After many dues-paying years doing guest shots on shows like “Twilight Zone” and “Rawhide,” Leachman earned the role of Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” She said she did not play the character as written.

“It said she was neurotic and I didn’t get any fun out of that,” she said. “That didn’t say anything to me. So I decided that she was the perfect person: the perfect chef, the perfect chauffeur, the perfect psychologist, the perfect friend and the perfect slut in the bedroom. How boring is that?”

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110327/FEAT0108/303279977/1011/FEAT

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/data/734/Phy20.jpg