The Mary Tyler Moore Show, like the charismatic Moore herself, was blessed. Against all odds, the sweet and often snappy sitcom was launched on CBS-TV 31 years ago -- Sept. 19, 1970 -- after going through a rigorous and even cruel development process that nearly doomed it before it started.
Some CBS head honchos hated the show's concept (the single and empowered career woman succeeds), its casting (especially Ed Asner as Lou Grant), its scripts, its producers, its Jewish content (even a little was too much for the racist cynics) and its emphasis on rich character development over cheap jokes. A disastrous pre-launch test show seemed to prove the network naysayers right.
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