calvinnme
When this show first premiered in January 1976 it gave Saturday Night Live a run for its money in being one of the most daring and inventive shows that had been aired. Louise Lasser's deadpan delivery as the often put-upon, under-appreciated Mary was delightful, and the show had a very talented supporting cast.Besides doing a great job of satirizing the problems of life in the 70's, it was a deft parody of soap operas in general, such as when Martin Mull returned as Barth Gimble, the twin brother of Garth Gimble, who had just died. Dabney Coleman was also great as the mayor, a true cynic who was much more interested in staying mayor than actually accomplishing anything. This show also gave birth to that great satire of the talk shows, Fernwood Tonight. Life probably wasn't too far from art in this case, since the first season ended with Mary in a mental institution, and I think putting out a new episode every night, just like an actual soap opera, took its toll on the whole cast, and Louise Lasser in particular. If you happen to remember the episode of Saturday Night Live that Louise Lasser hosted during that time, you know what I mean - the stress really showed.People looked forward to each new episode - just like a real soap opera - and there were 130 episodes in the first season alone. The finale of the first season, with Mary having a nervous breakdown while on live national television as a guest on a Phil Donohue-type daytime talk show. was one of the most absolutely brilliant pieces of comedy I have ever seen.
tonopah6
Mary Hartman was definitely the main attraction - other than her weird dialog, she would often wipe the front of her teeth to give them a quick cleaning, and sit on the couch to open and close her legs in moment of anxiety, giving the viewers a blue pantie-shot. Mary's mom and dad were good, too: with the dad needing to sit on an air dough nut for his hemorrhoids while he stated the need to hire F. Lee Bailey as his attorney to settle a legal matter. Mary's sister, Debra Lee Scott, did well as a sexy slut. This program gave Mary Kay Place notoriety; who, in this program was a terrible singer, and married to an ugly goof who lost his balls - he often talked about his awaiting operation to obtain a pair of dog gonads as a replacement. This program was so crazy you had to watch it.
pro_crustes
No good at all. Not funny. Not witty. Not insightful. This non-comedy was about presenting ordinary, boring events as though they were absurdist commentaries. Uh... they were not. They were ordinary and boring. Norman Lear, who seemed to have acquired a license to damage television comedy in the '70s and '80s, somehow sold the idea of a show about walking dead people to a network that didn't know it was being duped. The favorite topic of the faux humorists of that era was the banality of life. Thus, Lear's faux comedy seeks to make us think that the banal is funny or, at least, worthy of being laughed at. He was wrong, and doubly so. Life is not banal, and a banal life is not funny. Nor, perhaps tripling his offenses, is a banal life something that anyone should laugh at.Like "All in the Family," this second-best to dead air is about pretending that the worst of the American condition is actually a place to find some kind of truth about ourselves. Well, maybe it is. If so, the truth is that we can be suckered into believing--I hope only briefly--that lame scripts, acting, sets, and photography, combined with a popular sense that stuff like Patrick Stewart's hideous SNL "erotic bakery" skit is something no one wants to be caught _not_ laughing at, means that this utter dud is funny.Zero stars on any scale.
tea2day2000
This is a hilarious comedy and many comments re: this show contain the desire for it to return to tv.Well,it's back on tvland channel,check listings.Too short lived a soap/comedy spoof,a definate must see.There was also a sequel to this "Forever Fernwood",shorter lived.Louise Lasser is the star and gives an unbeatable performance in this very unusual hilarious satire comedy.L
