is taken hostage by the mass murderer, the series expertly sends up non-stop media coverage. The area outside of the hideout becomes so circus-like that a vendor even sells popcorn and "Save Mary" balloons. The event is actually covered by two reporters from the same station, and when they run out of things to report on, they resort to interviewing each other and even a garbage collector who is sweeping up nearby. (They're interested in his take on the types of garbage found at different tragic events.) While covering a fatal traffic accident, the reporter blithely steps over dead bodies strewn throughout the street, spinning the wheel of an overturned car just for effect. All of this must have seemed outrageous during Mary Hartman's original run. Now it looks sadly familiar.
The series also prefigures television's current spate of reality shows like American Idol that exalt sometimes mediocre talents. Charlie (Graham Jarvis) and Loretta (Mary Kay Place) Haggers save all of their money so that Loretta can record a "demonstration record" that will impress country music execs in Nashville. The Haggers are sure that Loretta will be a star, so huge that her stardom will eclipse even her big hair. There's really only one problem: Loretta is absolutely talent-free. They don't seem to notice that when Loretta performs at the Capri Lounge (located in the bowling alley), audiences tend to run. Everything Loretta sees inspires another crummy country song. Even the mass murders produce a moronic ditty called "Ridin' the Train to Heaven."
The series touches on subjects that generally weren't broached on TV at that time: masturbation, sexual dysfunction, menstruation, etc. In one funny scene, Mary receives a phone call while her friends and family are in the room:
Mary Hartman: Hello?
Librarian: Miss Hartman? This is the library.
Mary Hartman: You are?
Librarian: Well, I'm Mrs. DeLoreon at the library. We have those books you ordered.
Mary Hartman: Yes?
Librarian: Those titles would be, Sex and the Female Response, You and Your Climax, 343 Ways to Improve Your Marriage, and It's Your Body - Do it!: A Guide to Erotic Pleasures. Miss Hartman, these are the books you ordered?
Even though no one else in the room can hear what is being said on the phone, Mary is so embarrassed the she begins to speak nonsense.
Mary Hartman: Oh...uh...yes, I'll tell her.
Librarian: You are Miss Mary Hartman at 343 Bratner Street?
Mary Hartman: Uh...yes, that's right. And that happens to be her favorite color.
Librarian: Miss Hartman, are you alright?
Mary Hartman: Well, I'll tell you. You know, I took a very long shower last night and I woke up with a real bad headache this morning, so I took a couple of aspirin...
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman doesn't just rely on shock-value to get laughs. The series also features its fair share of plain, old fashioned one-liners. In one scene, Mary argues with her mother, Martha Shumway (Dody Goodman), about Mary's younger sister, Cathy (Debralee Scott):
Mary Hartman: You think Cathy's prettier, too. Don't you? Don't you?
Martha: I don't think she's prettier than anybody. I think you both have equal problems in that area.
Another funny throwaway gag is the donut-shaped hemorrhoid cushion used by Mary's father, George Shumway (Philip Bruns). It is embroidered with the words "Hooray! Daddy's home," and he immediately picks it up for his seating comfort every time he walks in the door.
The series is definitely an acquired taste. Some viewers will find themselves laughing hysterically, others will scratch their heads in confusion, and still others will fall asleep. The show is far from perfect. Its tone sometimes varies from episode to episode. Some episodes are extremely funny, while others are so serious they could have been taken from an actual soap opera. Several times, especially in later episodes, entire scenes from the previous episode are repeated in the subsequent episode. Supposedly this is for the benefit of viewers who missed the prior show. This comes across as filler, especially since a brief recap could have achieved the same purpose. With each episode running only around twenty-one minutes, these repeated scenes can sometimes take up a third of the episode's running time.
Another annoying facet of the series is that the cast often seems to be making up their dialogue as they go along, stumbling over lines and starting over again in mid-sentence. Maybe this was done intentionally to suggest that the actors had just received their lines. Or maybe the actors had just received their lines. Whatever the reason, it is annoying and distracting, wrenching viewers from the show's unreal reality.
Familiar faces in Volume 1 include Ivor Francis (Room 222), Sudie Bond (Flo), Ed Begley Jr. (St. Elsewhere), Michael Lembeck (One Day at a Time), and Reva Rose (Temperatures Rising).
The twenty-five episodes that make up Volume 1 are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear plastic keepcases, one of which holds two discs. The fronts of the cases are decorated with the same publicity still of Lasser. It may actually be an illustration because the image looks a tad cartoonish. Episode numbers and brief synopses are included on the backs of the cases. The interiors of the cases include basic production information on each episode, including the writers and directors. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve.
The static DVD menus are simple and easy to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or choose them individually. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
