The Critic

Mary invites the WJM group to a party and suddenly Georgette begins to have labor pains. Unable to move the expectant mother to the hospital, everyone panics except Lou Grant, who, with the help of Mary, delivers the baby without a miscue.

Mary Richards tries her hand at creative writing, although she is very insecure about her new venture. Hoping to get encouragement on her finished article, Mary shows it to Mr. Grant, who really deflates her ego when he classifies her writing as anything but professional.

When her sister comes to town, Sue Ann confesses to Mary that the two have always been very competitive, and Lila usually ends up with what Sue Ann wants. When Lila gets a job on a competing station as their homemaker star, Sue Ann takes to her sickbed, believing that the WJM staff has turned against her. Mary forces the others to visit the stricken star in her bizarre, sexually oriented bedroom to convince her to return to her job. Sue Ann is soon out of bed and off to station WJM.

Producer Mary Richards exercises her authority to hire anyone she wants to at WJM-TV, although Lou, along with Ted and Murray, begins to doubt her judgment when she hires a woman sportscaster. Mary feels that Barbara Jean Smathers, an ex-Olympic swimmer, would be the perfect person to add something unique and exciting to the news concept. The staff at WJM-TV admire Barbara as a swimmer, but wonder if she can stay afloat as a sportscaster.

Ted is stricken with a mild heart attack while on the air, and is taken off to the hospital. He soon recovers, but goes through a personality change reflecting his newfound attitude, which is, "It's great to be alive and I have to enjoy and live every moment." The WJM gang quickly become fed up with the new Ted, and long for the old days. True to his real nature, Ted quickly slides back into his pre-heart attack obnoxious self within a few weeks.

Pandemonium erupts in a usually smooth television news operation when Murray takes a step up to co-produce the news with Mary.

Georgette is forced to cope with the two extremely opposite I.Q.s of the men in her life when the Baxters' adopted son, David, is failing every subject in school and his concerned parents find out it's because he has the brain of a genius, quite a contrast to papa Ted. Meanwhile, Mary is trying to solve a problem of her own as she seeks a reason why she gets stuck babysitting for Mr. Grant's elderly Uncle Morris.

A frightened Mary Richards faces a contempt charge for refusing to reveal a news source, and her lawyer doesn't make the legal battle any easier as he spends more time researching ways to win her than on the case.

Mary's Aunt Flo, a driven, well-known newswoman, and Lou Grant have constantly challenged each other's journalistic abilities, though things seem to soften between them long enough for Lou to make a marriage proposal.

The annual Teddy Awards has the newsroom bubbling over with anticipation, except for a distraught Murray who has never won an award and is sure this year is not going to prove any different. Mary Richards' added chore has not lessened the commotion around WJM-TV. She's in charge of entertainment for the Awards show, and just as Lou expected, the newsroom turns into a vaudeville stage.

Lou Grant is afraid Mary Richards is becoming addicted to sleeping pills when, after nights of suffering from insomnia, Mary turns to a doctor's prescription for help.

Mary, Ted and Murray are sent to Hollywood for a convention, and while there, pretty newspaper reporter, Whitney Lewis, insist Ted give her a personal in-depth interview. When Ted agrees to the interview in his room, he is shocked to find Whitney nude in bed with the obvious intention of seducing him. A terrified and befuddled Ted talks his way out of the situation with help from a disbelieving Mary.

Desperate for a salary increase, Lou Grant suggests that he and Mary will have more leverage against the station if they join forces to demand a raise. However, the scheme backfires when the station refuses to increase their salary and allows them to walk out. After being out for several weeks, negotiations are reopened and Mary and Lou get their raise and return to work.

With high hopes of boosting WJM-TV's evening news ratings, station manager Mel Price hires a renowned critic who verbally and viciously attacks Minneapolis and the people who live in the city. Highly displeased with the new once-a-week addition to the news team, Mary, Lou, Ted and Murray are more than upset when Mr. Price hires the critic to appear as a regular, nightly on the news.

After 30 years have passed, Lou's army buddy, Ben, finally thinks of a way he can be repaid for covering once for an A.W.O.L. Lou. He wants a date with Mary Richards. After a few dates, Ben is convinced he can stay the night with Mary, but finds he is very much mistaken and ends up thrown out of her apartment by both Mary and Lou. Lou also faces another problem in handling Georgette, Ted's new agent, who is negotiating a raise for him.

When the star of station WJM's variety show suddenly quits, Ted Baxter convinces the station manager that he and Georgette can do the show as a team. To everyone's astonishment, they become a hit. However, Georgette soon tires of the grind and wants to return to being a housewife. Ted resists, but finally gives in when he sees how much it means to Georgette.

Out of a job when told that her "Happy Homemaker" show is not being renewed, Sue Ann refuses station WJM's offer to buy out her contract for a pittance. The station attempts to break her down by assigning her to degrading menial jobs. However, she outwits them by conning Lou and Mary into giving her a job in the newsroom where she immediately becomes a continual and permanent source of irritation.

Gordy Howard, former weatherman for WJM-TV, returns to Minneapolis for a visit after signing a contract to host a morning network show in New York. Thrilled over his success, the news staff can barely await his arrival, especially Ted, who plans to con Gordy into letting him co-host the network show.

Out of town visitor Doug Booth stops by the WJM newsroom looking for Murray, who is out of the office at the time, and introduces himself to Mary. Doug charms Mary into accepting a date with him, but she is stunned moments later when Murray returns and she learns Doug is his father. After several dates with Doug they become the butt of numerous May-December romance jokes and Mary blows her top and tells everyone off at a party. Returning to her own apartment, she learns the effort has been in vain as Doug has just made up with a former girlfriend in Europe and plans to return to her.

Murray suffers the pains of being Ted's ghostwriter when a small article he writes for the anchorman for $200 turns out to be worth $2,500 to Reader's Digest, not to mention the fame and glory Ted is gobbling up.

While discussing Mary's single status, her three WJM co-workers begin to imagine themselves as Mary's husband. Murray sees her as the eager helpmate who supports him as he struggles with the writing of the great American novel. Ted's vision is of himself as the great lover, while Lou has problems reconciling their previous relationship, and also their age difference.

Johnny Carson visits Minneapolis for a benefit performance and, through an involved set of circumstances, agrees to be Mary's guest at her party.

After yet another disastrous date, Mary takes Georgette’s unlikely advice and decides to ask Lou out.

In the final episode, WJM-TV is sold, and the new owner, anxious to bring the fourth-rated news broadcast to a number-one position, begins by re-evaluating the news operations. On learning of the new emphasis on news, the news team fears Ted will be the first casualty. Much to their dismay, however, Ted is the only one the new owner approves of, and Mary, Lou, Murray and Sue Ann are fired. Crushed to see years of dedicated hard work end in unemployment, Mary faces a difficult task of keeping self control. Hoping to ease the shock, Lou Grant attempts to cheer up the disheartened ex-producer by sending for her best friends, Phyllis Lindstrom and Rhoda Gerard.