Early in my first journalism job as an editorial assistant for Mpls. St. Paul Magazine , I interviewed a young man who was in the right place at the right time. Walking home from his Minneapolis grade school around 1970, he and his friends were stopped by a group of strangers who asked them if they wanted to be on TV.
Today, it sounds like a prelude to a Lifetime murder mystery (« …and our studio is in that windowless van, kid »), but back then, stranger danger had yet to be invented. Still, the young man explained, half the kids scattered, and the other half stayed behind, where they were told to cross the street without looking at the pretty lady striding along carrying a grocery bag.
One take, boom, and they went home. Months later, spotted themselves in the opening credits of « The Mary Tyler Moore Show. » (Disclosure: The show ran on CBS, parent company of CNET.)
Plenty of people in my hometowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul had stories like that. Though the famed sitcom was filmed in Los Angeles, Twin Cities landmarks were woven through the famous credits.
Mary and (real-life) husband Grant Tinker are seen laughing at a restaurant table in the state’s tallest building, the IDS, a table that now bears a plaque marking the event.
