The BEST episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show season 2
Every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show season 2!
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was one of the most literate, realistic, and enduring situation comedies of the 1970s. Mary Richards was the idealized single career woman. She had come to Minneapolis after breaking up with a man she had been dating for four years. Ambitious, and looking for new friends, she moved into an older apartment building and went to work as an assistant producer of the local news show on television station WJM-TV. In her early 30s, Mary symbolized the independent woman of the 1970s.
#1 - Thoroughly Unmilitant Mary
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/6/1971
The writing and technical unions go on strike, leaving only Lou, Mary, and Ted in the newsroom. WJM-TV makes Lou be second cameraman on "The Chuckles the Clown Show". Because an upset Murray is on strike, Mary has to write the news stories. They are terrible, and when Lou criticizes them, she starts crying. Things take a turn for the worse: Ted's union strikes, and Lou has to fill in as anchorman! On his first brodcast, he has "clammy hands", and he bombs. At a local bar, Murray, Gordy, & Mary share a laugh over this. After drinking before his 2nd brodcast, he is "as cool as a cucumber"--that is, until he falls asleep at breaktime. Herb fills in for Lou for the rest of the brodcast. The next day, the unions come to an agreement, and everything goes back to normal. Rhoda Morgenstern & Phyllis Lindstrom do not appear in this episode.
#2 - The Square-Shaped Room
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/11/1971
When Edie is out of town, Lou hires Rhoda to redecorate his living room. However, Rhoda's tastes are too modern.
#3 - Room 223
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/9/1971
Mary and Rhoda enroll in a night school course in journalism and Mary begins dating the lecturer.
#4 - Feeb
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/8/1972
An incompetent waitress is fired after Mary complains about her poor service and Mary feels obliged to hire her when she applies for an assistant's job at WJM-TV.
#5 - The Bird and ...Um ...Bess
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1971
In the second-season premiere, after Mary Richards produces a "What's Your Sexual IQ?" documentary for the Six O'Clock News, Rhoda confesses to failing and Phyllis says that young Bess watched it. Phyllis calls on Mary to teach Bess the facts of life, but it turns out that Bess already had learned it from her friends. Meanwhile, the WJM-TV newsroom is shelled with phone calls responding to the documentary. According to Mary, more people are appalled by it than anything else.
#6 - He's No Heavy... He's My Brother
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/2/1971
Mary and Rhoda take an unplanned vacation to Mexico but have to do a strange favor for a Mexican restaurant owner for reservations.
#7 - A Girl's Best Mother Is Not Her Friend
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/16/1971
When Ida, Rhoda's mother, visits, she sees how well Phyllis and Bess get on, and how closely Mary appears to her mother when they chat on the telephone, that she tries to be Rhoda's "friend".
#8 - More Than Neighbors
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/29/1972
After being persuaded by Phyllis, Ted moves into a vacant apartment below Mary's but Mary and Rhoda are not thrilled by the prospect.
#9 - Didn't You Used to Be... Wait... Don't Tell Me
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/30/1971
Mary attends her high school reunion and meets up with her former boyfriend Howard Arnell, who continues to have feelings for Mary. Meanwhile, Rhoda tags along believing that people will "remember" her although she didn't attend Roseburg High.
#10 - The Six-and-a-Half-Year Itch
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/27/1971
Mary, Rhoda and Lou go to a John Wayne movie, where they spot Lou's son-in-law with an unknown woman.
#11 - Some of My Best Friends Are Rhoda
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/26/1972
Through a minor car accident, Mary befriends a young woman, Joanne. Rhoda becomes jealous when Mary spends more time with Joanne but Mary quickly ends the new friendship when she discovers Joanne is anti-Semitic and disapproves of Rhoda.
#12 - I Am Curious Cooper
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/25/1971
Mary is intrigued by the voice of Lou Grant's friend, Mike Cooper, and asks to be set up with him. Lou breaks his policy of not matchmaking friends and colleagues.
#13 - Ted Over Heels
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/18/1971
After Ted appears on the Chuckles the Clown Show, he falls in love with Chuckles' daughter.
#14 - ... Is a Friend in Need
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/4/1971
Rhoda loses her job as a window-dresser and isn't in a hurry to find something new. When there is a job opening at WJM-TV, Mary lies to Rhoda and tells her the job has been filled, to Lou's surprise.
#15 - Where There's Smoke, There's Rhoda
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/12/1972
When Rhoda's apartment is destroyed by fire, she moves in with Mary. The two find that while they are best friends, they make awful roommates.
#16 - The Five-Minute Dress
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/1/1972
After volunteering some of her spare time for a worthy cause, Mary begins dating the Governor's aide. Unfortunately, the aide's duties cause him to break every date.
#17 - And Now, Sitting in for Ted Baxter
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/13/1971
Ted is forced to take a vacation and the anchorman hired to sit in for him becomes a huge success.
#18 - Baby Sit-Com
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/22/1972
Mary agrees to babysit Bess for the weekend, but then a former boyfriend, in town for a few days, asks her out. When she can't find a babysitter for Bess on such short notice, she ends up asking Lou.
#19 - The Slaughter Affair
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/15/1972
Murray takes on a night job as a cab driver in order to save up and buy his wife Marie a new car for their 10th wedding anniversary. However, Marie becomes suspicious about Murray's absences and fears that Murray is having an affair with Mary Richards.
#20 - You Certainly Are a Big Boy
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/19/1972
Mary begins dating an architect and is astonished to learn that his son is only six years younger than she is.
#21 - Cover Boy
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/23/1971
Jack Cassidy guest stars as professional model Hal Baxter, who comes to visit his brother Ted at WJM-TV. Immediately, the two engage in a heated battle of sibling rivalry about EVERYTHING -- salaries, cars, & even women. In an effort to size up his brother, Ted claims that Mary is his girlfriend. Ted & Hal decide to go on a double-date with Mary & Rhoda. At the restaurant, Ted doesn't know any etiquitte, and it shows. Back at Mary's apartment, Ted & Hal arm wrestle before Hal decides to go with Rhoda up to her apartment to look thru magazines for his picture. Ted stays with Mary to make Hal think that he spends more time with his girl than he does. The next morning, Mary, who got no sleep last to night, falls asleep while typing. When Ted asks her for another double-date, she refuses. Ted feels beated and, when Hal comes in to WJM-TV, tells him the truth: he's not dating Mary. Hal admits to being a career slump and having a mole surgically installed. As the 2 walk out together
#22 - His Two Right Arms
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/4/1972
Mary gets city councilman Pete Peterson to appear on Face the People and discovers that he is completely incompetent. She and his aides try to bring him up to speed on current events so he can make a good impression on the show.
#23 - The Care and Feeding of Parents
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/5/1972
Bess gets top marks for a report she wrote for school, and Phyllis pressures her to write a book based on it, calling on Mary for help.
#24 - Don't Break the Chain
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/20/1971
Mary gets a chain letter from Lou, and she is persuaded to send it on. To her surprise, one of the recipients comes for a visit, giving Mary a less than pleasant time dealing with him.