Referring to the short lived eighties sitcom Mary.
I've often wondered if this was the same character eight years after leaving the WJM newsroom,and in previous time having divorced and sustaining her married name(Brenner).
However having viewed episodes of Mary on youtube in recent time,it seems to me that Mary Brenner was slightly more aggressive than Mary Richards.Plus the former Mary character claimed her hometown to be Chicago.(Though I'm not sure where Mary Richards was from.)

I never saw the 80s show so for now I'm going with Mary Richards.

I remember the 80s show. Haven't seen it since it first aired in the 80s, but as I recall; it was pretty good and was similar to TMTMS but was set at a newspaper in Chicago where she was a columnist. Her boss was similar to Lou Grant and the TV critic was similar to Ted Baxter. I think his name was-Ted LaSalle? Something like that. That's all I remember.

Oh yes, also Kate Sagal from MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN was a regular, I think.

Mary Richards

Insamuch as Mary Brenner seemed a bit more cynical, jaded and weary than Mary Richards ever was, I'd have to go with the bright-eyed, optimistic and eager Miss Richards than the blah, sarcastic Ms. Brenner!

No surprise the 80's show didn't last- despite having John 'Gomez' Astin on board.

What's really odd is that the fictional paper Ms. Brenner was supposed to work for turned out to have existed in real life so they had to concoct an entirely new name for the newspaper at the last possible second for the show- which resulted in viewers hearing 'Chicago EAGLE' dubbed in by the performers in forceful and rather unnatural tones of voice.

who's Mary Brenner?