The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Best Episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Genre:Comedy
Network:CBS

Every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show!

30-year-old single Mary Richards moves to Minneapolis to start a new life after a romantic break-up. There she reacquaints with Phyllis who rents her a...
Episodes
168
Avg. Rating
7.8
S1
S2
S3
S4
E1
E2
E3
8.3
7.7
8.2
8.9
7.7
7.0
7.4
7.3
7.4
7.3
7.5
7.6

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  1. 9.4/10(385 votes)

    #1 - The Last Show

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    S7:E24

    WJM-TV has some personnel changes in the executive department (again), and everyone except Ted Baxter is fired. The new station manager wants to see the WJM News the highest-ranked in Minneapolis, and for some reason feels that Ted can help him make it happen. (Seems a little odd, eh?) The gang says goodbye to each other in the form of a long, hard cry. Mary thanks them all for being her surrogate family, and Lou finally sentimentally says, ""I cherish you people."" They bravely march out the office doors singing, ""It's a long, long way to Tipperary."" At the last moment, Mary leans back through through the WJM-TV doors and turns out the light. So long, WJM-TV.

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  2. 9.3/10(551 votes)

    #2 - Chuckles Bites the Dust

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    S6:E7

    Chuckles the Clown is crushed to death by a rogue elephant in a parade, which leaves all the newsroom staff in hysterics except Mary.

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    Director:Joan Darling
  3. 8.9/10(309 votes)

    #3 - Put On a Happy Face

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    S3:E23

    Everything goes right for Rhoda and everything goes wrong for Mary on a disastrous day when she is due to go to the Teddies.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  4. 8.9/10(346 votes)

    #4 - The Lars Affair

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    S4:E1

    Phyllis finds out that Lars has been having an affair with Sue Ann Nivens, the star of WJM-TV's The Happy Homemaker show.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  5. 8.9/10(295 votes)

    #5 - The Dinner Party

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    S4:E10

    Mary invites Congresswoman Geddes to a fancy dinner at her home, trying hard to ensure that everything is perfect.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  6. 8.8/10(228 votes)

    #6 - Will Mary Richards Go to Jail?

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    S5:E1

    Mary refuses to reveal a news source for a story she produced and has to spend a night in jail.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
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    The 20 WORST Episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

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  8. 8.7/10(204 votes)

    #7 - Better Late . . . That's a Pun . . . Than Never

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    S4:E20

    To relieve her boredom, Mary jokingly writes a humorous obituary of one of the people in the WJM-TV file. Coincidentally, the same person dies the following day and the obituary is read on the air. Lou has no choice but to suspend Mary, but she threatens to quit in response.

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    Director:N/A
  9. 8.7/10(225 votes)

    #8 - A New Sue Ann

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    S5:E7

    A young fan, Gloria, persuades Sue Ann to hire her for The Happy Homemaker. Sue Ann is less than pleased when Gloria plays up to the station manager and gets a larger role on the show at the expense of her own.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
  10. 8.7/10(221 votes)

    #9 - Ted Baxter's Famous Broadcasters' School

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    S5:E23

    A con-man tricks Ted into setting up a broadcasters' academy. When he finds out he's been had, he asks Lou, Mary and Murray to be the faculty and give the semester's opening lectures.

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  11. 8.7/10(192 votes)

    #10 - Once I Had a Secret Love

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    S6:E18

    Lou has spent the night with Sue Ann, and confides in Mary. Their friendship is almost ruined when Mary is unable to keep the secret.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  12. 8.7/10(206 votes)

    #11 - Mary Midwife

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    S7:E1

    Georgette gives birth at Mary's dinner party. With the hospital and doctor too far away, Lou and Mary help deliver the baby.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
  13. 8.5/10(211 votes)

    #12 - Sue Ann's Sister

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    S7:E3

    Sue Ann becomes deeply depressed when her sister arrives and gets an offer to do a competing homemaker show in Minneapolis.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
  14. 8.4/10(206 votes)

    #13 - Operation: Lou

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    S3:E13

    Lou goes to hospital to have a piece of World War II shrapnel removed and, surprisingly, he and Ted become best friends.

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  15. 8.4/10(224 votes)

    #14 - Lou's First Date

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    S4:E8

    Lou gives Mary the task of finding him a date for an awards' ceremony. A name mix-up means that Lou winds up taking out an 80-year-old woman.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  16. 8.4/10(195 votes)

    #15 - Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite

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    S4:E21

    After a heavy self-promotion campaign, Ted wins his first Teddy Award. When Walter Cronkite comes to the newsroom, Ted assumes that he will be hired by the networks.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  17. 8.4/10(188 votes)

    #16 - Ted's Wedding

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    S6:E9

    Out of pity for Ted, Mary invites him & Georgette over for brunch. While he as an onion ring in his mouth, he proposes to Georgette...again. When, for the first time, Georgette says no, she & Ted have a talk and decide they want to get married now. They invite all their friends: Lou, Murray (with mud on his sweatshirt from his son's football game), and Sue Ann (who, in a spectacularily comedic enterance, brings a veil, flowers, and rice, among several other things). Ted's mom can't make it (she's washing her hair), but the incompetent minister comes straight from his tennis match. Best man Lou helps Ted calm his wedding day jitters. When the minister asks Ted if he takes Georgette to be his lawfully wedded wife, he pauses for a moment. Finally, with a smile on his face, he says, ""I do."" When they are pronounced husband & wife, Sue Ann sings the wedding march...very poorly, of course. Once the wedding ends and Lou, Murray, & Sue Ann leave, Ted asks, as if nothing had happened,

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
  18. 8.4/10(175 votes)

    #17 - Mary's Insomnia

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    S7:E11

    Mary is having trouble sleeping and resorts to pills, which has Lou concerned that she's become addicted to them.

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    Director:James Burrows
  19. 8.4/10(181 votes)

    #18 - Sue Ann Gets the Ax

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    S7:E17

    Sue Ann's Happy Homemaker show is canceled but she is determined to stay at WJM and asks Mary to give her a job in the newsroom.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  20. 8.3/10(554 votes)

    #19 - Love is All Around

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    S1:E1

    The classic series begins its classic 7-year run in Mary's apartment. Mary Richards, a 30-year-old single woman, has left her long-time boyfriend, Bill, to be with her old friend, Phyllis Lindstrom, in Minneapolis. (Mary originally lived in Roseburg, MN.) Why did Mary leave Bill? After promising to her that he would marry her right after his internship at the hospital, he said, ""Why rush into things???"" Meanwhile, she's already having troubles with her new apartment--a bitter upstairs neightbor, Rhoda Morgenstern, insists that she owns Mary's apartment!

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  21. 8.3/10(233 votes)

    #20 - Rhoda the Beautiful

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    S3:E6

    After losing 20 pounds, Rhoda enters a beauty contest at work, but continues to put herself down.

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  22. 8.3/10(216 votes)

    #21 - Farmer Ted and the News

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    S3:E9

    Ted refuses to sign his contract renewal until Lou agrees to let him pursue other ventures, a decision he soon regrets when Ted begins appearing in commercials.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:N/A
  23. 8.3/10(238 votes)

    #22 - My Brother's Keeper

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    S3:E17

    Phyllis wants to set up her visiting brother with Mary, but instead he hits it off with Rhoda and begins spending time with her to Phyllis's disapproval.

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    Director:Jay Sandrich
    Writer:Dick Clair
  24. 8.3/10(184 votes)

    #23 - Happy Birthday, Lou!

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    S4:E15

    Lou is closing in on fifty and today is his birthday. Mary can't stand the thought of the now-separated Lou celebrating his birthday all alone, so she arranges a surprise party for him. That evening, she invites Lou over for a drink and the doorbell rings just as he tells her how much he appreciated her not throwing an office party for him that afternoon. Gordy is at the door with an envelope...full of hats. Others are out in the hallway, too. Lou is furious and tries to get out using the back door...but there is no back door. Mary asks Lou's permission to invite Murray in. He enters, miffed at Lou's actions. Next Rhoda, and finally Ted, get to come in. Lou admits that he hates displays of affection...then reluctantly agrees to let the remainder of the guests in. While they all file in, he files out and down to MacKluskey's bar where....they throw a surprise party for him. Later he returns to Mary's place to apologize...evidently the guests opened his gifts (at Ted's urging) and they a

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    Director:George Tyne
  25. 8.3/10(195 votes)

    #24 - Two Wrongs Don't Make a Writer

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    S4:E23

    Ted joins Mary at a night-school class in creative writing, and winds up plagiarizing her assignment.

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    Director:Nancy Walker
  26. 8.3/10(224 votes)

    #25 - Not a Christmas Story

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    S5:E9

    The entire newsroom staff is arguing with each other, and when they are trapped at the office due to bad weather, Sue Ann decides to serve her Christmas dinner early.

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    Director:N/A
    Writer:N/A

Best Episodes Summary

"The Last Show" is the best rated episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". It scored 9.4/10 based on 385 votes. Directed by Jay Sandrich and written by James L. Brooks, Allan Burns, David Lloyd, Stan Daniels, Ed. Weinberger, Bob Ellison, it aired on 3/19/1977. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "Chuckles Bites the Dust".