I well remember watching this show when it was on originally. Except for a couple of segments, it wasn't very funny in my opinion. It was certainly outrageous, and shocking just for the sake of being shocking. It was also very tasteless at times (the whole wife beating scenario was more than a little eerie and sick; it took me awhile to warm up to Martin Mull later on when I would see him as a comedian). Lasser was certainly on something; she looked and sounded perpetually stoned. I hung on for about four months, and then I had had enough; by that time it had clearly worn out its welcome. Just recently I rented the available episodes on DVD, and it was worse than what I remembered. I admire Norman Lear for the many ways in which he has improved television by pushing the envelope, but even he didn't have a perfect track record (remember "Fernwood Tonight" and "All That Glitters?" Disasters!). "Mary Hartman" made the same mistake that "Soap" made - the writers and producers didn't know whether these shows should be comedies or dramas after awhile (Mary's kidnapping by Davy is entirely too long and padded), and started to screw around with the formats of the shows to keep them fresh, stretching out plot lines until they became stale. But more power to both shows for pushing the boundaries of television for their time.

Well perhaps not the worst show ever, the Star Wars Christmas special was pretty bad. But at least most people agree that the SW special was god awful. And I'm not 100% certain it was actually worse.I never understood what people saw in it when it aired, I don't get it now.Louise is not funny, she seems to actually have serious problems. This is a notion that would be vindicated when she hosted Saturday Night Live where she was also, not surprisingly,...not funny.Supposedly this is a powerful feminist show. I'm not sure how portraying a person who is this messed up as some kind of icon to be aspired to advances the cause of feminism. I think the Mary Tyler Moore Show and it's spin off Rhoda are certainly more effective in that role. But the show did seem to appeal to people who also had serious personal problems. Maybe that explains it.

This was indeed a work of art for many reasons. First, it was done tongue-in-cheek, but believe it or not really depicted real situations, which actually continue to happen in American life.For example it is astounding that a recent survey found that something like 20% of Americans actually believe that the Sun revolves around the earth. Another example of just plain dumb, or totally uninformed people, can be found by remembering that during the early World War II years, polls showed that in spite of ads, posters, war campaigns, and other national information efforts, about 25% of Americans still had no idea who Franklin D. Roosevelt or Adolph Hitler were.Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was a classic because it warned us that we still have a long way to go, if we want to be accepted as an informed society.I would love to get a copy of the entire production, so I could play it for my grand children. We, and they, need to know that these types of people are still out there, and must be understood and dealt with on a daily basis.Luis J. Orozco, II

This is a hilarious comedy and many comments re: this show contain the desire for it to return to tv.Well,it's back on tvland channel,check listings.Too short lived a soap/comedy spoof,a definate must see.There was also a sequel to this "Forever Fernwood",shorter lived.Louise Lasser is the star and gives an unbeatable performance in this very unusual hilarious satire comedy.L