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
Phyllis (TV series) played Audrey Dexter) took ill. These events put Phyllis' home life in flux, which necessitated more new storylines. Daughter Bess's role became more prominent and she found romance with Mark Valenti (played by Craig Wasson), the nephew of Phyllis' boss, and they later married. By the middle of the 1976–77 season, the ratings for "Rhoda" had improved but "Phyllis" was still faltering. As a result, "Rhoda" was renewed for an additional season (it would ultimately be canceled in December 1978), but "Phyllis" was dropped by CBS in the spring of 1977, finishing in 40th place that season. The show actually