Mary Richards
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Played by Mary Tyler Moore, Mary Richards was the main character in the long-running television sitcom, Mary Tyler Moore. In real life, there is a statue of Mary (as Mary Richards) throwing her tam up in the air, as she did on the series, on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.
[edit] She could turn the world on with her smile
Mary is the daughter of Walter Reed Richards and Dottie Richards. She also had a crusading journalist aunt named Flo Meredith. She was engaged to a medical student named Bill, who left her. Reeling from this breakup, she moved from her small hometown of Roseburg, Minnesota, to Minneapolis.
She ran into an old friend, Phyllis Lindstrom, who was the landlady of a huge house and had signed a year's lease for her to have one of the best apartments in the house. She did this, mainly to keep Rhoda Morgenstern, whom Phyllis despised, out. However, Mary and Rhoda became best friends, to Phyllis' dismay. She also had a bond with Phyllis' daughter, Bess.
Mary applied for a secretarial job at fictional television station, WJM-TV, the Twin Cities' lowest rated station. She met with news producer Lou Grant, who began to think of Mary as a daughter. She became associate producer, and made friends. She was close friends with news writer Murray Slaughter, whom he thought was wonderful. She was even friends with the very vain (and very incompetent) news anchor, Ted Baxter. In fact, she got along with him, better than anyone in the news room.
Mary oftentimes was the voice of reason, but that didn't help her whenever she threw parties. Her parties were always unqualified disasters, and were legendary in Minneapolis.
After almost four years of living in Phyllis' house, she moved into a new high-rise apartment. This was due to Phyllis being spun-off into a new series, and her and Bess moving to her hometown of San Francisco. While living there, she made friends with next-door neighbor, Paula Kovaks, (played infrequently by actress Penny Marshall).
Other friends she made at this time, included Homemaking expert, Sue Ann Nivens and Georgette Franklin, who married Ted in her new apartment. Also at this time, she was promoted to News Producer, while Lou became the station's news director.
During the show's later years, she visited Rhoda in New York and Phyllis in San Francisco, so she wasn't truly out of contact with her two closest friends.
She had had her share of dates over the course of the series, and even tried to date her boss, Lou, in the next-to-last episode. Up until then, she had always called Lou, "Mr. Grant."
In the final episode, Mary, along with Lou, Murray and Sue Ann, lost their jobs in an effort to boost the news sagging ratings. Ted, ironically, had kept his job, despite the fact that it was he who was the primary cause for the news cast's low ratings.
During a surprise visit, Rhoda and Phyllis, who were clued in on the bad news by Lou, each wanted Mary to move in with them. Rhoda wanted her to move to New York, (where she would have numerous job opportunites) and Phyllis wanted her to move to San Francisco (supposedly to have an ally in her constant battles with Mother Dexter, her main nemesis). However, they had compromised. Mary stayed in Minneapolis.
Some years later, she eventually married a congressman, worked for one of the networks, and had a daughter, Rose, whom she was very proud of. Her years of work at WJM-TV had paid off handsomely.
After her husband's death, she and Rose moved from Washington D.C. to New York City where she reconnected, happily, with her best friend, Rhoda, who, by this time, had had a daughter of her own, named Meredith.
