Mary Worth is a newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

, which has had a seven-decade run since it began in 1938 under the title Mary Worth's Family. Distributed by King Features Syndicate

King Features Syndicate

King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...

, this pioneering soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

-style strip had an influence on several realistically drawn continuity strips that followed.

Mary Worth evolved from Apple Mary, a successful comic strip created in 1932 by Martha Orr, about an elderly woman who sells apples around her neighborhood. The earlier Apple Mary was taken over and renamed by artist Dale Conner, who had previously been Martha Orr's assistant. Later, when Allen Saunders

Allen Saunders

Allen Saunders was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth and Kerry Drake...

 signed on as the scripter, the strip appeared under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 "Dale Allen", a combination of the collaborators' given names. The strip reached its apex under Saunders and artist Ken Ernst

Ken Ernst

Kenneth Ernst , known professionally as Ken Ernst, was an US comic book and comic strip artist. He is most notable for his work on the popular and long-running comic strip Mary Worth from 1942 to 1985. With his realistic style, uncommon in those early years, Ernst paved the way for soap opera...

. The title was shortened in 1942 when Ernst succeeded Conner. It was also published briefly by Harvey Comics

Harvey Comics

Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...

 as Love Stories of Mary Worth (1949-50).

Origins

Most reference sources state it was a continuation of the Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

-era strip Apple Mary, created by Martha Orr in 1932, centering on an old woman who sold apples on the street and offered humble common sense. King Features denies that Mary Worth was a continuation of the earlier strip, disregarding Saunders' own detailed account in his interviews (1971) and autobiography (1983-86) of how he was given Apple Mary in 1939 and developed it into Mary Worth with stories he thought women would enjoy more. The strip then took off, according to Saunders, as he and Ernst introduced over the years a "parade of dazzling, dreamlined dishes," from ingenues to vixens.

Characters and story

As scripted by Saunders, each story (and its cast) was independent, with little continuity to the next, and Mary generally made only brief appearances to react and give her matronly advice. A former teacher and widow of Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

 tycoon (Jack Worth), Mary formerly lived in New York and later moved to the Charterstone Condominium

Condominium

A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

 Complex in fictional Santa Royale, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Mary serves as an observer of and adviser to her fellow residents, tackling issues such as drug

Drug abuse

Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...

 and alcohol abuse

Alcohol abuse

Alcohol abuse, as described in the DSM-IV, is a psychiatric diagnosis describing the recurring use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. Alcohol abuse eventually progresses to alcoholism, a condition in which an individual becomes dependent on alcoholic beverages in order to avoid...

, infidelity

Infidelity

In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...

 and teen pregnancy. Only in recent decades has the strip centered more on the title character, along with a regular cast of her closest friends: Professor Ian Cameron and his younger wife Toby, advice columnist Wilbur Weston and his college student daughter Dawn, and Dr. Jeff Cory, Mary's perennial beau, and his son, Dr. Drew Cory. Many stories now begin with new people she meets in her volunteer work at the local hospital or at poolside parties at Charterstone, where she is known for her tuna casserole.

End of Ernst era

Saunders retired in 1979 (and died in 1986), and Ernst died in 1985. Bill Ziegler, who did backgrounds on the strip for many years, took over the strip after Ernst's death, continuing from 1986 to 1990. Other artists and writers who worked on the strip include Saunders' son, John Saunders (1974-2003) and Ernst's son-in-law, Jim Armstrong (1991). Former DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 artist Joe Giella

Joe Giella

Joe Giella is an American comic book artist best known as a DC Comics inker during the late 1950s and 1960s period historians and fans call the Silver Age of comic books.-Early life and career:...

 took over the art in 1991 with Karen Moy writing the strip since John Saunders' death in 2003. Under Allen Saunders, the daily strip

Daily strip

A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....

s usually had four panels with multiple exchanges among the characters, keeping a good narrative pace from day to day with several stories per year. But under his son, the norm became just two panels, with less dialog and less detailed artwork and with stories stretching out as long as 18 months. Moy has sought to reverse that "glacial" pace and to show Worth as not only a "figure of common sense and compassion" but also as "human" in her own flaws and experiencing "jealousy, self-doubt, fear, and anger". (Moy, as quoted by Alfonso)

Moy's handling of the strip during a 2006 plotline in which Mary was stalked by Aldo Kelrast (an anagram of "stalker"), a man rumored to have killed his late wife, drew media attention with a character drawn to resemble Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo is a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running children's television program of its day...

. An intervention staged by Mary and her friends drove Aldo to returning to finding comfort in alcohol, which led to his death in a drunk driving accident, in which he drove off a cliff. A subsequent plot development was the arrival of Ella Byrd, another elderly dispenser of advice, who aroused feelings of jealousy and inadequacy in Mary but also, as a psychic, alerted her to Dr. Jeff's danger in Vietnam, where he was volunteering medical care and was seriously ill himself. Mary flew there, brought him back, and is now her old self again with an aphorism

Aphorism

An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...

 for every occasion.

Later storylines have introduced an additional foil, the alcoholic hospital administrator Jill whose anti-marriage diatribes (caused by her being jilted at the altar by her fiance) put her into Mary's orbit when she offers to help Jeff's sister plan her wedding. Others include plotlines regarding internet addiction, Mary's refusal to trade in her beloved PC for an iPad, and a lengthy storyline where Mary must confront an old flame, whose meddling with his daughter's love life led to her ex-boyfriend dying months later, alone and unloved.

In popular culture

The Carol Burnett Show

The Carol Burnett Show

The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...

presented a satire, Mary Worthless, in which the title character helped people, "whether they liked it or not". At the beginning of the sketch, Carol Burnett

Carol Burnett

Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...

 sat inside a comic panel and introduced herself: "Oh, hello. I'm Mary Worthless, and I'm a do-gooder." Her schemes were intended to do more harm than good, but the bloopers that occurred during the on-air performance were actually funnier than some of the jokes. At the conclusion, Carol partially broke character when she said, "Don't be surprised if you see me in your neighborhood, someday... Better yet, be surprised, because I'm not going through this again!", prompting her and Harvey Korman to laugh hysterically as they went to a commercial.

In a run of Li'l Abner

Li'l Abner

Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe, featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished town of Dogpatch, Kentucky. Written and drawn by Al Capp , the strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through...

Sunday strips in 1957, Al Capp

Al Capp

Alfred Gerald Caplin , better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam...

 lampooned Mary Worth as "Mary Worm". The title character was depicted as a nosy, interfering busybody, with a caricature of Allen Saunders portraying her put-upon, long-suffering son-in-law. Saunders returned Capp's fire with the introduction of the character "Hal Rapp," a foul-tempered, ill-mannered, and (ironically) inebriated cartoonist (Capp was a teetotaler). Later, the feud

Feud

A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...

 was revealed to be a collaborative hoax

Hoax

A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...

 that Capp and his longtime pal Saunders had cooked up together. The Capp-Saunders "feud" fooled both editors and readers, generating plenty of free publicity for both strips—and Capp and Saunders had a good laugh when all was revealed.

An episode of The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, "Bart Sells His Soul

Bart Sells His Soul

"Bart Sells His Soul" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network, on October 8, 1995. In the episode, Bart pranks churchgoers by replacing the music to a hymn with a psychedelic rock song, so Reverend Lovejoy forces him and Milhouse...

", features Comic Book Guy

Comic Book Guy

Comic Book Guy is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. He is the proprietor of a comic book store, The...

 displaying "a very rare Mary Worth in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide." In another episode, "Lady Bouvier's Lover

Lady Bouvier's Lover

"Lady Bouvier's Lover" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 12, 1994. In the episode, Grampa Simpson falls in love with Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, and they start dating. However, on a night out in town,...

", he trades a Mary Worth telephone to Bart Simpson

Bart Simpson

Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...

 for an Itchy and Scratchy animation cel

Cel

A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid was used during the first half of the 20th century, but since it was flammable and dimensionally unstable it was largely replaced by cellulose acetate...

. In the episode "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?

Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?

"Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" is the third episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 24, 1999...

", the tour of the Springfield Shopper leads them to the 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 the Futurama

Futurama

Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...

episode "The Why of Fry

The Why of Fry

"The Why of Fry" is the tenth episode in the fourth season of the animated television series Futurama. It originally aired in North America on April 6, 2003. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Wes Archer...

" Fry

Philip J. Fry

Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:...

 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. The Family Guy

Family Guy

Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

episode "Family Guy Viewer Mail 1" features Chris

Chris Griffin

Chris Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is the son and middle child of Peter and Lois Griffin, brother of Stewie and Meg Griffin. Chris is voiced by Seth Green.-Personality:...

 making a print of a Mary Worth strip on Peter

Peter Griffin

Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....

's belly fat and stretching it out, Silly Putty

Silly Putty

Silly Putty , is the Crayola-owned trademark name for a class of silicone polymers. It is marketed today as a toy for children, but was originally created by accident during research into potential rubber substitutes for use by the United States in World War II...

-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."

In a FoxTrot strip, the characters are discussing how many comic strips that day have jokes based on golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

. Jason comments, "I loved Mary Worth's line about sand traps." There is another FoxTrot strip in which, after being bombarded by Jason's suggestions, the newspapers give Mary Worth vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

 fangs. In a Pearls Before Swine

Pearls Before Swine (comic strip)

Pearls Before Swine is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis, who was formerly a lawyer in San Francisco, California. It chronicles the daily lives of four anthropomorphic animals, Pig, Rat, Zebra, and Goat, as well as a number of supporting characters...

strip, Rat, on steroids, decides he "will kick Mary Worth's &#$*%!" In a Far Side

The Far Side

The Far Side is a popular single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world,...

strip, two characters styled like Mary Worth characters are seen at the door of a typical Far Side character (with a pet cow and snake), who remarks that they must be looking for "Apartment 3-G

Apartment 3-G

Apartment 3-G is an American newspaper comic strip about a trio of career women who share Apartment 3-G in Manhattan. Created by Nicholas P...

or Mary Worth or one of those other serious cartoons." In an Over the Hedge

Over the Hedge

Over the Hedge is a syndicated comic strip written and drawn by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. It tells the story of a raccoon, turtle, a squirrel, and their friends who come to terms with their woodlands being taken over by suburbia, trying to survive the increasing flow of humanity and technology...

Sunday strip, Verne ends with "Maybe Mary Worth needs a pet turtle" (signifying his frustration with his co-characters' disconnection from reality) after RJ and Hammy discusses rather surrealistically around the life of missing socks, as if the socks were individual life forms on their own.

In response to readers of a newspaper in Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport, Louisiana

Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....

, voting to drop Mary Worth, the New Adventures of Queen Victoria

New Adventures of Queen Victoria

The New Adventures of Queen Victoria is a daily webcomic created by Pab Sungenis. It uses the photo-manipulation technique popularized by Adobe Photoshop and other image editing programs to insert actual photographs and paintings of the characters into situations, instead of more conventional...

strip spent a week in September 2007 with Victoria planning Mary's funeral.

External links

• King Features: Mary Worth
• Mary Worth at Comics Curmudgeon
• Toonopedia