Being Mary Tyler Moore

Matt Roush says...

She could turn the world on with her smile, but Mary Tyler Moore’s impact on the culture was much more far-reaching: first as the trend-setting Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, then as independent career woman Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. This intimate two-hour biographical portrait balances an appreciation of her career—which took a shift into drama on Broadway and the movies (an Oscar nomination for Ordinary People)—with a candid account of her personal life, which included struggles with alcoholism and diabetes, two divorces, the untimely death of her son and a happy third act with husband Dr. Robert Levine. As Veep Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus notes, Mary “fundamentally shifted in our culture how we perceived women in entertainment.”

What's Worth Watching (May 26)