In the second-season premiere, after Mary Richards produces a ""What's Your Sexual IQ?"" documentary for the Six O'Clock News, Rhoda confesses to failing and Phyllis says that young Bess watched it. Phyllis calls on Mary to teach Bess the facts of life, but it turns out that Bess already had learned it from her friends. Meanwhile, the WJM-TV newsroom is shelled with phone calls responding to the documentary. According to Mary, more people are appalled by it than anything else.

Mary is intrigued by the voice of Lou Grant's friend, Mike Cooper, and asks to be set up with him. Lou breaks his policy of not matchmaking friends and colleagues.

Mary and Rhoda take an unplanned vacation to Mexico but have to do a strange favor for a Mexican restaurant owner for reservations.

Mary and Rhoda enroll in a night school course in journalism and Mary begins dating the lecturer.

When Ida, Rhoda's mother, visits, she sees how well Phyllis and Bess get on, and how closely Mary appears to her mother when they chat on the telephone, that she tries to be Rhoda's ""friend"".

Mary attends her high school reunion and meets up with her former boyfriend Howard Arnell, who continues to have feelings for Mary. Meanwhile, Rhoda tags along believing that people will ""remember"" her although she didn't attend Roseburg High.

The writing and technical unions go on strike, leaving only Lou, Mary, and Ted in the newsroom. WJM-TV makes Lou be second cameraman on ""The Chuckles the Clown Show"". Because an upset Murray is on strike, Mary has to write the news stories. They are terrible, and when Lou criticizes them, she starts crying.

Things take a turn for the worse: Ted's union strikes, and Lou has to fill in as anchorman! On his first brodcast, he has ""clammy hands"", and he bombs. At a local bar, Murray, Gordy, & Mary share a laugh over this. After drinking before his 2nd brodcast, he is ""as cool as a cucumber""--that is, until he falls asleep at breaktime. Herb fills in for Lou for the rest of the brodcast.

The next day, the unions come to an agreement, and everything goes back to normal. Rhoda Morgenstern & Phyllis Lindstrom do not appear in this episode.

Ted is forced to take a vacation and the anchorman hired to sit in for him becomes a huge success.

Mary gets a chain letter from Lou, and she is persuaded to send it on. To her surprise, one of the recipients comes for a visit, giving Mary a less than pleasant time dealing with him.

Mary, Rhoda and Lou go to a John Wayne movie, where they spot Lou's son-in-law with an unknown woman.

Rhoda loses her job as a window-dresser and isn't in a hurry to find something new. When there is a job opening at WJM-TV, Mary lies to Rhoda and tells her the job has been filled, to Lou's surprise.

When Edie is out of town, Lou hires Rhoda to redecorate his living room. However, Rhoda's tastes are too modern.

After Ted appears on the Chuckles the Clown Show, he falls in love with Chuckles' daughter.

After volunteering some of her spare time for a worthy cause, Mary begins dating the Governor's aide. Unfortunately, the aide's duties cause him to break every date.

An incompetent waitress is fired after Mary complains about her poor service and Mary feels obliged to hire her when she applies for an assistant's job at WJM-TV.

Murray takes on a night job as a cab driver in order to save up and buy his wife Marie a new car for their 10th wedding anniversary. However, Marie becomes suspicious about Murray's absences and fears that Murray is having an affair with Mary Richards.

Mary agrees to babysit Bess for the weekend, but then a former boyfriend, in town for a few days, asks her out. When she can't find a babysitter for Bess on such short notice, she ends up asking Lou.

After being persuaded by Phyllis, Ted moves into a vacant apartment below Mary's but Mary and Rhoda are not thrilled by the prospect.

Bess gets top marks for a report she wrote for school, and Phyllis pressures her to write a book based on it, calling on Mary for help.

When Rhoda's apartment is destroyed by fire, she moves in with Mary. The two find that while they are best friends, they make awful roommates.

Mary begins dating an architect and is astonished to learn that his son is only six years younger than she is.

Through a minor car accident, Mary befriends a young woman, Joanne. Rhoda becomes jealous when Mary spends more time with Joanne but Mary quickly ends the new friendship when she discovers Joanne is anti-Semitic and disapproves of Rhoda.

Mary gets city councilman Pete Peterson to appear on Face the People and discovers that he is completely incompetent. She and his aides try to bring him up to speed on current events so he can make a good impression on the show.