After five years playing Mary Richards' neighbor, friend, and landlady on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cloris Leachman
began her own spin-off series. Phyllis Lindstrom returned home to her hometown of San Francisco following the death of her husband Lars. In her mid-40s, and with a teenage daughter to support, Phyllis moved in with Lars' scatter-brained mother, Audrey, and Audrey's second husband,  Judge Jonathan Dexter. Phyllis found a job working as an assistant to Julie Erskine at Erskine's Commercial Photography Studio. This job, with Phyllis being her
busy-body, self centered, oblivious self, lasted only one season.  In the second season Phyllis was given a job as
administrative assistant to Dan Valenti, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She worked in an office with another supervisor, Leonard Marsh, and his assistant Harriet. On the home front, witty, sharp-tongued Mother Dex