Letters to the editor
How TV Twisted Culture
With the untimely passing of Mary Tyler Moore, it should be remembered how TV (in its earliest years) transformed American morality. The Mary Tyler Moore Show, along with other programs in the same era (All in the Family and MASH, for example), had a huge impact.
All in the Family was a frequently funny and well-written program, but it portrayed “conservatives” or Americanists as buffoons, and liberals as compassionate and intelligent. MASH portrayed standard military officers as hard-headed and obnoxious, and anti-communists as hysterical extremists.
Mary Tyler Moore pushed the envelope at a time when women were not ashamed to be chaste before marriage, and when abortions were considered morally reprehensible. Venereal disease, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and “swinging” were not socially acceptable. The writers of her program worked into the plot of a show where she stayed out overnight on a date that Mary, a single woman holding a highly responsible job, was on the pill. A scandal erupted after the episode aired.
JBS Member or ShopJBS.org Customer?
Sign in with your ShopJBS.org account username and password or use that login to subscribe.
Subscribe Now
- 24 Issues Per Year
- Digital Edition Access
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime.
- Renews automatically
Subscribe Now
- 24 Issues Per Year
- Print edition delivery (USA)
*Available Outside USA - Digital Edition Access
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime.
- Renews automatically