The Mary Tyler Moore Show (originally known simply by the name of the show's star, Mary Tyler Moore) is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. The program was a television breakthrough, with the first never-married, independent career woman as the central character: "As Mary Richards, a single woman in her thirties, Moore presented a character different from other single TV women of the time. She was not widowed or divorced or seeking a man to support her."[1]

It has also been cited as "one of the most acclaimed television programs ever produced" in US television history.[1] It received high praise from critics, including Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series three years in a row (1975–77), and continued to be honored long after the final episode aired. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked The Mary Tyler Moore Show No. 6 in its list of the 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time

Mary Richards (Moore) is a single woman who, at age 30, moves to Minneapolis after being jilted by her boyfriend of two years. She applies for a secretarial job at TV station WJM, but that is already taken. She is instead offered the position of associate producer of the station's "Six O'Clock News". She befriends her tough but lovable boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner), newswriter Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), and buffoonish anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight). Mary later becomes producer of the show.

Mary rents a third floor studio apartment in a Victorian house from acquaintance and downstairs landlady, Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman), and she and upstairs neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) become best friends. Characters introduced later in the series are acerbic, man-hungry TV hostess Sue Ann Nivens (Betty White), and sweet-natured Georgette Franklin (Georgia Engel), as Ted Baxter's girlfriend (and later, wife). At the beginning of season 6, after both Rhoda and Phyllis have moved away (providing a premise for two spinoffs), Mary relocates to a one bedroom high-rise apartment.

In the third season, issues such as equal pay for women, pre-marital sex and homosexuality are woven into the show's comedic plots. In the fourth season, such subjects as marital infidelity and divorce are explored with Phyllis and Lou, respectively. In the fifth season, Mary refuses to reveal a news source and is jailed for contempt of court. While in jail, she befriends a prostitute who seeks Mary's help in a subsequent episode. In the final seasons, the show explores humor in death in the episode "Chuckles Bites the Dust" and juvenile delinquency; Ted deals with intimate marital problems, infertility, and adoption, and suffers a heart attack; and Mary overcomes an addiction to sleeping pills. Mary dates several men on and off over the years, two seriously, but remains single throughout the series.

Kenwood Parkway house

The house on Kenwood Parkway

In 1995, Entertainment Weekly said that "TV's most famous bachelorette pad" was Mary's apartment.[3] The fictitious address was 119 North Weatherly, but the exterior establishing shots were of a real house in Minneapolis at 2104 Kenwood Parkway. In the real house, an unfinished attic occupied the space behind the window recreated on the interior studio set of Mary's apartment.[4]

Once fans of the series discovered where exterior shots had been taken, the house became a popular tourist destination. According to Moore, the woman who lived in the house "was overwhelmed by the people showing up and asking if Mary was around".[5] To discourage crews from filming additional footage of the house, the owners placed an "Impeach Nixon" sign beneath the window where Mary supposedly lived.[4] The house continued to attract 30 tour buses a day more than a decade after production ended.[5]

Characters

First season cast: (left top) Harper, Asner, Leachman; (left bottom) MacLeod, Moore, Knight. Last season cast: (right top) Knight, MacLeod, Asner; (right bottom) White, Engel, Moore.

See also: List of minor characters on The Mary Tyler Moore Show

  • Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore), a single native Minnesotan, moves to Minneapolis in 1970 at age 30 and becomes Associate Producer of WJM-TV's Six O'Clock News. Her sincere, kind demeanor often acts as a foil for the personalities of her co-workers and friends.
  • Lou Grant (Edward Asner) is the Producer (later Executive Producer) of the news. His tough, work-oriented demeanor does not hide his soft-hearted nature. He is referred to as "Lou" by everyone, including Mary's friends, with the exception of Mary herself, who can rarely bring herself to call him by his first name rather than "Mr. Grant". He was originally married to Edie, but during the run of the show they separated and divorced.
  • Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), the head writer of the news makes frequent quips for Ted Baxter's mangling of his news copy, and Sue Ann Nivens' aggressive, man-hungry attitude. He is Mary's closest coworker and close friend. Murray is married to Marie, and has several children.
  • Ted Baxter (Ted Knight), is the dim-witted, vain, and miserly anchorman of the Six O'Clock News. He frequently makes mistakes and is oblivious to the actual nature of the topics covered on the show, but considers himself to be the country's best news journalist. He is often criticized by others, especially Murray and Lou for his many shortcomings, but is never fired from his position.
  • Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) (1970–74), is Mary's best friend and upstairs neighbor. Though insecure about her appearance, she is also outgoing and sardonic, often making wisecracks, frequently at her own expense. Like Mary, she is single. She dates frequently, often joking about her disastrous dates. Rhoda moves to New York City and falls in love after the fourth season, beginning the spinoff series, Rhoda.
  • Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman) (1970–75), is Mary's snobbish friend and neighbor. She is married to an unseen character, Lars, a dermatologist, and has a precocious daughter, Bess (Lisa Gerritsen). Phyllis is controlling and often arrogant. She is actively involved in groups and clubs, is a political activist and a supporter of Women's Liberation. Rhoda and Phyllis are usually at odds with each other and often trade insults. After five seasons, Phyllis is widowed, learns her husband had virtually no assets and she must support herself; she moves to San Francisco in the spinoff series Phyllis.
  • Sue Ann Nivens (Betty White) (1973–77), host of WJM's The Happy Homemaker show. While her demeanor is superficially cheerful, she makes judgmental comments about Mary, exchanges personal insults with Murray, and uses many sexual double entendres, especially around Lou, to whom she is strongly attracted.

Response and impact

Impact on television

In 2007, TIME magazine put The Mary Tyler Moore Show on its list of "17 Shows That Changed TV". TIME stated that the series "liberated TV for adults—of both sexes" by being "a sophisticated show about grownups among other grownups, having grownup conversations".[6] The Associated Press said that the show "took 20 years of pointless, insipid situation comedy and spun it on its heels. [It did this by] pioneer[ing] reality comedy and the establishment of clearly defined and motivated secondary characters."[7]

Tina Fey, creator and lead actress of the 2006-debut sitcom 30 Rock, explained that Moore's show helped inspire 30 Rock's emphasis on office relationships. "Our goal is to try to be like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where it's not about doing the news," said Fey.[8] Entertainment Weekly also noted that the main characters of 30 Rock mirror those of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.[9]

When the writers of the sitcom Friends were about to create their series finale, they watched several other sitcom finales.[10] Co-creator Marta Kauffman said that the last episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was the "gold standard" and that it influenced the finale of Friends.[11]

In popular culture

The show has remained popular since the final episode was broadcast in 1977. Several songs, films and other television programs, including The Simpsons, reference or parody characters and events from the show, including the memorable "...can turn the world on with her smile" line from the title song. Parodies were done on shows such as Saturday Night Live, MadTV, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 (which was produced in Minneapolis). Barbara Kessler and Relient K are two artists who have referred to the show in their songs. The show has been mentioned in film as well, such as in Romy & Michele's High School Reunion, when the characters argue with each other while exclaiming "I'm the Mary and you're the Rhoda." Frank DeCaro of The New York Times wrote that this was the highlight of the film.[12]

The show's Emmy winning final episode has been alluded to many times in other series' closing episodes, such as the finale of St. Elsewhere (including the group shuffle to the tissue box), Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Just Shoot Me!.

Production

Final episode, 1977

When Moore was first approached about the show, she "was unsure and unwilling to commit, fearing any new role might suffer in comparison with her Laura Petrie character in The Dick Van Dyke Show, which also aired on CBS, and was already cemented as one of the most popular parts in TV history".[13] Moore's character was initially intended to be a divorcée, but as divorce was still controversial at the time, and CBS was afraid viewers might think that Mary had divorced Rob Petrie, Laura's husband on The Dick Van Dyke Show, the premise was changed to that of a single woman with a recently broken engagement.[14] Notably, Van Dyke never guest starred in any episode, although his brother Jerry Van Dyke guest-starred in a couple episodes during the third and fourth seasons. (He had also regularly appeared on The Dick Van Dyke Show.)

According to co-creator Allan Burns, Minnesota was selected for the show's location after "one of the writers began talking about the strengths and weaknesses of the Vikings".[15] A television newsroom was chosen for the show's workplace because of the supporting characters often found there, stated co-creator James Brooks.[15]

Title sequences

See also: The Mary Tyler Moore Show opening sequence

The opening title sequence features many scenes filmed on location in Minneapolis in both summer and winter, as well as a few clips from the show's studio scenes. The sequence changed each season, but always ended with Mary tossing her hat at an intersection in downtown Minneapolis. The hat toss was ranked by Entertainment Weekly as the second greatest moment in television.[16] On May 8, 2002, Moore was in attendance when basic cable network TV Land dedicated a statue to her that captured her iconic throw. In 2010, TV Guide ranked the show's opening title sequence No. 3 on a list of TV's Top Ten credit sequences, as selected by readers.[17]

The theme song played during the opening, "Love Is All Around", was written and performed by Sonny Curtis.

No supporting cast members are credited during the show's opening. The ending sequences show snippets of the cast and guest stars from the show with the respective actors' names. Other on-location scenes are also shown during the closing credits, including a rear shot of Mary holding hands with her date, played by Moore's then husband, Grant Tinker. The ending sequence music is an instrumental version of "Love is All Around". The ending finishes with a cat meowing within the MTM company logo.

Spin-offs, specials and reunions

The show spun off three television series, all of which aired on CBS: the sitcoms Rhoda (1974–'78) and Phyllis (1975–'77), and the one hour drama Lou Grant (1977–'82). In 2000, Moore and Harper reprised their roles in a two-hour ABC TV-movie, Mary and Rhoda.

Two retrospective specials were produced by CBS: Mary Tyler Moore: The 20th Anniversary Show (1991) and The Mary Tyler Moore Reunion (2002). On May 19, 2008, the surviving cast members of The Mary Tyler Moore Show reunited on The Oprah Winfrey Show to reminisce about the series. Winfrey, a longtime admirer of Moore and the show, had her staff recreate the sets of the WJM-TV newsroom and Mary's apartment (seasons 1-5) for the reunion.

In 2013, the women of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cloris Leachman, Valerie Harper, Mary Tyler Moore, Betty White, and Georgia Engel, reunited on the TV Land sitcom Hot In Cleveland, which aired on September 4. The cast was interviewed by Katie Couric on Katie as they celebrated acting together for the first time in more than 30 years.

Broadcast history

United States

Television schedule

  • Saturday at 9:30-10:00 pm on CBS: September 19, 1970—December 11, 1971
  • Saturday at 8:30-9:00 pm on CBS: December 18, 1971—March 4, 1972
  • Saturday at 9:00-9:30 pm on CBS: September 16, 1972—October 30, 1976
  • Saturday at 8:00-8:30 pm on CBS: November 6, 1976—March 19, 1977

Nielsen ratings

  • 1970–71: #22 (20.3)[18]
  • 1971–72: #10 (23.7)[19]
  • 1972–73: #7 (23.6)[20]
  • 1973–74: #9 (23.1)[21]
  • 1974–75: #11 (24.0)[22]
  • 1975–76: #19 (21.9)[23]
  • 1976–77: #39 (N/A)[24]

Syndication

The show did not do well initially in syndication, never being shown in more than 25 percent of the United States at a time, according to Robert S. Alley, the co-author of a book about the series. In 1992, Nick at Nite began broadcasting the series nightly and it became the network's top-rated series.[25]

United Kingdom

The series was broadcast on BBC1 from February 13, 1971, to December 29, 1972.[26] The BBC broadcast the first 34 episodes before the series was dropped. Beginning in 1975 a number of ITV companies picked up the series. Channel 4 repeated the first 39 episodes between January 30, 1984, and August 23, 1985. The full series was repeated on Family channel from 1993 to 1996.

DVD releases

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released all 7 seasons on DVD in Region 1.

DVD NameEpisodesRegion 1 release dateThe Complete First Season24September 24, 2002The Complete Second Season24July 26, 2005The Complete Third Season24January 17, 2006The Complete Fourth Season24June 20, 2006The Complete Fifth Season24October 6, 2009The Complete Sixth Season24February 2, 2010The Complete Seventh and Final Season24October 5, 2010

On the season 7 DVD, the last episode's "final curtain call", broadcast only once on March 19, 1977 (March 18 in Canada), was included at the request of fans.[27] However, some of the season 7 sets did not include the curtain call; a replacement disc is reported to be available from the manufacturer.[28]

Awards and honors

Emmys

In addition to numerous nominations, The Mary Tyler Moore Show won 29 Emmy Awards. This was a record unbroken until Frasier earned its 30th in 2002.[29]

Wins:

  • Outstanding Comedy Series [3] — (1975,76,77)
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series [3] — Mary Tyler Moore ('73,74,76)
  • Actress of the Year: Series [1] — Mary Tyler Moore ('74)
  • Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series [5] — Ed Asner ('71,72,75), Ted Knight ('73,76)
  • Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series [6] — Valerie Harper ('71,72,73), Cloris Leachman ('74), Betty White ('75,76)
  • Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy or Drama Series [1] — Cloris Leachman ('75) (shared w/ Zohra Lampert, Kojak)
  • Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series [5] — James L. Brooks, Allan Burns (1971), Treva Silverman (1974), Ed Weinberger, Stan Daniels (1975), David Lloyd (1976), Allan Burns, James L. Brooks, Ed Weinberger, Stan Daniels, David Lloyd, Bob Ellison (1977)
  • Writer of the Year: TV Series [1] — Treva Silverman ('74)
  • Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series [2] — Jay Sandrich (1971), Jay Sandrich (1973)
  • Outstanding Film Editing [2] — Douglas Hines ('75,77)

Golden Globe Awards

  • 1971: Mary Tyler Moore, Best Actress/Comedy
  • 1972: Edward Asner, Best Supporting Actor/Comedy

Peabody Award

The show was honored with a Peabody Award in 1977. In presenting the award, the Peabody committee stated that MTM Enterprises had "established the benchmark by which all situation comedies must be judged" and lauded the show "for a consistent standard of excellence – and for a sympathetic portrayal of a career woman in today's changing society".[30]

Honors

  • 1987's book Classic Sitcoms, by Vince Waldron, contained a poll among TV critics of the top sitcoms of all time up to that date. Mary Tyler Moore was the No. 1 show on that list.[31]
  • In 1998, Entertainment Weekly placed The Mary Tyler Moore Show first in its list of the 100 Greatest TV Shows of all Time.[33]
  • In 1999, the TV Guide list of the 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time ranked Mary Richards 21st and Ted Baxter 29th. Only three other shows placed two characters on the list (Taxi, The Honeymooners and Seinfeld).[citation needed]
  • In 1999, Entertainment Weekly ranked the opening credits image of Mary tossing her hat into the air as No. 2 on their list of The 100 Greatest Moments In Television.[16]
  • In 2003, USA Today called it "one of the best shows ever to air on TV".[35]
  • In 2006, Entertainment Weekly ranked Rhoda 23rd on its list of the best sidekicks ever.[36]
  • In 2007, Time magazine placed the Mary Tyler Moore Show on its unranked list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".[37]
  • Bravo ranked Mary Richards 8th, Lou Grant 35th, Ted Baxter 48th, and Rhoda Morgenstern 57th on their list of the 100 greatest TV characters.[38]
  • In a third 2013 list, TV Guide ranked The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the seventh greatest show of all time.[41]

That Girl

That Girl is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. It starred Marlo Thomas as the title character Ann Marie, an aspiring (but only sporadically employed) actress, who moves from her hometown of Brewster, New York to try to make it big in New York City. Ann has to take a number of offbeat "temp" jobs to support herself in between her various auditions and bit parts. Ted Bessell played her boyfriend Donald Hollinger, a writer for Newsview Magazine; Lew Parker and Rosemary DeCamp played Lew Marie and Helen Marie, her concerned parents. Bernie Kopell, Ruth Buzzi and Reva Rose played Ann and Donald's friends. That Girl was developed by writers Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, who had served as head writers on The Dick Van Dyke Show (with which Thomas's father, Danny Thomas, was closely associated) earlier in the 1960s.

Storyline

Ted Bessell, Marlo Thomas and Jennifer Douglas in a scene from the show, 1968[1]

Each episode begins with a pre-credits teaser in which an odd incident occurs or a discussion foreshadows the episode's story. The scene almost always ends with someone exclaiming "...that girl!", just as Ann wanders into the shot or the character notices her. The words "That Girl" would appear over the freeze-frame shot of Ann. The opening credits during the first season featured Thomas, in character, strolling the streets of New York. From the second season forward, the opening shot was the view from a high-speed Pennsylvania Railroad commuter train entering the North River Tunnels, then Thomas flying a kite in Central Park, and seeing (and exchanging winks with) her double in a store window. Lyrics were added to the theme for the final season, written by series co-creator Sam Denoff, sung by Ron Hicklin.[2]

That Girl was one of the first sitcoms to focus on a single woman who was not a domestic or living with her parents. Some consider this show the forerunner of the highly successful Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy Brown, and Ally McBeal, and an early indication of the changing roles of American women in feminist-era America. Thomas's goofy charm together with Bessell's dry wit, made That Girl a solid performer on the ABC Television Network, and while the series, in the overall ratings, never made the top thirty during its entire five-year run, the series did respectably well.

At the end of the 1969–1970 season, That Girl was still doing moderately well in the ratings; however, after four years, Thomas had grown tired of the series and wanted to move on. ABC convinced her to do one more year. In the beginning of the fifth season, Don and Ann became engaged, although they never actually married. The decision to leave the couple engaged at the end of the run was largely the idea of Thomas herself. She did not want to send a message to young women that marriage was the ultimate goal for them and she was worried that it would have defeated the somewhat feminist message of the show.

Production notes

According to Thomas, she was approached by ABC executive Edgar Scherick, who saw her in a screen test for a failed pilot, but still wanted to feature her in a project. Scherick gave Thomas several scripts to read, none of which she liked, as they all focused on a woman who was either a traditional girlfriend, wife or secretary to someone else; Thomas wanted a show in which the main character was a young, modern woman focused on her own dreams and aspirations.[4]

Although never officially credited as such (Persky and Denoff were the show's creators and official executive producers), Thomas was also a de facto executive producer of the series through her Daisy Productions, which she formed specifically for the series; it was credited on-screen as the production company.[5][6] She originally wanted to name the sitcom Miss Independence, the nickname given to her by her parents.[7][8]

Manhattan exterior shots were filmed in several days. The apartment was located off the East River in the Upper East Side, in the upper 70s or lower 80s (streets) between York Avenue and East End Avenue. In the episode entitled "Señorita," Ann Marie lists her address as 627 East 54th Street. In the second season episode "Nothing to Be Afreud of but Freud Himself", Donald gives out her address as 344 West 78th Street, Apartment D.[9] Ann Marie's acting school was modeled after the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre on East 54th Street between First and Second Avenues. That Girl was filmed at Desilu-Cahuenga Studios (for many years called Ren-Mar Studios and now called Red Studios Hollywood), located at 846 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood.[10]

Cast and characters

  • Donald Hollinger (Ted Bessell) writer for NewsView magazine, who becomes her boyfriend after meeting her during the filming of a TV commercial.
  • Dr. Leon Bessemer (Dabney Coleman), a neighbor of Ann's and obstetrician who is frequently on call to help women give birth
  • Judy Bessemer (Bonnie Scott), Leon's wife and Ann's neighbor, the first person Ann meets as she moves into her new apartment.
  • Jerry Bauman (Bernie Kopell), a fellow employee at NewsView magazine.
  • Ruth Bauman (Carol Ann Daniels), Jerry's wife since the episode "Rain, Snow and Rice."
  • Margie "Pete" Peterson (Ruth Buzzi), a friend of Ann's.
  • Harvey Peck (Ronnie Schell), one of Ann's agents at the Gilliam and Norris Theatrical Agency
  • Jules Benedict (Billy De Wolfe), head of the Benedict Workshop of the Dramatic Arts

Episodes

Main article: List of That Girl episodes

Five complete seasons of That Girl aired, with the series finale airing on March 19, 1971. Over the five seasons, a total of 136 episodes aired. Thomas's sister Terre, her brother Tony, and father Danny Thomas all appeared in a 1969 episode called "My Sister's Keeper".

Season Episodes Originally aired Season premiere Season finale
1 30 September 8, 1966 April 6, 1967
2 30 September 7, 1967 April 25, 1968
3 26 September 26, 1968 March 27, 1969
4 26 September 18, 1969 March 26, 1970
524September 25, 1970March 19, 1971

The pilot

The only episode never shown during the series' original network run was the pilot produced in 1965. The major differences were evident in its opening credits. Bessell's character was Don Blue Sky, Ann Marie's talent agent who was part Cherokee, and Harold Gould and Penny Santon played her parents. By the time the show aired on ABC, Thomas and Bessell were the only actors to receive top billing.[11]

The plot centered on Ann Marie's attempt to adopt a stage name based on her agent's suggestion. After her use of "Marie Brewster" (the names of her family and hometown combined) was met with disapproval from her parents, she decided to not make the change in the end. This storyline and numerous scenes were recycled into the eleventh episode of Season 1 titled "What's in a Name?" from November 17, 1966.[11]

The pilot was included in the five-disc set of That Girl: Season One, which was released by Shout! Factory in 2006.[12] It has since been added to the sitcom's broadcast syndication package; it led off a New Year's Day marathon on Me-TV at the start of 2012.[13]

Syndication and home media

On January 1, 2012, That Girl returned to national television on Me-TV with episodes shown on weekday mornings and Sunday afternoons until September 1, 2013.[14] On September 1, 2014, the show returned to Me-TV.

Shout! Factory has released all five seasons on DVD in Region 1. Each release contains extensive bonus features including episodic promos, featurettes, commentary tracks and the original pilot episode.

In Region 4, Madman Entertainment has released all five seasons on DVD in Australia/New Zealand. On April 21, 2010, Madman released That Girl: The Complete Series, a 21-disc box set that features all 136 episodes, as well as extensive bonus features.[15]

Spin-offs

In 1973, Rankin/Bass produced That Girl in Wonderland, an animated television special in which Marlo Thomas reprised the role of Anne Marie. It aired as an episode of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.

Popular culture


The show's theme song and opening visuals have been parodied in pop culture several times. They appeared as a series of T-shirts, then as a Saturday Night Live skit featuring cast member Danitra Vance in an African American remake "That Black Girl",[16] as a sequence on episodes of Animaniacs,[17] The Simpsons,[18] Family Guy, Clarissa Explains It All, Arthur, Friends and Roseanne.

It was also parodied in the pre-credits teaser of an episode of The Nanny where Maxwell's guest-starring mother encounters Fran at the florist; in another episode of The Nanny, Peter Bergman, playing himself acting in The Young and the Restless casts Fran in the soap by asking for a co-star like "that girl!" while pointing to Fran.

The 2011 advertising campaign for the launch of Fox's sitcom "New Girl"[19] featured posters of that sitcom's star, Zooey Deschanel, in the make-up, pose and graphic look of Marlo Thomas from the original "That Girl" series.

An episode from Ugly Betty had Fabia forcing Wilhelmina Slater into making an exchange: she'll give up her wedding date to Wilhelmina in exchange for the services of Wilhelmina's assistant, Marc St. James, after Fabia evokes the opening lines.

In 1968, shortly after the feminist protest against bras and other feminine products at the Miss America pageant, Marlo Thomas began going braless on That Girl. "God created women to bounce," Thomas said. "So be it."

Rhoda

Rhoda is an American television sitcom, starring Valerie Harper, which aired a total of 109 half-hour episodes over five seasons, from 1974 to 1978.[1] The show was a spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which Harper between the years 1970 and 1974 had played the role of Rhoda Morgenstern, a spunky, weight-conscious, flamboyantly fashioned Jewish neighbor and native New Yorker in the role of Mary Richards' best friend. After four seasons, Rhoda left Minneapolis and returned to her original hometown of New York City. The series is noted for breaking two television records, and was the winner of two Golden Globes and two Emmy Awards.

Rhoda was filmed Friday evenings in front of a live studio audience at CBS Studio Center, Stage 14 in Studio City, Los Angeles, California.

Synopsis

Rhoda is staying with Brenda for a vacation; Brenda and Ida think it will be for longer than that.

The series opens with the pilot episode featuring Rhoda Morgenstern traveling from her home in Minneapolis to New York, where she was born and raised, for a two-week vacation, staying with her younger sister, Brenda (Julie Kavner). While there, she meets Joe Gerard (David Groh), a handsome divorcé who owns a wrecking company and has a ten-year-old son, Donny, whom Brenda babysits. Following Brenda's prompting, Rhoda and Joe meet and develop an instant attraction to each other which leads to their dating nightly for the duration of her vacation. After an argument about their feelings for each other, Joe asks Rhoda to stay in New York City, which she does, initially moving in with Brenda at 332 E. 64th Street (actual exterior shots are of 332 East 84th Street, between 1st and 2nd avenues on the southeast end of the block.) Brenda, a bank teller, is an insecure person with low self-esteem with dating problems, similar to how Rhoda herself had experienced difficulty in dating in Minneapolis in the early years of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

The first episode of Season 1, entitled "Joe", aired on CBS on Monday, September 9, 1974 at 9:30 PM. and immediately set a record by being the first and only television series ever to achieve a number-one Nielsen rating for its premiere pilot episode, defeating the ABC ratings juggernaut, Monday Night Football in the process. This record continues to stand after nearly 40 years.[2][3][4]

Joe asks Rhoda to move in with him.

Rhoda and Brenda soon realize that the small studio apartment can't hold them both, so Rhoda moves in with their parents Ida (Nancy Walker) and Martin (Harold Gould) at their apartment in the Bronx. Ida and Martin are the stereotypical Jewish parents. Ida is overbearing, overprotective, benevolently manipulative, and desperate to ensure her daughters find a good husband. Martin is her dutiful, mild-mannered dad. Ida initially goes to great lengths to baby her daughter. When it becomes apparent Rhoda is sliding into a rut by occupying her childhood bedroom, Ida forces her to move out for her own good.

As the weeks go by, the relationship between Joe and Rhoda quickly blossoms. By the sixth episode, "Pop Goes the Question", an insecure Rhoda asks Joe where their relationship is heading. His response is to invite Rhoda to move in with him. After some careful thought, and consultation with her sister and father, Rhoda accepts Joe's invitation, but within minutes of moving in decides that rather than living together out of wedlock she prefers to be married. Rhoda attempts to convince Joe that they are very compatible and would be a happily married couple. After some hesitation, Joe agrees and a wedding is planned.

Rhoda's wedding

Rhoda and Joe.

Eight weeks into the series on Monday, October 28, 1974, Rhoda and Joe were married in a special hour-long episode which broke several television records. Heavily publicized, it became the highest-rated television episode of the 1970s, a record it held until the miniseries Roots claimed that title in 1977.[5] Additionally, on the night of its airing it had become the second most-watched television episode of all time, surpassed only by the birth of Little Ricky on I Love Lucy in 1953.[6][7] It was watched by more than 52 million Americans, over half of the US viewing audience. At the conclusion of the episode, Monday Night Football host Howard Cosell joked on the air that he had not been invited to the wedding, and welcomed viewers back to the game.[8][9] Hundreds of "wedding parties" were held by fans across the United States on the night of the episode to celebrate the television wedding, and within days the CBS-TV studios were inundated with wedding gifts sent in by fans for the fictional Joe and Rhoda Gerard.[10] The episode was overwhelmingly praised by critics, widely touted as a "television phenomenon",[11] "unlike anything that had happened on television for nearly twenty years",[12] and garnered Harper her fourth Emmy award in 1975.[13] Vogue magazine reported that people across the country had pulled off the road checking into motels, and friends canceled out on dinner invitations (feigning illness), just to watch Rhoda's wedding.[14]

The wedding episode featured guest appearances by many of the main characters from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, including Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore), Lou Grant (Edward Asner), Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), Georgette Franklin (Georgia Engel), and Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman). The only major characters who didn't attend were Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) and Sue Ann Nivens (Betty White).

In The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode "The New Sue Ann," airing Saturday, October 26, 1974, two days before Rhoda's Wedding, the characters frequently discuss the upcoming event and buy wedding gifts. At the end of the episode Murray and Lou leave the TV station to drive Mary to the airport. During Rhoda's Wedding it is revealed that on a lark they had all decided to fly to New York to surprise Rhoda, including her frequent nemesis, Phyllis who had intentionally not been invited. During the episode, Phyllis asks for the opportunity to participate in the wedding and is appointed the responsibility to pick up Rhoda at Brenda's Manhattan apartment and drive her to her parents' apartment in the Bronx where the ceremony is being held. The self-absorbed and forgetful Phyllis neglects to keep her promise. This forces Rhoda to take the subway, running through the streets of Manhattan and the Bronx fully regaled in her wedding dress and veil and dashing into her parents' apartment building in one of the most memorable moments in the history of series television.[15][16] Ida, in a state of shock, refuses Phyllis's profuse apologies saying "I'll kill you". Phyllis begs everyone in the room to forgive her, but the only one who does is Georgette, who then suggests to Phyllis that she leave before Rhoda arrives. The episode also features special closing credits, showing additional footage of Rhoda (Harper) running down a Manhattan street in her wedding dress and veil accompanied by an alternative version of the theme song played to the tune of Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

Developments

See also: List of Rhoda episodes

Seasons 1 and 2 (1974–1976)

For the remainder of the first and second seasons, the show focuses on Rhoda and Joe's new married life. The two move into a penthouse suite in the same building as Brenda. Rhoda advances in her career as a window dresser by opening up a small window dressing business called "Windows by Rhoda" with her old high school friend Myrna Morgenstein (Barbara Sharma). Rhoda uses her maiden surname "Morgenstern" in her professional dealings as a window dresser and her married surname "Gerard" in her personal life.

During this period, the show was a massive ratings hit on Monday nights, staying near the top of the ratings in both seasons, even faring better than its parent, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In early seasons, the closing credits of the series featured Rhoda on a New York street trying to imitate Mary Tyler Moore's trademark hat toss, but the cap slips from Rhoda's hand before she can throw it.

Upon moving from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to her own eponymous series, the mention of Rhoda Morgenstern’s Jewish religious and ethnic background faded. While on the parent sitcom, the character of Rhoda Morgenstern was explicitly Jewish.[17] Throughout the tenure of Rhoda Morgenstern's character being featured on the The Mary Tyler Moore Show, her “Jewish-ness” was discussed on several episodes. Such episodes included: "Some of My Best Friends are Rhoda" from which the subject of anti-Semitism was covered; and “Enter Rhoda’s Parents” from which Rhoda’s parents renewed their wedding vows by a rabbi. This candid expression of “Jewish-ness” changed however when Rhoda was spun off in 1974. During the first season of Rhoda, the representation of Rhoda Morgenstern altered from her parent show to fit a more mainstream audience: she was trimmer, more confident, and less “Jewish”.[18] Throughout the first season, there were scant references about Rhoda’s “Jewish-ness”. Moreover, there was even a Christmas episode with no mention of the character’s Jewish background entitled, "Guess What I Got You for the Holidays". Thus, the creation of Rhoda’s own series stifled the representation of “Jewish-ness” – as Charlotte Brown, the executive producer of Rhoda, conveyed in an interview the display of “Jewish-ness”, “was just ‘set dressing’ – Ida’s brisket, her plastic on the furniture”.[19] Ironically, even though Valerie Harper and Nancy Walker achieved great popularity playing characters of the Jewish faith, in real life, both actresses were not Jewish.

Season 3 (1976–1977)

When Ida gets depressed, Brenda and Rhoda try to help.

In the first episode of the third season during a particularly dramatic scene Joe leaves Rhoda and the two remain separated for the entire season, with Groh appearing in only nine of the season's episodes. A few weeks later they mutually agree to see a marriage counselor where Joe reveals to a stunned Rhoda that he had never wanted to be married, and that he married her only because she had pressured him into it after he had invited her to live with him. Audiences were equally stunned and deserted the program in droves. Although the producers believed the plot development was essential, the fan response to Rhoda and Joe's separation was overwhelmingly negative and hostile. CBS was inundated with thousands of angry letters protesting the plot development, "Rhoda" and "Joe" received sympathy cards and letters of condolence, with Groh later reporting that he had received hate mail for as much as a year after the season had ended.[20][21] This sentiment would translate into a steep ratings decline during the course of the season and the show ranked #32 for the 1976-77 season (falling from #7 the year before). Though Ida appears in the opening episode ("The Separation"), both she and Martin are absent for the remainder of the season, explained as traveling across the country in an RV. (At this time, Nancy Walker departed the program to headline two short-lived ABC series: The Nancy Walker Show, and Blansky's Beauties; and Harold Gould left to star in his own show, The Feather and Father Gang on ABC.) To help fill in the void left by Walker and Gould, the producers hired comedienne Anne Meara as Rhoda's new friend, Sally Gallagher, a middle-aged divorcee who makes her living as an airline stewardess. Meara did not catch on with viewers and her character lasted only one season.

With Rhoda and Joe now separated, they soon move out of their apartment. Joe moves to another building while Rhoda trades apartments with downstairs neighbor Gary Levy (Ron Silver), a jean-store owner who soon strikes up a platonic friendship with Rhoda. Stories initially center on Rhoda and Joe's attempts to work through their differences. As the season progresses, however, Joe is seen less frequently and Rhoda begins dating other people. Ultimately, they never reconcile and Joe is never seen again after this season. Johnny Venture (Michael DeLano), a lounge singer, becomes a frequent suitor that Rhoda only barely tolerates. Meanwhile, Brenda, no longer overweight but still with self-esteem problems, finally finds a boyfriend in professional roller-skater and toll-booth worker Benny Goodwin (Ray Buktenica), whose principal claim to fame is the similarity of his name to the famous musician Benny Goodman. She also occasionally dates neighbor Gary Levy as well as continuing her casual relationship with Nick Lobo.

Season 4 (1977–1978)

Ida takes a job at the costume store where Rhoda works.

For the fourth season, Rhoda's divorce is finalized and she resumes use of her maiden name "Morgenstern" full-time (from this point on, her ex-husband, Joe Gerard, is never referred to nor is his name ever mentioned again). The show then centers on her role as a thirty-something divorcée, dating from time to time. Ida and Martin come home after a year's absence from their lengthy cross-country trip (in reality, both Nancy Walker's and Harold Gould's attempts at a new series the previous year had failed[22]).

Brenda continues to date Gary Levy and Benny Goodwin one more than the other. Meanwhile, Rhoda's career is undergoing a transition. Seeking a career change, she finds a job at the Doyle Costume Company. There she works for the gruff Jack Doyle (Kenneth McMillan), a man with similarities to Lou Grant. Season 4 ranked higher than season 3 in the ratings (finishing at #25 for the year), but Rhoda never regained the popularity it had achieved during its first two seasons on television.

Season 5 (September–December 1978)

In September, 1978, the show underwent additional changes in the fifth and final season. Ida and Martin go through a separation of their own; Martin then goes to Florida to find himself. He returns after several episodes but Ida wants to be wooed back, leading to dating and other romantic rituals between the two. Brenda and Benny get engaged to be married, with their wedding planned for later in the season. Gary Levy does not return for this season; it is mentioned near the season's start episode 3 that he has moved to Chicago. A new co-worker, Tina Molinari (Nancy Lane), joins Rhoda and Jack at the costume shop, having appeared in several season 4 episodes as an employee at Gary's jeans store.

At this time, the show, along with the Norman Lear sitcom Good Times, was moved to Saturday nights, with Rhoda airing at 8:00 P.M. and Good Times being shown at 8:30 P.M. Competing against NBC's popular police series CHiPS, the ratings for both programs declined drastically. Rhoda was canceled by CBS in December 1978—midway through its fifth season—with four episodes remaining unaired, though these episodes later aired in syndication. It ended its final year ranking at #43. Good Times was pulled from the CBS schedule in December and returned in the spring of 1979 on Wednesday nights at 8:30 P.M. It finished out its sixth season, but its ratings did not improve, with the show ranked at #45. Within a few months, it, too, was canceled by CBS.

Cast

  • Valerie Harper—Rhoda Morgenstern Gerard
  • Julie Kavner—Brenda Morgenstern
  • David Groh—Joe Gerard (1974–77)
  • Nancy Walker—Ida Morgenstern (1974–76, 1977–78)
  • Harold Gould—Martin Morgenstern (1974–76, 1977–78)
  • Ron Silver—Gary Levy (1976–78)
  • Ray Buktenica—Benny Goodwin (1977–78)
  • Kenneth McMillan—Jack Doyle (1977–78)
  • Lorenzo Music—Carlton, the doorman (voice only)

Other recurring characters/guest stars

Recurring characters

  • Carlton, the drunken doorman in Rhoda's building, is played by Lorenzo Music (who would later voice Garfield). He is often heard on the intercom, but almost never seen, only his arm occasionally appearing from doors. In the third season episode "H-e-e-e-r-e's Johnny" he is seen from the back after hitching a cab ride with Rhoda and her friends, and in the episode "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" is shown dancing and conversing with Queenie Smith while wearing a gorilla mask.
  • Justin Culp, Joe's wrecking company field employee, is played by Scoey Mitchell.
  • Mae, the office bookkeeper at Joe's wrecking company, appears prominently in two episodes during the first season and is played by actress-comedienne Cara Williams (of Pete and Gladys).
  • Rhoda's girlfriends over the years include: Alice Barth (Candice Azzara); Myrna Morgenstein (Barbara Sharma), whom Rhoda had sat behind in high school when in alphabetical order in home room; Susan Alborn (Beverly Sanders), another friend from high school; and Sally Gallagher (Anne Meara), aka "Big Sally," a divorced airline stewardess who befriends Rhoda and accompanies her in the singles scene. (Meara's husband Jerry Stiller also appears in one episode as Sally's ex-husband.)
  • Brenda's boyfriend in early episodes is accordionist Nick Lobo (Richard Masur).
  • Lenny Fiedler, another of Brenda's boyfriends, is played by actor Wes Stern. Lenny appears frequently throughout the first two seasons.
  • Sandy Franks, Brenda's girl friend and colleague at the bank she works in, is played by actress Melanie Mayron. She is featured in a few episodes during the 1975–1976 season.
  • Shortly following her separation from Joe, Rhoda begins an on-again, off-again romance with conceited Las Vegas entertainer Johnny Venture (Michael DeLano).
  • Joe's friend Charlie Burke (whom Rhoda finds annoying) is played by Valerie Harper's then-husband, actor Richard Schaal (who also appears in several episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as at least three different characters and as a regular in the first season of Phyllis).

Guest stars

The following are well-known actors who feature in guest-starring roles on Rhoda: Henry Winkler, Vivian Vance, Eileen Heckart, John Ritter, Norman Fell, Doris Roberts, Joan Van Ark, Tim Matheson, Linda Lavin, Judd Hirsch, Ruth Gordon, Howard Hesseman, Anne Jackson, Robert Alda, David Ogden Stiers, Jerry Stiller, Jack Gilford, Rene Auberjonois.

Ratings

SeasonRankRating1974–1975#626.31975–1976#724.41976–1977#32N/A1977–1978#2520.11978–1979#43N/A

Broadcast history (CBS)

  • September 1974—September 1975: Mondays 9:30 p.m.
  • September 1975—January 1977: Mondays 8:00 p.m.
  • January 1977—September 1978: Sundays 8:00 p.m.
  • September 1978—December 1978: Saturdays 8:00 p.m.

Awards

Emmy Awards:

  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series—Valerie Harper, 1975
  • Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series—Julie Kavner, 1978

Golden Globe Awards:

  • Best TV Show, Musical/Comedy—1975
  • Best TV Actress, Musical/Comedy—Valerie Harper, 1975

Collectively, Rhoda garnered a total of 17 Emmy nominations and 7 Golden Globe nominations.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show tie-ins

  • Nancy Walker and Harold Gould originated their roles as Rhoda's parents on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In the second season episode ("A Girl's Best Mother Is Not Her Friend"), Ida visits Rhoda in Minneapolis. Rhoda's sister and brother, Brenda and Arnold, are casually referred to in this installment. It is also mentioned that Brenda lives in Chicago. In the fourth season (1973–1974), Mary and Rhoda travel to New York City for the wedding of Rhoda's sister, Debbie (played by Liberty Williams — a role that Julie Kavner originally auditioned for). Comedienne Brett Somers also makes an appearance in this episode as Rhoda's Aunt Rose. Brenda and Arnold are not seen or referred to.
  • During the first three seasons of Rhoda the closing credits show Rhoda crossing Broadway and Seventh Avenue in Times Square and attempting to emulate her friend Mary Richards by tossing her hat in the air, only to drop it. She then picks up the hat, pulls it down onto her head, and walks away slightly embarrassed.
  • Mary Richards is featured in or referred to in seven episodes of Rhoda:
  1. Mary accompanies Rhoda to the airport for her flight to New York City in the pilot episode "Joe" (September 9, 1974). This scene is shown prior to the opening credits, and was removed from U.S. syndication, as well as the Season One DVD release. However, it was shown when MeTV broadcast the episode in 2013.
  2. Mary is mentioned in the second episode of the first season when Rhoda first moves into Brenda's apartment, and again when Rhoda is talking to her on the phone when in her old bedroom at Ida and Martin's apartment in the Bronx. (September 16, 1974)
  3. Rhoda phones Mary to announce she and Joe are getting married at the end of the Season 1 episode "Pop Goes the Question" (October 14, 1974).
  4. Mary (along with Lou Grant, Murray Slaughter, Georgette Franklin and Phyllis Lindstrom) appear in the hour-long episode, "Rhoda's Wedding" (October 28, 1974).
  5. A letter from Mary is referenced in the Season 1 episode, "Everything I Have is Yours, Almost" (January 27, 1975).
  6. Mary surprises Rhoda and Joe with an unannounced visit in the last episode of Season 1, "Along Comes Mary" (March 10, 1975).
  7. Rhoda phones Mary seeking advice and comfort when it finally becomes clear to her that her marriage to Joe is coming to an end in "The Ultimatum" (January 30, 1977).
  • Rhoda and Joe are featured together on The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode, "Mary Richards Falls in Love" (November 22, 1975).
  • In episode 165 ("Mary's Three Husbands") of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in a future fantasy sequence, an elderly Mary receives a postcard from Rhoda, which states she is "still waiting for Joe to come back." (February 26, 1977)
  • Rhoda appears in the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, "The Last Show" (March 19, 1977).
  • A recently divorced Rhoda Morgenstern-Rousseau (with her adult daughter, Meredith) is reunited with her old friend, recently widowed Mary Richards-Cronin (with her adult daughter, Rose) after many years of estrangement in the made-for-TV movie Mary and Rhoda (February 7, 2000).

Cast reunions

Although they have never reunited in-character on a TV special or movie, some of the cast members of Rhoda have gotten together over the years on the following daytime talk-shows:

  • On November 21, 1984, Valerie Harper, Julie Kavner and Nancy Walker reunited to reminisce about the series on the syndicated Hour Magazine (with Gary Collins) in which they hosted a week-long series dedicated to TV reunion shows.
  • In May 1996, Valerie Harper, David Groh, and Harold Gould reunited on Sally Jesse Raphael to talk about the show's best moments as reruns of Rhoda began airing on Nick at Nite. Author Julius C. Burnett (author of "Rhoda Revisited"; see below) also appeared briefly in the segment. Interesting episodic facts from Burnett's book were used during a voiceover at the beginning of each episode of Nick at Nite's reruns of the show.