'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' (CBS, 1970-77)
The angle: Grizzled news producer Lou Grant (Ed Asner) hires career girl Mary Richards (Moore) to help produce the 6 p.m. newscast. In 1977, Grant got an eponymous spinoff, in which he became city editor at the Los Angeles Tribune.
The anchor: Glorified newsreader Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) mangles the copy turned out by head writer Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod).
Sample soundbite: Baxter blows his own mind: “It’s actually tomorrow in Tokyo. Do you realize that there are people alive here in Minneapolis who are already dead in Tokyo?”
