Mary Richards moves to Minneapolis after a relationship goes bad. She finds work as an associate producer in a small television newsroom where the characters include Lou Grant, her gruff boss, Murray Slaughter the humorous writer, and Ted Baxter the Anchor Man who spends his time mispronouncing country names. Mary continues to hope for romance, but finds that her friends are more dependable.

The show was originally planned to be about a divorced woman, but because divorce was still a hot subject in 1970, they settled for a broken engagement instead. Also, the network was afraid people would think that Mary had divorced Rob Petrie, her character's husband on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961), losing the audience's sympathy.

Lou Grant:
Mary, I don't want you to take this wrong, but you're a jerk.


Mary Richards:
How could I possibly take that wrong?

Continuity: In the first season installment "Divorce Isn't Everything", Mary mentions that she can't speak French but can speak Spanish. Later in the series, while at a Mexican restaurant, she indicates that she can't read the menu because she took French in college.

Written and Performed by Sonny Curtis