Norman Lear's soap opera parody lasted only a year and a half in the mid-1970s and never received high ratings, but it developed a strong following and had a big impact on popular culture. Set in the fictional town of Fernwood, OH, the show stars Louise Lasser as the titular unfulfilled housewife, who is struggling with a sexually confused husband (Greg Mullavey), a father known as the “Fernwood Flasher," a serial killer who targets domestic animals as well as people, and the waxy yellow build-up on her kitchen linoleum. Among the notable costars, Debralee Scott is Mary's sexually reckless single sister, Mary Kay Place is a neighbor and aspiring country singer, Dabney Coleman is the town's scheming mayor, and Martin Mull plays identical twins. The half-hour program was shot like a traditional soap opera and ran five days a week in syndication, mixing wild parodies of soap opera complications with sly cultural satire about changing sexual mores, consumerism, family dynamics, and media hysteria. The series is over 35 years old yet it holds up surprisingly well, thanks to smart writing, a superb cast, and its perfect evocation of the soap opera style. The video quality here betrays the show's age, with discoloration and some distortion at the edges of the image, but that's to be expected from ‘70s video technology. Compiling all 325 episodes from the 1976-77 first and second seasons, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, 10 episodes of the spin-off series Fernwood 2 Night, and a booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: The Complete Series
Shout! Factory, 38 discs, 8,100 min., not rated, DVD: $249.95 Volume 29, Issue 1
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: The Complete Series
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