Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: A History of the Mary Tyler Moore Show by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

Author:Jennifer Keishin Armstrong [Armstrong, Jennifer Keishin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781451659207
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-05-07T07:00:00+00:00

(1972–73)

Treva Silverman liked to hang out in the Mary Tyler Moore offices on the lot, smoking grass with the boys after a day of sitting at her desk writing and revising. Amid the occasional clacks of typewriters working overtime and gales of laughter over shared joke ideas, she would puff on a pungent joint or eat one of her home-baked brownies. Lorenzo Music—a husky, dark, brilliant writer-producer—had great stuff, and it was the perfect way to unwind after another packed day on the set. She felt comfortable with Brooks and Burns, as well as Music. Once she’d been made story editor, she spent all of her time on the lot with them. They hung out wherever they could safely smoke joints, usually in their offices on the MTM lot. They all spent most of their after-hours stoned, except Burns. He loved to go home to his wife.

Silverman particularly enjoyed hanging out with Music and was knocked out by his warm-up performances. He was so subtle and silly and hilarious as the warm-up guy, entertaining the audience before the show and in between set changes, that she once whispered to him, “Don’t be so funny. You’re better than the show!” The workplace was becoming Treva’s family, just as Mary’s had become hers.

The MTM offices had turned out to be a dream come true, everything Silverman could have hoped for back when she was toiling away at piano bars. Silverman knew how lucky she was to have her job. The show was now part of what many have called the best lineup in network history, CBS’s 1973–74 Saturday night: All in the Family, M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, and Carol Burnett. Silverman loved to sit on the steps to the offices reading a new script by one of her fellow writers almost as much as she enjoyed writing one of her own. It wasn’t that everyone in the group had a lack of ego—in fact, she thought it just might be the opposite: Their egos were so strong, in the healthiest of ways, that it allowed them to not feel competitive. All they wanted was the best possible show. They rarely got jealous when another writer wrote something great. They just thought, Wow. I want to do that, too. It was a heady time to be a sitcom writer, particularly for Mary Tyler Moore, and not just because of Treva’s brownies.

Brooks and Burns had instigated an unusual policy concerning a writer’s credits, a policy that showed enormous respect for writers. No matter how many revisions were made on a script by others, the original writer’s credit was kept intact. Even if a script was completely rewritten before it was shot, the producers would never adjust the credits. This policy ensured a level of collaboration rare on television shows. It also guaranteed that the original writer, once committed to an episode, would get all the royalties.

Silverman loved the work she was doing and felt herself growing as a writer. She learned to do the rewrites on someone else’s scripts in that writer’s voice.

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