TV Show Review: Mary Tyler Moore Starter Set

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Four laugh out loud funny episodes for a cheap price

Cons: Already part of the first season set

The Bottom Line:

Four reasons to laugh

But skip this disc and just buy

The full season set

Four Top Notch Episodes

In a recent effort to get casual fans interested in their TV products on DVD, Fox has released four episode starter sets of several of their shows. Reasonably priced, they tempt the viewer to buy the first season and even provide a coupon for the purchase price of the sampler off the price of the complete first season set. The casual fan has little to loose.

This set offers four of the funniest episodes from the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

"Love is All Around" is one of my favorite TV pilots ever, expertly introducing us to the characters we'd grow to love as the series progressed. It finds Mary Richards moving to Minneapolis and starting her job on the six o'clock news for WJM, a local TV station. We meet her co-workers, boss Lou Grant, writer Murray Slaughter, and news anchor Ted Baxter. In addition, we meet her neighbors - upstairs neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern and free spirit Phyllis Lindstrom. Along the way, Mary must make a decision about the fiancee she left behind.

"Support Your Local Mother" brings Rhoda's Mom for a visit from New York City. When Rhoda refuses to see her mom, Mary fills in as host. Soon, Mary begins to see why Rhoda has a hard time dealing with her mother.

"Toulouse-Lautrec Is One of My Favorite Artists" finds Mary confronting the realization that she's a height bigot when a charming but shorter man asks her out.

"The Snow Must Go On" places Mary in charge of election night coverage. Vowing they won't go off the air until they get final results, Mary must keep Ted going when they are cut off from any source of news for the entire night.

Of course, the problem with this disc is that any fan of the show has had two and a half years to get the complete first season by now. But if you are a casual fan, this disc will give you four top notch episodes from the first season of this classic sit-com. They are classics and the first four I go back to watch from my own set.