5.) “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Last Show” (1977)

Traditional media was still thriving back in 1977. That said, the news that the fictional WJM-TV was firing all the friends of Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) except Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) was a surprising moment for television viewers.

Mary had moved to Minneapolis to take the job at the start of the series and had grown to have a connection to all the people there. In the modern day, the outcome would not be as surprising as traditional media continues to decline — but several decades ago, few saw it coming.