Rhoda

Rhoda was a popular show in the seventies, a spinoff of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. I’ve been watching The Dick Van Dyke Show, MTM Show, Rhoda, and Phyllis. I might watch Lou Grant after that.

The MTM Show (7 seasons) had three spinoffs and all of them were mostly successful. Rhoda (5 seasons), Lou Grant (5 Seasons), and Phyllis (2 Seasons).

Rhoda

Although the show starred Mary Tyler Moore, it was the ensemble that made it work. One of my favorite characters in the MTM show was Rhoda Morgenstern. She was played brilliantly by Valerie Harper. Harper once said that Mary was who every girl wanted to be, Rhoda was probably who they were, and Phyllis was who they feared they would become. 

Rhoda was a self-deprecating Jewish neighbor who envied Mary Richards but ended up her best friend. Her and Mary’s relationship was an important part early on in the show. She left after the 4th season to start her own show, Rhoda. She would move out of Minneapolis and back to where she grew up, New York. She left the show only for a small vacation but fell in love while in New York. Harper didn’t really want to leave the MTM show. She asked Moore what would happen if her show failed. Moore told her that Rhoda would just move back to Minneapolis and be on the show again.

Rhoda also had a fantastic cast. Julie Kavner (Marge Simpon’s voice), played her sister. The legendary actress Nancy Walker played her mom. Harold Gould as her father and an underrated actor named David Groh played her boyfriend and soon-to-be husband and ex-husband.

It also included one of the most famous television characters that was never seen. Carlton Your Doorman, who was voiced by Lorenzo Music, was a very popular character in the mid to late seventies. I remember people inserting “This is Carlton Your Doorman” in jokes at school at the time.

Other than the character Rhoda, the show had a different feel than the MTM Show and that is a good thing. They didn’t really copy but it was an ensemble show and didn’t rely on just Harper. The episode in the 1st season of Rhoda and Joe getting married…drew in 52 million Americans for that broadcast. That would turn out to be a mistake as far as the writers were concerned.

They found out shortly that writing for Rhoda as a married woman didn’t work as well. They complained she lost her edge. I really don’t see that but in the 3rd season, they had Joe and Rhoda divorce. After that happened CBS was swamped with hate mail on them getting a divorce. David Groh said that he personally received hate mail from fans at least a year after he was gone.

The writers say it was essential to happen but Rhoda was beating the MTM show in ratings in the first 3 seasons. It was a good show and it’s a shame they messed with the couple that the show revolved around. After the divorce, the ratings started to decline but it did last until the 5th season aired in 78 and 79. It was appropriate it didn’t last until the 1980s…Rhoda belongs to the seventies and the seventies to Rhoda. A 1980s Rhoda just wouldn’t have felt right.

Moore and Harper did make a TV movie in 2000 called…Mary and Rhoda. It was a 90s-style TV Movie but it was nice seeing them both again. Harper seemed the same wise-cracking character but Moore was different and more affected by age. The movie was a pilot…it was the most watched TV program that night but plans were scrapped.

Of all the famous intros to TV shows…this one with the music and closing scene…you can feel the paneling, shag carpet, see the avocado green, harvest gold, taste the fondue, and any seventies items you could want.

“My name is Rhoda Morgenstern. I was born in the Bronx, New York in December, 1941. I’ve always felt responsible for World War II. The first thing I remember liking that liked me back was food. I had a bad puberty; it lasted 17 years. I’m a high school graduate. I went to art school. My entrance exam was on a book of matches. I decided to move out of the house when I was 24; my mother still refers to this as the time I ran away from home. Eventually I ran to Minneapolis, where it’s cold, and I figured I’d keep better. Now I’m back in Manhattan. New York, this is your last chance!”

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

37 thoughts on “Rhoda”

    1. Yes it is…I’m working from home…my office is above the garage and I’m in the living room wrapped up…it’s a cozy 1 degree outside right now.

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      2. Thank you Jim…I love to hear that lol.
        No actually I’m glad we still have the snow….I’m working from home because of it….and it’s not going anywhere soon.

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  3. Same as Deke, I didn’t know ‘Marge’ was on here. I recall the Carlton the doorman, but wouldn’t have remembered what show he was from…I think I watched at least infrequently but don’t really remember much of it. But having 3 big spin-offs from one show- that’s something!

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      2. No….not at all…I’m going to do a post on TV producers….Dave….I think MTM Productions had more successful shows than Normal Lear…MTV Productions did WKRP, MTM, Rhoda, Lou Grant, Remmington Steele, and a BUNCH of hits…she was more successful I really think. Plus….the MTM show was way ahead of it’s time…a single woman in the workplace….and it was before All in the Family.

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      3. Mary pushed the boundaries back then, maybe that’s why I thought Lear was behind it. Two great production companies anyway. I always remember that MGM parody Mary had for her shows with the kitten.

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      4. She thought of that logo back when she was on the Dick Van Dyke Show…and told others that was what she was going to do. When I make that post…you won’t believe the shows her company developed….America’s Funniest Home Videos is one of them.

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  5. I remember bits and pieces of this show. Probably hadn’t seen it since the 70’s which is why my memory only has bits and pieces. One show I remember a lot was Alice. Can’t remember the timeframe of that show but enjoyed that one a lot.

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  6. I only remember watching one episode of this. It was the wedding episode, where Phyllis is supposed to pick her up (and, of course, forgets) and she ends up riding the subway in her wedding dress with her big ol’ purse slung over her shoulder. Didn’t someone turn Carlton, the doorman into an animated series?

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    1. I should have mentioned that…there was a pilot made that is on youtube about Carlton….but that is all that was made as far as I know.

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  9. I missed most of this series because I was in the navy. I’ve caught a few episodes on YouTube and enjoyed them despite the poor quality of recording done … probably VHS. Bob Newhart was another MTM production I enjoyed. I think Lorenzo Music was a writer and producer on the first series where Bob was a psychiatrist. His secretary was the voice of Bart’s teacher on The Simpsons. And one of his patients was the actor who went on to play Johnny Fever on WKRP.

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    1. The Bob Newhart Show could have been my favorite of the bunch because I liked his dry sense of humor.
      I still watch all of these….you are right…Marcia Wallace was another Simpson character from MTM…
      I’ve read where MTM never liked WKRP…

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      1. WKRP was fun to watch.
        I agree about Newhart’s sense of humor. It never changed … even when he was on Big Bang Theory.
        It was fun to watch the main cast of The Simpsons when they were on Tracy Ullman’s show where The Simpsons animation started, crude as it was. Funny stuff.

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      2. I remember when the Simpson’s previewed on the Ullman Show. Fox had a good lineup in the late eighties.
        I like both Newhart shows but the seventies is the one I liked best with Pleshette.

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  10. I’ve been watching Dick Van Dyke as well, a bit sporadically. One of my favorite sitcoms of all time and for me, pound for pound better than MTM show. BTW, just today I watched a CBS tribute to the 98-year-old Van Dyke. He was completely surprised as his wife planned the whole thing and he thought it was an interview. Very entertaining. On Demand if that kind of thing floateth your boat.

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    1. The writing on that show was great. Dick Van Dyke had that contemporary comedy style going on but he could go back and be physical like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
      Yes it does…I appreciate…I’ll have to check that out. The last time I saw him he looked really good.

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      1. He’s looking his age, but he still has all his faculties. The show makes much of his physical comedy. Celebs were tripping over each other to give tributes to the guy.

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  11. Mary Tyler Moore Show is one of my Top 5 favorite TV shows of all time, and we watch it at least once a year. I really liked Rhoda’s character and her TV show a lot too, though I don’t think it reached the high quality of the MTM Show.

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    1. In quality and cast probably not. That is why it hit me that Rhoda actually beat MTM in ratings slightly…but MTM was near the end. Either way great character.

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  12. loved MTM stuff in the 70’s, been watching stuff on Youtube (they havent been repeated in the UK in decades, not since the 80’s I think). Valerie Harper was a huge fave, and I loved Nancy Walker & Julie Kavner too in Rhoda, though I dont think theyve dated as well as MTM Show and the first season of Phyllis, but still engaging in the early shows. Lou Grant is the one I havent seen for the longest time, the 70’s I think!

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