The Mary Tyler Moore Show mirror those of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". When the writers of the sitcom "Friends" were about to create their series finale, they watched several other sitcom finales. Co-creator Marta Kauffman said that the last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was the "gold standard" and that it influenced the finale of "Friends". The show spun off three television series, all of which aired on CBS: the sitcoms "Rhoda" (1974–78) and "Phyllis" (1975–77), and the one-hour drama "Lou Grant" (1977–82). In 2000, Moore and Harper reprised their roles in a two-hour ABC TV-movie, "Mary and Rhoda". Two retrospective specials
Lou Grant (TV series) in a Drama Series" four of the five years the series ran; Walden, Kelsey, and Adams all received multiple nominations for supporting Emmys. Ed Asner served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, in which capacity during the 1980s he opposed U.S. policy in Central America, working closely with Medical Aid for El Salvador. The sudden cancellation of "Lou Grant" in 1982 was the subject of much controversy. The show had high ratings, the level of which should have justified its ongoing presence in primetime (it was in the ACNielsen top ten throughout its final month on the