Why The Mary Tyler Moore Show is worth watching in 2020

Elle

"It’s tough to overstate just how far-reaching the The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s influence is," says Roxanne Fequiere, reflecting on the iconic sitcom's recent 50-year anniversary. "There’s a direct line from Mary Richards to Murphy Brown to Elaine Benes to Leslie Knope to Issa Dee. Oprah Winfrey has said it was Moore’s own production company, MTM Enterprises, that led her to create Harpo Productions. The narratives that emerged when women were given the space to tell their own stories onscreen have had a ripple effect on generations of viewers. One day, I hope to pass my appreciation for the show down to a daughter of my own, but in the meantime, I’ve become an evangelist for it, encouraging just about everybody I know to watch if they haven’t. As I tell my friends, all they really need to do is watch the pilot to understand why I’m such a fan. It'll click."