This show had a great cast. What it didn't have was any competent writing whatsoever. Mary Tyler Moore knew that from the start. Her performance looked dispirited and tired.
The problem was that the writers were so intent on force-feeding "characters" to the audience that they forgot to give the audience ANY character to actually like, including Mary's. They made every character so self-involved and irritating that the goodwill audience drawn by Mary Tyler Moore's presence stopped tuning in quickly. We're huge MTM fans and I think we watched three episodes and just couldn't take it any more.
This is what would have happened to the Mary Tyler Moore show if the ENTIRE cast had been written like Ted and Phyllis, just to make my point more clear.
They had a can't-miss cast, and they struck out looking.
The problem was that the writers were so intent on force-feeding "characters" to the audience that they forgot to give the audience ANY character to actually like, including Mary's. They made every character so self-involved and irritating that the goodwill audience drawn by Mary Tyler Moore's presence stopped tuning in quickly. We're huge MTM fans and I think we watched three episodes and just couldn't take it any more.
This is what would have happened to the Mary Tyler Moore show if the ENTIRE cast had been written like Ted and Phyllis, just to make my point more clear.
They had a can't-miss cast, and they struck out looking.