Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: The Ballad of Ed and Howard (Patreon)

Hi, all. This week’s regular episode will be weird in a few ways. For one, it’s going to have me (Drew) hosting solo. For another, it’s about a cult favorite show that the vast majority of our audience has never seen. And for a third, it’s not about one single episode but a single story sustained across 40 or so episodes.

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is one Norman Lear’s more important shows, but as a result of the fact that it was only syndicated and never tied to s specific channel or network, it’s been lost in the age of streaming. You can order the complete series right now on DVD — and if you like this episode, you should — but it’s just not so easy to appreciate this show today. What’s more, it’s not necessarily the easiest watch. It’s technically a comedy, but the pacing and tone may not line up with the tastes of your average 80s kid, but I’m going to try and make the argument that it’s worth your time anyway.

What I’ve posted here is a two-hour supercut of all of the moments that tell the story of Ed and Howard, a gay couple that TV viewers were introduced to back in 1976. That’s well before the notion of well-rounded gay characters became commonplace, to say nothing of the idea of two men in a loving relationship. Well Ed and Howard fall victim to the same dramatic twists as any couple in a nighttime soap — or a comedy lampooning nighttime soaps — they end up together, in the end. 

Please, watch this video in preparation for this week’s episode. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, just skip around for a flavor of how this unique show approached social issues. I’ll try my best to make sense of it in the episode I record tomorrow.

For the purposes of fair use, I should declare that nothing in this video fully satisfies the experience of any one single episode of MH2. I’m posting this as an educational aid that will hopefully result in motivating some of you to seek out the full experience. It’s worth it.

I, for one, think you’re all very lucky to be having a look at this show that has mostly been lost to time. And I feel lucky to be sharing it with you.

– Drew