Tag: Mary Tyler Moore

Where is…the hanging letter M from the Mary Tyler Moore Show?

I haven’t done one of these posts in a long time. I have the others linked at the bottom, like the Mustang from Bullitt, the Partridge Family Bus, the Time Machine from The Time Machine 1960 movie, etc. I love finding out what happened to different props. 

I love movie and TV show props, especially the shows I grew up with. If I had the money, I would have a warehouse full of props. This is one of the first props I remember seeing. I grew up on Mary Tyler Moore. She was part of the CBS Saturday night lineup that was considered one of the best nights for television in history. 

I loved Mary’s first apartment, where she lived downstairs from Rhoda Morgenstern. I always noticed a letter M hanging on the wall. Later in the show, when Mary moved to another apartment, she was shown hanging it up in her new place. It was one of the most recognizable props on television.

Mary Tyler Moore took the prop home and had it for years. She said she accidentally broke it years ago, but she repaired it and still had it when she passed in 2017.  It was just sold this year, as were a lot of her personal items. It was sold to a private owner for $35,200.

Front…Back

…

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!”

…