Rhoda's wedding

The full dress and veil for an over 30 woman was silly. I missed Ted.

r1 anticipating Meghan Markle.

I never liked Phyllis. The actor that plays her dad was very handsome though. Does anyone know where the person playing Rhoda and the person playing her dad were from? Their accents are very pleasant to the ear ( I am from the south so the closest lovely speech pattern folks are in Louisiana).

I couldn’t stand Ida.

Ida, Rhoda, Brenda… just realized all their names ended in da.

I couldn't stand when they changed the theme tune to the kids going LA LA LA LAAAA. This was when the audience abandoned the show in droves.

The single funniest moment of that episode for me is when Georgette tells Phyllis, who is all contrite after forgetting to pick up Rhoda and begging forgiveness from anyone who will listen to her, "I forgive you, but if I were you, I'd get my tail out of here before Rhoda shows up."

I wanted to like "Rhoda" so bad because I loved the Rhoda character. The entire series sucked, but I hung on to the end. To be fair, the Mary Tyler Moore Show began to suck too a season after Rhoda left.

[quote]Does anyone know where the person playing Rhoda and the person playing her dad were from?

You mean Samuel Plankmaker?

Arnie Peterson from Plainfield. NJ.

Rhoda and Valerie were supporting characters/actresses. Move them to the front and they're not as effective. The biggest problem was getting Rhoda married to Joe/David Groh. Terrible actor and horrible presence. I think the suggestion that he could get violent (he was in demolition) made everything even more tense and uncomfortable. They also had zero chemistry and listening to Julie Kavner whine without the blue hair was torture. I also thought the sets were totally claustrophobic because the volume on this show was so loud as opposed to MTM or Bob Newhart.

He was also Ann Marie's father in the unshown original pilot of "That Girl."

Don't be such a Debbie Downer! Rhoda's wedding was a great episode and got huge ratings!

Rhoda should never have gotten married in the first place; even Mary could tell that she was a lesbian

As a gayling, I LOVED David Groh and his hairy chest. He was so masculine. I thought he and Val had great chemistry.

I hated the LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LALA theme too.

I also thought Carlton the doorman got old real fast.

This is the kinda shit that keeps me up at night!

"Phyllis" was a funnier show and should've succeeded, but it was destined to fail, since Cloris looked completely lost out of the Mary/Rhoda/Phyllis triumvirate.

Jhoda should have had a baby. That might have been fun seeing Rhoda conquer motherhood. Certainly would have been better than the terrible divorce where they made Joe seem to be conned into a marriage when he clearly loved her a lot.

[quote]I also thought Carlton the doorman got old real fast.

How do you feel about Larry, Darryl, and Darryl?

I loved the wedding episode, and the series seemed fine during the run. The only problem 'Rhoda' had was it didn't have a supporting cast which 'stuck' - seems she had new friends every season, with no mention of the ones from past seasons (Suzy, Myrna, Sally, Gary) as time went on.

Best line in the wedding episode was from Phyllis, as she walks into the apartment and everyone is so appy to see her (thinking Rhoda was downstairs). Says a glowing Phyllis, "Wow ! This dress is everything the salesgirl at Bergdorf's said it would be !"

TRIVIA: When the show "Phyllis" ended at the end of it's second season (1976-77) and 'Rhoda' was beginning it's fourth season (and the MTM show came to an end the same week as 'Phyllis'), the writers of 'Rhoda' came up with a script to launch the new season in which 'Phyllis' was stuck in NYC for a weekend, and has to crash with Rhoda. The two end up sharing a bottle of wine, and conclude why they never liked each other but remained cordial to each other. (Script was called, "It's Your Old Friend Phyllis").

It was an episode written to move 'Phyllis' to NYC, eventually renting an apartment in Rhoda's building, and having Leachman once again play the 'butting-in' neighbor to Rhoda. Producers thought it would boost the ratings for 'Rhoda' in season four, after a severe drop in season 3 (Rhoda's separation, Nancy Walker leaving the series). At the last moment, Leachman decided against it.

Fucking hell, some of you really are fossils.

It wasn't real. It was a TV episode. From 49 fucking years ago.

On the day I die, many years from now, my last thought will be, “Oh no. I’m going to miss the next Rhoda thread on DL.”

The following is typed from memory - I’m sure there are some errors & omissions. “My name is Rhoda Morgenstern, I was born in the Bronx in December, 1941. I’ve always felt responsible for World War Two. The first thing I liked that liked me back was food. I’m a college graduate - my entrance exam was on a book of matches. When I was 25 I finally moved out of my parent’s apartment. 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”.

^^ - realized my first mistake “I went to Art School - my entrance exam… etc.”

Just wrapped yesterday after a year long, six day a week gig on a current tv show - so I’ve got time on my hands.

The “La la la la-la” version of the theme was emblematic of the show’s producers and writers not knowing the words. The popularity of Rhoda on MTM was her trouble finding a boyfriend and being a brash New Yorker plunked down in Minneapolis. “Rhoda’s Wedding” should have been the last episode after several seasons of “Rhoda.” The producers and writers were lost once Rhoda was married, leading to many cast changes and then to Rhoda being single again, but by then it was too late for the series.

I think the neighbor, carrying the trash to the garbage chute in her housecoat, seeing Rhoda in her ornate wedding gown and veil, and saying "Hiya Rhoda, what's new?" was fucking hysterical.

Worse than the kids going La La La La laaaa la were those goddamned bells.

They should've brought in DL Goddess Vivian Vance earlier.

I think the essential problem with Rhoda was that Valerie Harper resented having been the supposedly fat and unattractive (she was neither) sidekick on MTM, so to move to her own show, she insisted on Rhoda being chic, sexy, together, and in a relationship with a '70s stud who was crazy about her.

Unfortunately, there's absolutely nothing likable or funny about such a character and premise. Rhoda was doomed from the start.

Wasn't Brenda supposed to be the "Rhoda" Rhoda?

Another fan of HOT David Groh here, who always wondered why he never had any post-Rhoda successes? I mean, I get why they had Rhoda and Joe divorce but Groh was such a perfect NYC 1970s stud type, so easily castable. And then he died so young. Was he difficult or something? Did Valerie ever talk about him in interviews?

Agreed R27 - that joke with the neighbor was the perfect topper to the brilliant sequence of Rhoda schlepping through NYC in her wedding gown.

R33 Right? And that lady was PERFECTLY cast. She looked EXACTLY like a real life Bronx woman in a housecoat bringing her trash to the garbage chute. The timing- everything.

Re: Rhoda and Brenda- Rhoda was never ugly on MTM. Whereas Brenda... well let's say she would never win that Hemphill's pageant.

R32 When he passed away 15 years ago, she had said he was a great guy to work with, and maintained a friendship with him until his death. He understood the show was being re-done, and wasn't upset with her or anyone at MTM Productions (his only worry was making the mortgage on the new home in the mountains he bought in CA at the end of Season 2).

After he left "RHODA", he continued with some TV movies and soaps. In the 80s, he moved back to NYC (where he was from) and was cast in Broadway shows winning great reviews (there was one show he was in which he was mostly nearly-naked on stage, just wearing a bathing suit and sneakers, for most of Act 2) . In the 90s, he went back to soaps where he got regular work until his kidney cancer diagnosis in the mid-2000s.

TRIVIA: Groh was not the first choice to play "Joe". The actor they first offered the role to was Judd Hirsch, as he and Harper had great natural chemistry together in their auditions. When they offered Hirsch the role in the Summer of 1974, he had to decline - he had already been contracted to a Broadway play starting that Fall, and he refused to leave the play. Hirsch was later cast as one of Rhoda's boyfriends in Season 4.

I would never marry a disgusting boy. I'll tell you what I [italic]did/italic] do to him!

Many don't remember that the "Phyllis forgets to pick up the bride" situation was brought back on her own show for Mother Dexter's wedding. It was even funnier than the first one because of the great Judith Lowry.

R37 that is hysterical. I'll have to seek that out. Phyl forgets to pick up Mother Dexter? Haha.

David Groh was a camp classic on General Hospital as D.L. Brock. He upset Lesley Webber so much that he caused her to have a fatal car crash. Then, he started beating his wife, long suffering Bobbie Spencer. I remember once he was slapping her around, talking about her former profession, saying over and over "Ya WALLOW in it!"

Then, the camp classic of all time was his death scene. Murdered by second rate, daytime Joan Crawford Judith Chapman. But before he's killed, he gets in a few last licks at Bobbie. "AT least when ya were a HOOKAH, ya got PAID for it! Now YA give it AWAY to any DOCTAH who wants it, ya cheap TRAMP, ya!" And, I shit you not, he lands her a right hook.

I urge you all to watch maybe the most exciting, but ridiculous scenes from my 6 years or so of watching GH. Me and my sister used to act out these scenes. Whoever lost the coin toss had to be Robyn Bernard.

R24, notice how Rhoda's "Rhoda" age lost a year? When MTM premiered in Sept 1970, Mary and Rhoda were supposed to both be 30, that would mean RM was born sometime in 1940, not 1941.

[quote]"Phyllis" was a funnier show and should've succeeded

It did - it was a smash initially. But Phyllis was not a sympathetic enough character to sustain a sitcom, even with good supporting cast. They thought of spinning Ted Baxter into his own series at WJM News but decided it would have the same issues.

R37 I remember that ep and watched it again, recently. I think it was a cheap ploy to win ratings by repeating the 'Rhoda' episode - which was unexpected and hilarious.

Loose the lounge singer, the accordion player, the jean shop owner, the receptionist hung up on the long gone husband, Lou Grant in a costume shop. All too gimmick driven. No real story potential after the 1st joke. They needed to expand Rhoda's family. Brenda, Ida & Martin, givens. Then a Westchester sister living the dream - successful husband, kids, a nightmare.

With her sister Debbie Morgenstern on MTM. They had a brother Arnold.

R39, I also noticed that the age gap between Rhoda and Brenda was changed as the show went on. In the first season, it's established that Rhoda is 33 and Brenda 21; the difference is reduced to 10 years by S4's home movies episode, in which the Morgensterns watch footage of Rhoda's 10th birthday party featuring a heavily pregnant Ida.

As far as Debbie and Arnold go, Brenda referred to herself as Rhoda's youngest sister in a S1 episode, indicating that the writers were toying with the idea of introducing (or re-introducing) other siblings. This was retconned soon after, with plenty of lines establishing that Rhoda and Brenda were their parents' only children.

Did you know that Rhonda's wedding took place at Disney World? I bet his wedding boots looked fabulous.

[quote]Then a Westchester sister

No, LONG ISLAND.

David Groh was scary on General Hospital. As kid he could sure scare me.

I kept going, this is what divorcing Rhoda did to him.

As a ten year old watching RHODA, I realized I was gay watching Groh on television.