It's Rhoda Morgenstern - following me!

I am totally susceptible to flattery. So I was incredibly excited to discover that the Broadway play Looped, which begins previews Friday at the Lyceum Theatre, was following me on Twitter!

That's Looped starring Valerie Harper as the legendary actress Tallulah Bankhead. Valerie Harper - Rhoda Morgenstern! I'm one degree of separation from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I'm a little verklempt right now.

Here's Valerie getting a little help rearranging her dressing room. I love this backstage stuff.

Casting call for 101 Dalmations

I never realized that Playbill has a jobs section until I found information about auditions for the upcoming national tour of 101 Dalmations.

The description of what they're looking for in the musical's principal cast members is pretty amusing:

Prince: Male Dalmatian, 30s. Narrator of the show. Charming bon vivant. Hugh Grant-type.

Pongo: Male Dalmatian, 30s. New father who maintains his sense of humor even with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Dick Van Dyke-type, with a touch of Buster Keaton.

Missis: Female Dalmatian, 30s. Pongo's wife. Feminine, but can bristle when her family is threatened. Mary Tyler Moore (Laura Petrie) type.

Cruella DeVil: Woman, 30s - 40s. BIG belt. Larger-than-life villain who’s as much a diva as she is a devil.

Hey, you wouldn't want to confuse a Mary Tyler Moore (Laura Petrie) type with a Mary Tyler Moore (Mary Richards) type, right? I bet that sent some aspiring Dalmations scurrying to their Wikipedias. I wonder how many of them had ever seen The Dick Van Dyke Show?

Actually, I think this sounds like fun. I'm very fond of Hugh Grant, especially in any romantic comedy set in London. I always liked Rob and Laura Petrie, too.

30 Rock returns

One of my favorite tv shows, 30 Rock, returned this week. Yay! I definitely need some more humor in my life.

The season opener did not disappoint, even though it seemed like the writers were trying to cram an awful lot into a little over 20 minutes. Tina Fey, who certainly has helped make Saturday Night Live must-see tv again this fall, was at the top of her game.

There were some great lines and two hilarious plot strands: Fey's Liz Lemon desperately trying to impress adoption agency representative Megan Mullally, and Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy clawing his way back up from the mailroom to the executive suite.

As an extra special bonus, one of my blogging buddies, Kari from Persistent Cookie, has a new gig as the 30 Rock correspondent for Give Me My Remote. It'll be fun having someone to discuss the show with every week. And, we've got Oprah appearing on what I know will be a very special episode. Can it get any better?

In the New York Times, Alessandra Stanley calls 30 Rock a "clever update, not to say rip-off" of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. (And she means that as a compliment, I think!) I can see the parallels: single woman trying to make a career behind the scenes in television, surrounded by a demanding boss and quirky coworkers.

Of course, Tracy Morgan is the vain and self-absorbed Ted Baxter character played by Ted Knight, and Alec Baldwin would be the counterpart to Ed Asner's brusque but kindhearted Lou Grant. But who's Gavin MacLeod's understanding confidante Murray?

Still turning the world on with her smile

In honor of my upcoming trip to Minneapolis, now only a day away, The New York Times is reporting that the final three seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show are coming to dvd. I have the first season, and I just watched the opening credits.

Gosh, I loved that theme song:

Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well it's you girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement you show it

Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all
You're gonna make it after all

How will you make it on your own?
This world is awfully big, girl this time you're all alone
But it's time you started living
It's time you let someone else do some giving

Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all
You're gonna make it after all

The view of the Minneapolis skyline as Mary drives into the Twin Cities - I just got a chill! It makes me want to twirl around and throw my hat into the air! (Note to self: pack a hat.)

The first four seasons of the show were released between 2002 and 2006, but since then, nothing. So, what took so long? In the article, Mark Harris explains that 20th Century Fox apparently felt the market for tv shows on dvd was glutted.

But persistent fans, including Oprah Winfrey, kept up the drumbeat. I had no idea Oprah was a fan. Harris notes that she got her start in local television, in Nashville, and has often spoken of Ms. Moore's portrayal of a woman in the workplace as inspirational. Harris says that "in its later years the show became television’s first great workplace sitcom.''

The Mary Tyler Moore Show aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977, the prime television-watching years of my youth. It was definitely one of my favorite shows growing up. It would probably be a stretch to say that Mary Richards was an inspiration to me, but I think Mary Tyler Moore is a great comic actress and I've loved her ever since the reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

(I didn't realize that The Dick Van Dyke Show originally aired from 1961 to 1966. That means there was only a four-year span between the end of that show and the beginning of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Wow, I thought there was a much bigger gap. They seem light years apart.)

And the show had such a great ensemble cast - Ed Asner's gruff Lou Grant, Ted Knight's vain and clueless Ted Baxter, Gavin McLeod's warm and witty Murray Slaughter, Valerie Harper's wisecracking Rhoda Morgenstern, Cloris Leachman's busybody Phyllis Lindstrom. Not to mention Georgia Engel and Betty White. Really, don't you smile just thinking about them?