Phyllis (TV series) had higher overall ratings than "Rhoda" that season, as well as equal ratings with its parent show, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". The stigma of the deaths of several cast members during the show's run, as well as the ill health of actress Jane Rose, are also said to have been factors in the series' cancellation. The final episode ("And Baby Makes Six") had Bess announcing that she and Mark were expecting their first child. This installment aired Sunday, March 13, 1977. The same week, on Saturday, March 19, Leachman made her last appearance as Phyllis Lindstrom on the final
Play for Today (1971), "The Foxtrot" (1971), "Home" (1972), "Bar Mitzvah Boy" (1976), "Abigail's Party" (1977), "Blue Remembered Hills" (1979) and "Just a Boys' Game" (1979). Certain other well known plays, including "Penda's Fen" (1974), "Nuts in May" (1976), were commissioned by David Rose of the BBC's English Regions Drama department based in Birmingham. Some installments in the series were spun off into full-blown series. Probably the two best-remembered examples of this are "", which was produced as a one-off in the "Play for Today" strand in 1975 and three years later became a series for Thames Television, again with Leo McKern, and