Brow Beat

There Was No Bigger Fan of Mary Tyler Moore Than Oprah

One TV icon inspired another.

Still taken from the video

Mary Tyler Moore, who died on Wednesday, was a hero to any number of ambitious working women in her role as the spunky, independent television producer Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore show. And no one was a bigger fan of Moore than another TV icon: Oprah Winfrey. Just watch her reaction as Moore makes a surprise appearance on a 1997 episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show.

The full segment is no less touching: Moore wipes Oprah’s tears away as she explains, “You have no idea what you’ve meant to me.”  So great was her admiration that she even recreated the equally iconic Mary Tyler Moore Show opening sequence, set to Sonny Curtis’ “Love Is All Around,” with herself as star, calling it “one of the most fun things” she ever did during her long career in television. We believe it—just look how well she executes that hat toss:

Read more in Slate about Mary Tyler Moore.