Don't listen to the negative reviews

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Still the greatest show on television since the movie Grease. Mary Richards is a character she plays, its not really her. Gary Tyler Moore is a character I play, its not really me, it is but I don't think anyone can pretend and be that happy. The costumes for The Mary Tyler Moore show are incredible, if you see Mary Moore walking around town and she always is you never know who she is. Shes doing about 200 shows right now. Right now what were doing is dropping the vocals for The Gary Tyler Moore show so you hear that full orchestra, that who can turn the Ruins the track. We may even have redo a lot. Im from Ventura California man I was born to drive. Valeria Harper who plays Rhoda is not getting any worse, but shes not getting any better, mary has diabetes. Ashley Malmen who was slated to play Rhoda, was killed by a drunk driver two years ago. That turned my shoes black. Well look out for Mary, cause she maybe standing right next to you.

I never caught MTM when it was originally on. I didn't watch much television and the idea of a sitcom about a single woman had no interest to me. Then, after it was cancelled, a local TV station started showing two shows a night, back to back, and I started watching. At first I wasn't impressed. The early 70s fashions and hairstyles were horrific, the acting uneven, the topics dated and Moore occasionally overacted. But, as the series progressed, the writing got better, the cast got more comfortable with their roles and Moore toned it down a little. I still don't like the first season too much. It does introduce us to all the characters but it just seemed kind of forced. Also it was somewhat sexist. At one point Moore actually does Lou Grants' laundry! OK OK--his wife had left him but still... After the first season though the series picked up speed and just got better and better. It also showed a single woman living alone and liking it--a rarity for TV on those days. It even hinted that she had an off screen sex life. It also found humor in some taboo subjects. When Chuckles the Clown is inadvertently killed in one episode they actually made his death seem funny! Supposedly (according to Moores' autobiography)no one wanted to do it and some crew people were "sick" the week it was filmed. That episode went on the win a few Emmys and is considered a true classic. Also Moores' character got more liberated--especially during the last season. She got a steady boyfriend (Ted Bessell) and, at one point, gives him a long passionate kiss right in front of Lou Grant, Ted Baxter and Murray Slaughter. It all ends perfectly in the last episode. No one was killed but everybody (except for Ted Baxter) is fired and they all leave the office singing! A true classic of TV. Well worth seeing.

Seriously! 30+ years later you still have to reference this show when discussing the Great American Sitcom. And, this is it. After all of these years, there is nothing quite Mary as Mary. No show has ever been better casted than this one. Each and every character was nailed to a tee by the actor/actress chosen for his/her role. Could Mary been played by anyone other than Mary Tyler Moore? Ted Baxter by anyone other than the late Ted Knight? Lou Grant! By anyone other than the oh-so-perfect Ed Asner? Murray? Gavin MacLeod pre-Love Boat! Rhoda!!!! Could anyone have nailed this better? Thank you Valerie Harper. No other faux-Jew could have matched you.

As a 25-year-old woman, it's a shame that the so-called "feminist icons" of my day have been klutzy, man-hungry ninny Ally McBeal and tabloid wench Paris Hilton. I've really come to envy women who had real feminist heroes, real or fictional, such as Gloria Steinem, Bea Arthur as "Maude", and, of course, Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" isn't just an excellent sitcom with perfectly realized characters, but it featured an imperfect but winning heroine that any woman could look up to. Mary was a sweet-natured thirty-something who alternated between being high-strung and confident. She happily lived alone and had a loyal gal pal in smart mouthed New Yorker Rhoda (the incomparable Valerie Harper). Mary also was an associate TV producer at the low-rated WJM news network, where she had the respect of her male co-workers, including her arch-conservative boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner), wisecracking but tender-hearted work buddy Murray Slaugher (Gavin McLeod), and buffoonish anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight). Not that everyone loved Mary... she constantly had to deal with her insufferable, overbearingly perky landlady Phyllis (Cloris Leachman). When Phyllis was written out of the show, WJM's "Happy Homemaker" Sue Ann Nivens (flawless Betty White) replaced her as Mary's foil. Passive-aggressive and sex-starved, Sue Ann was a hilarious combination of Blanche from "The Golden Girls" and Harriet Nelson. Best of all, the show had running gags that somehow never went stale: Mary's tendency to attract the wrong men, her disastrous dinner parties, Ted's slips of the tongue on the air, Lou's annoyance at being the lowest-rated TV network, and Rhoda's quest for the perfect husband. An addictive show that didn't wear out its welcome in its seven year run, "MTM" is a shining example of great writing, fully developed characters, and perfect casting that has never been equaled. It was a show with spunk... we need spunk!