During Mary's WJM editorial, she talks about global population. She says the population between 1932-1978 will have doubled (from approximately 2 billion to 4.8), and that it's projected to be 7 billion by 2000. In fact, the population by 1980 was 5 billion (1 billion more than projected), and was at 6.5 billion in 2000.
Prior to Gordy and Ted going on-air, station manger, Jack Stoneham, tells Ted it takes a lot to be in the thankless role of being straight-man to Gordy. To prove him wrong, Ted begins to be 'funny', and one way he does this is by telling a(n unheard) on-air Polish joke. Ted Knight was of Polish-American descent; his birth name was Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka.
Murray asks the old joke "Is the Pope Catholic" question. Ted says he's sure the Pope is Catholic, but he's not certain about the last one. Pope Paul VI was the pontiff through most of the 1970s. His predecessor was John XXIII, who liberalized the Church in Vatican II, and ended the requirements for Masses to be held in Latin.
Gender based wage inequality was addressed. In many fields, the discussion is still continuing over 40 years later.
Mary finds Lou in the bar, and Lou has the bartender put on channel 6 (so Mary can see what 'happy-talk' news is like. The (uncredited) voice of the news anchor is John Barbour, who in the late 70's was one of a group of hosts for the hybrid news/entertainment series, Real People (1979), which truly was 'happy-talk'.