She had her own sitcom, The Debbie Reynolds Show, in which she played a housewife who wanted to be a newspaper reporter and was always trying to scheme her way to a scoop in I Love Lucy-esque fashion, but she walked away from it after only one season—because she didn't like that they were selling ad time to cigarette makers, knowing firsthand how addictive they were and how hard it was to quit.
Reynolds remained a frequent presence on TV, however, appearing on The Love Boat, The Golden Girls, Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder, Hotel and more.
She was nominated for a Tony Award as the star of the 1973 Broadway revival of Irene. In 1976 she headlined the musical revue Debbie and later followed Lauren Bacall as Tess Harding in the 1981 musical adaptation of the classic Hepburn-Tracy comedy Woman of the Year.
Reynolds also became known as a bit of a caricature thanks to Fisher's semi-autobiographical novels, such as Postcards From the Edge—which was turned into a film starring MacLaine and Meryl Streep as heavy-drinking mother-daughter actresses with a stormy relationship.
