Rhoda

I'm watching reruns of the sitcom Rhoda. It started out really good, but by the fifth and last season, it was really shit. Would Mary Tyler Moore not pay for good writers? I mean, some of the episodes are just really stupid. The Rhoda character was great and I think deserving of her own show, but some of the stuff they had Valerie Harper and Julie Kavner saying was just stupid. I haven't read Valerie Harper's autobio. Does she say much about the show? They really failed her.

The writers and producers married Rhoda and Joe early on in the run - which made it very popular but also wrote it into a corner.

Beyond that I just think it was one of those shows that started off strong and then got sort of reconceptualized a few times, and each time made it weaker (kinda like Mork and Mindy).

It would’ve been funnier if the focus had been on Rhoda and her bad dates plus her parents and sister.

I hated when Martin and Ida left in season 3; Anne Meara is great but she couldn't fill the void. I didn't mind Ray Buktenica as Brenda's boyfriend later on. None of Rhoda's friends or co-workers made much of an impression, which didn't help the post-divorce plots. It's interesting how the Morgensterns' Jewish-ness was played down or not even mentioned in the most of the show compared to Mary Tyler Moore. What Jewish mother names her daughter Brenda?

I love the episode with Vivian Vance. Two great second bananas.

I think she was supposed to become a regular but then developed breast cancer and had a stroke and never returned.

I didn't remember Joe having a kid.

Huge hit in Season 1 and 2. The writers admit they never should have married Rhoda off so fast and they got bored. They also admit David Groh was a wrong choice to play Rhoda's husband and so Season 3 they blew it up. Another factor that played into it which I think is interesting was around this time the MTM show was ending and going into syndication. People starting seeing the old Rhoda and missed her and the sleek stylish Rhoda sort of turned them off. The ratings in Season 4 on Sundays actually picked up. But by Season 5 Valerie was tired of the role and wanted to do other things(8 years of playing Rhoda) There are some decent episodes in Season 4 but Season 5 the writing is not great.

I love all of the seasons. I mean, yeah, there was a dip in quality but Valerie Harper really carried this through every dip, shift, and change on her whole back

I remember the last episode ending on an odd note.

Was Julie Kavner supposed to have a spinoff?

I loved Rhoda until she lost weight. She wasn’t that big to begin with but her obsession with her looks became tiresome and all she seemed to care about.

I did love both of her apartments, but I could never understand why Brenda had a bed in her living room when she had a separate bedroom.

Also, I couldn’t stand her parents, especially her gnome like mother.

Rhoda was terrific with her mom and with Mary. Then she got her own show and there was no more Mary (except for a guest spot or two) and only a little bit of Ida, then no Ida.

Rhoda and Joe had no chemistry. Brenda was funny, but she essentially became Second Rhoda and Rhoda became Second Mary. It just all felt very tired.

R10 Valerie Harper died last year.

I loved Julie Kavner as Brenda. It was worth watching the show just for that. Kavner has brilliant timing.

Ida should have stuck to hawking paper towels.

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RatingsEdit SeasonTime slot (ET)RankRating 1974–75Mondays 9:30 p.m.#626.3 1975–76Mondays 8:00 p.m.#724.4 1976–77Mondays 8:00 p.m. (September 20, 1976 – January 10, 1977) Sundays 8:00 p.m. (January 16 – March 13, 1977)#3219.7 1977–78Sundays 8:00 p.m.#2520.1 1978–79Saturdays 8:00 p.m.

Where is’Rhoda’ streaming?

BTW, I named my black German Shepherd “Rhoda” back in 1975.

If I had gotten a Golden Lab, I was going to name her “Rona.”

When Rhoda left the MTMS she changed for the boring, they toned Rhoda down and getting her married was not a good idea even if that episode garnered high ratings. Sitcoms often become tedious after a while anyway. The situation becomes one-note. On a happier note, I saw Valerie as Tallulah Bankhead in Looped; she was tremendous and the laughs went on for 90 minutes. At the end Valerie as Tallulah does Blanch DuBois' soliloquy from A Streetcar Named Desire, incredible performance. Critic John Simon said her performance was "a true tour deforce"

It didn't take long before people were tuning in mainly for Carlton the Doorman,

Addendum R17 Harper got a standing ovation the night I saw it.

I always loved Nancy Walker and thought she was great as Rhoda's mother.

R3 lots of Jews named "Brenda". See Goodbye, Columbus

R16, every season is on YouTube.

On the IMDB Trivia page:

"Mary and Rhoda was a TV Movie that was produced and aired in 2000; featuring the Mary Richards and Rhoda Morganstern characters; but nobody else from the original cast. Cloris Leachman (AKA Phyllis) was offended that she was not invited to participate in any way; and she picketed the production during shooting days."

That has to be made up. Even CL isn't that crazy.

VIVIAN VANCE played a role in several episodes!

[quote] I haven't read Valerie Harper's autobio. Does she say much about the show? They really failed her.

No, she left out the whole Rhoda show part of her life until she had heard from you.

Harper was very happy and very vocal about the decline in quality of the show.

They were forced to have her get married the first season by the head of CBS. The feeling was the marriage ruined the show and it became about the two of them arguing all the time.

Once he left the writers seemed to become even more lost. The stuff at the end of the series with Nancy Walker and her husband splitting up alienated audiences even more.

I really enjoyed ‘Rhoda,’ particularly Julie Kavner as Brenda.

“Rho, do you remember when you were fat and the relatives would say, ‘What a shame, she has such a pretty face!’ With me they just said ‘What a shame!’”

Despite all the jokes about her being frumpy and unappealing, I always thought Julie Kavner was pretty. By S4, she had lost weight, grown her hair out, and was holding her own next to Valerie Harper.

Brenda, post-blossoming. Her hair was so pretty here:

[quote] I'm watching reruns of the sitcom Rhoda. It started out really good, but by the fifth and last season, it was really shit. Would Mary Tyler Moore not pay for good writers?

Mary Tyler Moore wasn't really the boss of MTM, despite the company's name, the way Lucille Ball was a boss at Desilu; it was really run more by her husband at the time, Grant Tinker.

The show was really created at the insistence of CBS: spin-offs from popular sitcoms were highly popular at the time thanks to the incredible success of MAUDE (whichw as consistently in the top 10 its first year, and was a spin off of ALL IN THE FAMILY), and an executive at CBS told Tinker, "We want a spin-off of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW starring Rhoda, and have her get married in one of the first episodes! Everyone in the country will watch it!" Well, he was right; but then the show had nowhere to go from there. David Groh is a fine and sexy actor, but he and Valerie harper had little chemistry, and they couldn't find a way to make their relationship interesting. So everyone decided to have Rhoda be single again.

[quote] I haven't read Valerie Harper's autobio. Does she say much about the show?

No, Rose. It talks instead almost entirely about her time in the chorus of "Li'l Abner."

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