Word: fernwood
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...between the two. The patrons of the Proposition Theater temporarily become the viewers of a daytime drama called The Wanton Wind, whose renewal or cancellation depends on their whim. The Wanton Wind has obvious parallels with Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; it is set, for example, in Breezewood (instead of Fernwood), and its young Don Juan, Brent Owen, resembles Sgt. Dennis Foley. But The Wanton Wind is pure parody in a way Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is not--highly stylized, it comes complete with musical flourishes, tensely meaningful looks and lines like "Don't fight it. It's bigger than...
...troubles, very well, it seems. Norman Lear's soap-opera sendup, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, is now in its seventh week, the most talked-about new show of TV's numb-drum season. Most followers of loopy Mary and the other soap-flake characters of Fernwood must indulge their new addiction either in the afternoon or late at night. Shunned by the networks, the syndicated five-day-a-week serial appears on nearly 70 stations, generally in non-prime-time slots; 30 more stations will start showing it soon. The program is averaging a 10 rating in major...
...reason why people are watching Mary Hartman. The show's fascination lies in its oddly shifting tone. Almost all of the characters are confused. Mary herself is usually slack-jawed with bafflement-about her sister, who has fallen in with the local massage-parlor king; her grandfather, "the Fernwood Flasher"; and most of all by her stolid and truly enigmatic husband Tom. Though he is having an affair with Mae, a comely co-worker at the plant, he is impotent with Mary. The situation makes him terse and glum. If he can't do it, poor, dead-voiced...
...matter how many car crashes or family arrests occur, the atmosphere in Fernwood is torpid. Many of the laughs stem from people's misunderstandings of the simplest things. The real threats come from family and close friends. Mary's kitchen telephone is an instrument of bedevilment. The wonder is that she still picks it up; she has rarely heard any good or even neutral news over it. Many lines, especially in the kitchen scenes, can seem funny and pathetic at once. Informed by a caller of yet another crisis, Mary replies, "I can't talk...
...Fernwood was sure Moore could handle such a weapon. When she bought the first one, he had taken her to a nearby firing range to check her out. Moore, who claimed to have had training with guns as a WAC, "did rather well," Fernwood said. She had paid $125 for the first gun, also by check...