When it comes to late ’60s/early ’70s television shows, there’s none better than The Mary Tyler Moore Show. There’s also no better theme song for a show than the one for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, “Love is All Around.” Written and performed by Sonny Curtis, this one is today’s classic song of the day.
If you’ve ever seen The Mary Tyler Moore Show, you know that the opening title sequence changed quite a bit from season to season. The first season saw Mary leaving her hometown and driving her 1970 white Ford Mustang to the big Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. (The driving bits were shot on Interstate 494 on the south side of town, just outside Bloomington.) In subsequent seasons this bridging sequence was dropped in favor of more shots of Mary and her friends and colleagues in and around the Minneapolis area and in the WJM newsroom. The last sequence in the titles, however, always stayed the same: Mary tossing her hat in the air in the middle of Nicolette Mall in downtown Minneapolis, with scowling middle-aged woman (a real onlooker during the shot, Twin Cities native Hazel Frederick) looking on in the background.
Mary’s theme song also changed over the years. The first season’s lyrics were full of hope for the upcoming move:
How will you make it on your own?
This world is awfully big
And girl, this time you’re all alone
But it’s time you started living
It’s time you let someone else do some giving
The lyrics for the second season and beyond had Mary already in the Twin Cities, charming everyone around her:
Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day
And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well, it’s you girl and you should know it
With each and every little movement you show it
Both versions ended with the same chorus:
Love is all around, no need to fake it
You can have the town, why don’t you take it?
You’re gonna make it after all!
Well, kind of the same. The first season version said “You might just make it after all,” while subsequent seasons used the more upbeat, “You’re gonna make it after all.”
As noted, “Love is All Around” was written and performed by Sonny Curtis. Mr. Curtis was a member of Buddy Holly’s Crickets and continued with that group after Mr. Holly’s tragic death. He also wrote “I Fought the Law,” which was a hit for the Bobby Fuller Four and “More Than I Can Say” for Leo Sayer.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show ran on the CBS television network for seven seasons, from September 19, 1970, through March 19, 1977. Over the years, the show and its stars won 29 Emmy Awards and Mary Tyler Moore became America’s darling. (As if she wasn’t already from her portrayal of Laurie Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show.
TV critic Lance Morrow wrote this about the show in Time magazine:
“In many places around the U.S., The Mary Tyler Moore Show changed the nature of Saturday nights; it even became fashionable to spend them at home. The show turned the situation comedy into something like an art form—a slight art form perhaps, but a highly polished one. MTM was the sitcom that was intellectually respectable. The writing, acting and directing on MTM have been the best ever displayed in TV comedy. Owing much to Moore, who always set a tone of perfectionism, the show has been technically superb and beautifully paced.”
To jog your memories, if they need jogging, today’s daily bonus video of the day brings you three different opening sequences from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Which one(s) do you remember best?
