In 1978, following the triumphant end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ms. Moore returned to CBS in a variety series called Mary. It featured a "family" of performers — Michael Keaton, Jim Hampton, Swoozie Kurtz, Judith Kahan, Dick Shawn and David Letterman. Some sources erroneously report that Merrill Markoe was one of the cast members. Merrill, who later was involved professionally and personally with Mr. Letterman, was a writer on the show but not a performer.
Things did not go well and the program was terminated after three episodes so that Mary could have a do-over. Six months later, she came back in a different variety series called The Mary Tyler Moore Hour that didn't succeed, either. I knew a few of the writers on each version and they all felt that the problem was Mary. I suppose Mary felt the problem was the writers.
I was working on variety shows at the time and was asked to come in and talk to someone about joining the staff of Version #1 but I had another job that conflicted. At the time, I was disappointed as I'd once had a massive crush on Ms. Moore. A week or so later, a writer I knew who did work on it, Jeffrey Barron, told me I was fortunate. He'd once had a crush on Laura Petrie and all the good feelings he'd ever had about her were gone by the end of the first run-through. By the second, he said he'd never be able to watch The Dick Van Dyke Show again.
Our clip is from that first version and you can see a lot going wrong here, starting with their taking a tune that had a little soul in it when Wings recorded it and giving it the Lawrence Welk treatment. It's also a musical number performed by folks who weren't singers or dancers and seemed to even know it. You can especially feel Mr. Letterman's dislike for what he's doing out there. Then again, Dave's had a pretty good career acting like he hated everything he was doing in front of an audience…