Ambition has almost always been a thorny issue for television’s fictional females. When Mary Richards applied for a secretarial job at a local television station in Minneapolis on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in the 1970s, she ended up as an associate producer by the end of the interview. News director Lou Grant gave her the elevated title so he could pay her less, implicitly signaling that there was a price for women moving up the career ladder. It was an ingenious way for the writers on the show to set Mary on a career path without making her appear overly ambitious and thus, less feminine. Mary didn’t negotiate and was grateful for the unexpected promotion.

Approximately 50 years later, stand-up comic Deborah Vance, played by the inimitable Jean Smart, on “Hacks” finds herself navigating a similar conundrum when she discovers that her dream job, a spot as a host on a late night talk show, is opening up. Despite Deborah’s decades-long career and reputation as a survivor, she initially voices concerns that could just as easily have been uttered by Mary Richards a half century earlier.

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