Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (TV)
"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" is a groundbreaking television series developed by Norman Lear, known for its satirical take on soap operas and consumer culture. Premiering in the 1970s, the show centers around Mary Hartman, a suburban housewife portrayed by Louise Lasser, navigating a series of absurd crises in the fictional town of Fernwood, Ohio. The series uniquely blends dark humor with social commentary, addressing issues such as family dynamics, mental health, and societal expectations. Mary’s eccentric life is marked by bizarre events, including her husband's infidelity and her daughter's kidnapping, all while she grapples with mundane domestic challenges.
With its thirty-minute episodes airing five nights a week, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" gained popularity despite initial resistance from major networks due to its controversial themes. The show was notable for being one of the first to showcase a female director, Joan Darling, and its narrative style challenged traditional representations of women on television. As the series progressed, Lasser departed, leading to its rebranding as "Forever Fernwood," though it struggled to maintain its audience without its titular character. Overall, the show has left a lasting impact on television, remembered for its clever critique of the era's cultural norms and its distinctive characters.
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Subject Terms
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (TV)
Identification Television comedy series
Date Aired from 1976 to 1977
Producer Norman Lear
The satiric soap opera became a hit in syndication after being rejected by the major networks for its black humor.
Key Figures
Norman Lear (1922- ), television producer
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was developed by Norman Lear, the producer of All in the Family, who hoped that his new program would air as a daytime soap opera. When the three television networks found its dark humor too controversial, Lear sold it into syndication. The show quickly became a hit, with thirty-minute episodes running five nights a week after the late news in most major markets. Most of the first twenty episodes were directed by Emmy Award-winner Joan Darling, television’s first female director.
The series revolved around Mary Hartman, a suburban housewife in fictional Fernwood, Ohio. Each episode opens with the syrupy theme song of soaring violins, punctuated by Mary’s mother, Martha Shumway (played by Dody Goodman), calling “Mary Hartman. Mary Hartman!” Mary was played by Louise Lasser (the former wife and early costar of Woody Allen). With pageboy bangs and long braids, she lurches wide-eyed and dazed from one bizarre crisis to the next, often with a cigarette in her hand. Her husband, Tom (Greg Mullavey), is impotent with her but contracts a venereal disease while having an affair. Their sullen daughter, Heather (Claudia Lamb), is kidnapped by a mass murderer. Mary’s younger sister, Cathy (Debralee Scott), is rude and promiscious; their grandfather (Victor Kilian) is the Fernwood Flasher.
Mary’s best friend, Loretta Haggers (Mary Kay Place), a buxom blond with a heart of gold who aspires to become a country-western star, is paralyzed after a car accident involving a station wagon full of nuns. When Mary brings an ill neighbor a bowl of her chicken soup, the man, who has been washing his medicine down with whiskey, becomes sleepy and drowns in the soup while Mary and his wife chat. Through all of life’s crises, Mary frets over such domestic challenges as the possibility of waxy yellow buildup on her kitchen floor.
Frustrated and depressed, Mary is flattered by the attentions of Dennis Foley (Bruce Solomon), a local police sergeant who is madly in love with her. She skittishly resists his interest at first; when they finally begin an affair, he has a heart attack. In the first season’s finale, Mary has a nervous breakdown on a talk show on which she represents an average housewife.
Citing the strain of appearing in a daily television show, Lasser left the show during its second season. Her absence was explained by having her desert Tom and Heather to run off with Sergeant Foley. The show continued under the name Forever Fernwood, but without Mary the ratings declined and the series was cancelled six months after Lasser left.
Impact
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was a darkly comic parody of soap operas and consumerism. The show’s lead character was a constant viewer of such fictional shows as Tears of Our Years, and her life was guided by advertising slogans. Unlike in typical soap operas, the characters were lower-middle-class factory workers and aproned housewives. Heather was unlike the perky but mischievous children usually seen on television, and Cathy’s open promiscuity was daring for television in the 1970’s.
Bibliography
Marc, David. Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture. 2d ed. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1997.
Marc, David, and Robert J. Thompson. Prime Time, Prime Movers: From “I Love Lucy” to “L.A. Law”—America’s Greatest TV Shows and the People Who Created Them. Boston: Little, Brown, 1992.
Ozersky, Josh, et al. Archie Bunker’s America: TV in an Era of Change, 1968-1978. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003.