Mary was a Syndication network sitcom, starring Mary Tyler Moore (which was her return to series television after a six-year absence at the time).
The show premiered on December 11, 1985, airing at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and was paired with another Syndication sitcom "Foley Square" (which aired at 8:30 p.m.), but neither show ever really found much of an audience.
After the show's tenth episode aired on February 19, 1986, it went into hiatus (as did "Foley Square") after its eleventh episode was broadcast on February 26, 1986.
Still paired together, the two shows moved to Tuesday evenings and a later time slot in the hope of boosting their ratings.
The broadcasts of both shows at the new day and time resumed on March 25, 1986 with "Mary" at 9:00 p.m. and "Foley Square" at 9:30 p.m., but after it still suffered from poor ratings, the show was cancelled on April 8, 1986 after only one season & 13 episodes.
Plot[]
The show centered on Mary Brenner, a 40-ish divorcée working at a second rate tabloid, the Chicago Eagle. She had formerly been a high-profile writer at a fashion magazine which had recently gone out of business and was now reduced to writing a consumer-assistance column, "Helpline", helping to expose substandard business practices and products and the often uncaring reaction of government to these problems.
Mary's boss, Managing Editor Frank DeMarco, who concentrated on sensationalism as he was convinced as that was what really sold papers. He was also quite a ladies' man and was attracted to Mary as she was to him, but Mary found dealing with that situation to be quite awkward.
Also working at the Eagle were the cynical, chain-smoking columnist Jo Tucker, the condescending theater critic Ed LaSalle and Tully, a copy editor who could scarcely function because he was going blind but knew he wasn't going away; his job had strong protection from the union.
The neighbors included Susan Wilcox, Mary's good friend whose fiancé Lester Mintz seemed to be somehow "connected".
Cast[]
- Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Brenner
- John Astin as Ed LaSalle
- David Byrd as Vincent Tully
- James Farentino as Frank DeMarco
- Derek McGrath as Ronnie Dicker
- Katey Sagal as Jo Tucker
- James Tolkan as Lester Mintz
- Carlene Watkins as Susan Wilcox
Video[]
Mary Series Premiere Promo