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Mary Worth is a comic strip originally written by Allen Saunders and drawn by Ken Ernst. It is centered on the title character, a 60 year old former teacher and widow of a Wall Street tycoon who lives in The Charterstone Condominium Complex in Santa Royale, California. A pioneering soap opera-style comic strip, Worth serves as an observer of and advice dispenser for her fellow residents, tackling issues like drug and alcohol abuse, infidelity, and teen pregnancy.
Mary Worth started as Mary Worth's Family in 1938 and was a replacement for Apple Mary, a comic strip about an old woman who hawked apples by Martha Orr. Some works claim that it was a continuation of the former strip, though King Features denies this and it seems unlikely given that the characters have no similarities beyond their names.
Mary Worth is syndicated by King Features. The creators over the years have also included John Saunders (1974-2004), Bill Ziegler (1986-1990), Jim Armstrong (1991), Joe Giella (1991- ), and Karen Moy (2004- ).
Cultural references
Mary Worth has been referenced several times in current pop culture. An episode of The Simpsons features Comic Book Guy displaying "a very rare Mary Worth in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide." In another episode he trades a Mary Worth telephone to Bart Simpson for an Itchy and Scratchy animation cel. In the episode "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?", the tour of the Springfield Shopper leads them to comic department which is headed by the author of Mary Worth. The guide asks "Who reads Mary Worth?" to which the group remains silent, and the guide says "Let's move on."
In an episode of Futurama, Fry remarks, "There are guys in the background of Mary Worth comics that are more important than me" upon finding out that Leela, his love interest, is about to go on a date with an important Mayor's Aide.
An episode of Family Guy features the Chris making a print of a Mary Worth strip on Peter's belly fat and stretching it out, Silly Putty-style, saying "Look what I can do to Mary Worth's smug sense of self-satisfaction." To which Peter responds, "That's right son, take her down a peg."
A recurring skit on The Carol Burnett Show was a satire on the comic, called Mary Worthless. The title character went around helping people, "whether they liked it or not". At the beginning of each installment, Carol Burnett, in character, sat inside a comic panel and introduced herself: "Oh, hello. I'm Mary Worthless, and I'm a do-gooder." The last line usually elicited much laughter from the audience, as they knew her schemes to do more harm than good.
In a FoxTrot strip, the characters are discussing how many comic strips that day have jokes based on golf. Jason comments, "I loved Mary Worth's punch line about sand traps."
References
- Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0970007701.
External links
"Mary Worth (comic)"