The reason I ask is because Mary had Joyce Bulifant to be Murray Slaughter's wife on her show. After doing a little research, I found out that both Joyce and Gavin Macleod starred in McHale's Navy. Was that sort of a homage to McHale's Navy or am I looking too deep into that bit of casting? Were there ANY homages to other sitcoms on her show?

One of Mary's more serious boyfriends was played by Ted Bessell (of That Girl fame). I've always thought that was a nice bit of casting. :) Until he was caught cheating on Mary, that is! LOL

Speaking of Gavin and Joyce, they shared a screen daughter - in different projects. Jill Whelan played Gavin's daughter on The Love Boat and she was Joyce's daughter in Airplane. Jill filmed Airplane right around the time she joined LB. :cool: :D

Not exactly a sitcom but there are a few connections to the long-running Lassie TV series.

First, although she hated her time there & never talks about it, Cloris Leachman played the 2nd mother on Lassie for 3 quarters of a season during the 57-58 season. She left because she was playing 2nd fiddle to a dog.

Next, MTM's first season (70-71) was Lassie's last season on CBS. MTM was on Saturday nights. (wasn't it?) and Lassie on Sunday nights. In the late 1960's, 2 forest rangers share owning Lassie. In 70-71, Lassie had no owners. There was no explanation on-screen what happened to them. The actors playing them showed up on MTM within the first 2 seasons.

First, the lesser known Jack DeMave was in the 2nd episode of MTM in the episode where Rhoda has a married couple as her date. The more known Jed Allan appeared in the 2nd season. Also, in late Season 1 Rhoda dates a guy who wants to be a forest ranger. Forest rangers owned Lassie in the later years.

I came across another interesting connection the other night - sort of.

Jack Cassidy played Ted's brother. At the time he guested during the 71-72 season, the Partridge Family was on. Most probably already know this, Jack Cassidy was the father of David Cassidy & then husband of Shirley Jones.

On MTM, Ted's character was in competion with his brother. In real life, I had read many times that David Casssidy felt like he was in competion with this father.

I came across another interesting connection the other night - sort of.

Jack Cassidy played Ted's brother. At the time he guested during the 71-72 season, the Partridge Family was on. Most probably already know this, Jack Cassidy was the father of David Cassidy & then husband of Shirley Jones.

On MTM, Ted's character was in competion with his brother. In real life, I had read many times that David Casssidy felt like he was in competion with this father.
also, I think I read somewhere that Jack Cassidy was the original choice to play Ted Baxter.