28 Years Ago in TIME

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Roy B. White, Rebecca Winters

MARY TYLER MOORE is just one of TV's vintage stars celebrated in prime-time specials this month. Back in 1974 TIME already knew she and co-star Valerie Harper were making TV history.

Audiences in search of funny girls have learned to forsake the theater for Valerie and Mary on the smaller screen. Mary opts for the soft approach. Every week, as Mary Richards, the effervescent assistant TV producer, she manages to discover fresh comic possibilities in herself and her supporting cast... On Mary's shows, nothing is sacred and few things are profane: sex, inflation, urban miseries and small-time office politics are alive and laughing on prime time... Between them, the two very different, identical comediennes are the season's brightest clowns. On every show they prove that women need not be dingbats or contralto foghorns to win applause or affection. Almost alone, they are bringing back the forgotten tradition of the beautiful clown. From the look of the ladies and the sound of their followers, TV '74 has a glow that extends to viewers who may yet be witnessing television's true Golden Age of comedy--stronger and longer than the one in the '50s. Indeed, Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper are enough to make almost anyone forget the comedies of the past. And even the crustiest nostalgia buffs cannot ponder The MTM Show without admitting that all that glitters is not old. --TIME, Oct. 28, 1974