Allan Burns The last project between Hayward and Burns would be as story editors for the sitcom "Get Smart". In 1969, Burns began a partnership with James L. Brooks after being impressed with the television pilot for Brooks's show "Room 222". Burns joined the "Room 222" writing staff and later produced the series. After "Room 222", television executive Grant Tinker hired Brooks and Burns to develop a television series for CBS starring Mary Tyler Moore. In 1970, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" premiered and became a critically acclaimed series, spawning spin-off series such as "Lou Grant" and "Rhoda". Brooks and Burns also
James L. Brooks the short-lived series "Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers" in 1974. He and Burns moved on to "Rhoda", a spin-off of "Mary Tyler Moore", taking Valerie Harper's character Rhoda Morgenstern into her own show. It was well received, lasting four years and earning Brooks several Emmys. The duo's next project came in 1977 in the shape of "Lou Grant", a second "Mary Tyler Moore" spin-off, which they created along with Tinker. Unlike its source however, the series was a drama starring Edward Asner as Grant. James Brown of the Museum of Broadcast Communications said it "explore[d] a knotty issue facing