Steineded
How sad is this?
Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
mraculeated
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
hfan77
In the mid 70s, Norman Lear was riding high with hit shows like All in the Family, Maude and Sanford and Son. Then came an idea for a satirical soap opera titled Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and it was turned down by the networks. But Lear did not give up and he sold the show in syndication, where it became popular in many markets opposite the news. I remember watching MH2 when I was in my teens and to me it was one of the weirdest TV shows of the 70s. Like many of Lear's shows, it focused on controversial themes such as mass murder, VD and exhibitionism. I remember Grandpa Larkin, who was referred to in the earlier episodes as "The Fernwood Flasher" but in the later episodes he was used less and his most common line was "Where's the peanut butter?" The weirdest thing that took place on the show was the way several characters died. Coach Fedders died by drowning in a bowl of chicken soup. The Rev. Jimmy Joe Jeeter was electrocuted when a TV fell in the bathtub and Garth Gimble was impaled by a Christmas tree. Despite the controversial themes, the show had an outstanding cast, anchored by Louise Lasser, who played the titled character so well, yet in a catatonic state. There was also Greg Mullavey as her husband Tom, Dody Goodman as her mother, and Debralee Scott as her sister Cathy. Also, the Hartman's daughter Heather was played by Claudia Lamb, who later went into radio. But the one regular who had success during the show's run was Mary Kay Place, whose portrayal of country singer Loretta Haggers also let to a record album and a country hit in real-life with "Baby Boy." She wrote all of the songs she sang on the show. Also appearing were Dabney Coleman, Martin Mull, Gloria DeHaven and as an evangelist, Doris Roberts. Unfortunately due to personal problems, Lasser left the show in 1977 and the rest of the cast continued under the titled "Forever Fernwood." But it wasn't successful and it ended after 26 weeks. Hopefull someday, a cable channel will rerun all 325 episodes of MH2 instead of a scant few. It's worth seeing again.
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.
phillycat26
Nothing has nor ever will come close to the sheer genius that was Mary Hartman,Mary Hartman. Every minute of that show was laugh out loud comedy.This show ran at 11pm on the local PBS station every single weeknight! i was a teenager and all our friends would gather around to watch this soap opera of a sort that was so funny,i couldn't believe it was on TV. I was able to get the first season on DVD for Christmas this past year (2006)and i was sort of afraid to watch it thinking it couldn't of been that good. It was! Better! LOretta Haggars was Mary's next door neighbor who goal in life was to be a country western singer.Her role is played superb! you can't hardly wait for her next scene. In one scene,her and her husband finally get the money up for a demo and set off for Nashville, along the way, hillbillies try and kidnap then, they crash into a station wagon full of nuns, kill several of them,Loretta's crippled and now there on a quest to find a faith healer! It's nonstop comedy and nonstop action. a must for everyone.! MY FAVORITE PERSON ON THE SHOW WAS MARY HARTMAN HERSELF. SHE Is the first true woman libber. she was a housewife and therfor the only person home to listen and read all the crap NOW put out in the 60's and 70's. she actually put into practice what all the libbers were hammering on about. when her husband had an affair and wanted mary to go to conseling with him and help him get over almost ruining their marriage, she said, NO WAY! YOU GO! YOU GET HELP! I'M NOT GOING TO TALKE THE BLAME FOR YOU BEING A PIG! first time in history the wife didn't have to pick up all the piece and make things better. all the stuff the libbers said to do, no one had time. mary hartman did. tom had to be responsible for the mess he made. mary can have a good life without him. let him go get help. he's the messed up one! not here!! right on mary!! love ya! thanks !
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.
