Her appearance on The Mary Tyler Moore Show led to prominent guest appearances on shows like M*A*S*H, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Spencer's Pilots, Quincy M.E., The Rockford Files, the television films The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1976) Something for Joey (1977), Eleanor and Franklin (1976), Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977), and the miniseries Captains and the Kings (1976).
[1] Her big break came when producers of the television series Lou Grant decided that the actress playing the female reporter on the show was too young and perky.
After three episodes, they recast the part with Kelsey in the role of Billie Newman, the crusading reporter for the fictional Los Angeles Tribune, which also co-starred Asner.
Kelsey received five consecutive Emmy Award nominations (1978 through 1982) for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, losing four times to her Lou Grant costar Nancy Marchand and once to Kristy McNichol in Family.
"[3] In 2009, she revisited her television past, playing Sue Ann Nivens for a week in a Minneapolis theatre company's restaging of The Mary Tyler Moore Show scripts, including the episode in which she originally appeared.