Moore: I mean, society's expectations at that point still said, hey, wait a minute, lady, you only go so far here. But I think we broke new ground, and that was helped by my insistence on wearing pants, you know, jeans and capri pants at the time because I said I've seen all the other actresses and they're always running the vacuum in these little flowered frocks with high heels on, and I don't do that. And I don't know any of my friends who do that. So why don't we try to make this real? And I'll dress on the show the way I do in real life.
GROSS: But it wasn't that easy. The sponsors were afraid you'd look brazen.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Mary Tyler Moore was permitted to wear pants in only "one scene per episode"
From a 1995 interview: