Set in fictional Fernwood, Ohio, this deliriously demented serial focused on the beleaguered heroine Mary Hartman ... breakdown on a syndicated talk show.

The show's title was the eponymous character's name stated twice, because Lear and the writers believed that everything that was said on a soap opera was said twice. Lear conceived Mary Hartman ...

Mary Hartman, but it failed to get the ratings that the other two shows had; it was canceled after 65 episodes, which had been broadcast five days a week over three months in 1980.