Recently here, some of you looked like the audience watching Springtime for Hitler (minus the formal dress) when you watched this video clip of Mary Tyler Moore's variety show and later, this clip. I have this in the e-mailbox from my pal Arnie Kogen, who is and for many years has been one of the top comedy writer folks in the business…
Thanks for running the Mary Tyler Moore variety show piece. Brought back some memories. The series was called Mary. I was head writer on that show. The Exec Producer/Creators were Patchett & Tarses, two very funny, very gifted guys who had recently run The Bob Newhart Show. We also had a strong writing staff including Merrill Markoe who was writing for and dating David Letterman at that time. (The hyphenate term "writer/producer" was used frequently in that decade. The phrase "writer/main squeeze" was less common).
Despite a powerful supporting cast of Dick Shawn, David Letterman, Michael Keaton, Swoosie Kurtz, Jim Hampton and Judy Kahan, the show didn't work. Mary was uncomfortable doing variety, the viewers were uncomfortable with Mary Tyler Moore doing anything but "Mary Richards" and CBS was uncomfortable with this series. We taped thirteen shows, they cancelled us after three. We tried some off beat stuff. We had a musical salute to "driftwood," We had Mary singing, "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road," I came up with that idea of the "Ed Asner Dancers" — a bunch of paunchy middle-aged Ed Asner look-alikes in shirts and ties doing disco moves. We thought all this was pretty ground breaking for Variety. CBS had other thoughts. It's a tough town.
It is. And here's an odd, fuzzy memory I have. I recall that when this show was staffing up, my agent — it was Stu Robinson back then — called me up and said someone over there wanted to meet me with me about working on it and that I should go in and meet with Arnie Rosen about that. Not Arnie Kogen. He said Arnie Rosen. I guess Stu got the names confused…but that doesn't make sense because I think he was representing Arnie Rosen at the time. He may even have been representing you at the time, too. Stu and Bernie had a lot of clients.
Anyway, I didn't go…partly because I was more-or-less committed to write a variety pilot for Sid and Marty Krofft and partly because I'd worked with Arnie Rosen and didn't get along with him. I probably would have at least taken the meeting if I'd known it was Arnie Kogen, one of my favorite writers from MAD magazine. Did either of you ever work on the TV series Arnie with Herschel Bernardi?