Mary Tyler Moore pivotal one-hour musical special called "Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman", Moore and husband Grant Tinker successfully pitched a sitcom centered on Moore to CBS. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is a half-hour newsroom sitcom featuring Ed Asner as her gruff boss Lou Grant. Moore's show proved so popular that three other regular characters, Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern, Cloris Leachman as Phyllis Lindstrom and Ed Asner as Lou Grant were also spun off into their own series. The premise of the single working woman's life, alternating during the program between work and home, became a television staple. After
Convoy (1978 film) was filmed almost entirely in the state of New Mexico. Production began in 1977 when the CB radio/trucking craze was at its peak, made during the same period as such films as "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977), "Handle with Care" (1977), "Breaker! Breaker!" (1977) and "High-Ballin'" (1978), as well as the television series "Movin' On" (1974–1976) and "B. J. and the Bear" (1979–1981). During this period of Sam Peckinpah's life, it was reported he suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction. His four previous films, "Cross of Iron" (1977), "The Killer Elite" (1975), "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974),