Customer Reviews

The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Third Season

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

******** UPDATED REVIEW ********
**** EDITED ON JANUARY 19, 2006 ****

The sensational and laugh-filled third season of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" hit DVD in an attractive 3-Disc set from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on January 17th, 2006, only six months after Season 2 was released (not bad at all, especially when compared to the 34-month wait MTM fans had between the Season-One and Season-Two DVD releases).

Season 3 of TMTMS (originally seen on CBS-TV during the 1972-1973 television campaign) has so many highly-memorable episodes amongst its 24-show roster -- such as: "My Brother's Keeper", "Rhoda Morgenstern: Minneapolis To New York", "Operation: Lou", "You've Got A Friend", and the hilarious "Put On A Happy Face".

The "Happy Face" episode has Mary suffering from a variety of ailments, injuries, and afflictions just prior to having to go to the annual "Teddy Awards" banquet. It's one of my all-time favorite MTM installments. I'd recommend freeze-framing that episode at the 9:36 point in the program for a funny "Mary In Mid-Air" moment. I only wish I were Lou Grant in that particular scene. :)

I never fail to be amazed at how well this TV series holds up over time. Every single one of these third-year episodes, in my opinion, seems utterly perfect (both script-wise and picture quality-wise on these DVDs...gorgeous color and overall video quality).

Just a few sample episodes from Season 3 reveal the exquisite storylines, characters, relationships, and friendships that I'm literally envious of with each viewing -- "You've Got A Friend" and "The Courtship Of Mary's Father's Daughter" (both co-starring the great Bill Quinn as Mary's dad) are two such examples. Beautiful shows. Wonderfully written and brilliantly acted, with just the right dose of sentiment mixed in with the humor. Like when Mary's dad bandages the wrong finger after Mary cuts herself in "You've Got A Friend". One of the best scenes ever done in the whole series.

And "Rhoda Morgenstern: Minneapolis To New York" is another winner from Disc #2 of this collection, exemplifying what the word "friendship" really means.

I want to watch them all again. And will...very soon, thanks to this excellent DVD set from Fox Home Entertainment.

And also remember to keep your ears perked for "The MTM Honker" (aka, show executive James L. Brooks). Brooks likes to occasionally let loose from behind the cameras with the funniest doggone laugh I've ever heard (which sounds more like a "honk" to me). I love it when he lets fly with one unexpectedly. He gets off one or two in the "Happy Face" episode, and many other eps. as well. (And if you have any videos of Mary's spin-off series, "Rhoda", you can hear James honkin' up a storm throughout many of those shows too. He's a riot all by himself, IMO.)

Also in the "Happy Face" show, listen for another of the great lines of dialogue that the MTM writers regularly give to Rhoda (played to a tee by Valerie Harper):

MARY -- "Rhoda, chocolate solves nothing."
RHODA -- "No, no -- cottage cheese solves nothing; chocolate can do it all."

~ Honk, honk! ~ :-)

Like the first two full-season DVD sets of this always-delightful TV series, the complete third-season collection sparkles brightly in the A/V departments. The video looks crisp and clean, with warm colors, and the Dolby Digital (mono) audio sounds just fine. No complaints from this writer whatsoever.

The bright, bold colors that can be found in this TV series are really brought to the forefront during the scenes which take place in Rhoda's apartment. That lady lives in a veritable rainbow of color up above Mary's place on "North Weatherly" in Minneapolis. And those many hues look fabulous on these Digital Discs too. As does the show's star, Mary Tyler Moore. Mary looks positively stunning throughout this third season. Wow! :-)

But unlike the two earlier MTM DVD boxed sets, this third installment lacks any special bonus supplements. But I kind of figured that would be the case many months ago even before it came out. The first two seasonal sets contained quite a lot of extra material, and there just might not be a whole lot left to dig up in the "bonus" department. (Although a few of the original CBS-TV promo clips would have been nice. But even without a single bonus item, this set is a required purchase for fans of TMTMS and fans of Mary Tyler Moore herself.)

The twenty-four shows (8 per disc) in this boxed set, as far as I can determine, are all complete and uncut episodes. I've performed a running-time check for each of the eight programs on Disc 1, and those shows have an average run time of 25:35. That stat certainly favors the use of the word "uncut" for sure! Here are the exact run times for those eight shows (you'll note a consistent trend):

"The Good-Time News" -- 25:34.
"What Is Mary Richards Really Like?" -- 25:31.
"Who's In Charge Here?" -- 25:36.
"Enter Rhoda's Parents" -- 25:35.
"It's Whether You Win Or Lose" -- 25:35.
"Rhoda The Beautiful" -- 25:36.
"Just Around The Corner" -- 25:36.
"But Seriously, Folks" -- 25:36.

A nice addition to this collection that many DVD buyers will appreciate is the inclusion of a "Play All" option on each of the three discs. Seasons 1 and 2 have no such marathon-playing choice. (Good job, Fox!)

The static and music-free DVD Menus have a different look to them vs. the previous two MTM sets, with Season Three featuring a faster response time when a Menu selection is made too. The previous sets have a short built-in "delay" when moving around the Menu system. There is a slight delay when accessing exactly half of the episodes in this third-season set (the last 4 episodes on each disc to be precise, which I imagine represents the shows on Layer #2 of each DVD), but it seems to me as though it's less of a delay that the earlier seasons.

I like the Menus very much; there are Sub-Menus for "Language Selection" and "Scene Selection" (with all text written out in the familiar "MTM" type font, featuring that unique mix of both lower-case and capital letters).

I cannot figure out, however, why Fox made these Season-Three Menus all "anamorphic" in nature. But they did. Which is a bit odd, because the episodes themselves, of course, are not anamorphically-enhanced (because they don't need to be, being Full-Frame 4x3 material in the first place). This is not an uncommon occurrence amongst DVD products though. But it is slightly irritating, because IMO a DVD for a Full-Frame program should maintain a Full-Frame (i.e., non-anamorphic) profile throughout its presentation, including the Menu structure.

The DVD packaging here is identical in style to that of the Season-Two set, with three plastic thin/slim cases utilized to hold the three single-sided discs. The three plastic cases slide into an open-ended outer cardboard carton (a slipcase box). Nothing fancy here; it's very simple and utilitarian, but it's a nice-looking and classy package just the same. (Although the lack of any official "DVD-Video" logo on the spine of the outer box seems a tad odd to me. The Season-Two set doesn't have any such "DVD" logo on its spine either. But the first-season set does have the logo. No big deal, of course. It's just something I always expect to see on the spines of virtually all DVD packages. Oh well.)

When I first saw the box-cover photo of Mary for this set I wasn't too thrilled with the look of it. It seems a bit awkward and unnatural-looking, with Mary seemingly sitting on thin air. But when I got the boxed set in my hands, the cover art started to grow on me. Now I kind of like it. (Heck, it's the lovely MTM after all, so it can't possibly be that bad.) ;)

The same front-of-the-box picture of Mary also adorns each of the three plastic inner cases as well. And there's a terrific (and funny) photo of Mary and Ted Knight ("Ted Baxter") on the back of the box.

Overall, I'm very impressed with this third-year Mary set, despite no bonus stuff being included. What especially pleases me about this particular collection is the fact that 20th Century Fox didn't just give up on the MTM Show following what I heard were disappointing sales for the first-season set. Since Fox already had Season #2 "in the can" (or close to it) when they released Season 1 in September 2002, it seemed logical to assume that that second set would also hit the market eventually too (which it did, albeit after a very long wait).

But Season Three was a different matter. I suppose Fox could have just tossed aside any thoughts of future MTM releases following those poor S.1 profits. But they didn't abandon Mary, and I, for one, am grateful for that decision. And not only didn't they abandon this classic TV series, they didn't cut corners on video quality for S.3 either. The PQ is every bit as good as the first two season sets. Plus, Fox even saw fit to improve some things over the previous DVD sets -- such as adding the Play-All feature and revising the Menu system to make it a bit more user-friendly (and faster). Hats off to the Fox folks!


A few more stats and loose ends re. this MTM-3 set:

VIDEO -- Standard TV ratio of 1.33:1 (as originally aired).
AUDIO -- Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (English only). No Spanish tracks provided this time 'round.
SUBTITLES -- In English and Spanish.
CHAPTER BREAKS? -- Yes. 10 Chapters per episode.
"PLAY ALL" INCLUDED? -- Yes.
INSERTS? -- No Episode Guide booklet is included. A multi-page ad for other Fox DVDs is in here though. (Some good series in there too.)
REGION CODE -- Region 1 (NTSC).

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EDIT (Jan. 22, 2006) --- I took note of a very sharp-eyed reviewer's comments re. a small edit that Fox has made to the last episode of this 3rd-Season DVD set ("Mary Richards And The Incredible Plant Lady"). And that reviewer certainly is correct (although I must confess I had not noticed the edit at all until reading that review about it).

Ted Baxter's words (as he hums a song to himself) have most certainly been dubbed over with other nondescript humming. That must certainly indicate that the rights to the song that Ted is mumbling weren't acquired (or couldn't be acquired) by Fox Home Entertainment for this DVD release. That's a shame, indeed, but not Earth-shaking either, IMO. The same thing occurred in the first-season DVD set during the excellent Christmas episode, when portions of "White Christmas" were edited off the DVD soundtrack. Again, that's not a good thing either...but not nearly calamitous enough to keep me from enjoying these ever-so-slightly altered episodes of this superb TV series.

BTW -- There is a disclaimer (of sorts) re. that "Plant Lady" episode printed on the back of the Disc #3 DVD case. Although it doesn't specifically mention anything about that episode being "edited" in any manner, it does give the impression that the show is subpar in some way. The exact words read: "This episode has been restored to the best quality possible given the vintage source material".

Obviously, via those words, they don't seem to be warning the public that the episode has been altered in some way. It's probably a reference to the slightly-wobbly video quality that occurs during a small portion of the final (epilogue) scene. The PQ isn't rock-solid during that scene, which might have prompted that disclaimer.

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It's a pretty safe bet that if you've got the first couple of seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" on DVD, you shall desire to own this third-season pack too. It's filled with 24 great episodes from a TV series that earned its reputation as one of the best television programs of its era.

So, why not ask Mary (Season Three) for a date tonight? She can't possibly say no -- because you've got the Season-Three DVDs (and the remote control too). ;)

What good news! The Mary Tyler Moore show was one of the highest quality sitcoms produced during the past 34 years, and it has astonished me that it has taken so long for these shows (barring Season 1) to be released on DVD. With all of the absolute junk out there being released (I guess it's a matter of taste, which doesn't speak too highly of our culture :-)), I simply can't believe all of the MTM seasons aren't out yet. Both Seasons 1 and 2 contain such good material, and Season 3 promises to be just as enjoyable. If you like The MTM Show, buy all three seasons (great discounts on Seasons 1 & 2 at Amazon). Let's get Season 4 out before too long!

Its great to see that Season 3 has made it to DVD. This is the year
that MTM truly established its own identity and moved beyond the more
conventional first two seasons. Mary is now a consciously liberated
woman no longer worried about being over thirty and single. While
avoiding overt political messages the writers embraced this change and
helped create what is in some ways the strongest season.

Though most of the "classic" episodes occur later in the series, season
3 is perhaps the most consistently excellent week to week.
There are many episodes that should not be overlooked, from the season opener,
"The Good Time News", where Mary and Ted spar during an on-air editorial,
to "Lou's Place", which explores Lou's ill-fated attempt to own a favorite local bar.
"The Courtship of Mary's Father's Daughter" reunites Mary with an old flame, only
now she's an unintentionally disruptive guest at his engagement party (watch
for their initial meeting in the elevator to see a great example of Mary Tyler Moore's
gift for understated physical comedy).

In Season 3 the characters begin to function as a family and, without delving into
hot-button "issues" like All in the Family or Maude, demonstrate a realism
of another kind in personal relationships. See Mary criticize Rhoda for
maintaining her poor self image even as she runs in and wins a department store beauty contest in "Rhoda the Beautiful", an episode both touching and very funny.
Mary's attempts to buck up a despondent coworker in "Murray Faces Life" likewise
highlight the unique genius of the MTM series in deftly combining humor with
genuine emotional moments that never turn sappy or maudlin.

Its wonderful that Fox is continuing to release seasons of MTM after the initial
dispiriting sales of Season 1. I never expected we would get past the second
year (the work of which was apparently mostly completed about the time the
first season DVDs went on sale and yet still was not issued for nearly 3 years).
Even if there are no more "extras" or special features the important thing is that
all the complete unedited shows make it to video. Especially at a time when
so many other shows of much lesser quality get released in their entirety its
a must for MTM fans to purchase these first three seasons to help Mary survive
in the marketplace. It would be a shame if the following seasons, especially
4, 5 and 6, and to a lesser extent 7, were never issued. I think Season 3
represents a great second chance for us.

By the third season, the cast and crew of The Mary Tyler Moore Show knew what they were doing and how to do it. It shows in this wonderful three disc collection.

Little has changed in Mary Richard's (Mary Tyler Moore) world. She works in the news room of WJM-TV in Minneapolis along with her boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner), anchor Ted Baxter (Ted Knight), and news writer Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod). At home, she's got best friends Rhoda (Valerie Harper) and Phyllis (Cloris Leachman). Whether it's the trials of serial dating (Mary and Rhoda's guys never last more then an episode) or trying to bring up the ratings at work, these characters are sure to face life with a joke to keep us laughing.

The big change to the show is the introduction of Georgia Engel as Ted's girlfriend Georgette. I had forgotten, but she was originally Rhoda's co-worker introduced in "Rhoda Morgenstern: Minneapolis to New York." She only gets four episodes here, but it's a start.

Unfortunately, Phyllis only has four episodes as well this season. I always enjoy her appearances since she's so over the top funny. I'm sure we all know someone who is convinced they know best no matter what the situation.

This season also features several appearances of Mary's parents after they move to Minneapolis. Watching a loving relationship work through the issues this creates is nice.

Highlights of this season include:
"The Good Time News," which finds Mary trying to create a fun news show.
"It's Whether You Win or Lose" finds gambling addict Murray in trouble when Mary sets up a poker night for the guys in the office. Even a serious topic like this gets lots of laughs.
In "Farmer Ted and the News," Ted begins doing commercials to make extra money, causing quite a problem when they air during the news.
Lou sees a more human side of Ted in "Operation: Lou."
Rhoda considers moving back to New York in "Rhoda Morgenstern: Minneapolis to New York." Fortunately, she doesn't leave until the end of next season.
Phyllis feels like "My Brother's Keeper" when her brother starts hanging out with Rhoda instead of Mary like Phyllis had originally planned. This episode features the first of Mary's truly horrid parties.
When "Romeo and Mary" go out and he won't take no for an answer about a second date, Mary really lets him have it. Yet she winds up being the one that's embarrassed.

All told, there are twenty-four more episodes to make you laugh along with Mary and her friends. There are no extras in the set this time around. While I always love behind the scenes stuff, for the price, I won't complain about just getting the shows themselves. The episodes look sharp with hardly any flaws in the picture and the sound, while mono, fits the show and sounds great.

I love this show. Just thinking about the characters brings a smile to my face. If you enjoy classic comedy, this set is for you.

At long last "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" gets its third season pumping. Hopefully Fox will keep cranking them out, because ironically (unlike most shows), "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" got better each season vs. worse. By the time the fourth season hit, more laughs and one-liners were being thrown at us. And thank God for Betty White, who immortalized Sue Ann Nivens as the bitchy, happy homemaker. This is one of the best comedies of all time. And truly deservant of its 29 Emmy wins. Season 3 includes "Its Whether You Win or Lose" which sadly, didn't earn Gavin MaCleuad an Emmy nomination- and he's the only principal cast member never to win or be nominated. It also includes "Put on a Happy Face", one of Mary Tyler Moore's five best performances on the show.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show hit it's stride in the 3rd season. Although season 1 was was good, and Season 2 was better, Mary hit her stride in Season 3 and maintained it throughout the run of the series... This really was one show that got better and better. Yeah... Mary really can turn the world on with her smile. What a treasure this collection is.

Mary not only looks great on the cover, but the third season was perhaps the best season as it introduced the lovable Georgette to balance out Ted, as well as have Rhoda blossom into a major figure of her own. So many memorable moments such as Lou trying his hand at bartending, in a very questionable partnership with Ted; to Murray being suckered into an ill-advised poker game; to Mary trying to reconcile her parents moving to town. This was truly a great show because it never lost its momentum over the years and it was a shame to see it finally sign off in 1977. However, that means we still have 4 seasons to go on DVD!

Perhaps the four-star rating is stingy, but "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" raised the bar on television itself, so we've come to expect nothing less than excellence from one of the very best shows ever and certainly from one of the best comedy ensembles ever put together. "All in the Family," "M*A*S*H," and "MTM" are among the best shows ever on television. Later seasons, and, perhaps earlier ones should certainly garner the show five-star ratings.

Many of the episodes are indispensible. "Lou's Place," features Lou and Ted, who buy a local pub after the owner dies is vintage MTM. Similarly, for two episodes featuring Ted: One when he is loathe to compete with Gordy as co-anchor, and another when Ted hires an elderly woman agent who enables him to moonlight making money on obnoxious and unflattering commercials. When Rhoda enters a beauty contest in "Rhoda, the Beautiful," and when she takes her own business in "...The Plant Lady," we are given more than our money's worth. (The price of this collection at twenty-four episodes is a bargain, especially if one compares it to other DVD collectibles.) Perhaps the best one is when everything falls apart for Mary just before she goes to an awards' ceremony. Most of the other episodes are merely excellent. Despite some of the references, it is seldom dated, too.

The collection is sometimes marred, however, by mere dramatization. Subjectively, the shows that have more drama than laughs don't quite hit the high bar that they have established for themselves. The big three CBS seventies comedies were classic at going from big laughs to tears, but without laughs, some episodes suffer in quality overall. Particularly the shows with Mary Richard's parents don't work as well.

Despite the picky qualms with a few episodes, this DVD set is a great entertainment value. (The fourth season comes out in June, and it looks great!)

I was thrilled to hear that Mary Tyler Moore's third season is finally available. This is what I feel was the first really good season of the series. I'm looking forward to the Fourth Season to come out, which has to be one of the, if not THE very best season of the show.

The first thing I noticed upon getting this set, is that it's a pretty barebones release. There are no extras whatsoever, unlike the previous two sets which had quite a few. I was hoping that there would be at least some more of the Emmy clips, as there were in the two other sets. I really enjoyed those. It would also have been nice to hear some commentaries for a couple of the best episodes of the series, "It's Whether You Win or Lose" and "Put On a Happy Face". A commentary by Valerie Harper for "Rhoda the Beautiful" would have made it especially nice.

As it is, what we have is just the shows themselves, which, thankfully look and sound as nicely as they did in the previous sets. I did notice a couple of minor picture jitters, such as in the tag of "Mary Richards and the Incredible Plant Lady", but nothing too bad. What I DID notice that was rather disappointing, was that a scene in the aforementioned episode had been edited. At the 17 minute mark, Ted walks into the newsroom singing to himself. In the original version (as well as the versions I have seen in syndication), he was singing "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)", from "Annie Get Your Gun". It was a brief, but funny moment, and memorable Ted Baxter. Instead, on this DVD, the sound has been dubbed over so that he is simply mumbling nonsense ("do do do"). I'm assuming this has something to do with rights. Maybe Fox could not get them, or did not want to pay for them, but still, the result is a version that has been tampered with, from the original.

Eagle-eye fans who got the First Season set, will probably remember that the episode, "Christmas and the Hard Luck Kid" had a few seconds when Mary sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" cut. At the time I thought that was an innocent mistake (bad print used), but now I fear it may have been an intentional cut. Nowhere on the packaging does it say that any of these shows have been altered, but then, it also does not say that they HAVE been altered. The least that Fox could do is make mention of this, and after the fiasco of their "In Living Color" season sets, where all the memorable music paradies were cut out...I am concerned that more music bits of MTM are going to be left off. Let's hope not. I would hate to not see classic moments like Georgette's "Steam Heat" number in the 7th Season, not on DVD.

All in all, a nice set. However, I still wish someone other then Fox had chosen to release these. I'm still bummed that it took them two and a half years to put out the Second Season. We could have had them all by now.

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is a classic sitcom,that got better and better each season.
Plucky Mary Richards(Mary Tyler Moore)holds her own at WJMTV,the TV news station with the lowest ratings but warmest people.
Mary's best friend Rhoda(Valeire Harper)a year before she got her own spin-off smash,"Rhoda"has continual disastrous dates in this season but always has a quick wit to makes us smile,Lou Grant(Ed Asner) tough talking but caring,ends up in hopital in one episode and has a vist from the newsroom fool,Ted Baxter,the hilarious Ted Knight.
Among all the laughs serious issues are handled like retirement,divorce,midlife crisis,poor Murray(Gavin MacLeod) feels life is passing him by,but its all done with great writing and performances,Chlors Leachman as the over bearing Phyllis only appears in about 4 episodes this season but is always a scene stealer!
My favourite episode is "Put On A Happy Face" where Mary after a series of disasters,attends an award ceremony looking awful and in a borrowed dress which Lou says makes her look like "One of the Andrews Sisters"
I love this show as its so real and considering its nearly 30 years since it finished,it certainly is as fresh as ever!
Season 4 is coimg out very soon,I hope.
Greg Shanley