Jan 26, 2017 3 min read

I thought I was a Mary. In fact, I was probably more the Rhoda type, but I fancied myself a Mary Richards, the TV news associate producer who never repeated an outfit and who had that cool apartment with the big M on the wall.

The death of Mary Tyler Moore has brought leagues of female journalists to the web and the microphones, each telling of how it was MTM, through her TV alter ego, who inspired them to pursue their careers. As a journalist who worked for many years in a television newsroom, I would like to say MTM was my career role model. But that’s not exactly true.

Oh, I idolized Mary Richards. She and her silly cadre of newsroom buddies were part of my Saturday nights for all of my junior high and high school years. We would attend Mass on Saturday evenings, come home, make popcorn, and all of us would sprawl around the family room and watch the line-up of “Mary Tyler Moore,” “Newhart” and then “The Carol Burnett Show.”

So I’m 12, 13 or 14, sitting there watching this beautiful brunette at her newsroom desk, writing scripts, scheduling filming, making big decisions about what stories to cover. It was all glamorous and prestigious. She was an Associate Producer!, a job so important in my estimation that it required capital letters.

Unlike Katie Couric and Oprah Winfrey and my TV colleagues, I do not credit MTM with inspiring my career in TV news. That decision came much later, in college. The pre-teen Beth did not dream big dreams like that.

But other things rubbed off. Even at my young age, I could see that Mary Richards was on to something, in the way she commanded her time, in the way she interacted with friends, and in the way she dressed and lived. Her world, as seen on the TV screen, was not big; it went from apartment to newsroom and back. But Mary moved within that world with a kind of confidence and independence that I knew I wanted.

Of course, back then, everything I knew about TV news was gleaned from that show. Associate Producer? The very name felt lofty and rich. It wasn’t until 10 years later, when I landed my first job in a real TV newsroom, that I learned that associate producer is an entry-level job – important to the everyday workings of a newsroom but not the person to make any big or even medium-sized decisions. No way would Mary Richards have afforded those faboo outfits on an associate producer’s salary. Or that apartment.

It’s fun to watch the old shows now and see how little the sitcom newsroom resembles a real one. Unlike Ted Baxter, real anchormen aren’t buffoons who stand up to read the news. And newsrooms are much noisier and more crowded than the sparse, quiet little place where Mary worked.

But they did get the camaraderie part right. I liked Mary’s relationships with Murray and Sue Ann and Ted and especially Mr. Grant. As MTM has said, they were a family, and I was once a part of a newsroom family, too.

But when the news of MTM’s death came this week, I mostly thought of my own family, the one that sat together to watch the show every Saturday night. It’s an unforgettable and warm picture from my childhood. I thank Mary – actually both Marys – for giving me that.

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.