The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended on CBS on March 19, 1977. In the final episode, “The Last Show,” the station fires the staff of the WJM-TV newsroom. Mary Richards and her colleagues lose their jobs. Only one of them, Ted, keeps his.
Before they leave, Mary speaks to the group. “I tell myself that the people I work with are just the people I work with,” she says. Then she asks, “What is a family anyway? They’re just people who make you feel less alone and really loved.” She ends: “Thank you for being my family.”