“You’re gonna make it after all …
You’re gonna make it after all … “
Am I the only working woman to nail an interview or negotiate a salary increase and hum the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song in my head before walking out the door?
(Oh, just me? Okay, that’s cool too.)
But seriously: As a career woman since the day I graduated college, I took the news of Mary Tyler Moore’s passing today with a heaviness that was hard to explain. My husband grew up in the U.K. and wasn’t familiar with the show. I tried, in my typical dramatic fashion of hand-waving and high-octave pitches to explain it to him.
For me, she was the first female example I can recall on TV who had a job other than being a housewife or secretary. And believe me, I’m not trying to downplay those jobs at all, but for a woman who did not aspire to either of those as a career, it was both refreshing and inspiring as a little girl to see an alternative woman celebrated on TV.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was one of the first shows to feature a never-married, working woman as its central character. Mary Richards, played by Moore, was single and 30 (gasp!), having moved to Minneapolis at the start of the series to begin working as associate producer — her dream job.
The show tackled issues rarely seen on network television back then, including Moore’s character asking for equal pay to her male co-workers and going on the Pill. She valued her career and her friendships above marriage — a concept that seemed far too outrageous for some to handle when the show first aired. I would hesitate to say it’s even a concept some struggle to grasp all these years later.
In the process, her character became an example of women’s liberation and the continuing efforts of the feminist movement — ironically, something that was still being fought for in cities across the globe just four days prior to her death.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show waged a quiet revolution behind the scenes as well, with 25 out of the 75 writers on the show being women. (In 1970s America, those kind of stats were pretty rare.) Her show also paved the way for more women to apply for entertainment jobs that had previously been considered male-dominated positions.
“I think Mary Tyler Moore has probably had more influence on my career than any other single person or force,” Oprah Winfrey said in a 2015 PBS documentary celebrating the actress.
But to me, she was always just a hometown girl. I’m from Minnesota, and we love her here. After all, she was born on December 29, 1936, in our very own Brooklyn Heights, Minnesota.
In 2002, the city of Minneapolis and TV Land teamed up to erect a statue downtown, to celebrate that infamous moment in the opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in which Moore’s character hurls her hat up in the air after shopping.
“I hope when a little girl walks by the statue, she’ll ask her mother who that was, and it’ll be explained to her that she was a young woman who had a dream and followed it through,” Moore said shortly after the unveiling.
Mary, you can be sure at least one mother will tell her daughter exactly what the statue — and your legacy — meant to her.