Mary Tyler Moore's One Time 1976 Variety Special "Mary's Incredible Dream" - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

JamesG · 02-17-2010, 02:52 PM

Mary's Incredible And Very Expensive Dream
Monday, February 15, 2010

Of all the many variety shows and specials on network TV in the '70s, the strangest may have been Mary's Incredible Dream.

This was a Mary Tyler Moore special that aired in 1976. Moore had already decided that the next season of her show would be the last, and was hoping to launch a variety show as her next project. And she made it clear in interviews that she saw this special -- created and written by Jack Good, who also did the Monkees' "33 1/2 Revolutions Per Monkee" special -- as a test run for what a Mary Tyler Moore variety hour might be like:

"As a performer I can go to my grave happy now. I've done everything I want to do," she told Marilyn Beck. "I'm talking to Jack Good about doing a weekly musical variety show. Since he created and produced my special, I'm convinced he can do anything."

Beck also revealed that Moore was really enthusiastic about the special -- or if she wasn't, she was at least trying to seem that way:

Mary's so convinced the special is the best thing ever to hit the airwaves she's been talking it up to anyone who will listen. And has been cornering so many of her friends for preview cassette-unit glimpses of the all-musical hour that actress Betty White finally told her teasingly, "It's a shame you don't put it on TV, instead of showing it door to door."

It's basically a standard variety special in a lot of ways: glitzy, cheesy musical numbers, and a song list that spans about five decades (making sure everyone in the audience will like at least some of the songs). But it has no sketches or any dialogue for anyone except the narrator -- plus one line of dialogue for Mary at the beginning -- and instead connects the musical numbers with what Moore called "a story of the eternal cycle of man.

If viewers don't want to follow the story they can just enjoy the music and dancing." (Update: There is also a bit of talking in the form of Chicago-style introductions to the songs, and Moore has one other line of dialogue in the course of the special, to someone on the

"I can't talk now, I'm having this incredible dream.")

The fact that Moore, who usually kept a low media profile at the time, was out there plugging the special in the press was an indication that she really wanted to make a case for it, and for Jack Good's bizarre mish-mash of music, religion, philosophy, and high-in-every-sense-of-the-word camp.

Of course, you could read some of her praise for Good as being almost the same as blame, pointing out in advance that the whole concept was his, not hers: "When he came to me with the idea," Moore told UPI's Vernon Scott, "I told him he had carte blanche. Without any structure or guidelines from me, Jack produced a unique, no-holds-barred musical happening."

At least it was an attempt to do something different; that can't be denied. And it's remembered a bit more fondly than the variety show she finally did do (without Good) after her sitcom ended:

Mary was a disaster, and so was the retooled sitcom/variety hybrid The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Moore was like the opposite of singer/dancers who want to prove they can act: she'd proved herself as an actress, but wanted to be taken seriously as an all-around entertainer.

But whether it's this special, where she tries to talk-sing her way through "I'm Still Here" or make a decent try of Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields's "Nobody Does It Like Me", or her flop stage musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, she's not exactly a top-tier entertainer.

Even on her own show, Georgia Engel's version of "Steam Heat" was better than most musical numbers Moore did without Dick Van Dyke around. And this special probably is a better showcase for Ben Vereen, in one of his first big TV parts, than Moore, who gets to do all the stuff she's only OK at and little of the stuff she's great at (delivery of and reaction to dialogue).

But it is what it is, and I can't help enjoying it just for the strangeness of it all. This is a special that ends with Mary Tyler Moore as a pink angel, floating and spinning in front of religious symbols and clouds while singing "Morning Has Broken."

This is a special with Arthur Fiedler conducting the "Hallelujah Chorus" in heaven; a historical version of "Sh-Boom," and Jerome Kern's "She Didn't Say Yes" retrofitted as a song about the temptation of Eve. TV really could be pleasantly insane in the mid-'70s.

Also, any special that begins with the "CBS Special" logo and ends with the MTM kitten is a special that gets a few extra points just for logo coolness.

Go to the link to watch the special - http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2010/02/...expensive.html

TV Knowledge Fan · 02-18-2010, 04:36 AM

...this special aired ONLY ONCE, on January 22, 1976. And there was a reason why there was a sequence of Mary literally "stopping the show" in the middle by "waking up", and telling the caller on her bedroom phone that she was "having this incredible dream"- because that was added AFTER the special had been taped. Originally, her special was to have been titled something else, and it wasn't supposed to be an "incredible dream". Once CBS saw the finished product, though, they knew they had a "disaster" waiting to explode on screen, and tried to "fix it" by passing it off as a "surrealistic special", instead of "an experiment in television variety" (hence, the title and Mary's "explanation" in the middle of the show). I saw it, and, quite frankly, for all its surrealism, it stunk.

Zoneboy · 02-18-2010, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

...this special aired ONLY ONCE, on January 22, 1976. And there was a reason why there was a sequence of Mary literally "stopping the show" in the middle by "waking up", and telling the caller on her bedroom phone that she was "having this incredible dream"- because that was added AFTER the special had been taped. Originally, her special was to have been titled something else, and it wasn't supposed to be an "incredible dream". Once CBS saw the finished product, though, they knew they had a "disaster" waiting to explode on screen, and tried to "fix it" by passing it off as a "surrealistic special", instead of "an experiment in television variety" (hence, the title and Mary's "explanation" in the middle of the show). I saw it, and, quite frankly, for all its surrealism, it stunk.

Pardon me for asking but do you have a source for this information and hopefully something more reliable than Wikipedia.

TV Knowledge Fan · 02-19-2010, 01:52 AM

I wasn't even aware there WAS an article on the Wikipedia site about the special, 'Zoneboy'.....

As I've said, I saw it when it first aired, and I recall reading an article somewhere about the background of the special, and how it was conceived under a different title. No matter what the title, it still stunk.

JamesG · 02-19-2010, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

I wasn't even aware there WAS an article on the Wikipedia site about the special, 'Zoneboy'.....

Not a specific article on the special itself but I found this little bit about it on Mary Tyler Moore's wikipedia page:

"After a brief respite, Moore threw herself into a completely different genre. She attempted two failed variety series in a row: Mary, which featured David Letterman, Michael Keaton, Swoosie Kurtz and Dick Shawn in the supporting cast and lasted three episodes, which was re-tooled as The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, a backstage show within a show, with Mary portraying a TV star putting on a variety show.

To arouse curiosity and nostalgic feelings, Dick Van Dyke appeared as her guest, but the program was canceled within three months.

About this time, she also made a one-off musical/variety special for CBS, titled Mary's Incredible Dream, which featured John Ritter, among others.

It did poorly in the ratings and, according to Moore, was never repeated and will likely never be aired again due to legal problems surrounding the show."

Marvo301 · 02-19-2010, 03:48 AM

This special sounds like it should have aired in the 60's instead of the 70's. Far Out!!!

TV Knowledge Fan · 02-19-2010, 03:55 AM

...the man who conceived Mary's special, Jack Good, was also responsible for the "far-out" 1969 special, "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee", which even The Monkees regretted ever being involved in. What can you say about a musical special that "disassembled" a musical group?

Marvo301 · 02-19-2010, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

...the man who conceived Mary's special, Jack Good, was also responsible for the "far-out" 1969 special, "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee", which even The Monkees regretted ever being involved in. What can you say about a musical special that "disassembled" a musical group?

Well that explains a lot about why Mary's special turned out the way it did. I'm surprised Mary would hire him and give him "carte blanche" to create her special in light of his involvement in "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee".

TV Knowledge Fan · 03-21-2010, 04:35 AM

...about the true origin of what became "Mary's Incredible Dream"- from none other than Mary Tyler Moore herself, in her 1995 autobiography, "After All".

According to her, the title of the special was to have been "Mary Tyler Moore Explains the History of the World", and it was supposed to be a "straight" musical tour through history- from the dawn of mankind through Mary's "modern" rendition of "Morning Has Broken", on Malibu Beach. She recalled, "I felt it was a wonderful piece of abstract art- a comment through music on the indestructability of the human spirit."

But then [as she remembered in her book]:

"Some pretesting of it, however (they just don't learn), produced negative confusion, such as you might expect when looking at a contemporary artist's work for the first time. Instead of standing firm as MTM had done with that first episode of 'THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW', when testing showed that we'd deviated from the expected, the kitten caved. Wraparound segments were taped, establishing the premise of the show to be a dream (I guess so no one would be scared). Instead of an impression of life, we gave the audience a little book of instructions- interruptions showing a sleeping Mary so that they wouldn't worry. Where it once was humorously titled 'Mary Tyler Moore Explains the History of the World', it was now a very safe 'Mary's Incredible Dream'. I remember one MTM executive saying, 'We've done some research that shows anything with the word 'incredible' in the title sells more.' (Than anything with it not in the title, I guess.)

"As it was presented, it met with a hostile response from both critics and audience. We were tarred and feathered- I find bits of fluff in the odd shoe or coat pocket to this day."

Wikipedia is a good reference source, but it isn't the definitive one. Sometimes, you have to go directly to "the source"....

02-17-2010, 02:52 PM	#1
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,045	Mary Tyler Moore's One Time 1976 Variety Special "Mary's Incredible Dream" Mary's Incredible And Very Expensive Dream Monday, February 15, 2010 Of all the many variety shows and specials on network TV in the '70s, the strangest may have been Mary's Incredible Dream. This was a Mary Tyler Moore special that aired in 1976. Moore had already decided that the next season of her show would be the last, and was hoping to launch a variety show as her next project. And she made it clear in interviews that she saw this special -- created and written by Jack Good, who also did the Monkees' "33 1/2 Revolutions Per Monkee" special -- as a test run for what a Mary Tyler Moore variety hour might be like: "As a performer I can go to my grave happy now. I've done everything I want to do," she told Marilyn Beck. "I'm talking to Jack Good about doing a weekly musical variety show. Since he created and produced my special, I'm convinced he can do anything." Beck also revealed that Moore was really enthusiastic about the special -- or if she wasn't, she was at least trying to seem that way: Mary's so convinced the special is the best thing ever to hit the airwaves she's been talking it up to anyone who will listen. And has been cornering so many of her friends for preview cassette-unit glimpses of the all-musical hour that actress Betty White finally told her teasingly, "It's a shame you don't put it on TV, instead of showing it door to door." It's basically a standard variety special in a lot of ways: glitzy, cheesy musical numbers, and a song list that spans about five decades (making sure everyone in the audience will like at least some of the songs). But it has no sketches or any dialogue for anyone except the narrator -- plus one line of dialogue for Mary at the beginning -- and instead connects the musical numbers with what Moore called "a story of the eternal cycle of man. If viewers don't want to follow the story they can just enjoy the music and dancing." (Update: There is also a bit of talking in the form of Chicago-style introductions to the songs, and Moore has one other line of dialogue in the course of the special, to someone on the "I can't talk now, I'm having this incredible dream.") The fact that Moore, who usually kept a low media profile at the time, was out there plugging the special in the press was an indication that she really wanted to make a case for it, and for Jack Good's bizarre mish-mash of music, religion, philosophy, and high-in-every-sense-of-the-word camp. Of course, you could read some of her praise for Good as being almost the same as blame, pointing out in advance that the whole concept was his, not hers: "When he came to me with the idea," Moore told UPI's Vernon Scott, "I told him he had carte blanche. Without any structure or guidelines from me, Jack produced a unique, no-holds-barred musical happening." At least it was an attempt to do something different; that can't be denied. And it's remembered a bit more fondly than the variety show she finally did do (without Good) after her sitcom ended: Mary was a disaster, and so was the retooled sitcom/variety hybrid The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Moore was like the opposite of singer/dancers who want to prove they can act: she'd proved herself as an actress, but wanted to be taken seriously as an all-around entertainer. But whether it's this special, where she tries to talk-sing her way through "I'm Still Here" or make a decent try of Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields's "Nobody Does It Like Me", or her flop stage musical version of Breakfast at Tiffany's, she's not exactly a top-tier entertainer. Even on her own show, Georgia Engel's version of "Steam Heat" was better than most musical numbers Moore did without Dick Van Dyke around. And this special probably is a better showcase for Ben Vereen, in one of his first big TV parts, than Moore, who gets to do all the stuff she's only OK at and little of the stuff she's great at (delivery of and reaction to dialogue). But it is what it is, and I can't help enjoying it just for the strangeness of it all. This is a special that ends with Mary Tyler Moore as a pink angel, floating and spinning in front of religious symbols and clouds while singing "Morning Has Broken." This is a special with Arthur Fiedler conducting the "Hallelujah Chorus" in heaven; a historical version of "Sh-Boom," and Jerome Kern's "She Didn't Say Yes" retrofitted as a song about the temptation of Eve. TV really could be pleasantly insane in the mid-'70s. Also, any special that begins with the "CBS Special" logo and ends with the MTM kitten is a special that gets a few extra points just for logo coolness. Go to the link to watch the special - http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2010/02/...expensive.html

02-18-2010, 04:36 AM	#2
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	There was a reason WHY.... ...this special aired ONLY ONCE, on January 22, 1976. And there was a reason why there was a sequence of Mary literally "stopping the show" in the middle by "waking up", and telling the caller on her bedroom phone that she was "having this incredible dream"- because that was added AFTER the special had been taped. Originally, her special was to have been titled something else, and it wasn't supposed to be an "incredible dream". Once CBS saw the finished product, though, they knew they had a "disaster" waiting to explode on screen, and tried to "fix it" by passing it off as a "surrealistic special", instead of "an experiment in television variety" (hence, the title and Mary's "explanation" in the middle of the show). I saw it, and, quite frankly, for all its surrealism, it stunk.

02-19-2010, 03:48 AM	#6
Marvo301 I'm NOT a Blockhead! Forum Celebrity Join Date: May 17, 2002 Location: The Great White North Posts: 21,452	This special sounds like it should have aired in the 60's instead of the 70's. Far Out!!!
	__________________ Only a life lived for others is worth living. Albert Einstein A life isn't worth living unless it has impact on other lives. Jackie Robinson Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. Benjamin Franklin

02-19-2010, 03:55 AM	#7
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	It DID have a tie-in to the '60s, 'Marvo'... ...the man who conceived Mary's special, Jack Good, was also responsible for the "far-out" 1969 special, "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee", which even The Monkees regretted ever being involved in. What can you say about a musical special that "disassembled" a musical group?

03-21-2010, 04:35 AM	#9
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	I can now answer you, 'Zoneboy'... ...about the true origin of what became "Mary's Incredible Dream"- from none other than Mary Tyler Moore herself, in her 1995 autobiography, "After All". According to her, the title of the special was to have been "Mary Tyler Moore Explains the History of the World", and it was supposed to be a "straight" musical tour through history- from the dawn of mankind through Mary's "modern" rendition of "Morning Has Broken", on Malibu Beach. She recalled, "I felt it was a wonderful piece of abstract art- a comment through music on the indestructability of the human spirit." But then [as she remembered in her book]: "Some pretesting of it, however (they just don't learn), produced negative confusion, such as you might expect when looking at a contemporary artist's work for the first time. Instead of standing firm as MTM had done with that first episode of 'THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW', when testing showed that we'd deviated from the expected, the kitten caved. Wraparound segments were taped, establishing the premise of the show to be a dream (I guess so no one would be scared). Instead of an impression of life, we gave the audience a little book of instructions- interruptions showing a sleeping Mary so that they wouldn't worry. Where it once was humorously titled 'Mary Tyler Moore Explains the History of the World', it was now a very safe 'Mary's Incredible Dream'. I remember one MTM executive saying, 'We've done some research that shows anything with the word 'incredible' in the title sells more.' (Than anything with it not in the title, I guess.) "As it was presented, it met with a hostile response from both critics and audience. We were tarred and feathered- I find bits of fluff in the odd shoe or coat pocket to this day." Wikipedia is a good reference source, but it isn't the definitive one. Sometimes, you have to go directly to "the source"....

02-19-2010, 01:52 AM	#4
TV Knowledge Fan Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 29, 2006 Location: Long Branch, N.J. Posts: 2,577	I wasn't even aware there WAS an article on the Wikipedia site about the special, 'Zoneboy'..... As I've said, I saw it when it first aired, and I recall reading an article somewhere about the background of the special, and how it was conceived under a different title. No matter what the title, it still stunk.