The character I remember most was Mrs Pynchon. Something in how the actress played it really sold me that this lady could run about any company she inherited. Good to see others remember her as well.
Marchand was also Clara the spinster in the original Marty (1953) with Rod Steiger. Take the time to watch it on YouTube; it’s a wonderful drama.
(Along with some other people you might recognize, Howard “Major Hochstetter” Caine is in it too, as the bartender.)
I remember the show fondly. I was a big news junkie as a kid. The show was the second time I’d heard of the Japanese Internment (there was a TV movie “Return to Manzanar” a year or two prior.
I remember a few specific episodes. The one with the impending nuclear war had a scene where the staff was watching a Senator talk to the press after a military briefing. A Trib staffer described the scene “Ladies and gentlemen, that is a US Senator freaking out.”