Laugh and the World Laughs With You
But, the seventies weren't all blockbusting docos. We knew how to have a laugh back then. The black comedy of M*A*S*H became an enduring and endearing hit. The series finished in 1983, and nearly 20 years later is still a staple of TV schedules thanks to re-runs. The final episode drew one of the America's largest audiences for a single programme - 125 million viewers. The series' 251 episodes was nominated for 99 Emmy awards, and collected on 14 of them - including best writer, director AND actor awards for series star Alan Alda. (There is something slightly surreal about seeing Alda play a doctor in the current series of ER - I swear he really looks like he knows what he's doing by now!).
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a magnificent example of ensemble playing (that later became a trademark with other MTM-produced shows, such as Hill Street Blues and Lou Grant). MTM insisted on well developed characters and plots - and there were times when the series could make us laugh, then cry, and then laugh - all in the space of about thirty seconds. An equally popular (and equally well-made) spin off was Rhoda, featuring the irrepressibly Jewish Rhoda Morganstern (played by Valerie Harper). (Ironically, neither Valerie Morgan, nor her screen mother Nancy Walker were actually Jewish). When Rhoda divorced her husband, Joe, the world came to a temporary standstill. The best jokes went to the Rhoda's doorman, Carlton. And why not? Carlton's voice was supplied by the series' producer, Lorenzo Music.
On the other hand, there were "comedy" series emerging from the US that could only be called funny by a stretch of the imagination. The Brady Bunch et al may have been made into a gently ironic and funny movie, but in the seventies, we didn't know that flares were funny. Many such series were rightly consigned to TV oblivion, otherwise known as Cable TV.
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