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In ComedyFilm/TV

A Debt of Gratitude: Mary Tyler Moore built the foundation of modern television

By Ken Reidon

The day Mary Tyler Moore died, I was sitting in a television studio in the appropriately named Studio City California watching a taping of a CBS sitcom.

Wandering around the studio I came across a plaque on the wall; eerily this very studio was built by Mary Tyler Moore and the show named after her was filmed there. She was not a creation of television, she was one of the creators of modern television as we know it. Without her vision and business savvy as a producer, modern comedy and modern culture would be missing its foundation.

Mary Tyler _ Ken Reid

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As a fan of Elvis movies (there are a few of us) I also always enjoyed her work in 1969’s Change of Habit. A late period Elvis movie on the cusp of blaxploitation in which Elvis plays a Karate chopping Inner City Doctor who cures autistic children through tickling (for real) and teams up with undercover nun, Mary Tyler Moore, to combat an evil banker exploiting the downtrodden city dwellers. Moore is charming and mesmerizing as always but also manages to bring a realness and gravity to what is a patently bizarre movie, which some great songs.

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We all owe Mary Tyler Moore a debt of gratitude -- for being an inspiration, for being an innovator, for creating works that have entertained and enriched. The 20th century would not have been the same without her, and the world is a much better place for her having been in it. She will be deeply missed.

Ken Reid is the host of the TV Guidance Counselor podcast and is a Boston-based comedian. Follow him on Twitter @KennethWReid.

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