Rest in Peace, Mary Tyler Moore, Reluctant Feminist Icon

In 1970, when Moore embodied the character of flighty, 30-year-old single TV news producer Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show , there was no other such woman portrayed on television – at least not one who was leading her own show or not dismissed as slutty. The only forerunner was Marlo Thomas in That Girl , but her Ann Marie was a 20-something on her way to marriage, while Mary was running away from the institution.

Rest in Peace, Mary Tyler Moore, Reluctant Feminist Icon

In 1970, when Moore embodied the character of flighty, 30-year-old single TV news producer Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show , there was no other such woman portrayed on television – at least not one who was leading her own show or not dismissed as slutty. The only forerunner was Marlo Thomas in That Girl , but she was a 20-something woman who was on her way to marriage, while Mary was running away from the institution.

Mary Tyler Moore accepts her Lifetime Achievement Screen Actors Guild …

Comfortably single and unafraid to stand up to her gruff newsroom boss, Mary Richards splashed onto television screens at a time when feminism was still putting down roots in America, a woman who charged through the working day with equal parts humor and raw independence. Mary Tyler Moore’s character charmed TV watchers, earned the actress Emmy nominations and became a potent symbol of womanhood in the 1970s.