The Mary Tyler Moore Show opening sequence is an element of the U.S. television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...

. In 1999, Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

 picked Mary Richards

Mary Richards

Mary Richards, portrayed by Mary Tyler Moore, is the main character of the television sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show.-Family:Mary Richards, born in Roseburg, Minnesota, is the daughter of Walter and Dottie Richards...

' hat toss at the end of the sequence as television's second greatest moment. In 2010, TV Guide

TV Guide

TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

, ranked the sequence #3 on its list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.
The theme song, "Love Is All Around", was written and performed by Sonny Curtis

Sonny Curtis

Sonny Curtis is an American singer and songwriter. Most of his work falls into the Pop and Country genres. He was a teenage pal and band member with Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas...

.

Scenes

The opening title sequence

Title sequence

A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...

 for the show begins with the name of its star across the screen in Peignot font, which then multiplies both upward and downward vertically in a number of colors, followed by a montage of brief shots of Mary, mostly engaging in everyday activities around Minneapolis, as the theme song plays. In the final shot, she cheerfully tosses her tam o'shanter in the air in the middle of the street; a freeze-frame captures her smiling face and the hat in mid-air.

The sequence was created by Reza Badiyi

Reza Badiyi

Reza Sayed Badiyi was an Iranian-American film director. Badiyi was well known for directing episodes of many popular television series...

 who also did the opening sequence for Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...

. Badiyi came up with the idea for the final shot, which Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

 ranked as the second greatest moment in television. An older woman can be seen in the background, obviously puzzled by the sight of a young woman tossing her hat in the air. This unwitting "extra" was Hazel Frederick, a lifelong Minnesota resident who happened to be out shopping the day the sequence was shot. Mrs. Frederick finally met Moore in 1994 when she was on a book tour for her autobiography, After All. Moore introduced Frederick as "my co-star".

From 1973 to the series' conclusion, Mary is shown washing her car while wearing the #10 home jersey of Minnesota Vikings

Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...

' quarterback Fran Tarkenton

Fran Tarkenton

Francis Asbury "Fran" Tarkenton is a former professional football player, TV personality, and computer software executive....

. Tarkenton and the Vikings had played in three Super Bowls around this time, the last in the 1976 season.

Some of the scenes show Mary interacting with crew members. In one, the camera pans over a shot of Mary eating at a restaurant with an older man, the actress' then-husband, Grant Tinker

Grant Tinker

Grant Almerin Tinker is the former chairman and CEO of NBC from 1981 to 1986, co-founder of MTM Enterprises, and television producer. Tinker is the former husband of television actress Mary Tyler Moore...

, who served as president of MTM Enterprises

MTM Enterprises

MTM Enterprises was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS...

 until 1981. Another scene shows Mary walking in the park, where she is passed by two joggers: creators James L. Brooks

James L. Brooks

James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...

 and Allan Burns

Allan Burns

Allan Burns is an American screenwriter and television producer. Burns is best known for, alongside James L. Brooks, creating and writing for the television sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda.-Early life:...

.

In later seasons, Mary is shown looking at a package of meat at a supermarket, then rolling her eyes as she throws it into her shopping cart. This is a reference to the high consumer inflation during the mid-70s. In 2009, CBS' Nancy Giles

Nancy Giles

Nancy Giles is an American actress and television journalist .-Biography:...

, commenting on the high cost of small packages of food, showed this clip and said that it seems only she and Mary Richards buy them.

From season two onward, Moore's costars were also featured in the opening, with shots of Moore with Phyllis and Rhoda in Mary's apartment (seasons four and five featured Moore and Harper walking down a Minneapolis street laughing), and Mary hugging Lou, Murray and Ted (accidentally crushing Ted's fedora and then straightening it out), a scene from the end of the 1970 episode "Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid", using the actual scene during the second season, and a new re-staging of it for the fourth season onward.

Theme song

The theme song, "Love Is All Around", was written and performed by Sonny Curtis

Sonny Curtis

Sonny Curtis is an American singer and songwriter. Most of his work falls into the Pop and Country genres. He was a teenage pal and band member with Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas...

 (often mistakenly attributed to Paul Williams

Paul Williams (songwriter)

Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...

; Pat Williams wrote the show's music). The first season's lyrics are words of encouragement directed to the character, referring to the end of a previous relationship and making a fresh start, beginning with "How will you make it on your own?" and concluding with "You might just make it after all." The more familiar version of the song used in seasons 2-7 changed the lyrics to affirm her optimistic character, beginning with "Who can turn the world on with her smile?" and concluding with a more definitive "You're gonna make it after all." An instrumental version of the tune was used for the show's closing credits.

An instrumental version of the song was used for the opening of Moore's 1979 variety series, The Mary Tyler Moore Hour

The Mary Tyler Moore Hour

The Mary Tyler Moore Hour was a television series broadcast by CBS in the spring of 1979.Like her first series, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Moore's eponymous sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show , had been highly-rated, critically acclaimed, and the recipient of many Emmy Awards...

. In 1980, Curtis released a full-length version of "Love is All Around." It reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart.

The song has been covered by artists such as Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

Joan Jett

Joan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...

, Christie Front Drive

Christie Front Drive

Christie Front Drive was an American Emo/Indie band formed in Denver in 1993. Citing influences such as Superchunk, Jawbox, Buffalo Tom and Drive Like Jehu, the lineup consisted of Ron Marschall , Jason Begin , Kerry McDonald and Eric Richter .-History:The band released a self-titled EP and a 7"...

, Sammy Davis Jr., and Twin Cities

Twin cities

Twin cities are a special case of two cities or urban centres which are founded in close geographic proximity and then grow into each other over time...

-based Hüsker Dü

Hüsker Dü

Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....

, the latter who also reproduced several scenes of the opening on location for their music video. The song was also featured in a long-running commercial for Chase bank in the mid-2000s, and was sung in the TV series 7th Heaven

7th Heaven

7th Heaven is an American family drama television series, created and produced by Brenda Hampton. The series premiered on August 26, 1996, on the WB, the first time that the network aired Monday night programming, and was originally broadcast from August 26, 1996 to May 13, 2007...

 in the episode "In Praise of Women" during the birth of the Camden twins. A dance version was featured in the 1995 Isaac Mizrahi

Isaac Mizrahi

Isaac Mizrahi is an American TV presenter, fashion designer, and was the creative director of Liz Claiborne. He is best known for his eponymous fashion lines.-Early life:...

 documentary Unzipped

Unzipped (film)

Unzipped is a 1995 documentary film, directed by Douglas Keeve. It follows fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, Keeve's then boyfriend, as he plans and ultimately shows his fall 1994 collection...

.

Minneapolis locations

Nicollet Mall

Many of the outdoor scenes in the opening sequence were filmed along Nicollet Mall

Nicollet Mall

Nicollet Mall is a portion of Nicollet Avenue running through downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Working as a pedestrian and transit mall, it is also an upscale shopping and dining district...

 in Minneapolis.
In 2001, The New York Times stated that it is not unusual for people walking along the mall to be so reminded of the show that they toss their hats in the air, as Mary did at the end of the sequence.

The iconic hat toss was filmed at the intersection with 7th Street. On May 8, 2002, cable TV network TV Land

TV Land

TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...

 dedicated an 8 feet (2.4 m) tall bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 statue of Moore tossing her hat near that intersection. Many in the press were skeptical of TV Land's motive at first, some claiming it was a marketing strategy, and one Macalester College

Macalester College

Macalester College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 as a Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian college. Its first class entered September 15, 1885. The college is located on a campus in a historic residential neighborhood...

 professor stating that it was "like honoring a unicorn." Moore herself unveiled the statue, where 3,000 tams were distributed to the crowd of onlookers so they could participate in a commemorative hat toss.

The Dayton's

Dayton's

Minneapolis-based Dayton's was among the leading department stores in the United States for nearly a century after its founding in 1902 by George Draper Dayton. In 1969, the Detroit-based J.L. Hudson Company merged with the Dayton Corporation to form the Dayton-Hudson Corporation, adding 21...

 department store in the background of some of those scenes (later a Marshall Field's

Marshall Field's

Marshall Field & Company was a department store in Chicago, Illinois that grew to become a major chain before being acquired by Macy's Inc...

 and now a Macy's

Macy's

Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...

) has changed considerably in appearance. In fact, the exact spot where the cap toss occurred was debated extensively, because the layout along Nicollet has changed substantially since the early 1970s due to urban renewal. The actual backdrop of the scene, the Donaldson's

Donaldson's

Donaldson's, also known as The L. S. Donaldson Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota is a defunct department store company.-History:The L. S. Donaldson Co., Minneapolis, Minnesota, was founded in 1883 by Scottish Immigrants. Built in 1884, the building was known as "The Glass Block" because of its...

 department store catercorner to the site, was destroyed in 1982 by the Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire

Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire

The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day fire destroyed an entire block of Downtown Minneapolis on November 25–26, 1982, including the 16-story headquarters of Northwestern National Bank and the vacant, partially demolished location formerly occupied by Donaldson's department store, which had...

.

IDS Center

The IDS Center

IDS Center

The IDS Center is the tallest building in the state of Minnesota at 792 feet . Opened in 1974 as the IDS Centre, it stood 775 feet 6 inches , though a 16-foot garage for window washing equipment was added at a later date...

 was under construction when the original opening sequence was filmed. For an updated sequence used during the fourth season, Mary visited the recently completed IDS Center and was seen riding up the escalator in the Crystal Court.
This exposure on prime-time television pre-dated, by two months, the official presentation by architect Philip Johnson

Philip Johnson

Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...

 of the completion of the project in Architectural Forum. Another scene from the same building showed Mary dining with a man at what is now the Mary Tyler Moore table at Basil's Restaurant. In 2006, the manager of Basil's said that his customers still frequently request the table where Mary sat. The IDS Center is located across the street from Midwest Plaza

Midwest Plaza

Midwest Plaza is a tall skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was completed in 1969, and has 20 floors. It is the 30th-tallest building in the city and is located on Nicollet Mall. At the time of its completion, the building stood as the fifth-tallest structure in Minneapolis, and the...

, which was used for establishing shots of Mary's workplace.

Highway

Scenes showing Mary driving a white 1970 Ford Mustang

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Introduced early on April 17, 1964, as a "1964½" model, the 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A...

 toward Minneapolis in the first-season sequence were supposedly filmed on Interstate 494

Interstate 494

Interstate 494 is a loop route making up part of a beltway of Interstate 94, circling through the southern and western portions of the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota...

 (the Sheraton

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's largest and second oldest brand . Starwood's headquarters are in White Plains, New York.-Sheraton history:...

 Bloomington

Bloomington, Minnesota

Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...

, at the time a Radisson

Radisson Hotels

Radisson Hotels is one of the leading, full-service global hotel companies with more than 420 locations in 73 countries. The first Radisson Hotel was built in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1909, and was named after the 17th-century French explorer Pierre-Esprit Radisson...

, can be seen in the background) and approaching downtown Minneapolis on the Trunk Highway 65 spur from northbound I-35W.

Cultural references and parodies

The sequence has been referenced and parodied numerous times. Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...

 recreated the entire opening sequence of the show in Chicago, with herself in the role of Mary. The All New Alexei Sayle Show

The All New Alexei Sayle Show

The All New Alexei Sayle Show was a comedy sketch show broadcast on BBC2 television for a total of twelve episodes, over two series in 1994 and 1995...

 parodies the opening credits in its opening sequence, with Alexei Sayle

Alexei Sayle

Alexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007...

 dancing through the streets of London to the theme song 'Life's a Big Banana Sandwich'. In the "Saturdays of Thunder

Saturdays of Thunder

"Saturdays of Thunder" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 14, 1991. In the episode, Homer takes a fatherhood quiz and realizes that he knows nothing about Bart. He strives to be a better father and learns that...

" episode of The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

 (also produced by Mary Tyler Moore creator James L. Brooks

James L. Brooks

James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...

), Homer

Homer Simpson

Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...

 criticizes his sister-in-law Patty's Mary Tyler Moore style hairdo, to which her sister Selma insists he be ignored, retorting, "You can turn the world on with your smile," in reference to the theme song's opening lyric.

Often, the hat toss is the main focus of the parody. During the closing credits of the spin-off Rhoda

Rhoda

Rhoda is an American television sitcom, starring Valerie Harper, which ran for five seasons, from 1974 to 1978 airing in 109 episodes. The show was a spin-off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which Harper between the years 1970 and 1974 had played the role of Rhoda Morgenstern, a spunky,...

, she also tries to fling her hat in the air while in the middle of Times Square, but it just falls to the ground and she must sheepishly pick it up. In the episode "And Maggie Makes Three

And Maggie Makes Three

"And Maggie Makes Three" is the thirteenth television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 22, 1995. In the episode, Lisa notices that there are no photos of Maggie in the family photo albums. This leads to a recount of...

" of The Simpsons, while working at a bowling alley, Homer spins around singing, "I'm gonna make it after all!", and tosses a bowling ball in the air. In the first episode of Suddenly Susan

Suddenly Susan

Suddenly Susan is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC from 1996 to 2000. The show takes place at The Gate, a fictitious magazine which is based in San Francisco. Among the magazine's employees is Susan Keane , who always has been cared for by someone else...

, Brooke Shields' character hears the theme song from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and throws her remote control in the air. It hits her in the head. Peter Griffin

Peter Griffin

Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....

 wins a piano competition in the Family Guy

Family Guy

Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

 episode "Wasted Talent" by playing "Love is all around." Afterwards, a girl throws her hat in the air and freezes, while those around her look perplexed as to why she is not moving. On the series Girlfriends

Girlfriends

Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...

, Maya throws her hat in the air after arriving in New York City to meet with a book publisher; the hat is caught by someone walking nearby, who runs off with it.

In the first season Scrubs episode, "My 15 Minutes", Elliot takes a cab downtown at night. The 'Mary Tyler Moore' theme plays as Elliot emerges from her cab. She twirls around and tosses her hat into the air and the music stops with a jolt when a young man bumps into her. He grabs the hat and sticks it on his head and keeps walking.