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TV Land's
Mary Tyler Moore Statue

I admit it... I watch TV Land. When I found out that I was going to be making a trip to the Minneapolis area, my first thought was, I'm going to go see the TV Land Mary Tyler Moore statue!

The friend I was visiting didn't exactly live in Minneapolis... but in a suburb quite a ways out of the city. It took a bit of convincing, but after some grumbling, we finally we set aside a day to travel into the city to find the statue.

More than 25 years after 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' went off the air, TV Land paid tribute to Mary Richards by erecting a bronze statue at Seventh Street and Nicollet Mall, depicting her tam toss from the show's opening credits. I had watched every episode of the show when it was originally on, and countless reruns of it on TV Land. I wasn't going to miss seeing this!

I had read many accounts of the event. I knew that on May 8, 2002, Mary Tyler Moore herself was present at the statue's unveiling, she even joined in singing the show's theme song and then there was a group beret toss, just like her famous tam toss from the show's opening credits.

So finally, on a warm September day, I found myself wandering around Minneapolis looking for the statue. Minneapolis itself seems like a pretty nice place. We did a bit of driving around first looking for the statue and then looking for a parking place. We went past the Metrodome.

I was amazed at all the enclosed walkways above the streets that connect the downtown buildings. We walked, and we walked, and we walked...

Finally, we turned a corner... and there she was! The bronze statue of Mary Tyler Moore, across the street from the IDS building. The locals didn't seem to notice it was there... but my fearless touristy self went right up to it so I could forever imortalize myself next to Mary Richards! My friend obliged with the camers, altho I could sense that he wasn't anywhere near as excited as I was. lol

Actually, I didn't think it was a very good likeness of Mary Tyler Moore, and as for "life size", it's a bit off scale. But it's still very cool. All in all, it was a good day in Minneapolis. :-)

Here's what Mary Tyler Moore had to say about her statue when asked in an interview with Paula Zahn on CNN:

What do you think Mary Richards really does represent?
I think she represents an indomitable spirit, that she believes, as everyone can, in possibilities. She does not take "no" for an answer. She's got an energy, and she keeps feeding that energy, and taking from it. She's about loyalty. She is about a sense of humor, about herself and life, and that she's about a little bit of wisdom, not too much to get into trouble, but enough to carry on.

What do you think of your bronze likeness? How did they do?
It's wonderful. [Sculptor] Gwendolyn Gillen captured so much of what is Mary Richards. All those abstract qualities that we were talking about. It's not just a replication of my face and body, although she did a very good job on all of that, too. I think I look a little too tan, however.