Friday, July 10, 2026

Quips and Quotations (Fernwood Femme Fatale Edition)

 

1939-2026

...Louise Lasser's Mary Hartman was lethally funny. She was the mirror image of a stretched-beyond-reason reality, to help the viewer see what the media and consumer culture was turning us into.

--Norman Lear


(I wrote about Lasser here--Kirk)

16 comments:

  1. I remember the name Mary Hartman, but nothing more. The world seems focused on the death of Bonnie Tyler, aka Gaynor Hopkins.

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    1. My apologies to the world, Andrew, but Louise Lasser had a place in my heart that Bonnie Tyler didn't.

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  2. Louise lasser appeared in Mary Tyler Moore as a bank officer, hysterically funny actor. I loved her takes.

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    1. Boud, here's that Mary Tyler Moore episode of which you speak:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsPtxXM8QGA

      Delete
  3. Sometimes I feel like I live on another planet. I have no idea who Mary Hartman is.

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    1. David, it was a comedy soap opera produced by Norman Lear, the same guy who made All in the Family. It's basically a satire of 1970s apathy, hilariously typified by Lasser's character Mary Hartman, who clings to her consumer-obsessed middle-class existence, even as the social order erupts about her.

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  4. Oh, how I loved Mary Hartman Mary Hartman and Louise Lasser.

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    1. It was a very funny show, Mitchell, and Lasser was a very funny actress.

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  5. I remember about the TV show entitled Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I never watched it, but just to say that I am familiar with her. RIP to her and to Bonnie Tyler as well.

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  6. What a great blog you have.
    I love films and TV ★
    Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮
    I write my blog in Finnish but there's a google translator.
    Rita, language teacher

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  7. I remember my parents watching Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I am now curious and will try to find it streaming just to see what about the show kept them tuned in.

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    1. Adult content, JM. You parents probably wouldn't have wanted you to see it, but I think you're old enough now.

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  8. Luved the episodes where Muriel, the ex-wife of Charlie, came back to raise hell with them. :-)

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  9. Played by Robert Downing Jr's mother, Elsie.

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