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Season three of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was launched with a spoof of a then-current broadcasting trend: "Happy Talk" TV newscasts. Ordered by station management to lighten up the format of WJM-TV's six o'clock news report, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) is stuck with the responsibility of transforming humorless anchor Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) into a veritable laugh riot. The strategy backfires when Ted begins cracking bad-taste jokes at the slightest opportunity, culminating in an on-the-air confrontation with a fed-up Mary. Meanwhile, she tries to convince her chauvinistic boss, Lou Grant (Edward Asner), that equal pay for female employees is not merely a political slogan. "The Good-Time News" first aired on September 16, 1972.