Ambition has almost always been a touchy subject for fictional women on television. When Mary Richards applied for a secretarial job at a local Minneapolis television station on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in the 1970s, she ended up as an associate producer by the end of the interview. News director Lou Grant gave her the elevated title so he could pay her less, implicitly indicating that there was a price for women moving up the career ladder. It was an ingenious way for the show’s writers to set Mary on a career path without making her seem overly ambitious and therefore less feminine. Mary did not negotiate and was grateful for the unexpected promotion.
About 50 years later, stand-up comedian Deborah Vance, played by the inimitable Jean Smart, faces a similar conundrum in “Hacks” when she discovers that her dream job, a spot as a late-night talk show host, is in vain. open up. Despite Deborah’s decades-long career and reputation as a survivor, she initially raises concerns that might as well have been expressed by Mary Richards half a century earlier.
In the third season of the show, which is currently nominated for a slew of Emmys, Deborah tells her writer and confidante Ava, played by Hannah Einbinder, that she has wanted the position since she was a child. Deborah longed to “live in that hour” because her abusive father watched the late night show and would feel more bearable if it was on. At first she is hesitant to publicly announce that she wants the gig, noting, “A woman can’t come out and say what she wants.” That looks like it. . . “Her voice trails off when members of her team say ‘thirst.’ But 27-year-old Ava doesn’t carry the same generational baggage as her 70-year-old boss and encourages Deborah to be honest about her dream, admit how personal it is to her, and be shameless in her quest to the track.
Encouraged by Ava’s words and attitude, Deborah announces that she wants the position as host of the Thanksgiving Day parade and doubles down by confidently declaring, “I am the best person for the job.”
Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”
Courtesy of Everett Collection
Interestingly, it wasn’t until the third season of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” that Mary had the confidence to confront her sometimes irritable boss Lou about updating the format for their newscast, telling gasbag news anchor Ted Baxter to “shut up ‘. while he didn’t stop interrupting her with nonsensical comments while she was trying to deliver an editorial. As the only woman in WJM-TV’s fictional newsroom, Mary was on her own, with an occasional appearance by Betty White as Sue Ann Nivens, the sexually progressive host of the show “The Happy Homemaker.”
Deborah’s age raises the stakes in her search for a night job. It adds an extra layer of urgency as she realizes this may be her last chance to achieve her lifelong dream. As a woman in her seventies, she knows that time is running out to take a big step. It’s now or never. Deborah’s professional clock is ticking and she knows it.
This creates an astonishingly rare situation for a television comedy – a female character over 70 aggressively and strategically pursuing a traditionally male-identified and very public position. According to the latest Boxed In survey from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, women over 60 make up just 5% of all female characters on television.
Once Deborah decides to pursue her dream, she organizes her team and tries to win the position through a series of actions that increase her visibility and chances of getting the job. It’s exciting to see her playfully interacting with the network boss, network partners, and even the head of the conglomerate that owns the network.
Deborah Vance offers a rare and very welcome insight into how writers can view older women as vital and visible. What sets Deborah apart is her desire to not only stay in the game, but to achieve her life purpose. As a character, her depth comes from her life experience.
When Mary Richards joyfully tossed her beret into the air during the closing credits of her now iconic show, she ushered in a new era of portrayals of female characters on television, allowing work to play a central rather than a fleeting and peripheral role in film . lives of fictional women on television. Decades later, Smart’s portrayal expands the dreams female characters can have, not only extending the longevity of their professional lives but also showing that ambition, talent, and focus look great on women at any age.
Dr. Martha M. Lauzen is the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University and author of numerous studies on the on-screen representation of women and behind-the-scenes employment in television and film. film.