In March 1977, the very successful Mary Tyler Moore Show sitcom said farewell after seven seasons. The cast and crew wanted to leave while they were still on top. In the final episode, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore), Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), and Lou Grant (Ed Asner) were fired from their WJM newsroom positions while inept anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) kept his job.
In the fall, Lou Grant moved to his own spin-off show and took a job as the city editor for the fictional Los Angeles Tribune. Some tuned in expecting to find another comedy. Instead, they found that Lou Grant was a drama series that didn’t shy away from provocative subjects like nuclear waste, mental illness, prostitution, and gay rights.
More about:
Lou Grant,
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
