Making it after all: a reparative reading of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Abstract

This article develops a reparative reading of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970—77) in order to demonstrate the ways in which Mary's emotional and imaginary significance is broader than her original context of second wave feminism in the US. The notion of reparative criticism as an alternative or supplementary approach to conventional cultural studies analyses is explained. The article develops this approach through a number of readings of Mary Richards as she appears and is invoked both within and beyond the sitcom narrative. It is argued that the ambivalence associated with Mary allows viewers to negotiate social and psychic conflicts in a process of making a possible world for themselves.

Keywords

reparative criticism situation comedy television

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