The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Fourth Season

Mary's fourth season is the only one to feature Phyllis and Rhoda (the old guard)and Georgette and Sue Ann (the new guard) all together. The show is really clicking on all cylinders, with many classic episodes:

THE LARS AFFAIR Phyllis discovers Lars is having an affair with WJM's "The Happy Homemaker."

ANGELS IN THE SNOW Mary dates a younger man. She doesn't realize just HOW young until he takes her to a party...at a frat house.

RHODA'S SISTER GETS MARRIED Rhoda and Mary fly to New York to attend the wedding of Rhoda's sister (no, it's not Brenda; it's "Debbie," who is never seen or heard from again). Brett Somers guest stars.

THE LOU AND EDIE STORY When Edie moves out to "find herself," Lou is a lost soul.

HI THERE, SPORTS FANS Mary is saddled with the job of hiring a new sportscaster. Dick Gautier and Gordon Jump guest star.

FATHER'S DAY Ted meets the father who deserted the family when Ted was a baby.

SON OF "BUT SERIOUSLY, FOLKS" Mary's old flame Wes comes back to work at WJM in this sequel to a third season episode in which Wes tried to become a stand-up comic. Jerry Van Dyke guest stars.

LOU'S FIRST DATE Now that he's separated, Lou needs a date for an awards ceremony; Mary's the lucky matchmaker.

LOVE BLOOMS AT HEMPLE'S Rhoda falls in love with her boss.

THE DINNER PARTY One of Mary's typical dinner parties (this one for a congresswoman) wherein everything that can go wrong does.

JUST FRIENDS Lou wants Edie to come back to him, and asks Mary to make it happen.

WE WANT BAXTER Phyllis convinces Ted he has a future in politics, and he quits WJM in order to pursue a career in government.

I GAVE AT THE OFFICE Murray persuades Mary to hire his daughter Bonnie, who is (of course) a complete washout. Bruce Boxleitner guest stars.

ALMOST A NUN'S STORY Georgette decides to become a nun after discovering Ted fooling around with another woman.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOU! Mary throws Lou a surprise party for his 50th birthday...but she's the one who winds up with a surprise.

WJM TRIES HARDER Mary suffers from an inferiority complex when she dates a man who works on Minneapolis's top news show.

COTTAGE FOR SALE Phyllis has become a realtor and tries to persuade Lou to sell his house.

THE CO-PRODUCERS Mary and Rhoda are thrilled when they are given the opportunity to produce a TV show for WJM...until they find out the co-hosts are to be Ted and Sue Ann.

BEST OF ENEMIES Mary and Rhoda are on the outs after Rhoda blabs a secret that Mary never wanted told.

BETTER LATE...THAT'S A PUN...THAN NEVER Mary gets in a silly mood and writes a funny obituary for WJM's file. Nobody's laughing when that person dies the next day and the jocular obit is read on the air.

TED BAXTER MEETS WALTER CRONKITE Ted's dreams come true when Walter Cronkite visits WJM.

LOU'S SECOND DATE Lou and Rhoda go out a few times for fun, and everyone begins to suspect it's serious.

TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A WRITER Mary and Ted both attend a night school creative writing course, and have a major falling out when Ted plagiarizes Mary's assignment.

I WAS A SINGLE FOR WJM Mary does a news story about singles bars, but nobody is willing to be interviewed on camera.

Season 4 of MTM shows the 70's in full swing; Mary has bangs and a more natural hairstyle (no more falls like in Season 1) and no longer only wears skirts and dresses to work. Yes, for better or worse, this is the dawn of the wide-legged pantsuit. Can Mary pull it off? Of course she can!

Mary has redecorated her apartment and everything is beige, beige, beige; this could just be the camera filter but what a relief when the action switches to Rhoda's colorful digs upstairs. Sadly, this is also Valerie Harper's last season on MTM as Rhoda will have her eponymously-titled show the following season.

There are less establishing shots of the house Mary and Rhoda live in because it's obviously a different, and less charming, home. (The reason for this is explained on a documentary on the Season 2 set; the owner of the original home no longer wanted the house to be included on the show.) And the show now focuses most of its time on the workplace. As compared to earlier seasons, there are far fewer "Mary's romantic dilemma!" episodes and more time is given to Ted and Lou, while Murray still patiently sits at his desk delivering one-liners. And showing that things have come a long way, Mary spends less time at work making coffee for Lou and is a valuable asset to WJM and a competent careerwoman.

Season Four has any number of classic episodes: "The Dinner Party" featuring a young and very funny Henry Winkler, "The Lars Affair" which has a classic confrontation between Phyllis and Sue Ann and my personal favorite of the entire series, "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Writer" when Ted and Mary take a writing class together only to have Ted steal Mary's assignment. To try and describe this episode any more wouldn't do it justice, but it's a comedic high point and is one of the only times Mary really loses her cool. Another notable episode, "Cottage for Sale", starts off slowly but ends up a very good episode that showcases Edward Asner's Lou Grant at his vulnerable best -- and as the creator of the beer omelet.

The lack of extras is a bit disappointing, but otherwise this latest release of Mary and friends is just what we all need. Meow.

It'sso frustrating. This is one of the great shows of all time and all we have are the first four seasons. This show ended 30 years ago! What is taking so long to get these released?..same with The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi..which ran five seasons and only three have been released.

When the production studios start putting out complete seasons of their shows, shouldn't they follow through with ALL of them? There are a lot of fans of MTM who would dearly love to have the entire series on DVD,extras or not..and yet to come(if it ever does)is the classic "Chuckles Bites the Dust"

Please...release the final three seasons!

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