Interesting thing about MacLeod is that pre-MTM, he was a little heavier and seemed to be primarily cast as shady/sleazy types, like petty crime lord Big Chicken in Hawaii Five-O.
Who would have guessed that Lou and Sue Ann (actors) would outlive Mary and Rhoda? I heard an interview with him a year or so ago where he said that he still had Big Chicken fans coming to see him, they had t-shirts and everything. He also played Crosley, a kind of a jerk of a sailor, in the 1966 epic The Sand Pebbles. "The gun's jammed, sir."
Another interesting tidbit--in a Season 1 episode of MTM (don't ask me which one offhand), there's a story thread about a children's show host named Big Chicken, meant at face value to be a Big Bird spoof...but when they had Murray talking about Big Chicken, I had to wonder if that was a deliberate nod. I also caught him as a shady character in a Rat Patrol episode; and maybe something else in my period viewing.
Interesting how a few changes in facial expression and hair style can change MacLeod from a rough customer to a genial captain/newswriter.
I wondered the same thing. It was the episode where Lou gets fired and Mary goes to bat for him with the eccentric station owner (Slim Pickens). His weight made a difference, too. As The Old Mixer said, in a lot of his heavy parts he looked... heavier.
Yeah that's the one. ETA: Gavin MacLeod-Harold Gould connection: Gould played Rhoda's dad on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.