A celebrity I follow recently attended "Beautiful" on Broadway in New York, a tribute to legendary singer-songwriter Carole King.

In looking up something on Carole's Wikipedia page, I saw a rather interesting/surprising note in her television credits. It said that she played "Aunt Helen" in a 1975 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Anyone Who Hates Kids and Dogs" (S5, E24, which was confirmed in a TMTMS ep guide)!!!!

I'm gonna try to watch this ep as soon as I can get some time - Mary finds herself in a quandary when she comes to the realization that she just cannot stand the young son of the handsome man she has been dating - but until I do, does anybody remember the Aunt Helen character? Or recall whether a big deal was made about Carole King (Carole King Larkey at the time) being on the show? Or know anything about how this came about?

It's the first I've read about this, but how cool!

Cool!
I've never seen Mary Tyler Moore, but I'm planning to do it soon, and Carole King is one of my favorite songwriters.

(and I didn't know she made an appearance also on Gilmore Girls, which I saw :\ )

watch?v=axm1pUpyjjM

watch?v=TfylGVFBBpo

Thanks for posting!

She was very good!

And again ... who knew?!

A celebrity I follow recently attended "Beautiful" on Broadway in New York, a tribute to legendary singer-songwriter Carole King.

In looking up something on Carole's Wikipedia page, I saw a rather interesting/surprising note in her television credits. It said that she played "Aunt Helen" in a 1975 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "Anyone Who Hates Kids and Dogs" (S5, E24, which was confirmed in a TMTMS ep guide)!!!!

I'm gonna try to watch this ep as soon as I can get some time - Mary finds herself in a quandary when she comes to the realization that she just cannot stand the young son of the handsome man she has been dating - but until I do, does anybody remember the Aunt Helen character? Or recall whether a big deal was made about Carole King (Carole King Larkey at the time) being on the show? Or know anything about how this came about?

It's the first I've read about this, but how cool!

Yes, I remember the Carole King character, but I must be honest: I had seen that episode numerous times and never realized it was her (it was a small part). Then several months ago I was watching it with a couple friends and one of them exclaimed, "That's Carole King. Rewind!"

Notwithstanding the surprise appearance of Carole King, it's a very, very funny episode. There are several great scenes. It also features the great character actress, Mabel Albertson, who seemed to play everyone's mother-in-law in the '60s and '70s. She was the sister of Jack "Chico and the Man" Albertson. And playing Mary's boyfriend in the episode is Laurence Luckinbill of Star Trek movie fame, and husband of Lucie Arnaz/son-in-law of Lucy and Desi.