Mary Tyler Moore 5

Mary Richards, from small town Minnesota, has to navigate life - work and the pursuit of romance - as a young woman on her own as she moves to big city Minneapolis following the breakup with who was her fiancé. Planning on becoming a secretary, Mary ends up being hired at WJM-TV in the newsroom as the 6 o'clock news' associate producer, a role that starts off as a glorified secretary, under the direction of Lou Grant, the show's hard-nosed, career news man. Others in the newsroom include Murray Slaughter, the show's head writer who idolizes Mary despite being in a loving marriage already, and Ted Baxter, the show's self-absorbed anchor who is all beauty and no brains. As Mary progresses in her career, her newsroom associates become her friends. Other friends include those who she knows from her first living situation in Minneapolis: Phyllis Lindstrom, a friend from before her Minneapolis days who found the apartment for her; and Rhoda Morgenstern, a brash Jewish New Yorker with who an antagonistic first meeting blossomed into BFF status.