. . . and a Pink Slip in a Pear Tree : Mary Tyler Moore’s ‘Annie McGuire’ Merits 2nd Chance

Now you see them, now you don’t.

It’s getting to be like old times in television, isn’t it--those days when new prime-time series were dropped almost immediately if they didn’t produce big ratings instantly? They were yanked from the schedule like breads pulled from the oven before they had a chance to rise.

And now it’s deja vu , thanks to Tuesday’s announcement by CBS that it was canceling “Raising Miranda” and “The Van Dyke Show” and putting “Dirty Dancing” and “Annie McGuire” on hiatus. Add to that CBS’ previous decision to put “Coming of Age” on hiatus and the recent cancellations of “Something Is Out There” by NBC and “Knightwatch” by ABC.

After reviewing a new series, it’s sometimes difficult finding the time or inclination to return for a second and third look. I plead guilty to that concerning some of the above. One I have seen regularly--and one that surely deserves preservation--is “Annie McGuire,” the series that returns Mary Tyler Moore as a career woman with a new husband, a feisty mother and a father-in-law.

Executive producers Elliot Shoenman and Paul Wolff have given America a witty, urbane, laugh-trackless half hour of fresh characters and dialogue. Last Wednesday’s episode, in which Annie and her husband (Denis Arndt) endured socializing with an insufferable couple for business reasons was often roaringly funny and comedy that anyone could relate to.

The characters are delightfully written and the supporting cast, including Eileen Heckart as the mother and John Randolph as the father, are all-stars.

And, of course, there is Moore herself, performing with confidence while doing all those special things--the timing, the exclamations, the little looks--that define her comedy. Yes--please read lips here--she finally has another series WORTHY OF HER TALENTS!

One never knows what looms for a series put on hiatus, whether the lapse is really a reprieve or actually a disguised postponement of cancellation.

“Annie McGuire” surely merits the former, if for no other reason than that CBS put it in an immediate hole by pairing it with “The Van Dyke Show”--a weak lead-in that would inevitably emphasize Moore’s past sitcom glories--and not giving it a 9 or 9:30 p.m. berth.

Perhaps the big three networks are panicking now because of the growing competition from fresh programming on independent stations, cable and video.

They should recall, however, that NBC rose to the top of the ratings under then chairman Grant Tinker with a philosophy of patience, believing that aborting promising programs was self-defeating, because some develop slower than others and take longer to find an audience. Ironically, the now-canceled “Van Dyke Show” and “Raising Miranda” are from Tinker’s GTG Entertainment, as is another new, low-rated series that CBS has chosen to keep on the air for the time being, “TV 101.”

Of course, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which was produced by MTM Enterprises, a firm then headed by Tinker, is one of the classic examples of series that went on to become hits only after slow starts.

Here are some other series that survived the quick hook and went on to Nielsen glory: “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “60 Minutes,” “All in the Family,” “Cagney & Lacey” and “Designing Women” on CBS, and “Hill Street Blues,” “Cheers” and “Alf” on NBC.

Will “Dirty Dancing,” “Coming of Age” and especially “Annie McGuire” be added to the list? Something written about the producers behind the scandalous quiz-show fixes in the late 1950s may apply here:

They could control everything, everything but their fears of losing their audiences.