Customer Reviews

The Very Best of the Mary Tyler Moore Show - Party Girl [VHS]

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PARTY GIRL contains one of my favorite scenes from my all-time favorite sitcom: Lou taking 1/2 of Mary's party platter:

"Say. You know what? I'm not as hungry as I thought."

One episode that I would've put in place of the Aunt Flo episode was the party for Lou where he locked everyone out of Mary's apartment ("Aw come on Mr. Grant. Let Rhoda in--you like Rhoda"). Or maybe the party where the power went out just before the guest of honor arrived.

But the only real complaint I have about this VHS set is that it isn't enough. If MTM would package every episode on tape, I'd buy the whole thing in a second.

We all know that this is one of the best shows around, but the key to this set is the episodes that it contains. Everyone loves Mary, but her parties are a different story. Each episode has a different party, each one made, if not a disaster, then out of the ordinary by circumstances that pop up despite the best of intentions and any length of careful planning.

The only qualm that I have about this set is that the episodes are not in chronological order. The humor used by the writers of TMTMS depends largely on character development (Why else would you laugh at Ted's famous line, "Hi Guys!") and to someone unfamiliar with this show, the jokes might not be as amusing. This is a problem easily remedied, though, so this set is still highly recommended.

The quote in my title came from the lips of a young Henry Winkler, in his funny appearance in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" episode "The Dinner Party", which is one of the four solid episodes chosen to comprise this two-tape VHS video set.

Winkler made that MTM guest appearance shortly before rocketing to stardom himself on the TV series "Happy Days". Henry plays the meek "Steve Waldman" in the "Dinner Party" episode, which aired during the fourth season (of seven) of "The MTM Show" (on November 17, 1973).

Mary's friend, Rhoda, brings Waldman/Winkler to Mary's small dinner party, much to MTM's dismay -- for there's not enough room (or food!) for Mr. Waldman. So Steve is forced to sit by himself, away from Mary's main guests. Much fun follows -- including yet another unexpected guest, namely Ted Baxter, who feels left out and lonely. And then there's that "Veal Prince Orloff" disaster! A good episode indeed. And, all things considered, it was one of Mary's best parties (which I guess is really not saying a whole lot, come to think of it). LOL!

This two-volume VHS boxed set comes nicely packaged in a far-from-flimsy, attractive slipcase box. This set was put out by "New Video", and represents a follow-up (a kind of "sequel") to that company's release a brief time earlier of an even larger 7-Tape, 14-Episode video collection of "The Very Best Of The Mary Tyler Moore Show", which consists of a season-by-season assortment of MTM programs. An additional 2-Tape set from "New Video" (with five episodes; called "Mary & Rhoda: The Very Best Of Friends") followed this "Party Girl" collection, approximately a year after this set's release.

Let's take a gander at the 4 episodes housed inside this collection ....................

Volume 1:
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1.) "The Dinner Party" (from Season 4).
2.) "Mary's Aunt" (from Season 6).

Volume 2:
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1.) "Mary Midwife" (from Season 7).
2.) "My Brother's Keeper" (from Season 3).

The Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of the best classic sitcoms from the 70s and some of the best episodes are the episodes that featured the running gag of Mary's disasterous parties and this tape has some great ones inluding the episode where Mary throws a dinner party for a congresswoman who was interviewed on one of her news programs and then winds up not having enough food for everyone when she winds up with uninvited guests and the one where Ted and Georgette come over for dinner and Georgette goes into labor but it's a shame that they didn't include the episode where Mary tried to throw a surprise birthday party for Lou not knowing that he hates surprise birthday parties and the one where the lights go out in Mary's new apartment during a party where the congresswoman was bringing Johnny Carson as a guest and everyone reminiscences about all of Mary's past disasterous parties. I now have the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD and as much as I love TVLand I prefer watching this show on DVD because on DVD the episodes aren't edited and are completely uncut and there are no commercials. I now just have to buy the second season on DVD and I hope the rest of the seasons will be released on DVD soon!

What can I say, it's Mary Tyler Moore! Her parties were a disaster, but she always shined through.

i love the mary tyler moore show. i grew up watching the dick van dyke show on nick at night and fell in love with mary tyler moore, and then they started showing the mary tyler moore show on nick at night. oh, those were the days; when nick at night was running bewitched, i dream of jeannie, green acres, the mary tyler moore show ... i have most of them on dvd now :-) ...

tv shows now kinda stink. not a lot of people with mary tyler moore's talent out there. she is so talanted and beautiful ... my girlfriends and i like watching these old shows; and my grandmother and i sometimes sit and watch a season of these shows and bond.

you can't go wrong with the mary tyler moore show; always good humor, and if you have never seen mary tyler moore you will get hooked from just one episode of either this series or of the dick van dyke show. enjoy!

and you gotta love the hat toss. how can you not love the hat toss? i'm thinking of doing a video for my wedding and i'm going to do the hat toss ...

This show and tape will make you die laughing. It's hilarious, Mary Richards throws some pretty horrible party's. If you like The Mary Tyler Moore show you will love this video it's funny.

A great box set of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"! Consisting of four classic episodes, this set is a must for any fan! Buy it today!