Plot Summary
The new station manager of WJM-TV, Mr. Coleman (guest star Vincent Gardenia), is firing people left and right, and wants to do something about the Six O'Clock News' low ratings. Surprisingly, Lou, Mary, Murray, and Sue Ann are fired, but the person widely perceived as the cause of the Six O'Clock News' low ratings, Ted, is retained.
Everyone takes the news pretty hard, except for Ted, who saunters back into the newsroom, but it is Mary who takes the news hardest. To cheer her up, Lou arranges for old friends Rhoda and Phyllis to fly to Minneapolis for a surprise visit at Mary's apartment. Time doesn't tame their rivalry, however. Both agitate for Mary to move with them to New York and San Francisco, respectively, but they compromise that she stays in the Twin Cities. Rhoda gets to the heart of the matter and comforts Mary, then reluctantly allows Phyllis to do the same.
After their final news broadcast together, in which Ted gives a sincere but comical sendoff to his colleagues on the air, the Six O'Clock News' staff, along with Georgette, gather in the newsroom to say goodbye to each other. The memorable and oft parodied scene culminates in an emotional huddle, during which nobody wants to let go, and, needing some tissues, the group shuffles en masse toward a box on Mary's desk. After final goodbyes, everyone exits the newsroom singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary." Finally, a very emotional Mary looks back, then bucks up and smiles before turning off the lights and closing the door.
The original broadcast included a curtain call, during which Mary Tyler Moore introduced her costars to the live audience as "the best cast ever." This was omitted from syndicated airings, but is available on the season 7 DVD release. This is the only episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in which all eight of the regular series characters (Mary, Lou, Ted, Murray, Rhoda, Phyllis, Georgette and Sue Ann) appear, and the curtain call is the only time the eight actors are all seen together at the same time.
Read more about this topic: The Last Show (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
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