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The MTM success is, of course, mutual property; the syndication rights on her current shows alone would make Mary a millionairess. But her husband, Grant Tinker, has exclusive property rights to all the pressures of success. In addition to the long-running Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart shows, plus the overnight smash Rhoda, his company has been churning out a series of series. All bear the MTM trademark—a strong comic idea and a stronger supporting cast. But even these cannot guarantee infallibility. One show, the cantankerous new The Texas Wheelers, is Tinker's first failure, a comedy that guttered out because of low ratings. "My hope is that ABC will start it all over again, because the show never did get out of the gate," says the chief executive. Even if it is permanently canceled, the loss will be less than catastrophic; ABC will have to pay for nine shows that are already in the film cans. Another MTM show, Friends and Lovers, may be one of the year's most original sitcoms, even though the adventures of a Boston bassist, played by the delightfully eccentric comedian Paul Sand, have not enjoyed a Rhoda-like beginning. "Sand," admits Tinker, "is making an uphill run." Happily, he is winning that race; last week Friends and Lovers climbed up to ninth in the ratings.
In January, production will begin on Second Start, starring Bob Crane (Hogan 's Heroes). The premise shows promise: a 40-year-old insurance executive forsakes his job to attend medical school, skirmishing with wife and 14-year-old daughter while he crams for exams. Next year MTM Enterprises will depart from the comedy situation to produce two dramatic series.
That scheduling is not calculated to sweeten the disposition or lower the blood pressure. Tinker, the peripatetic executive, has been suffering from migraine headaches. One night this month he tossed restlessly in bed longing for some hobby to take his mind off office problems. Mary's suggestion could have come from one of her scripts: "How about mending injured birds?"
Rt such moments, the Mary Richards of the show and the Mary Tyler Moore of real life seem indistinguishable. Both are relentlessly optimistic and almost without ego.
As Mary the actress confesses, "I don't have to prove every week that I'm a star. I don't have to be stroked all the time. I enjoy being part of an ensemble."
That group has brought the MTM Show a slew of Emmies—always for others, never for Mary. Last year the debt was finally canceled when she received an Emmy for the best star in a leading comedy role. As far as Mary was concerned, it was just another sunny thing that happened on the way to the studio.