Tournament Round Three: The Mary Tyler Moore Show vs. Cheers

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The Mary Tyler Moore Show won a record amount of Emmys that wasn't passed until Frasier. It aired 7 seasons on CBS from 1970-1977. This was Mary Tyler Moore's first starring role after playing Dick Van Dyke's wife on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Mary played single woman Mary Richards here. This was a workplace comedy set in a TV newsroom. It also made history as a sitcom that spun off drama Lou Grant. Lou was the boss at the newsroom played by Ed Asner. Mary Tyler Moore also had two other spin-offs, Rhoda (Morgenstern played by Valerie Harper) and Phyllis (Lindstrom played by Cloris Leachman). Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) was the blowhard face of the newscast who often screwed up. Georgia Engel recurred as Ted's wife Georgette. Murray Slaughter (Gavin McLeod) worked closely with Mary writing the newscasts. Recently deceased Betty White had a recurring role as Sue Ann Nivens.
How it got this far
1st Round: defeated Green Acres 9-5
2nd Round: defeated Leave it to Beaver 12-7

Cheers won many Emmys, and its series finale with over 80 million viewers was second only to M*A*S*H all time for scripted shows. It launched two spin-offs: The Tortellis which was a flop, and Frasier which tied its parent show's 11 seasons. Cheers aired from 1982-1993 on NBC, it anchored their Thursday night comedy block helping launch shows like Night Court and Seinfeld. Set in a bar starring Ted Danson as former baseball player Sam Malone. Shelley Long was the female lead for the first five seasons, snooty Diane Chambers. Starting in season 6 Kirstie Alley replaced her as Rebecca Howe. Rhea Perlman played Sam's hot headed bartender Carla Tortelli. George Wendt played alcoholic Norm Peterson and John Ratzenberger played his best friend know-it-all Cliff Clavin. Kelsey Grammer was brought in for a 6 episode arc at the start of season 3 playing Dr. Frasier Crane. That arc quickly turned into a series regular role for the rest of Cheers, then his own Frasier spin-off. Kelsey holds a record for 20 years playing the same character, also for being Emmy nominated as the same character on three different shows (Wings from the same producers was the third show). Later on Bebe Neuwirth was added to the Cheers cast playing his wife Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane. For the first three seasons Nicholas Colasanto played Coach Ernie Pantuzo, who followed Sam from baseball to the bar. Nicholas died irl, so Coach was killed off as well. Woody Harrelson replaced him at the start of season 4 as Woody Boyd, a young bartender from my home state of Indiana.
How it got this far
1st Round: defeated The Nanny 13-4
2nd Round: defeated Fawlty Towers 11-2

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Cheers defeats The Mary Tyler Moore Show 8-4 and will advance to the top 10 quarterfinals.