@rcruz4510 I saw this show when it premiered in 1978, and I thought it was awful and boring. I didn't bother watching it again - it was canceled after only 3 weeks! In fact, CBS canceled this mess after the 2nd week but had nothing to replace it with so they aired one more episode. Now seeing this in 2023, it's WORSE than I thought! Even in 1978, it is RARE for any show to be canceled after only 2 episodes! This is very awkward to watch. Her follow up variety show in 1979 was just as BAD.

what makes it that bad? Its still better than most TV today.

I know she has alot of fans who will say anything she was in was great but I'm not one of those. The Mary Tyler Moore show was iconic ,but this " stunk to high heaven. Not funny at all. The jokes were cringe and I felt 2nd hand embarrassment when she pulled a Carol Burnett and took questions from the audience. Grant Tinker and a producer from Carol's show tried to warn her that variety was over but I guess it was always her dream to host one

@@user-sp6jk3zz5b The writers thought they could get away with writing the questions for Mary to answer, and have scripted responses. Carol didn't do that. Somehow she had just the right funny response to just about every question. Part of her genius might've been listening to Garry Moore take questions on his own show, which were not shown on TV but he answered questions with funny responses during commercials. Also, I am fairly sure that Carol was asked the same questions on some shows, and I would also dare say that some questions may not have gotten the laugh she wanted, and she would try to come up with a better response if the same question was asked on another show. I'd like to know how many times she was actually asked to do the Tarzan yell, and how often they would air her doing one. I'm sure she obliged each time, but you can't have her doing the Tarzan yell each show!

@ronscurti1269 It was unprecedented in 1978 for a network to cancel a show this quickly! Her follow-up in 1979, a variety show within a sitcom, was just as bad! That lasted only 11 weeks. She tried another MTM-ish sitcom in 1985, that lasted 13 weeks.

@@CoopyKat I think the idea was this was a "spoof" of a variety show and it seemed clever on paper but didn't deliver in person.

@ronscurti1269 I remember watching the first episode in 1978, and it did nothing for me. Now I'm re-watching it for the first time, and it is just AWFUL. CBS cancelled this the 2nd week, but showed it a third week with nothing to replace it yet. That is an incredibly fast cancellation in 1978!

No, this actually was a short-lived series.

@kennixox262 CBS canceled this show in it's second week! But they aired one more episode, making it 3 episodes aired, because they had nothing to replace it with.

Shows like Sonny and Cher and Carol Burnett had top notch writers and choreographers. Mary had Merill Markoe, who is a fine writer, but not for a format like this. The producers and writers for Carol, Sonny and Cher knew exactly what they were capable of doing and wrote to best suit their talents. The writers of Mary didn't do that... Letterman doesn't sing or dance, yet he was subjected to both. James Hampton and Michael Keaton are both fine actors, but they don't really have the right chemistry to pull off a variety format. Dick Shawn... funny guy, but his talents were never really given the attention they deserved.

I once her her say in an interview that she’s not a funny person. She really isn’t.

+littlemikey1954 Impossible. This show was dreadful, absolutely dreadful. Unfunny with a capital "U". Stupid skits, lame jokes, terrible musical numbers. This show sucked, period.

The show was rushed into production. MTM wanted a variety format, always loved singing and dancing. CBS wanted to get her as soon as possible. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was quite controversial for its time, and because of "lack of suitable content", CBS gave them the axe. Oddly enough, when they returned in '75, CBS asked them to be edgy and controversial, but the Smothers Brothers replied "thanks but no thanks"... they DID controversial, now they just wanted a fun show with no headaches. Of the cast, Letterman was by far the least ready for a show like this. He looks very uncomfortable and gives these knowing looks into the camera to suggest "you know I am out of my league, and I know I am out of my league... just try to enjoy the show." In case Mary's monologue sounds a bit "Letterman-esque", that's because Letterman's long time girlfriend Marilyn Markoe was one of the show's writers. In essence, Markoe helped develop Letterman's on screen persona. In the book Letterman, Markoe was also involved in creating some of the shenanigans seen on Letterman's daytime show. Once, Letterman was locked out of the studio, and hidden cameras captured him trying to get in through other doors. He was quite upset with Markoe later for doing this to him for the show.

@@TWS-pd5dci agree

Leonard Barr. He was in the James Bond film "Diamonds are Forever" too.

@@calvinsaxon5822 Mary did come across as a narcissist in interviews, I think she loved the idea of being in front of the camera again just for the sake of that and wasn't interested in anything good necessarily. This show was horrific, and most people don't even know it existed.

A Krenwinkle -- This is my first time seeing this show, and I agree. My stomach was doing flips watching her do those horrible jokes...and doing them poorly. But I guess she was like Gene Wilder. Wilder once said, in an interview, that he was a comic actor...NOT a funny person. And there's a huge difference between the two. Oh, and Letterman said that he HATED doing this show...LOL!

@@Newton14alan This show, called "Mary," was yanked quickly, then replaced with this: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m6eeoaV_15_Dfas.html I saw them both when they were first broadcast, as well as 2 half hour sitcoms in the 80s, and realized her first eponymous series was a fluke, having the best people to rely on, like James Brooks, that one time... because as strange as it seems, this remarkable comedy actress with so much experience never developed a sense of humor.

@@akrenwinkle --- Thanks for the heads-up. I think I'll download it, and hang on to it as a conversation piece. ...Nah, I'll just put it in my "cringe" folder. ...Be well.

@@akrenwinkle MTM’s breakthrough was “The Dick Van Dyke Show”. It also had top talent.

@@cbalducc NO! Well, I'll certainly have to look into this.

Her age didn't matter, its that she looked way older than 40, IMO.

No, she is an Extrovert.

And how would you know that?

Ken M I always heard she was more like her character in Ordinary People, just standoffish; but she also explained why she sometimes doesn't talk to people is she can't see them due to her poor vision from worsening diabetes.

lies

She admitted to her awkwardness in her autobiography and blamed a lot of her aloofness to the fact her father was somewhat like that I think she felt hard to relate to people, also most of the time she would not even know someone was beside her due to her diabetic blindness. At any rate, I've always loved her she's always be my favorite #1 TV idol!

She doesn't talk to ANYONE these days............she's gone.

I disagree. Michael & David were 2 of the bright bulbs of the show when given a chance to shine. The musical numbers were the worst part of the show. Mary & Swoozie were both wonderful comic actresses. They just needed better writers.

I think it was bad writing & being born after variety shows I just never was exposed to them. The star wars holiday special was horrific & it was a variety show. They put the most popular movie in history & biggest money maker ever at that time & it was awful. I love 70s pop culture & the only variety show that was pretty good was the sonny & cher show when they were married. Maybe I just loved chers bob Mackie outfits. So it's like a cross between sketch comedy & singing & dancing. Micheal & dave i think were fine just not used correctly. Theirs a lot of talent on the show but w/o good writing it will fail. I saw a dance number with the cast with dave Micheal swoozie mary & the rest of the cast & it reminded me of our grammar school productions with the choreography . Great time capsule to see up & coming big stars but if not for that it's pretty bad. Mary is not a comedian. She is comedic actress but it's different. I'm surprised she got another shot the next year which failed. I guess she really liked Keaton but he was so young & out if place with the older cast. I think he was just an usher. I think dave in that one was a contributor but not part of the cast. I guess his dream was to do a talk show of his own. He did not try to go into acting or be on snl. Looks like just a leg up in the industry which is very hard to get when u think of all the pilots that never air. America loved its variety shows in the 70s I guess. It just seems like too much thrown it. A show kinda has to be one thing. Mary looks to be trying very hard though & she isnt a bad dancer & her singing is not horrible.

You're right. It was literally made to replace Carol Burnett's old variety show.