The Mary Tyler Moore Show opening sequence is an element of the U.S. television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In 1999, Entertainment Weekly picked Mary Richards' hat toss at the end of the sequence as television's second greatest moment.[1] In 2010, TV Guide, ranked the sequence #3 on its list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.[2] The theme song, "Love Is All Around", was written and performed by Sonny Curtis.
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The opening title sequence for the show begins with the name of its star across the screen in Peignot font, which then multiplies both upward and downward vertically in a number of colors, followed by a montage of brief shots of Mary, mostly engaging in everyday activities around Minneapolis, as the theme song plays. In the final shot, she cheerfully tosses her tam o'shanter in the air in the middle of the street; a freeze-frame captures her smiling face and the hat in mid-air.
The sequence was created by Reza Badiyi who also did the opening sequence for Hawaii Five-O. Badiyi came up with the idea for the final shot, which Entertainment Weekly ranked as the second greatest moment in television.[1] An older woman can be seen in the background, obviously puzzled by the sight of a young woman tossing her hat in the air. This unwitting "extra" was Hazel Frederick, a lifelong Minnesota resident who happened to be out shopping the day the sequence was shot. Mrs. Frederick finally met Moore in 1994 when she was on a book tour for her autobiography, After All. Moore introduced Frederick as "my co-star".[3]
From 1973 to the series' conclusion, Mary is shown washing her car while wearing the #10 home jersey of Minnesota Vikings' quarterback Fran Tarkenton. Tarkenton and the Vikings had played in three Super Bowls around this time, the last in the 1976 season.
Some of the scenes show Mary interacting with crew members. In one, the camera pans over a shot of Mary eating at a restaurant with an older man, the actress' then-husband, Grant Tinker, who served as president of MTM Enterprises until 1981. Another scene shows Mary walking in the park, where she is passed by two joggers: creators James L. Brooks and Allan Burns.
In later seasons, Mary is shown looking at a package of meat at a supermarket, then rolling her eyes as she throws it into her shopping cart. This is a reference to the high consumer inflation during the mid-70s.[4] In 2009, CBS' Nancy Giles, commenting on the high cost of small packages of food, showed this clip and said that it seems only she and Mary Richards buy them.[5]
From season two onward, Moore's costars were also featured in the opening, with shots of Moore with Phyllis and Rhoda in Mary's apartment (seasons four and five featured Moore and Harper walking down a Minneapolis street laughing), and Mary hugging Lou, Murray and Ted (accidentally crushing Ted's fedora and then straightening it out), a scene from the end of the 1970 episode "Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid", using the actual scene during the second season, and a new re-staging of it for the fourth season onward.
| "Love Is All Around" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Sonny Curtis | |
| from the album Love Is All Around | |
| Released | July 1980 |
| Format | 7" |
| Recorded | 1980 |
| Length | 2:44 |
| Label | Elektra Records |
| Writer(s) | Sonny Curtis |
The theme song, "Love Is All Around", was written and performed by Sonny Curtis (often mistakenly attributed to Paul Williams; Pat Williams wrote the show's music). The first season's lyrics are words of encouragement directed to the character, referring to the end of a previous relationship and making a fresh start, beginning with "How will you make it on your own?" and concluding with "You might just make it after all."[6] The more familiar version of the song used in seasons 2-7 changed the lyrics to affirm her optimistic character, beginning with "Who can turn the world on with her smile?" and concluding with a more definitive "You're gonna make it after all."[7] An instrumental version of the tune was used for the show's closing credits.
An instrumental version of the song was used for the opening of Moore's 1979 variety series, The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. In 1980, Curtis released a full-length version of "Love is All Around." It reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
The song has been covered by artists such as Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Christie Front Drive, Sammy Davis Jr., and Twin Cities-based Hüsker Dü, the latter who also reproduced several scenes of the opening on location for their music video. The song was also featured in a long-running commercial for Chase bank in the mid-2000s, and was sung in the TV series 7th Heaven in the episode "In Praise of Women" during the birth of the Camden twins. A dance version was featured in the 1995 Isaac Mizrahi documentary Unzipped.
Many of the outdoor scenes in the opening sequence were filmed along Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. In 2001, The New York Times stated that it is not unusual for people walking along the mall to be so reminded of the show that they toss their hats in the air, as Mary did at the end of the sequence.[9]
The iconic hat toss was filmed at the intersection with 7th Street. On May 8, 2002, cable TV network TV Land dedicated an 8-foot (2.4 m) tall bronze statue of Moore tossing her hat near that intersection.[10] Many in the press were skeptical of TV Land's motive at first, some claiming it was a marketing strategy, and one Macalester College professor stating that it was "like honoring a unicorn."[11] Moore herself unveiled the statue, where 3,000 tams were distributed to the crowd of onlookers so they could participate in a commemorative hat toss.[10]
The Dayton's department store in the background of some of those scenes (later a Marshall Field's and now a Macy's) has changed considerably in appearance. In fact, the exact spot where the cap toss occurred was debated extensively, because the layout along Nicollet has changed substantially since the early 1970s due to urban renewal. The actual backdrop of the scene, the Donaldson's department store catercorner to the site, was destroyed in 1982 by the Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire.
The IDS Center was under construction when the original opening sequence was filmed. For an updated sequence used during the fourth season, Mary visited the recently completed IDS Center and was seen riding up the escalator in the Crystal Court. This exposure on prime-time television pre-dated, by two months, the official presentation by architect Philip Johnson of the completion of the project in Architectural Forum.[12] Another scene from the same building showed Mary dining with a man at what is now the Mary Tyler Moore table at Basil's Restaurant. In 2006, the manager of Basil's said that his customers still frequently request the table where Mary sat.[13] The IDS Center is located across the street from Midwest Plaza, which was used for establishing shots of Mary's workplace.[14]
Scenes showing Mary driving a white 1970 Ford Mustang toward Minneapolis in the first-season sequence were supposedly filmed on Interstate 494 (the Sheraton Bloomington, at the time a Radisson, can be seen in the background) and approaching downtown Minneapolis on the Trunk Highway 65 spur from northbound I-35W.
The sequence has been referenced and parodied numerous times. Oprah Winfrey recreated the entire opening sequence of the show in Chicago, with herself in the role of Mary. The All New Alexei Sayle Show parodies the opening credits in its opening sequence, with Alexei Sayle dancing through the streets of London to the theme song 'Life's a Big Banana Sandwich'. In the "Saturdays of Thunder" episode of The Simpsons (also produced by Mary Tyler Moore creator James L. Brooks), Homer criticizes his sister-in-law Patty's Mary Tyler Moore style hairdo, to which her sister Selma insists he be ignored, retorting, "You can turn the world on with your smile," in reference to the theme song's opening lyric.[15]
Often, the hat toss is the main focus of the parody. During the closing credits of the spin-off Rhoda, she also tries to fling her hat in the air while in the middle of Times Square, but it just falls to the ground and she must sheepishly pick it up. In the episode "And Maggie Makes Three" of The Simpsons, while working at a bowling alley, Homer spins around singing, "I'm gonna make it after all!", and tosses a bowling ball in the air. In the first episode of Suddenly Susan, Brooke Shields' character hears the theme song from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and throws her remote control in the air. It hits her in the head.[16] Peter Griffin wins a piano competition in the Family Guy episode "Wasted Talent" by playing "Love is all around." Afterwards, a girl throws her hat in the air and freezes, while those around her look perplexed as to why she is not moving. On the series Girlfriends, Maya throws her hat in the air after arriving in New York City to meet with a book publisher; the hat is caught by someone walking nearby, who runs off with it.
In the first season Scrubs episode, "My 15 Minutes", Elliot takes a cab downtown at night. The 'Mary Tyler Moore' theme plays as Elliot emerges from her cab. She twirls around and tosses her hat into the air and the music stops with a jolt when a young man bumps into her. He grabs the hat and sticks it on his head and keeps walking.
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