Big M on the wall.
Now think Mary Tyler Moore: Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue.
Matisse on the wall.
Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage
Handsome cardiologist husband in the master bedroom.
Neighbor named Woody Allen.
Its where you could live ifyouhad soldyourshare of MTM Enterprises in 1988 for a reported $113 million.
It all sort of shatters the image, doesnt it?
Then she said the F-word a couple of times, too.
And shes not at all sorry about it.
He reminds me of my father.
You know the face with the smile that turned the world on?
Shes had work done on it.
I like to think of [the surgery] as staying fit.
Some weird oedipal thing for Letterman.
Its all too much.
Get used to it.
InNew York News, a gritty series that costars Gregory Harrison (Trapper John, M.D.)
as an ace reporter and Madeline Kahn as the papers high-maintenance gossip columnist, Mary returns to the newsroom.
(No kidding, Ian.)
But very quickly we come to realize that she is Louise Felcott.
There is that cooler, colder side of her that shes willing to explore.
I never thought Id say this, says Mary.
The question is, will anyone be listening?
The time slot sucks 9 p.m. on Thursday opposite NBCs ratings Goliath,Seinfeld.
(News premiere also lost to FoxsNew York Undercover.)
But theres a bigger question: Is America ready for Dragon Mary?
New York News is what they like to call anensemblepiece; if anyones the star, its Harrison.
Its not as if we havent seen herbadbefore.
She scored a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her turn as a cold WASP matron in 1980sOrdinary People.
But it was sweet Mary Richards and even sweeter Laura Petrie that made her a national treasure.
Because Im an American, he says, and Im not a stone.
In Minneapolis, where theMTMexteriors were shot, pilgrims still flock to the Victorian house where Mary supposedly lived.
But the pop-culture universe can be an awfully fickle place.
And shes not one to disavow her old characters.
At that [early] stage of my life, I was perfectly happy playing myself, she says.
But now I think Ive changed so much, matured so much.
My sons death was one of the last things I wrote about, she says quietly.
I kept putting it off, putting it off.
(Reports of a nude scene, however, have been greatly exaggerated.
I pull up my sweater, she says, but I have a bra on.)
But Mary hasnt fully forsaken the Mary Richards part of herself.
For instance, she worries about lobsters.
And they do feel pain.
They have relationships with other lobsters some actually hold each others claws when theyre walking together.
But now the hairs red.
And Lauras capri pants have been replaced by Armani suits.
And were not sure whether this new, revamped Mary will make it after all.
But we hope she will.
Because shes still Mary.
And because were not stones.
