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
British Academy Television Award for Best Actor British Academy Television Award for Best Actor "'1970 Edward Woodward in "Callan" "'1971 Keith Michell in "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" "'1972 John Le Mesurier in "Traitor" "'1973 Anthony Hopkins in "War and Peace" "'1974 Frank Finlay in "The Adventures of Don Quixote"; "Candide"; "The Death of Adolf Hitler" "'1975 Peter Barkworth in "Crown Matrimonial" "'1976 John Hurt in "The Naked Civil Servant" "'1977 Derek Jacobi in "I, Claudius" "'1978 Peter Barkworth in "Professional Foul" "'1979 Edward Fox in "Edward and Mrs Simpson" "'1980 Alec Guinness in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" "'1981 Denholm Elliott in "Gentle Folk"; "In Hiding";