The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Second Season (1971)
The Emmy-winning first season was an auspicious beginning. By its second season, the classic theme song "Love is All Around" has been revamped with an even more optimistic outlook: "You're gonna make it after all." In the sophomore season of this instant gold-standard sitcom, the ace writing staff and peerless ensemble begin to flesh out the iconic characters. Gruff Lou Grant (Ed Asner, enjoying his second Emmy-winning season) reveals his more loveable side when he discovers his son-in-law out with another woman in "The Six-and-a-Half-Year Itch." Vain Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) becomes a more sympathetic character in "Cover Boy," featuring the hilariously preening Jack Cassidy as Ted's competitive brother, and "And Now, Sitting in for Ted Baxter," in which a substitute anchor earns higher ratings than the vacationing Ted. Mary, the sweetheart of prime time, is still something of a pushover (in "Feeb," she feels compelled to write a letter of recommendation for an extraordinarily incompetent secretary), but she develops the backbone to stand up to an anti-Semite who disapproves of Rhoda in one of the season's best episodes, "Some of My Best Friends Are Rhoda." The indelible friendship between Mary and Rhoda (Valerie Harper, also earning her second consecutive Emmy) is sorely tested when they become temporary roommates in "Where There's Smoke, There's Rhoda." As with the most enduring shows,The Mary Tyler Moore Showeschewed topical humor that would date the series, and instead, mined its more universal and timeless humor from the wellspring of the characters. More than 30 years later, there is still, as ever, something aboutMary.--Donald Liebenson