PASADENA, Calif. -- Mary Tyler Moore has always been a trouper, as she demonstrated during filming of the made-for-TV movie "Mary and Rhoda," which premieres tonight at 7 on Ch. 4.
In one scene, Moore was chasing a stray dog down a New York street when she was supposed to trip over a carpet being carried by two workmen and fall down."It was staged so that I would just catch my toe and lose my balance and gracefully fall on my rear," she said. "And what happened -- the guys were carrying the carpet about an inch higher than they had (during rehearsal) and I caught my foot in the carpet, became airborne over the cement and came crashing down on my two hands and my knee. I broke two bones in this hand and had to do the rest of the picture with a removable cast."
"Do you know what she said when she fell first thing?" Harper added. " 'Did you get it on film?' "
They did, and it's in the telefilm.
NOT BIG FANS: "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Rhoda" ceased production in 1977 and 1979, respectively, but have lived on in syndication and on cable. And, in the process, they've won several generations of younger fans, millions of whom weren't even born when the shows were still on the air.
Millions of fans who don't include the young actresses who played Mary and Rhoda's daughters in the ABC TV movie.
"I actually have not seen many of the 'Mary' and 'Rhoda' shows," said Joie Lenz, who plays Mary's daughter, Rose. Neither had Marisa Ryan, who plays Rhoda's daughter, Meredith.
"My parents were avid, avid fans, so I had seen some elements of it," Ryan said. "It's such a stamp on society, though, in general that I think it kind of infiltrated through my childhood."
THINGS HAVE CHANGED: Moore says she isn't a big TV watcher these days, nor is she a big fan of most of the comedies that currently air on network television. It's not the acting that has fallen off since she was starring in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" in the '60s and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in the '70s -- it's the writing.
"No, the writing is not as good," Moore said. "And I think part of the reason is because the writers today . . . are several generations removed from the original, creative thought. They've seen stuff on television year after year after year, and so now they tend to write in a kind of shorthand. And they write with the proclivity of today's society, which is that younger is better and sex is the only thing that matters and let's-get-as-many-jokes-in-this-minute-as-we-possibly-can.
"And it's a trend. It's not going to stay, I know that. I hope I'm around to see it change. Not to change back, but to change to other subjects."
But there are exceptions, and she does have her favorites among the current crop of TV comedies.
"There's wonderful writing," Moore said. "I love '(Everybody Loves) Raymond.' I love 'Friends.' I love 'Frasier.' "
SAFETY FACTOR: Harper and Rhoda Morgenstern actually ran longer on TV than Moore and Mary Richards. Harper was on "MTM" for the first four (of seven) seasons before spinning off into "Rhoda" for 4 1/2 seasons.
Not that Harper was anxious to strike out on her own. "I didn't want to go," Harper said. "And I said, 'What if I bomb?' And she said, 'You'll move back to Minneapolis.' That was really working with a net."