I just watched the first season of "Rhoda"

She was a NYC cunt, she made Patti LuPone look like little Boo Peep

Well, Rhoda was heterosexual, and she always did want to find a man. And Rhoda was orginally from NYC, so I didn't look at her marriage as "giving up" all those things in Minnesota--but rather more or less--she was moving back home with the guy with whom she fell in love.

Now personally, I couldn't give up Mary Tyler Moore, but that's just me.

But then she started her own vague designy company like Grace Adler did years later, so she was empowered.

Anyhow at least the producers had the guts to dump her husband once they realized a married Rhoda is a boring Rhoda.

but the guy was hot, hairy-chested and GAY!

Like all gay teenage boys of the time, I was utterly mesmerized by David Groh's very evident chest hair.

"Well, Rhoda was heterosexual"

Um, I wouldn't be so sure about that...

[quote]This must have out raged feminists at the time.

The DataLounge gossip flew into dozens of Rhoda threads every day. Only Anderson Cooper threads have ever outdone Rhoda threads.

David Groh is gay?

David Groh is DEAD.

Rhoda to the movers bringing in her sofa: "You want coffee?"

Mover: "I don't want coffee." (Wink, wink)

Joe: "It better be tea."

I love Valerie and Julie, but the show doesn't hold up. And yes Joe is one of the biggest reasons it doesn't. He was really just a continuation of a storyline that started on MTM, when Rhoda lost weight and then won a beauty contest at the store where she worked. Joe was just a bigger prize for Rhoda to win now that she'd shed her ugly duckling past and had blossomed. But David Groh was only sexy, not funny, so he ended up dragging the sitcom down. They should've just had Rhoda date various sexy men, but perhaps they didn't want the show to look like a clone of MTM. Just the Jewish NYC version. But cloning MTM would've worked better.

I remember as child having a woody while watching Rhoda in my footy pajamas.

Show sucked. Completely unfunny. Except for Nancy Walker of course. But nancy could get laughs reading the phone book.

Oh please, Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson) is very funny and so is Valerie.

This is Carlton...your doorman.

Joe was the straight man amongst all the loonies, he didn't need to be funny...just wear plaid flannel shirts, tight 70's jeans and have the occasional waking up in bed shirtless with Rhoda scenes. David Groh was NOT the problem!

I can't remember if they were there in Season 1 but what really dragged the show down was the presence of Ray Buktenica and Ron Silver. I can't even remember what their characters were, just that they looked alike and were equally disagreeable.

"Completely unfunny. Except for Nancy Walker of course. But nancy could get laughs reading the phone book."

Which does not add up to "completely unfunny." In fact, Walker was hilarious and the show was pretty funny. They had the comedy, it was the "sit" they couldn't get right.

I recently rewatched the Rhoda Gets Married episode and it was just terrific, thanks to the MTM show guests, particularly Cloris Leachman.

The problem with the show was the basic premise: Rhoda gets her happy ending.

Viewers loved the plump, wise-cracking Rhoda on MTM who was always searching for love. But when she got her own show, she began the series as a slimmed-down, gorgeous woman who finds her true love in the form of a real hunk o' man. That's how her series STARTED. So...where do you go from there? Where's the conflict that drives the series? Eventually the conflict was added when Joe and Rhoda broke up but that left a bad taste in most viewer's mouths. It was a turn-off.

The show did have its moments and the writing was usually quite good. Excellent cast too.

R12, we realize it must have been a thrill that Rhoda was in your footy pajamas but why did it give you a woody? Some sort of fetish?

There was a funny show in the final year with Rhoda pretending to be Gary's g.f. "Brenda" (he'd talked Brenda into doing it first).

Gary's mom was played by Doris Roberts.

A very funny episode.

But yeah, start out with her finding Mr. Right.

[quote]But then she started her own vague designy company like Grace Adler did years later, so she was empowered.

"Windows by Rhoda" was not some "vague designy company"!

I think it holds up swell. It is a very off beat shaggy dog of a sit-com with really great characters floating in and out. I loved Kenneth McMillan as Jack Doyle, and Barbara Sharma as Myrna Morgenstein...Hilarious. Oh, and the Johnny Venture episode in Las Vagas where he drags Rhoda and Brenda on-stage to sing "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" still makes me cackle.

Opening theme, season one:

The show Rhoda actually did quite well the first two seasons and reasonably well in the third and fourth season. The fifth season, not so much.

At the time, Rhoda's wedding was the second most watched show in television history surpassed only by Lucy giving birth to Little Ricky.

And Valerie Harper and Julie Javner both won Emmys for their roles in Rhoda.

Wow, I had no idea RHODA ran for five years and 110 episodes even though I grew up watching it. I just assumed it was another of the many flop spin-offs that came and went back then.

I loved the closing credits where Rhoda attempted to imitate Mary by throwing her hat in the air for joy only to drop it and watch it hit the pavement.

I'd forgotten how clever those opening credits were! Thanks for posting r23.

RHODA is an example of talented carpenters using capable tools and building kind of an ugly house. Rhoda was and is a great character but other than her family they didn't know who to surround her with or what situations to put her in. Almost all the supporting characters (again, other than family) are forgettable. Johnny the lounge singer, Myrna Morgensteen office whore ... feh. Suzy the baby machine? A gimmick.

To make her a 70s empowered woman the writers made Rhoda rather brittle after the divorce. The series is in repeats on ALN and Rhoda's first instinct is always to say NO. That's not the bright, feisty, creative, funky woman we fell in love with in Minneapolis ... that being said I'll take my Rhoda where I can get her. Classic TV character of the highest caliber.

I agree, R28, and good luck to Valerie on Sunday night (at the Tonys)!

R28 here. Glad you brought up the Tony's. She was amazing in LOOPED. I hope some of you got to see it before the producers allowed it to close too soon. A nearly perfect performance from Ms. Harper.

I was excited to see Hulu had Rhoda from the first show because I remember how much I enjoyed it when it first came on.

However, after watching the first 3 episodes I now realize I don't like Rhoda. She was pushy, lazy and a tad bit selfish. Her voice makes me cringe now. Worst of all she was desperate, and that never looks good.

Guess I’ll keep the memories and not try to relive them.

My problem with the show was how much they changed Rhoda's character. On MTM she was funny, wacky and artsy. On Rhoda, especially after the divorce, the character became mature, reponsible, and boring. She became an adult.

And yes, I know that in real life people mature and grow up. But that doesn't exactly make for good sitcoms.

If they had stayed truer to the original Rhoda, the show could have continued to be successful.

Did they ever try to give Brenda a spin-off series?

I ADORED Brenda.

r18- Absolutely right! You don't START a show with the main character getting everything she ever wanted -- marrying a hot guy, starting your own company, moving from frigid Minneapolis to the most exciting city on earth. That's how you end a series. If Rhoda had remained on MTM til the end, that would have been HER final episode. As a jumping off point though, it doesn't leave you anywhere to go but down, and audiences didn't want to see their beloved Rhoda heartbroken, dumped, struggling. I remember the episode where Joe tells her he is leaving the marriage and it is pretty devastating. Rhoda pretty much BEGS him not to leave. It's pretty hard to watch. Very realistic, but not at all what you'd come to expect from this character on the light, fluffy MTM spinoff.

They should have put an 'R' in her apartment. I think that would have done the trick.

I don't see it as Rhoda getting everything she ever wanted. She was embarking on a new life. New man, moving back to NYC, now opportunities, etc.

It was the perfect way to start a new sitcom.

I want to be a bride for Halloween just so I can run around like Rhoda.

You know what I just realized? I grew up in Minneapolis and moved to New York, New York to be with my perfect boyfriend. I'm Gayrhoda.

Believe me, it isn't a "got everything you wanted" happy ending. It's a lot of fucking work. The writers failed to mine the potential.

I don't think the earnest-talk-it-all-out 1970s did the show any favors either.

Now if you'll excuse me I am going to go downstairs and visit my sister. We'll be bitching about how hard it is to stay thin in the bagel capitol of the world.

My show was so much funnier.

I still remember watching the first episode of the first season with my friend Amy. Julie Kavner stole the show as Brenda. There's a scene where she's hiding in the closet and just says, "Wow," and it is hysterically funny. A star was born.

And yes, David G. was a totally hot piece of man!

I don't rememember Phyllis at all.

Please continue...

I LOVED the wedding episode. It went downhill from there and Rhoda lost her spark. I believe it was because the mostly male writers of the time didn't have a clue how to write for a woman. Especially if the woman was married, it was a problem on a lot of sitcoms at the time.

Still I love me some Rhoda and hope Valerie wins on Sunday night. That ols gal looks AMAZING for 70 something.

R41. "Phyllis" was a hoot. The show only lasted two seasons, but Cloris Leachman was terrific.

Many of the "Rhoda" episodes were written by Charlotte Brown who also did MTM, so it wasn't male writers. Rhoda was a great sidekick but she wasn't lead comedy character material. When they homogenized her character to make her Mary Tyler Less, the show was doomed.

R44 Charlotte Brown also wrote a horribly chessy borderline sexist Mitzi Gaynor special called 'Tribute To The American Housewife'. She was also responsible for some of the least enlightened episodes of The Bob Newhart Show. She wasn't exactly the Gloria Steinem of writers.

They should have just totally put her out of her element again. She should have gotten a job doing the windows at Harrods in London. That way she could have still been thing and glamorous and looked down upon.

Why did Valerie Harper take a dump in Julie Kavner's dressing room?

I always appreciated the show's realistic approach to being buzzed into a NYC apartment, doorman or no doorman.

"I can't remember if they were there in Season 1 but what really dragged the show down was the presence of Ray Buktenica and Ron Silver"

Funny, when I saw them on the show in reruns decades later, those two reminded me of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino.

For the part of Joe it came down to Groh and Alex Rocco. It really came down to the wire, as they were starting rehearsals the following day.

TPTB kept seesawing between the two, and finally decided upon Groh.

"Hour Magazine" -"Rhoda" Cast Reunion, 1984!!

The first and only time Valerie, Julie and Nancy Walker reunited.

Since then for some strange reason, Julie Kavner refuses to discuss Rhoda in interviews

Julie Kavner seems like a whack job bitch. She doesn't like to discuss anything about her career. I saw a movie once where she was actually the star and it was really good. Anyone remember that movie or the name of it?

I re-watched the first season of Rhoda and enjoyed them. I can see now how in the beginning they were going for more adult humor than MTM, with jokes about Rhoda being on the pill (before she was even married), pre-marital sex and even own her parents having sex. Some of the topics are even pertinent today..with Joe's company being hit with the recession, finding a job and an apt. The early episodes displayed her trademark feistiness, as she battled with the unemployment office or a lecherous realtor. I agree that after her divorce, the final two seasons was a much different, less funny Rhoda. Julie Kavner did rock though.

The truth is, aside from a few bra-burning lesbos, the '70's were more Carol Brady than Billie Jean King. The Women's Movement was a small, radical fringe thing you saw on the evening news, and mainly urban. The mother's I knew were housewives; if they "had" to work it was because their husbands were losers. Or just gone.

Julie Kavner doesn't want to discuss Rhoda? Excuse me, Rhoda put her on the map. Weirdo.

Julie Kavner could have done a lot worse than gaining fame, earning a great living and atracting national attention for other jobs via her unbelievable opportunity as a result of the Mary Tyler Moore Enterprises.

R54 Working class, Latino and Black women have always worked. I assume you are middle class but when I was growing up we were working class and almost all the women worked, usually in factories, kitchens etc....

I went away to boarding school in 1976, and didn't have access to a TV on a regular basis (you had to fight for it). I still remember my best friend from home writing to tell me that Joe and Rhoda were getting a divorce, and my shock when I read it.

Weird that she told me as if it were real adults in our neighborhood.

"I still remember my best friend from home writing to tell me that Joe and Rhoda were getting a divorce, and my shock when I read it."

MARY!!!

When Julie Kavner was on Inside The Actors Studio with the cast of The Simpsons, James Lipton didn't even bring up the show 'Rhoda"

R52, I think you mean "This Is My Life." It got a lot of good reviews at the time, but when I watched it I was completely turned off on Kavner. She played a woman who was supposed to be slightly neglectful, but Kavner did it with an element of self-righteous selfishness that was a complete turn off. Some of her inherent crazy bitchness showed through, too.

R59, probably because Lipton would be the only one who gives a shit.

Jesus, you people like to deal in fiction, don't you?

Julie Kavner is quirky, but enjoyed her time on Rhoda and is very complimentary towards her co-workers from the show.

[quote] Julie Kavner doesn't want to discuss Rhoda? Excuse me, Rhoda put her on the map. Weirdo.

Kavner doesn't like to discuss anything, she's notoriously reclusive. I'm sure she appreciates getting her big break on Rhoda so calm down.

She has said that Brenda Morganstern typecast her playing women who are "supportive and self-effacingly funny." She got tired of always being offered similar roles and eventually started turning anything down that reminded her of Brenda. No one likes being suffocatingly confined to one thing, so it's perfectly understandable.

On a less contentious note, seasons 2 was released on dvd a few months ago, and season 3 is coming out very soon, I think later this month. There were a lot of complaints about the season 1 release, apparently all but a few were the edited syndication versions. But season 2 is reportedly uncut. Since they're already up to season 3, looks like the entire series will be out in another year or so.

I wish seasons 3, 4, etc. of FAMILY would come out.

I loved it when Buddy called Nancy "Princess Perfect."

And Kate would say, "Doug, I'm worried about Buddy."

and when Willie would call Buddy, "Peaches."

You know who was pretty funny was the woman who played Tina who worked at Gary's store and then the costume shop. Oddly NYC meets Valley Girl.

[quote]No one likes being suffocatingly confined to one thing, so it's perfectly understandable.

Which is why Kavner's spent the last twenty years not being confined to one thing that makes her instantly recognizable the moment she speaks.

This is My Life is it. thank you it was a very good movie.

>>>> can't believe she gave up her job, Mary, and her whole life in Minn. for some construction worker!

I never liked Joe or the actor playing him

I wish seasons 3, 4, etc. of FAMILY would come out

There are a lot of clips on YouTube. You have to use Family, Sada and a lot come up

r66, she was one of my favorite sitcom characters ever.

And then "she goes she goes she goes"...

Hilarious. Except, now people really talk like that.

I am still waiting for the 5th and 6th seasons - the final two - of the Bob Newhart Show to be released on DVD. Word is Fox has no intention of releasing them. Bastards.

I couldn't stand Rhoda's mother. She seemed like such a selfish bitch to me. Completely unlike my mother.

My mother warned me that Joe would leave Rhoda becasue she practically had to beg him to marry her. Mothers are so smart.

R66 and R71, that character was Tina and was played by the original Bebe from A Chorus Line, Nancy Lane. The character was based on Ray Buktenica's real life girlfriend Karen Salkin who became a minor LA celebrity for her public access show and parlayed that into a few gigs on the Johnny Carson Show.

Ah, yes r73 that was in the mid-70s when it seemed possible that the original cast of A Chorus Line might actually have acting careers.

Nancy Walker, Rhoda's mother, was possibly the funniest thing on the MTM show and Rhoda. Maybe a little of her went a long way but she was still the funniest.

I remember one of Brenda's cheesy boyfriends (Nick?) greeting Ida with, "Hey, mama!" and she replied, "Do not call me 'mama.' I did not give birth to you." Doesn't seem all that funny, but the deadpan way she said it and the withering look she gave him were priceless.

Exactly R76. One of the funniest moments on the MTM show was Ida tightening her bathrobe belt and walking out of Mary's apartment.

Rhoda was Julie Kavner's first professional job, EVER!

She was working at UCLA struggling to make ends meet, and Rhoda gave her her first big break

R72 = lacking sense of humor with mommy issues

Although Walker appreciated Ina's comedy, she said in interviews that every real-life Ina she'd ever known ruined their children's lives.

Neither Harper nor Walker were Jewish. Boggles the mind.

Rhoda was ok but she was no Angie

Nancy Walker was okay, but she is no Estelle Getty

I have been watching some of the shows on Youtube. Nancy Walker takes an overbearing character, and somehow makes you like her. Compare her to Doris Robert's interfering mother in Everyone Loves Raymond. I was surprised to hear Rhoda was on as long as it was. I thought there was one season with her married and one season with her divorced.

[quote]Although Walker appreciated Ina's comedy, she said in interviews that every real-life Ina she'd ever known ruined their children's lives.

And by "Ina", you mean "Ida", as in Morgenstern?

Nancy Walker was incredible ... but they watered her down. MTM Ida was so much more of a classic character than Rhoda's Ida but I will take me some Ida no matter how I get her.

I loved Rhoda, but after the marriage it just didn't work. The set just closed in on the characters, nothing worked anymore. Carlton the doorman wasn't funny anymore. Rhoda's sister just turned into a whining failure.

What made Mary and Rhoda such great characters is that they were two women away from their families and loving being away from their families. Neither one of them really wanted that much to do with their families. Dealing with that and the guilt that came with it was a lot of the fun. Especially for women at the time.

To have Rhoda return to the bosom of her family just didn't make sense. The Rhoda on MTM would have rather cut off her left tit than live five blocks away from Ida. She loved Ida and her family just didn't want to live near them or have them tangled in her every day life.

Who played Mary Richards' parents? Any famous character actors? Were they ever even featured in MTM episodes?

[quote]Who played Mary Richards' parents? Any famous character actors? Were they ever even featured in MTM episodes?

Not sure who played them but they were featured in a famous and groundbreaking episode were they came to visit and Mary went out on a date and didn't return until the next morning. Mary refused to tell them where she had spent the night, saying she was a grown woman and it was nobody's business.

Her Mother was played by Nanette Fabray.. her dad was played by by Bob Newhart's father in law, Bill QUinn.

Harold Gould played Rhoda's dad (and also maybe played by someone else at some point?).

Nanette Fabray was Mary's mother, right? I don't remember her dad.

Mary's Mom was played by Nanette Fabray, who is normally wonderful. On MTM, not so much. They kind of made her matronly and ditsy ... the writers didn't seem to ask what kind of woman would be responsible for raising a woman like Mary Richards.

Dr. Richards, Mary's Dad, was played by Bill Quinn who appears to have been a hard working character actor ... but usually in the background.

They only appeared on 2 or 3 episodes and were never really developed into much more than plot devices.

The episode where Mary refused to say where she spent the night also had a reference she was on the pill. Her mom was asking her Dad if he had remembered to take his pill, and Mary thought she was speaking to her (after they realized she spent the night out) and she said yes.

why did they make straight laced Myrna into the office whore?

Character inconsistency.

R83, when Nancy Walker showed up on Golden Girls she always made Estelle Getty look like she was just reciting lines.

I hated Brenda's lesbian door knock when she would show up at Rho's place:

knockKNOCKknock.

Personally, I prefer Nancy Walker's directorial work.

all actors recite lines.

MTM always credited Nanette Fabray (Shelley Fabares Aunt) with being the inspiration for the way MTM would cry in her shows. No doubt the reason they cast Nanette as her Mother.

Try to see the episode with Linda Lavin. She plays the supreme bitch as only Linda Lavin can. Hilarious.

David Groh was DAvid GROHSSS!!!

Ew.

r43 I agree, "Phyllis" was a fabulous show. I put it on a par with "He & She", which to my mind is one of the best, and most underrated sitcoms of all time.

Her husband in the show was Phi Beta Kappa at Brown University. He was smart.

I watched the entire MTM series from the first episode to the last one when it first came on (yes, I'm old). I could only watch the first couple of seasons of Rhoda, if that much. But it was on the MTM show itself where I feel the character of Rhoda was changed too much.

She was always attractive - never THAT fat and when she lost weight, it wasn't THAT much of a change. Yet Rhoda became a pretty insufferable know-it-all when she had her own show.

Brenda really didn't look that much bigger than Rhoda yet suddenly Rhoda was this diet/fashion expert and Brenda was to Rhoda as the original Rhoda had been to Mary.

I watch the Rhoda reruns today mainly out of nostalgia for the 70's.

And while the MTM show might have been groundbreaking in its day, I don't think that has held up all that well either. Even when it first came on I thought it was bizarre that Mary mainly socialized with people she worked with and how they dropped by her apartment at all hours of the day and night.

"Well, Rhoda was heterosexual..."

Um, are you absolutely sure???

The Rhoda sets are so ugly and claustrophobic. No wonder they were always so weepy and cranky.

Brenda comes off as a dyke.

In the episode where Rhoda and Joe break up, the last act is just Rhoda and Brenda on the couch crying....

I loved every episode and still do. I think it is hysterical, and a perfect 1970s time capsule.

"Oh my girls, Rhoda Fay, and Brenda Fay..."

[quote] Try to see the episode with Linda Lavin. She plays the supreme bitch as only Linda Lavin can. Hilarious.

Has she ever played anything else?

[quote] Even when it first came on I thought it was bizarre that Mary mainly socialized with people she worked with and how they dropped by her apartment at all hours of the day and night.

Eh, I don't think about that too much. Will & Grace was essentially the same - always saw the same 4 people, with occasional outsiders.

That's why they call it "situation comedy."

Just saw an episode with MTM making a surprise visit the other day....

Rhoda would have been better if David Groh got a happy ending every episode!

I've been watching season one on MeTV. i loved the first two seasons as a kid, then I seemed to remember it getting worse and worse.

The first season is mildly amusing, but the show is too "jokey" and many of the jokes are lame. Rhoda plays the straight woman and that just doesn't feel right to me. Another thing I find really annoying is that all the characters laugh at each other's jokes (Rhoda to Brenda, brenda to Rhoda, Joe to Brenda, etc.). Pro Nancy Walker does not do this of course, and gets the most laughs. I do think the divorce for Rhoda was a mistake. When you invite 50 million viewers to your wedding, and then divorce two years later, people get angry. It quickly sank in the ratings.

Out of curiosity, I watched a season four Johnny Venture show, and noted that Valerie Harper is stick thin and Rhoda is pretty bitter at this point. The show isn't really even about her any more.

R10, better still one of the movers was hunky Martin Kove.

Watching one of the episodes where her marriage to Joe is ending now. Really heartbreaking.

R110, both of their names were Fay?

Why didn't Ida just name one of them Fay?

I haven't seen Rhoda since it was initially on the air, but I remember loving it. They had a character on there that I loved, too, I think his name was Johnny Venture. He was a lounge lizard and he used to sing "whether I'm right" and then he'd swing the microphone on the cord and go "hey hey" and then continue singing. Sort of like Robert Goulet.

Trivia buffs: many claim that Rhoda's wedding was the most-watched ever for a fictional character in primetime, yet it wasn't.

That honor goes to Max Klinger, who was married in the final episode of M*A*S*H*.

I recently rewatched some season 1 eps. The show was funny the first few seasons, but after she divorced it took a big dive. I'm not sure why they didn't have her date around the first couple of seasons and then marry Joe. Though from what I remember, he always seemed angry.

One thing that r105 touched on was that I don't remember Rhoda ever being really overweight. In fact, I thought she was more attractive than MTM. Mary always looked very old to me. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly because I wasn't even born when either of these shows were first airing and have only watched in syndication a while ago.

I don't remember anyone being upset.

The Johnny Venture shows were really funny. Johnny was a friend of Nick , the accordion player. I remember Johnny singing "You say potatoes, and I say.." and handing the mike over to Rhoda and her saying in her NY accent "Geddouda heah!"

Also, does anyone remember a young Melanie Mayron playing Brenda's unattractive friend from the bank? Years later a thinner and rhinoplastied Melanie played Melissa on 30something.

Harold Gould played Rhoda's dad.

David Groh could not act to save his life.

Valerie and Julie had great chemistry together, as I recall. They really "felt like" sisters.

I know it's been a couple of years but people have mentioned that about Rhoda for a long time, R120. I'm not quite old enough to remember people talking about it at the time, but I know when Nick at Nite started showing reruns in the 1990s, lots of people were commenting on how Rhoda wasn't nearly as fat as she was written to be.

In the episode where she's talking to Murray about how much weight she's lost, she says something like 16 pounds. An old Parade article says she went from 150 to 130, so in real life it was only about 20 lbs. Even in the 1970s, losing 20 pounds wasn't cause for some huge standing ovation from a studio audience, and I doubt if she really weighed 150. She looks 130 at her "fattest."

Not just Nancy Walker, Carlton the doorman, an unseen voice on the intercom, always drunk, was a big breakout character. And Valerie and Julie were both expert sitcom performers. The best episodes are probably are at least as good as a typical MTM episode. As everyone knows and has acknowledged, including Valerie, her character didn't work as a happy married lady. It wasn't acerbic Rhoda anymore, so she wasn't as funny. So they basically turned Brenda into the old Rhoda, but it was odd the Valerie was still there, but felt like a supporting character on her own show. They tried to reset it, making Rhoda single again, but there was no going back. The public was outraged she'd dumped Joe. I don't think it helped the ratings at all. So it limped on a few more seasons and was unceremoniously cancelled without airing all the episodes their final season.

Not having seen any Rhoda episodes for many years, from what I remember, there was just a singular lack of chemistry between Rhoda and Joe. He just did not seem like the kind of person Rhoda would marry. David Groh was just an OK actor, not great at comedy. I'd put him at the low end of the adequacy scale. Rhoda needed another kind of husband, whatever kind that should've been, it definitely wasn't David Groh.

I had to stop watching Rhoda when they changed the theme song to LA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA, sung by a bunch of tone-deaf children. I mean seriously, who the hell listened to that and said "yep, that's it! That's the sound we want!". Fucking made my ears bleed!

[R-130], Hahaha. I lived in an apartment building in like 1974 or 1975 when the "lalala" theme song was on. I remember taking the trash out to the incinerator room and hearing, that "lalalala" music emanating from every single apartment on my floor.

The end of the series was pathetic.

In the abbreviated fifth season, the writers made Rhoda gain weight again and wear tentlike dresses. She got a really unflattering poodle perm. She had long ago lost her own business and was going nowhere at that shitty costume shop.

CBS pulled the plug after 13 episodes and didn't even bother airing the last few.

[R118] Yep, that ep was hysterical. Johnny was singing "I've Gotta Be Me" which was a hit for Sammy Davis Jr.

What got to me was how mean they all were to Ida, especially Rhoda.

R81, Both Nancy and Valerie do a nice job with the New York accent.

R127, Check out the Movie "Chapter Two" to see a quasi-anorexic Valerie Harper. Luckily, Val gained some weight back and looked healthier thereafter.

So, she's rallying from her deathbed for one last huzzah?

I would also agree that the sets were a big part of why Rhoda didn't succeed, especially since we started spending so much time in Brenda's god awful apartment. Kavner's whiny voice does well for Marge Simpson but it's really unbearable here. Grohl was a bad choice for Harper. There was nothing to play off of. Her boyfriend on MTM was Steve Franken, who has the sort of underdog quality that Rhoda had.

[quote]Julie Kavner seems like a whack job bitch. She doesn't like to discuss anything about her career. I saw a movie once where she was actually the star and it was really good. Anyone remember that movie or the name of it?

I'm not talking about it and you can't make me.

Mary should have done some more crossovers.

Jesus, this thread is 9 years old.

[quote]I went away to boarding school in 1976, and didn't have access to a TV on a regular basis (you had to fight for it). I still remember my best friend from home writing to tell me that Joe and Rhoda were getting a divorce, and my shock when I read it. Weird that she told me as if it were real adults in our neighborhood.

Big deal! Did I get so much as a sympathy card when my Lars died? Nope. And don’t give me that old “you moved so I couldn’t find your address” line; that one is so old I think Shakespeare used it in a rough draft of [italic]Hamlet[/italic].

Oh I remember Rhoda from when I was a kid. I recall my Mother, from a 'married in the 50s' standpoint, complaining "Why didn't they just give her a baby?", when they split Rhoda and Joe up for the sake of a new storyline.

Yes, lalalalalalala, not good.

Of her old schoolfriend, "Myrna Morgenstein, my little friend from alphabetical order", for some reason that line stuck with me for pretty much forty years.

Rhoda patting Joe's backside in the title sequence ....

[quote]Of her old schoolfriend, "Myrna Morgenstein, my little friend from alphabetical order", for some reason that line stuck with me for pretty much forty years.

I love the line on the Rhoda reunion episode where she asks Myrna "So Myrna what did you do after graduation" and Myrna in expert comic timing answers "I just went right home."