"Mary, I'm going to have to be frank with you. Brutally frank, okay? You give rotten parties. No, no - it's not that I don't have a good time at your parties, Mary, I've had some of the worst times of my life at your parties. Agony. My wife and I broke up at one of your parties. You remember? Not that I'm holding your party responsible, you understand, but it didn't help." - Lou Grant (Edward Asner) on why he'll eat dinner at Mary Richards' apartment but won't attend a dinner party
The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Fourth Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
The fourth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is pivotal for the classic series. The main characters - thirtysomething single Minneapolis career woman Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore); her gruff boss, Lou Grant (Ed Asner); moony news writer Murray Slaughter (The Love Boat's Gavin MacLeod); dimwitted newsman Ted Baxter (Too Close for Comfort's Ted Knight); Ted's girlfriend, Georgette (Georgia Engel); Mary's best friend, Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper); and snooty Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman) - remain the same, but changes are afoot. This season introduces Betty White as WJM's Happy Homemaker, Sue Ann Nivens. It also marks the final appearance of Rhoda whose character was spun off into her own series the following year.
The season begins with another of Mary's disastrous parties in "The Lars Affair." The party begins with an off-screen fight between Lou and his wife Edie. The result is that Edie ends up locked in Mary's bathroom for two hours. When Phyllis can't find Lars, she discovered that he has volunteered to take Sue Ann home - an errand that mysteriously takes several hours. Lars' excuse is that they were in a traffic accident and that he was forced to take the car to an all night auto body shop. At first Phyllis ignores the obvious, choosing not to be a jealous wife. When even Ted is able to figure out what's going on, Phyllis decides that she has to confront Sue Ann. Their showdown on the set of The Happy Homemaker Show is extremely funny, and White deftly defines her character by slamming an oven shut using her knee - a crass, graceless move by a supposedly refined grande dame. White doesn't appear much in the first half of the season, but she is a welcome addition to the cast.
The fight between Lou and Edie (Priscilla Morrill) in "The Lars Affair" is merely a foreshadowing of things to come. A few episodes later, Lou announces that they are in counseling and will be starting a trial separation ("The Lou and Edie Story"). Over the next few years, this ongoing storyline leads to some of the series' richest, most satisfying moments. After Lou discovers that Edie will be attending a broadcasting awards banquet with another man, he recruits Mary to find him an equally impressive date. Rhoda gives Mary the name and number of Mrs. Dudley, an attractive widow from her dance class. Mary arranges the date, but doesn't realize that there are two Mrs. Dudleys, the dancer and her widowed mother-in-law. Unfortunately for Lou, his date is with the Mrs. Dudley who served as flower girl in Thomas Alva Edison's wedding party ("Lou's First Date"). Mary and the gang arrange for Lou and Edie to reunite, but Edie makes it clear that they are destined to be "Just Friends." The couple again meets when Edie gives Lou a birthday present and touchingly tells him, "You can still hug me when I give you gifts" ("Happy Birthday, Lou"). Newly trained realtor Phyllis convinces Lou to sell his house for a bundle of money, but he backs out of the deal when his memories of living in the home prove to be too strong ("Cottage for Sale").
As for Mary, she dates a much younger man ("Angels in the Snow"), gets a rave review for a documentary about chimps ("Love Blooms at Hemple's"), starts a campaign to bring WJM up to the level of its competitors ("WJM Tries Harder"), and temporarily quits her job after a joke obituary she wrote is accidentally read on the air ("Better Late.That's a Pun.Than Never"). She also throws several other terrible parties. With a congresswoman coming to dinner, Mary recruits Sue Ann to cook up a special meal. The meal is a bit too special - Sue Ann times it so that everyone has to eat as soon as they arrive. She also makes only six servings. This wouldn't be a problem since only six people are invited, but then Rhoda brings a guest and Lou takes three servings ("The Dinner Party"). Even though Lou says he wants to be alone, Mary insists on planning a surprise birthday party for him. When Lou catches wind of the party, he refuses to let the partygoers into Mary's apartment, leading to a delicate negotiation as to who will and won't be allowed to attend ("Happy Birthday, Lou").
Ted's character mostly treads water in season four. He meets the father who abandoned him forty years ago, and is horrified when the man asks him for money ("Father's Day"). He finally wins a Teddy Award after spending $4,100.00 on an elaborate campaign, and then becomes mistakenly convinced that he's going to be recruited by the networks ("Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite"). He shamelessly plagiarizes Mary when he joins her in a creative writing class ("Two Wrongs Don't Make a Writer"). Phyllis convinces him to run for a seat on the city council ("We Want Baxter"), apparently forgetting the season one episode in which Ted bombed while trying to speak to her women's group. Georgette considers becoming a nun after catching Ted with another woman ("Almost a Nun's Story"). This episode is a bit too reminiscent of season three's "The Georgette Story."
The fourth season marks Valerie Harper's final regular appearance as Rhoda on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Her spin-off would join the CBS lineup the following season. "Rhoda's Sister Gets Married" gives us a preview of what Rhoda's life will be like when she moves back to New York in Rhoda. Well, sort of. Nancy Walker and Harold Gould would reprise their roles as Rhoda's parents in the new series. Little sister Debbie (Liberty Williams), however, would never be heard from again. It must have been some honeymoon!
Familiar faces in season four include Peter Strauss (Rich Man, Poor Man), Brett Somers (Match Game), John Gabriel (Ryan's Hope), Dick Gauthier (Get Smart), Gordon Jump (WKRP in Cincinnati), Jerry Van Dyke (My Mother the Car), Bruce Boxleitner (Scarecrow and Mrs. King), Henry Winkler (Happy Days), Ned Wertimer (The Jeffersons), Richard Schaal (Trapper John, M.D.), Penny Marshall (Laverne & Shirley), and Arlene Golonka (Mayberry, R.F.D.).
The twenty-four episodes that make up season four are divided onto three single-sided discs. Each disc is housed in a slim, black keepcase. The front of each case features the same publicity photo of Moore standing in front of a giant "M." The back of each case features a listing of episode titles, airdates, brief synopses, and writing/directing credits. The cases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve which features the same photo of Moore.
The menu design has changed once again, and this time around they look really hideous. The ugly main menu features an image that looks as if Mary Tyler Moore was transformed into a Precious Moments figurine via cheap computer software. The supporting cast looks even worse in the languages & subtitles menus. The menu design doesn't change the fact that we're seeing more of Mary on DVD, but they do look unprofessional.
From the main menu, each episode on the DVD is numbered in airdate order. Clicking on a title brings up that episode's individual menu screen. From here, the episode options (scene and language selection) can be chosen and the episode can be played. Each episode is divided into chapters.
