The classic series begins its classic 7-year run in Mary's apartment. Mary Richards, a 30-year-old single woman, has left her long-time boyfriend, Bill, to be with her old friend, Phyllis Lindstrom, in Minneapolis. (Mary originally lived in Roseburg, MN.) Why did Mary leave Bill? After promising to her that he would marry her right after his internship at the hospital, he said, ""Why rush into things???"" Meanwhile, she's already having troubles with her new apartment--a bitter upstairs neightbor, Rhoda Morgenstern, insists that she owns Mary's apartment!

Mary is worried now that she's outside the 15-29 demographic group which the station classifies as 'young', and the mailboy has called her 'Ma'am'. Rhoda persuades her into calling an old boyfriend for a get-together.

When Phyllis's husband Lars takes ill, she asks Mary to babysit Bess for a few days. Bess decides she wants to stay permanently with Mary, to Phyllis's dismay.

Mary and Rhoda find out that divorcees at the Better Luck Next Time club can get group rates on cruises and decide to join. However, Mary proves a hit with the club's members and gets elected to its board.

A football player turned insurance salesman applies for a job as a sportscaster and attaches himself to Mary. Mary and Rhoda discover that he hasn't had much success at anything and encourage him to pursue his dreams.

Rhoda's mother, Ida, comes visiting and Rhoda refuses to see her. Ida stays with Mary but drives her crazy.

Mary begins seeing an author who appeared as a guest on WJM-TV's Scrutiny, and becomes extremely self-conscious after discovering he is several inches shorter than her.

A snowstorm leaves Mary producing her first program, broadcasting the results of the local elections. The show has to remain on until a winner is declared and no word is received at the newsroom.

Mary is nominated for her first Television Editors' Award (the ""Teddies""), but at home Rhoda's boyfriend Bob takes more of an interest in Mary than in Rhoda.

Mary's workload gets too much so Lou allows her to hire an assistant. She chooses Phyllis who hinders more than she helps.

Mary is audited by the IRS, and the shy auditor takes an interest in her. Unfortunately, he has great difficulty telling her how he feels.

Ted loses his self-confidence after speaking at Phyllis's club and Mary has to find a way to get Ted back on a high.

After Mary invites Lou's nephew home for dinner, she must confront false rumors in the newsroom the following day.

Feeling sympathetic for a co-worker who hasn't spent Christmas with his family for years, Mary is forced to stay alone at WJM-TV on Christmas Eve.

Mary begins seeing Paul Arnell, the brother of her former boyfriend Howard Arnell, and is shocked to discover that the brothers' parents still believe that she and Howard are an item.

Mary gets a tempting offer from a rival television station, but becomes reluctant to leave when her WJM-TV colleagues throw a farewell party for her.

Mary reluctantly finds herself romantically involved with a married man.

Mary's apartment is burgled, with only her clothes, stereo and television taken but then next night the whole apartment is cleaned out.

Murray's play, All Work and No Play, is finally produced but his happiness is short-lived when he discovers that the leading role will be played by Ted.

Mary is admitted into the hospital to have her tonsils removed, and shares a room with a grouchy woman who refuses to get along with anyone.

Lou and his wife Edie separate and Mary becomes involved when she is asked for advice.

An irritating childhood friend drops by Mary's apartment, making use of her connection as Mary's former camp mate to introduce herself to the newsroom's staff.

Rhoda falls in love with a top executive, and is shocked to find that he wants to give up the high-flying lifestyle to become a forest ranger.

When Lou is fired, Mary goes to confront the station owner, Wild Jack Munroe.

In the second-season premiere, after Mary Richards produces a ""What's Your Sexual IQ?"" documentary for the Six O'Clock News, Rhoda confesses to failing and Phyllis says that young Bess watched it. Phyllis calls on Mary to teach Bess the facts of life, but it turns out that Bess already had learned it from her friends. Meanwhile, the WJM-TV newsroom is shelled with phone calls responding to the documentary. According to Mary, more people are appalled by it than anything else.

Mary is intrigued by the voice of Lou Grant's friend, Mike Cooper, and asks to be set up with him. Lou breaks his policy of not matchmaking friends and colleagues.

Mary and Rhoda take an unplanned vacation to Mexico but have to do a strange favor for a Mexican restaurant owner for reservations.

Mary and Rhoda enroll in a night school course in journalism and Mary begins dating the lecturer.

When Ida, Rhoda's mother, visits, she sees how well Phyllis and Bess get on, and how closely Mary appears to her mother when they chat on the telephone, that she tries to be Rhoda's ""friend"".

Jack Cassidy guest stars as professional model Hal Baxter, who comes to visit his brother Ted at WJM-TV. Immediately, the two engage in a heated battle of sibling rivalry about EVERYTHING -- salaries, cars, & even women. In an effort to size up his brother, Ted claims that Mary is his girlfriend.

Ted & Hal decide to go on a double-date with Mary & Rhoda. At the restaurant, Ted doesn't know any etiquitte, and it shows. Back at Mary's apartment, Ted & Hal arm wrestle before Hal decides to go with Rhoda up to her apartment to look thru magazines for his picture. Ted stays with Mary to make Hal think that he spends more time with his girl than he does.

Mary attends her high school reunion and meets up with her former boyfriend Howard Arnell, who continues to have feelings for Mary. Meanwhile, Rhoda tags along believing that people will ""remember"" her although she didn't attend Roseburg High.

The writing and technical unions go on strike, leaving only Lou, Mary, and Ted in the newsroom. WJM-TV makes Lou be second cameraman on ""The Chuckles the Clown Show"". Because an upset Murray is on strike, Mary has to write the news stories. They are terrible, and when Lou criticizes them, she starts crying.

Things take a turn for the worse: Ted's union strikes, and Lou has to fill in as anchorman! On his first brodcast, he has ""clammy hands"", and he bombs. At a local bar, Murray, Gordy, & Mary share a laugh over this. After drinking before his 2nd brodcast, he is ""as cool as a cucumber""--that is, until he falls asleep at breaktime. Herb fills in for Lou for the rest of the brodcast.

The next day, the unions come to an agreement, and everything goes back to normal. Rhoda Morgenstern & Phyllis Lindstrom do not appear in this episode.

Ted is forced to take a vacation and the anchorman hired to sit in for him becomes a huge success.

Mary gets a chain letter from Lou, and she is persuaded to send it on. To her surprise, one of the recipients comes for a visit, giving Mary a less than pleasant time dealing with him.

Mary, Rhoda and Lou go to a John Wayne movie, where they spot Lou's son-in-law with an unknown woman.

Rhoda loses her job as a window-dresser and isn't in a hurry to find something new. When there is a job opening at WJM-TV, Mary lies to Rhoda and tells her the job has been filled, to Lou's surprise.

When Edie is out of town, Lou hires Rhoda to redecorate his living room. However, Rhoda's tastes are too modern.

After Ted appears on the Chuckles the Clown Show, he falls in love with Chuckles' daughter.

After volunteering some of her spare time for a worthy cause, Mary begins dating the Governor's aide. Unfortunately, the aide's duties cause him to break every date.

An incompetent waitress is fired after Mary complains about her poor service and Mary feels obliged to hire her when she applies for an assistant's job at WJM-TV.

Murray takes on a night job as a cab driver in order to save up and buy his wife Marie a new car for their 10th wedding anniversary. However, Marie becomes suspicious about Murray's absences and fears that Murray is having an affair with Mary Richards.

Mary agrees to babysit Bess for the weekend, but then a former boyfriend, in town for a few days, asks her out. When she can't find a babysitter for Bess on such short notice, she ends up asking Lou.

After being persuaded by Phyllis, Ted moves into a vacant apartment below Mary's but Mary and Rhoda are not thrilled by the prospect.

Bess gets top marks for a report she wrote for school, and Phyllis pressures her to write a book based on it, calling on Mary for help.

When Rhoda's apartment is destroyed by fire, she moves in with Mary. The two find that while they are best friends, they make awful roommates.

Mary begins dating an architect and is astonished to learn that his son is only six years younger than she is.

Through a minor car accident, Mary befriends a young woman, Joanne. Rhoda becomes jealous when Mary spends more time with Joanne but Mary quickly ends the new friendship when she discovers Joanne is anti-Semitic and disapproves of Rhoda.

Mary gets city councilman Pete Peterson to appear on Face the People and discovers that he is completely incompetent. She and his aides try to bring him up to speed on current events so he can make a good impression on the show.

Mary is given the task of making The Six O'clock News more upbeat, and her plans are on target to succeed until they're frustrated by Ted.

Mary is interviewed by a newspaper columnist and ends up telling a little too much.

Lou is promoted to the position of program director but has to decide to whom his old job should go. Meanwhile, The Six O'clock News begins falling apart without him.

Ida Morgenstern, Rhoda's mother, mistakenly believes that her husband is seeing other women, so Rhoda and Mary try to clear things up between them.

When Lou's trip to Las Vegas is cancelled, Mary organizes a poker game at the office where Murray loses a substantial amount to Ted.

After losing 20 pounds, Rhoda enters a beauty contest at work, but continues to put herself down.

Mary is worried that her parents, who have moved to the Twin Cities to be close to her, may pry into her life too much.

Mary begins dating the writer of the Chuckles the Clown show, whose real ambition is to become a stand-up comedian.

Ted refuses to sign his contract renewal until Lou agrees to let him pursue other ventures, a decision he soon regrets when Ted begins appearing in commercials.

Two of Mary's friends separate and Mary accepts a date from the husband.

Mary becomes concerned when her father, newly retired, appears to have no friends or hobbies in Minneapolis, and tries to take on the role herself.

Bess's 15-year-old boyfriend falls in love with Mary and begins to surprise her with visits to her apartment and her work.

Lou goes to hospital to have a piece of World War II shrapnel removed and, surprisingly, he and Ted become best friends.

Rhoda decides to move back to New York but Mary is taking the whole thing with a grain of salt.

Mary runs into her former boyfriend Dan Whitfield in an elevator by chance. Subsequently, Dan realizes he still has feelings for Mary, breaks off his engagement, and begins dating her again.

Lou spots an opportunity to buy a bar after realizing a lifelong dream. However, he is short of several thousand dollars and Ted is the only one who can come to his aid.

Phyllis wants to set up her visiting brother with Mary, but instead he hits it off with Rhoda and begins spending time with her to Phyllis's disapproval.

Mary and Rhoda try to encourage Georgette to take a stand for herself after seeing how Ted takes advantage of her.

Rhoda introduces Mary to a very irritating Warren Sturges, who tries everything including a giant billboard across the road from the WJM-TV offices to get her to accept his marriage proposal.

The new station manager, an attractive woman, falls for Lou.

Murray becomes depressed when he realizes that the years are passing him by, after he learns that a contemporary has won a Pulitzer Prize.

A former boyfriend visiting Minneapolis calls Mary who, deep down, wants to see him again but she has been hurt by him too many times before.

Everything goes right for Rhoda and everything goes wrong for Mary on a disastrous day when she is due to go to the Teddies.

Mary lends Rhoda almost $1,200 to start a new venture and worries she may never see her money again, after Rhoda postpones repayment, hires Georgette full-time and begins expanding her business.

Phyllis finds out that Lars has been having an affair with Sue Ann Nivens, the star of WJM-TV's The Happy Homemaker show.

Mary's boyfriend is younger than she is and she and Rhoda discover there is a generation gap when they go and visit his friends at a party.

Rhoda and Mary fly to New York for Rhoda's younger sister's wedding. Rhoda's mother downplays the whole thing fearing that Rhoda is envious.

On the advice of their marriage counselor, Lou's wife, Edie, decides to move out. Lou is heartbroken by the prospect.

In this episode Dick Gautier guest stars briefly as Ed Cavenaugh, a sleazy sportscaster. Have a look at his website at Dick Gautier.com. Gordon Jump, later of MTM Enterprises' ""WKRP"" is seen for a few minutes playing one of the sportscaster applicants.

When Ted asks Mary to order tweezers and other assorted supplies for his personal use, she gets more than a little flustered and asks Lou to give her something challenging to do. At the drop of a hat, he assigns her the task of hiring a new sportscaster...and firing the old one. In order to let Ed Cavenaugh down easy, she invites him to lunch and he tries to mesmerize her with his suavity with the opposite sex. Then Mary learns a lesson: don't fire the current sportscaster until you've hired another one. After days of screening applicants, listening to demo tapes and perusing their eight-by-ten glossies, she decides on Andy Rivers.

Ted meets his father, who deserted him as a baby.

Mary's former boyfriend, Wes Callison, gets a job in the newsroom but his affection for Mary gets in the way of his work.

Lou gives Mary the task of finding him a date for an awards' ceremony. A name mix-up means that Lou winds up taking out an 80-year-old woman.

Rhoda begins dating the boss of Hemple's and falls deeply in love with him. She wants to tell him how she feels, but Mary warns her to take things slowly.

Mary invites Congresswoman Geddes to a fancy dinner at her home, trying hard to ensure that everything is perfect.

Lou is still heartbroken over Edie's departure and asks Mary to help them get back together.

Phyllis persuades Ted to stand for local government. Ted agrees and goes so far as to quit his job at WJM-TV.

Murray's daughter, Bonnie, is looking for a job and Mary is persuaded into giving her one but Bonnie is not as efficient as everyone had hoped.

Georgette finds Ted making out with a woman in his dressing room. She then decides to enter a nunnery, but the head nun talks her out of it.

Lou is closing in on fifty and today is his birthday. Mary can't stand the thought of the now-separated Lou celebrating his birthday all alone, so she arranges a surprise party for him. That evening, she invites Lou over for a drink and the doorbell rings just as he tells her how much he appreciated her not throwing an office party for him that afternoon. Gordy is at the door with an envelope...full of hats. Others are out in the hallway, too. Lou is furious and tries to get out using the back door...but there is no back door. Mary asks Lou's permission to invite Murray in. He enters, miffed at Lou's actions. Next Rhoda, and finally Ted, get to come in. Lou admits that he hates displays of affection...then reluctantly agrees to let the remainder of the guests in. While they all file in, he files out and down to MacKluskey's bar where....they throw a surprise party for him. Later he returns to Mary's place to apologize...evidently the guests opened his gifts (at Ted's urging) and they a

Mary begins dating the anchorman from Minneapolis's top news show and becomes ashamed of WJM-TV's smaller news operation.

Phyllis, who has gotten her real estate license, persuades Lou to sell his house. However, Lou hasn't really made up his mind whether he wants to move.

Mary and Rhoda are given permission to develop a new show for WJM but their dreams begin to fade when they find out that the hosts will be Ted and Sue Ann, who both begin to interfere with their plans.

Rhoda tells the secret of Mary's that she never graduated from college, as she claimed on her job application, and their friendship is suddenly put at risk.

To relieve her boredom, Mary jokingly writes a humorous obituary of one of the people in the WJM-TV file. Coincidentally, the same person dies the following day and the obituary is read on the air. Lou has no choice but to suspend Mary, but she threatens to quit in response.

After a heavy self-promotion campaign, Ted wins his first Teddy Award. When Walter Cronkite comes to the newsroom, Ted assumes that he will be hired by the networks.

Lou and Rhoda find they have a lot in common and begin seeing each other on a casual basis but everyone assumes that the romance is serious.

Ted joins Mary at a night-school class in creative writing, and winds up plagiarizing her assignment.

Mary goes to a singles bar to research a documentary, but on the night the crew arrives for filming, the same people who were willing to tell Mary everything don't want to be seen on camera.

Mary refuses to reveal a news source for a story she produced and has to spend a night in jail.

Mary dates a man with whom she has nothing in common and becomes concerned that their relationship is superficial.

Lou finally loses his temper with Ted when he endorses a political candidate on The Six O'clock News and throws him through the office doors. Lou feels guilty, and Ted takes advantage of him.

Lou begins seeing a cocktail lounge singer but becomes uncomfortable about her past.

WJM-TV hires a young business consultant, who demands certain changes for The Six O'clock News, offending every member of the news team.

Murray meets an attractive woman at one of Mary's parties and considers having an affair. On the pretext of buying her old piano, he goes to see her.

A young fan, Gloria, persuades Sue Ann to hire her for The Happy Homemaker. Sue Ann is less than pleased when Gloria plays up to the station manager and gets a larger role on the show at the expense of her own.

Phyllis dates a man on a platonic basis, but he is attracted more to Mary and begins seeing her.

The entire newsroom staff is arguing with each other, and when they are trapped at the office due to bad weather, Sue Ann decides to serve her Christmas dinner early.

Mary and Sue Ann go to a convention in Chicago and Mary finds out that Sue Ann leads a lonely life.

Ted is shocked when he finds out his mother does not intend to marry her boyfriend, but will live with him.

Murray, who has three daughters, wants a son, but his wife Marie doesn't want to have another child. The couple decide to adopt instead.

Lou wants a smaller place and moves in to Rhoda's old apartment but can't help interfering in Mary's private life.

Lou wants to hire a female newscaster 'like Mary', so Mary decides to audition for the job herself.

Now that Mary is producer, Ted thinks that he can make his move on her. He convinces the rest of the newsroom that they are having an affair.

Mary doesn't feel she deserves the title of producer and asks Lou that she be given the chance to produce The Six O'clock News alone.

When Ted's formula for betting on football games works, Lou goes into partnership with him. He winds up betting all of the season's winnings on the Super Bowl without telling Ted.

Phyllis and Lars have a dispute and she finds her credit cards cut off. She looks for a job but finds that she has no relevant skills.

Lou wants to research his own news story now that Mary's producer and decides to launch a major investigation on a city councilor only to discover that he is completely honest.

Ted pops the question to Georgette at Murray's 20th wedding anniversary party and then gets cold feet.

Mary agrees to help a troubled crime prone girl go straight and find a job.

Lou wins the Albert Mason Award, which he had once said was for broadcasting veterans who couldn't chew their own food.

A con-man tricks Ted into setting up a broadcasters' academy. When he finds out he's been had, he asks Lou, Mary and Murray to be the faculty and give the semester's opening lectures.

Mary likes her new boyfriend but finds his son absolutely intolerable.