What is it? Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, The Complete Series, 325 episodes on 38 discs from Shout! Factory
How much? $249.95
When? Now
Who is Mary Hartman? She’s (Louise Lasser) a typical 1970s housewife with a husband, a pre-teen daughter and waxy yellow build-up. Scratch the surface, though, and things aren’t exactly perfect. Husband Tom (Greg Mulvaney) is increasingly distant and daughter Heather (Claudia Lamb) is moody and odd. Meanwhile, her grandfather (Victor Kilian) is the Fernwood Flasher.
Down the street is Mary’s best friend Loretta Haggers (Mary Kay Place), a 22-year-old wannabe country star who’s married to balding, nerdy, 43-yearold Charlie (Graham Jarvis). A mismatched pair, to be sure, but they’re as loving and devoted as the Hartmans are troubled.
Their town of Fernwood is full of oddballs, wackos and psychotics, like an 8-year-old evangelist (Sparky Marcus), his shady father Merle Jeeter (Dabney Coleman) and a crazed killer on the loose.
Sounds like a wacky sitcom. It does. But it isn’t. While it’s funny, this is more along the lines of subversive satire than laugh-out-loud comic riot. The Norman Lear-created series (which premiered in January 1976) takes the form of a daytime soap opera with sappy theme music and continuing plot lines, but really serves as an indictment of the pervasiveness of media, TV and consumerism on American lives.
The series starts out with an argument between Mary and her sister Cathy (Debralee Scott) about the waxy yellow build-up on Mary’s floor, which continues to preoccupy her, even when Loretta arrives with the news that two goats and eight chickens were murdered just a few blocks away. Oh, and five people. Don’t forget the people.
What follows are 324 episodes of insanity (always played completely straight) and almost uncomfortably realistic social commentary.
Because it was syndicated and eventually shown late at night, they were able to get away with a lot, like frank discussions about sex and sexuality and doing things like killing a child evangelist when a TV falls in his bathtub. Other people die in bizarre ways, get taken hostage, get in fatal car crashes with nuns and are kidnapped by gypsies.
It’s funny in a twisted sort of way, but also tragic and subversive. At first glance, the goings on are ludicrous, but once you think about it, what you’re seeing isn’t all that ridiculous after all.
The ongoing marital troubles between an increasingly frustrated and humiliated Mary and confused, unfaithful Tom are particularly real and gut-wrenching.
It’s certainly smart. The writing and acting are spot on, particularly from Lasser, and nearly 40 years later some of the issues the show addresses are still relevant: homosexuality, over-saturated media and consumer culture.
Watching it can be tedious at times, though, especially at first. It’s paced like a soap after all, but it grows on you if you love and appreciate satire, absurd yet-dead-pan humor and social commentary.
Are there extras? There’s a booklet with episode summaries and a couple of essays. There are also two features, one on the series with clips and interviews with Lear, Lasser and Place; and another on Mary’s infamous nervous breakdown with Lasser and Lear. The set also includes 10 episodes of spin-off, summer replacement series Fernwood Tonight - a parody of locally produced late-night talk shows that starred Martin Mull and Fred Willard.
New this week: Perry Mason, Movie Collection, Vol. 1; Wolfblood, Season 1.
Next week: Archer, Season 4; Barney Miller, Season 4; Being Human, Season 3; Copper, Season 2; Duck Dynasty, Seasons 1-4 (Bluray); The Following, Season 1; House of Lies, Season 2.
Style, Pages 46 on 12/29/2013