Mary Tyler Moore carved out career in prestigious TV projects after her classic sitcoms
Anyone who loved Mary Tyler Moore as Laurie Petrie on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” as the thoroughly modern career woman Mary Richards on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and as the brittle, distant Beth in her Oscar-nominated turn in 1980’s ‘Ordinary People,” will love the new MAX documentary “Being Mary Tyler Moore.” Moore, who died in 2017 at the age of 80, narrates the story of her life which had incredible triumphs but also great tragedy. But one aspect of her storied career it doesn’t really delve in as her work in telefilms, miniseries and even an “PBS Hollywood Presents” that reunited her with Dick Van Dyke.
Did you know that two years before she went to Broadway winning a special Tony for her performance in “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” and did “Ordinary People,” she unveiled her dramatic chops in the 1978 CBS TV movie “First, You Cry.” Based on the book NBC News correspondent Betty Rollin, the drama revolves around her battle with breast cancer, her mastectomy, the breakup of her marriage, finding love the second time around and her eventual decision to leave him and write her book.
The New York Times was impressed with her career-changing performance: “Miss Moore has a perhaps unenviable talent for being rarely less than adorable. She has to cope with a natural ability to charm It’s not easy for her to project impressions of being demanding or even difficult. But in ‘First, You Cry,” she succeeds impressively, accumulating an album of powerful moments: her shock on being told of the malignancy; her anguish when examining the operation’s scars; her hysteria about the possibility for a recurrence of cancer. The performance is strong , daring in some respects, and completely convincing.”
Moore received an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actress in limited series or special. And the movie earned three more Emmy nods including outstanding drama or comedy special.
She was Emmy nominated again for ABC’s 1984 MOW “Heartsounds” based on the book “Heartsounds: The Story of Love and Loss” by Martha Weinman Lear. Penned by Fay Kanin and directed by Glenn Jordan, ‘Heartsounds” revolves around a a New York urologist (James Garner) who suffers a major heart attack. Moore plays his wife who becomes his advocate when the health system fails him.
“The film packs something of a wallop of a powerful and unblinking documentary,” wrote the New York Times. ‘With superb performances from Miss Moore and Mr. Garner, the highs as well as the lows of the couple’s love story survive beautifully intact.”
Moore returned to comedic roots in HBO’s delightful 1985 “Finnegan Begin Again” directed by Joan Micklin Silver of “Hester Street” and “Chilly Scenes of Winter” fame. Moore plays a widowed art teacher who is having an affair with a married man (Sam Waterston) who works as an undertaker. She’s still holding out hope he’ll leave his wife. Of course, the audience knows that’s not going to happen. But her life changes when she meets an older, charming man (Robert Preston) on a bus. He’s past retirement age on a newspaper and has been forced to take over the lovelorn column. And his older wife (Sylvia Sidney) has been living in a sort of dementia-fueled fantasy world since the death of their son years before. The L.A. Times wrote: “’Finnegan Begin Again’ is a real winner about two people who are starting to think of themselves as losers. Heartwarming and funny, this bittersweet romantic comedy has just about everything going for it….Moore combines such warmth with an astringent wit that it’s hard to believe she was also the icy wife and mother of ‘Ordinary People.” Preston, who must hold a patent on charm, is a joy to behold.”
Three years later, she re-teamed with Waterston for the historical dramatic miniseries, “Lincoln” based on Gore Vidal’s best-seller. The NBC production covers the period from Lincoln’s election to his assassination. Moore, who played the troubled Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Waterston’s Honest Abe, earned yet another Emmy nomination. The series received a total of seven Emmy nominations with Lamont Johnson winning for his directing.
Moore received her 15th Emmy nomination and her seventh and final Emmy in 1993 for the Lifetime drama “Stolen Babies,” in which she portrayed the infamous Georgia Tann, who from 1924-1950 ran the respected adoption agency, the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. Such Hollywood stars as Joan Crawford, Mary Pickford, Dick Powell and June Allyson adopted from Tann. But none of them knew she stole most of these babies from their natural parents.
The Los Angeles Times’ praised Moore’s performance and the fact she didn’t turn Tann into “a caricature of evil. Fortunately, the veteran actress helps shape this aging and physically ailing woman into something more complicated: a rather insecure and self-deluded woman who actually believes she’s doing a good deed by forcibly removing children from economically deprived families. “
In 2003, Moore and Van Dyke reunited for their final project together. But they didn’t choose to do a lovely, fun romantic trip down memory lane, but a drama in which they played rather unsympathetic residents of a nursing home. D.L. Coburn’s 1977 Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Gin Game,” which ran for over 500 performances on Broadway with Jessica Tandy winning the Tony. Van Dyke, who plays the abrasive is the accomplished gin player. He also never met a swear word he didn’t like. Moore’s character quotes the Bible and is the most adept player. Over the course of several games, their relationship falls apart as they reveal their angers, fears and frustrations. Though they are playing antagonists in “The Gin Game,” their chemistry is still a joy to behold. Moore and Van Dyke’s fans may have been shocked they chose these difficult piece for their reunion, but it’s the show they had to do at this point in their careers.
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