"The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a very dicey proposition at first," said Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, author or Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, which tells the story behind the making of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. "Testing went very poorly with audiences, initially. They didn't get it. Why didn't she have a husband, why wasn't she looking for a man? ... It was definitely ground-breaking." In addition, Moore recalled, "So many people have said to me on a serious level how appreciative they were of that series, and what it did for them at the time. How it allowed them to stay home on a Saturday night, and be ok not having a date, because it was alright for Mary."

She rose to stardom in her role as Mary Richards, a single, career woman who worked and socialized with her friends. "It showed people that a family is not just blood-members, not just relatives — that they are the extended people with whom you work, who take you on as a kind of responsibility," Moore said of her role. But her success with the show didn't resolve everything in her life. She said, "Success doesn't give you piece of mind. Piece of mind probably comes with aging, maturing, love."