The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Fifth Season Movie Review
Throw your hats in the air "Mary-style" and get ready for season 5 of the groundbreaking comedy "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". In its fifth season, Mary is not quite the same naive young woman who arrived in a new town to start a new life; she is now 34 and has been promoted to Producer of the WJM News in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her upstairs buddy Rhoda has left to go to New York to get married and boss Lou Grant moves into Rhoda's place for a short amount of time. Ted is hustled by a con artist and opens the Ted Baxter School for Broadcasting to horrible results--only one student shows up (a hilarious role for the late and missed Leonard Frey). Murray and his wife adopt a boy and Phyllis decides she needs to go back to work. In a great episode, Mary even goes to jail to protect her source for his tips about illegal contributions (with another great cameo by murdered actress Barbara Colby) and, in my favorite episode of the collection, Sue Ann Nivens (the beloved Betty White) is given a young protégée in the form of Linda Kelsey (who would star years later with Ed Asner in the series "Lou Grant"). It is this episode in which we really see the acid-tongued Sue Ann put up a fight by giving everyone food poisoning to protect her job.
As I have mentioned in other reviews for the show, this series has the best supporting cast a person could dream of. Sure, Mary is entirely sexy and funny on her own but can you imagine the show without Ted Knight? Betty White? Heck, even the then recent Oscar winner Cloris Leachman returned to television instead of heading to the big screen full time. Certainly the audience approved at the time and it still does some 30+ years after the show began as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is obviously one of the most loved comedies of all time according to its endearing fanbase.
In this superb collection from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, we are given all 24 episodes from season five and they are in just perfect condition. The colors are vibrant and the sound (even if presented in only Mono) is very good, also. What has puzzled me is that none of the series have any bonus materials! What I would give to hear from members of the cast about certain episodes. I mean, this is a show that has 95% of its starring cast still living and would probably love to relive a show or two on a commentary track. There are only two seasons left for you Mary fans out there to collect and the way they are coming out time-wise, I wouldn't expect anything else until maybe 2011. Next season we will get the much loved episode in which Mary cracks up during the funeral for Chuckles the clown who was crushed while dressed up as a peanut by a rampaging elephant. It is classic comedy and is still the one episode that everyone seems to remember. Priced reasonably low, this set is a sure bet for Mary fans to be able to have their world turned on by her smile AND nearly compete their collections. As for me, I still look forward to that one split second shot of Mary washing her car in the opening credits as she is as sexy as I remember her being all those many years ago.
