Did you like Mary better with long or short hair??

[MaryMorgenstern]

Originally Posted by Dianne3

Mary really aged between the last episode of season 2 and the first episode of season 3 when she first had short hair.
It was the biggest change in looks between seasons.

Mary looked good in seasons 4 & 5, but looked old again in season 6 with that awful perm. Season 7 she was okay.

I don't have a preference, but hated seeing her look old.
But as already mentioned, it was more than her hair that aged her.

Something else - When Mary had longer hair, you saw more scenes with her in her skimpy night gown. By the time she moved to her 2nd place, no more scenes with skimpy night gowns.

Not only this, but I notice Mary is in pants almost all the time in season 5. In earlier seasons she never work pants to work at all. Her whole look was much less sophisticated, much more dainty and feminine.
I also noticed a hardness to Mary in season 4 that was not there previously. At times she seemed downright mean.

I've just recently gotten into the show and I miss the longer haired/dress wearing Mary of the early seasons. I really adore the opening of the first 3 seasons. It's so inspiring seeing a young Mary running around wearing dainty, girly clothes and looking pretty but still being independent and very much her own woman.
In contrast I was sort of appalled by the the season 4 opening. I hated the the masculine pants suits and hated the hair and the awful tan. Her whole demeanor was different. She seemed cynical in that newer opening and was no longer "sweet". Was this to please the growing feminist climate at that time?
I really don't understand what happened between season 3 and 4 and even between season 2 and 3. It disappoints me.
I'm on season 5 now but tempted to go back and start over from season 1 which was some of the best tv ever.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Retro4Life

Are we 100 percent confirmed that that longer hair was a wig? I never heard that before. Anybody have a source?

I liked her longer hair, and I don't agree that at some point all women have to 'transition' to shorter hair. But I will agree that since most people have a prejudice against gray hair, the shorter hair as you age makes sense because it's less noticeable in shorter hair. Sad that we're still so rigid about beauty standards.

I still have to marvel at how young Mary looked in that first season. She certainly didn't look her real age of 33!

She wore wigs often, and it’s noticeable when episodes are binged. Her hair in the Chuckles the Clown episode is an obvious wig.

In one later episode when Mary goes to a convention in DC, MTM eschews the wig and you can see that her real hair is thin and stringy.

[biffbronson]

Bump:

I've transcribed part of a 1999 Larry King interview with Mary, side-by-side with Dick Van Dyke, in which Mary's longer hair is addressed (from very early on in her series). No mention of wigs, but of a cut.

LK = Larry King
MTM = Mary Tyler Moore
DVD = Dick Van Dyke

LK: "Why were you wearing long hair, in that scene we just saw?"

MTM: "Because, we [DVD & MTM] had made such a strong impression, everybody thought we were married, and they thought if I go on as having left a boyfriend as a new character they will think she left Dick Van Dyke, and that was unacceptable, nobody would ever... [difficult to decipher, as LK talks over]"

LK: "So how long did you have that hair, long like that?"

MTM: "Just a year, and then I felt everyone had forgotten you [DVD] and I could cut my hair..."
__________________________

So gorgeous with her longer dark hair - - extremely hot in this image:

[Alan Brady's Hair]

everybody thought we were married

I've never met anyone who thought Mary Tyler Moore and Dick van Dyke were married. It's like the Gilligan's Island thing, where they keep saying that people thought they were really trapped on the island. I have no doubt such people existed, but in a country of 200 million people at the time you had any number of psychotics who could sign up to believe anything. They weren't the norm in the country.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

Bump:

I've transcribed part of a 1999 Larry King interview with Mary, side-by-side with Dick Van Dyke, in which Mary's longer hair is addressed (from very early on in her series). No mention of wigs, but of a cut.

LK = Larry King
MTM = Mary Tyler Moore
DVD = Dick Van Dyke

LK: "Why were you wearing long hair, in that scene we just saw?"

MTM: "Because, we [DVD & MTM] had made such a strong impression, everybody thought we were married, and they thought if I go on as having left a boyfriend as a new character they will think she left Dick Van Dyke, and that was unacceptable, nobody would ever... [difficult to decipher, as LK talks over]"

LK: "So how long did you have that hair, long like that?"

MTM: "Just a year, and then I felt everyone had forgotten you [DVD] and I could cut my hair..."
__________________________

She really didn't answer the question. Her hair was never that long on DVD.

I wish she had kept it that long.

[1960'sTVfan]

I prefer the way she looked on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Didn't care all that much for her looks when she had her own show.

[stevea]

Originally Posted by 1960'sTVfan

I prefer the way she looked on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Didn't care all that much for her looks when she had her own show.

For one thing, she was nearly a decade older.

[GentlemanJim]

When I watch those old DVD episodes, I am overwhelmed by how skinny both DVD and MTM appear. They look like concentration camp survivors to me, their arms are so thin.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by stevea

For one thing, she was nearly a decade older.

Agreed.

[MichaelKeith]

MTM was a very attractive woman. I liked her look in all of her TV shows. Remember, she was a main character on DVD and the lead in MTMS, so she had to reflect the styles of the day of the period in which the shows were filmed. In her own show, I liked her hair shorter better. Shoulder length looked really good on her. She had a good sense of style.

[1960'sTVfan]

Originally Posted by MichaelKeith

MTM was a very attractive woman. I liked her look in all of her TV shows. Remember, she was a main character on DVD and the lead in MTMS, so she had to reflect the styles of the day of the period in which the shows were filmed. In her own show, I liked her hair shorter better. Shoulder length looked really good on her. She had a good sense of style.

I agree that in The Dick Van Dyke Show she resembled a 1960's woman, and in her own series she resembled a 1970's woman.

[biffbronson]

Mary had such a pretty face, it's interesting to see how she looked wearing different hairstyles. I did like her later style with bangs on The Dick Van Dyke Show,
I thought she looked so cute tucking her tresses behind her ears. Beautiful dark hair for sure. She was insanely hot on that series...!

Let's have a look at Mary's longer hair on TMTMS, at times partially pulled back which allowed for tasteful earrings on display. A very lovely woman!



Mary wearing boots, nice! Likely her hair is at its longest,
approaching bra-strap length. From the pilot ep, I believe:




Here we have the type of outfit we needed to see on
TMTMS. Mary is looking so hot in shorts! One
of the finest bodies of all TV women ever:


I have to say I love Mary's expression in this image:




What a pleasure it is to study this lovely lady. Even playing a reserved and
somewhat chaste character on her series, she brings a very appealing
sexuality and serves as a model for '70s fashions of the highest order.

[MichaelKeith]

Yes, Mary was a beauty. I think I read that the long hair she wore in Season 1 and part of two was a wig. She seemed to prefer shorter hair for herself. I think they put the wig on her to differentiate the Mary character more from her Laura Petrie character. I believe I read that.