Ep 15. The Five-Minute Dress

Mary Richards is gearing up for a big event: the Teddy Awards, which honor the best in local television advertising. Of course she wants to look her best, but when Mary's dress gets ruined just hours before the ceremony, she has to scramble to find a replacement. Fortunately, her friend Rhoda Morgenstern introduces her to seamstress Phyllis Lindstrom, who says she can whip up a new dress in just five minutes. Mary is skeptical, but desperate, and agrees to let Phyllis take her measurements and get to work.

As Mary heads to the Teddy Awards in her new dress, she's feeling pretty good. Until, that is, she realizes that the dress is so tight that she can barely move her arms or sit down. She spends the ceremony squirming uncomfortably in her seat and trying to avoid revealing that she's essentially been sewn into her dress. When the awards are over, she rushes off to the bathroom to try to extricate herself from the garment. But as she struggles, the zipper breaks, trapping her in the dress completely. With no other options, Mary has to call Lou Grant (her boss at the TV station where she works) to come rescue her.

While all this is going on, Lou is dealing with his own crisis. His teenage daughter is coming to visit him for the first time in years, and he's worried about how to connect with her. He enlists the help of news writer Murray Slaughter, who offers Lou a list of conversation starters, all of which are predictably awkward. But when Lou's daughter shows up unexpectedly early, he's caught off guard and has to improvise. To his surprise, the two of them hit it off immediately, bonding over their shared love of baseball and classic movies.

Back at the apartment, Mary's dress crisis has brought Rhoda and Phyllis together, and the two of them are rapidly driving each other crazy. Rhoda is convinced that Phyllis has sinister intentions and is trying to sabotage Mary, while Phyllis thinks that Rhoda is being unnecessarily cruel. Their bickering culminates in a hilarious slapstick sequence as they each try to outdo the other in demonstrating their superior domestic skills (e.g. cooking, ironing, etc.). In the end, however, they manage to find common ground and even bond a bit over their shared love of Mary.

As the episode draws to a close, Lou drops Mary off at her apartment and promises to keep her dress debacle a secret. Mary is grateful for his help, but tired and worn out from the experience. She crawls into bed, exhausted, only to discover that the dress is still wedged onto her body. She spends the night tossing and turning, trying to figure out how to get out of the thing. When she finally emerges the next morning, Phyllis is waiting with breakfast, eager to hear what happened. Mary makes a passing reference to the dress, but decides to keep the full story to herself. Phyllis, sensing that she's missed out on something juicy, gives Mary a knowing smile -- but the two women have a newfound respect for each other and a sense of camaraderie after a chaotic 24 hours.