#MondayMotivation: Our Woman of the Week is Mary Tyler Moore
By Emily Scott
Every Monday, Culturess chooses one woman in pop culture to be our Woman of the Week. These women inspire and empower us to kick ass, take names, fight the good fight, and live our best lives. Today, our Woman of the Week is Mary Tyler Moore!
2016 was rife with many tragedies, including the deaths of many icons and artists. But this week, one of the first of 2017 was the death of Mary Tyler Moore at age 80. This week, Culturess would like to honor her life and work by naming her Woman of the Week.
Mary Tyler Moore lived a life of trailblazing. For years, she worked her way up to her iconic TV show by taking smaller and sometimes stereotypical roles in film and TV. But her breakout role came when she was 25. A few years before, Moore auditioned for Danny Thomas’s daughter on his show Make Room For Daddy. Thomas didn’t cast her that time, but she made an impression. He remembered her work and recommended her for The Dick Van Dyke Show. She was cast, and won an Emmy for her role in 1964.
At the time she said, “I know this will never happen again.” She went on to win five more in her lifetime.
Screenshot via CBS
Mary Tyler Moore’s most lasting claim to icon status, though, is most certainly her namesake television program, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Moore and her husband at the time were the ones to pitch the show to CBS. Over seven seasons it became an unmatched cultural touchstone. At the beginning of the show, Mary Richards, Moore’s character, leaves her fiancé to move to Minneapolis and start fresh. She applies to be a secretary at a television station. But instead, she is offered the job of associate producer on their news program, making her a single, working woman in an office full of men.
Since Moore’s death a few days ago, many have reminisced on the groundbreaking, feminist experience that was The Mary Tyler Moore Show. When it aired in 1970, the show was one of the first to center on a woman protagonist, and maybe the first to feature an unmarried, childless, working woman protagonist. In a 1995 interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Moore said that her Mary Tyler Moore character was originally conceived as “a television wife.” But it was changed when they found that you couldn’t do much with a standard wife character. “…All these wives were kind of obedient and, you know, a representative of the vows to love, honor, and obey. They hardly varied from that.”
And then there was the fact that Moore was one of the first actresses who insisted on wearing pants on television. Despite some pushback from sponsors, she stuck to her guns. And that’s how Mary Richards became the woman she was.
In addition to her groundbreaking work in television, Mary Tyler Moore had an extensive career in theatre, a prolific film career in which she received an Oscar nomination for Ordinary People, and wrote two memoirs. She lived with diabetes, survived the tragic death of her only son when he was 24, and found love with her husband Richard Levine, who was married to her for over 30 years. Moore used her notoriety to act as a staunch supporter of animal rights and diabetes awareness. She remains a feminist icon.
Thank you, Mary Tyler Moore. Let’s honor her life this week by stepping outside of what you expect of yourself. Do something new, something you’ve been afraid of. She would be proud of you.
Next: The Brilliant Ending Of The Mary Tyler Moore Show Still Rings True Today
You can find Mary Tyler Moore’s work here:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show: All 7 seasons are available on Amazon. But you can watch the first 3 on Hulu.
The Dick Van Dyke Show: Check it out on Hulu.
Growing Up Again: Live, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes: You can find Mary Tyler Moore’s most recent memoir on Amazon.