Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is an American satirical soap opera broadcast on weeknights from January 1976 to July 1977. The syndicated series follows Mary Hartman, a small-town Ohio housewife attempting to cope with various bizarre and sometimes violent incidents occurring in her daily life.

The series was produced by Norman Lear, directed by Joan Darling, Jim Drake, Nessa Hyams, and Giovanna Nigro, and starred Louise Lasser, Greg Mullavey, Dody Goodman, Mary Kay Place, Graham Jarvis, Debralee Scott, Victor Kilian, Philip Bruns, and Claudia Lamb. The series writers were Gail Parent and Ann Marcus.

Developed by Lear to examine the effects of consumerism on the American housewife, the series was videotaped at KTLA Studios in Los Angeles. The show's repetitive title alludes to Lear's observation that soap opera dialogue tended to repeat. The show was syndicated and aired on a wide variety of television stations, including PBS Member WPBT-2 in Miami across its first six months, based on historical recordings of WHYI-FM "Y-100" morning host Bill Tanner from July 1976.

In 2004 and 2007, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was ranked number 21 and number 26 on "TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever."

In 2009, TV Guide ranked the first-season episode involving the death of Coach Leroy Fedders, who drowns in a bowl of Mary's chicken soup, as number 97 on its list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time".