Gordy Howard is a Meteorologist for WJM-TV during the same air time as Ted Baxter. Gordy is the friendly, relaxed, intelligent, competent, Straight Man character of the show that had to cover for Ted's numerous mistakes both on air and behind the scenes. He had to work with Ted the most out of any other character, and yet was the least tense around him.
Portrayed by actor John Amos who left for Good Times to play an unrelated character. John Amos intended to play another Straight Man, but was expected to be much more comedic and was fired.
Mary Tyler Moore was set primarily in the newsroom and not in the news studio. Additionally, Gordy's personality is much more different than Ted. As a result, Gordy had nowhere to sit in the newsroom and ended up sitting in a desk that happened to be unoccupied at that moment. Eventually the setting expanded to include other studios (such as Sue Ann's Happy Homemaker programme) but Gordy had left Mary Tyler Moore by then. Gordy himself wasn't spun off into his own show but he returned briefly on vacation from his new job at a larger TV station.
