Behold some very cool behind-the-scenes footage of a crew shooting material for the iconic opening credits sequence of ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’. As you probably know, the show took place in Minneapolis and the tasty, charming front credits set the stage in a very nice, semi-doc verite style, showing Mary Richards on the streets of the city she newly lived in. (After that of course we were on a stage at CBS studios in the San Fernando Valley for the interiors). The show premiered in 1970 but by 1973 it was decided that clothing styles had changed sufficiently so that a new credit sequence needed to be shot. So Moore and company (meaning Valerie Harper) decamped to Minneapolis and spent a few days on the street grabbing shots, improvising business, cutting-up a little and gathering enough footage to give the show its opening lift. Of course the fabulous Sonny Curtis theme song tied it all together (we’ll get to the creation of that song tomorrow). Meanwhile enjoy this rare B-Roll of a local crew shooting TVs biggest female star. At 8 minutes there’s some fun stuff of Moore and the director staging a gag in a supermarket, followed by a long and curious conversation with Valerie Harper and Moore in a booth at a diner. I’m not sure how/why all this footage wound up being preserved but thanks to YouTube it now has a wonderful resting place.