A Look Back at 'MARY' 1985

Nine season, after her classic hit THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW went off the air, Mary Tyler Moore tired the situation comedy genre once again, this time in MARY.

Mary premiered December 11, 1985 on CBS. The supporting cast featured a young Kate Sagal and John Astin (Addams Family).

n Mary, Moore plays Mary Brenner, a 40-ish divorcée working at a second rate tabloid, the Chicago Eagle. She had formerly been a high-profile writer at a fashion magazine which had recently gone out of business and was now reduced to writing a consumer-assistance column, "Helpline", helping to expose substandard business practices and products and the often uncaring reaction of government to these problems. Her boss, Managing Editor Frank DeMarco, concentrated on sensationalism as he was convinced as that was what really sold papers. He was also quite a ladies' man, and was attracted to Mary, as she was to him, but she found dealing with that situation to be quite awkward.

Other characters on the show were a chain-smoking columnist, Jo Tucker, played by Katey Sagal. A Theater Critic and a nearly blind copy editor. The first few episodes featured neighbors for MARY, but a retooling of the series eliminated them completely before the end of the series.

MARY only lasted 13 episodes, and was canceled in April after its episode order was completed. It ranked #60 for the season and averaged a 13.5 Household rating. The series may have been doomed before it even aired as the network actually aired an original episode on Christmas Night.