How will you make it on your own?

Did I ever tell you about the friend of mine who dropped her baby down a manhole? She didn't mean to, obviously, but she's always having terrible things happen to her. She once shut her head in her own car door. She was also carried off the tube with a mystery illness and, while recovering at home, woke up to find the house on fire. She had to jump out of a window landed on some broken glass. So it was back to hospital the second time in one day.

This is the sort of thing that might happen in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, or to give it it's proper title Mary Tyler Moore. We're currently ploughing through season one. Considering it's 1970 it's much more modern than I would have imagined. But watching the lurid colours and split level open plan apartment of the woman who does a man's job in a busy newsroom in snowy Minneapolis, it's apparent how ground-breaking and modern it must have been at the time. It's also cleary to see what an influence it had on sitcoms ever since.

It's got a great supporting cast of characters: Valerie Harper as neighbour Rhoda, Chloris Leachman as selfish doctor's wife and other neighbour Phyllis, Ed Asner as Mary's boss Lou Grant, and Ted Knight as vain anchorman Ted Baxter, clearly the role model for Drop The Dead Donkey's vain anchorman.

It's probably the show with the most spin-offs: Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant, which has the distinction of being the only drama spun-off from a comedy show.

That said, it's not particularly funny all the time, but with the constant snow and great opening titles and theme tune, it gives you a warm feeling. And you don't get that from Within These Walls.