Rhoda


Rhoda is an American sitcom television series starring Valerie Harper that originally aired on CBS for five seasons from September 9, 1974 to December 9, 1978.
The first spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Harper reprised her role as Rhoda Morgenstern, a spunky and flamboyantly fashioned young woman seen as unconventional by the standards of her Jewish family from New York City. Rhoda begins as the character decides to return to New York City from Minneapolis, where she soon meets and marries Joe Gerard. Julie Kavner co-starred as Rhoda's sister Brenda, alongside Nancy Walker as their mother Ida Morgenstern.
The series was the recipient of two Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime 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

The series opens with the pilot episode featuring Rhoda Morgenstern traveling from her home in Minneapolis to New York City, where she was born and raised, for a two-week vacation, staying with her younger sister, Brenda.
While there, she meets Joe Gerard, 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.
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 over 40 years.
Rhoda and Brenda soon realize that the small studio apartment can't hold them both, so Rhoda moves in with their parents Ida and Martin 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 good husbands. Martin is her dutiful, mild-mannered husband. 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

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. 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.
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 ABC that he had not been invited to the wedding, and welcomed viewers back to the game. 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. The episode was overwhelmingly praised by critics, widely touted as a "television phenomenon", "unlike anything that had happened on television for nearly twenty years", and garnered Harper her fourth Emmy award in 1975. Vogue magazine reported that people across the country had pulled off the road checking into motels, and friends canceled out on dinner invitations, just to watch Rhoda's wedding.
The wedding episode featured guest appearances by many of the main characters from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, including Mary Richards, Lou Grant, Murray Slaughter, Georgette Franklin, and Phyllis Lindstrom. The only major characters who didn't attend were Ted Baxter and Sue Ann Nivens.
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 Lou and Murray decided to fly to New York with Mary to surprise Rhoda; her frequent nemesis, Phyllis, who intentionally had not been invited, nonetheless flew in for the wedding, and Mary and Rhoda's friend, Georgette, who drove from Minneapolis.
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.
In a state of shock, Ida 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 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

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. Rhoda uses her own 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, Rhoda's Jewish religious and ethnic background seemed to fade as she was no longer unique, and would be surrounded by a host of New Yorkers of different religions and ethnicities.
Throughout the tenure of Rhoda Morgenstern's character being featured on 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; “Enter Rhoda’s Parents” from which Rhoda's parents renewed their wedding vows by a rabbi; and "A Girl's Best Mother Is Not Her Friend", in which Ida wanted to fix Mary up with an eligible bachelor, a man whom she'd deemed inappropriate for Rhoda, as he wasn't Jewish. 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”. 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". Ironically, although Harper and Walker achieved great popularity playing characters of the Jewish faith and ethnicity, in real life, neither actress was Jewish.

Season 3 (1976–77)

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. 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. Though Ida appears in the opening episode, both she and Martin are absent for the remainder of the season, explained as traveling across the country in an RV. To help fill in the void left by Walker and Gould, the producers hired comedian 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, 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 episodes show Rhoda coping with her single status or feature Brenda themed stories. Ultimately, they never reconcile and Joe is never seen again after this season. Johnny Venture, a lounge singer, becomes an occasional suitor/friend who Rhoda begrudgingly tolerates. Meanwhile, Brenda, no longer overweight but still with self-esteem problems, finally finds a steady boyfriend in enthusiastic roller-skater and toll-booth worker Benny Goodwin, who is, initially, constantly assumed to be the son of great big band conductor/musician, Benny Goodman. She also occasionally dates neighbor Gary Levy as well as continuing her casual relationship with immature accordion player Nick Lobo.

Season 4 (1977–78)

For the fourth season, Rhoda re-emerged with a new, slimmer look. Rhoda's divorce is finalized and she resumes use of her maiden name "Morgenstern" full-time. The show then centers on her role as a thirty-something divorcée, rarely dating and focusing on her career. Ida and Martin come home after a year's absence from their lengthy cross-country trip.
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, a man with similarities to Lou Grant. Season 4 ranked higher than season 3 in the ratings, 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 for the fifth and final season. Rhoda sported a new longer frizzy-permed hairstyle, which she kept pulled back in a small ponytail for part of the 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, 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 series, 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 #95 out of 114 shows. 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 #83. Within a few months, it, too, was canceled by CBS.

Cast

Recurring characters

The following are well-known or at the time, soon to be well known, actors who featured 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, René Auberjonois, Frank Converse, Melanie Mayron.

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings

Awards

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

Animated spin-off and cast reunions

An animated TV pilot titled Carlton Your Doorman, a proposed spin-off of the Carlton, the doorman character, was broadcast May 21, 1980 on CBS. Although the episode won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program, it was never picked up by the network as a series.
Despite never having 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:

DVD releases

On April 21, 2009, Shout! Factory released the first season of Rhoda on DVD in Region 1, which was the year of the show's 35th anniversary. The release also includes a "Remembering Rhoda" featurette, as well as the original one-hour version of "Rhoda's Wedding", as opposed to the two-part edited version that aired in syndication. 15 of the season's 24 episodes are the edited-for-syndication versions taken from poor quality masters, while the other 9 episodes are the unedited network versions. A review on DVDTalk also states some of the edited episodes being time compressed. Because the series premiere in the DVD set is the syndicated version, Mary Tyler Moore's appearance at the beginning of the episode is not included. However, the full version of the pilot can be viewed at The Paley Center for Media in New York and Los Angeles. Footage from the missing scene is even included in the end credits to the series premiere.
Season two and Season three episodes were released unedited.
Season four was released on September 21, 2010, as a Shout! Factory select title, available exclusively through their online store.
Season 4 was re-released as a general retail release on August 15, 2017.
Season five was released by Shout! Factory on October 17, 2017.
DVD NameEp#Release Date
Season One25April 21, 2009
Season Two24March 30, 2010
Season Three24July 6, 2010
Season Four24September 21, 2010♦
August 15, 2017
Season Five: The Final Season13October 17, 2017

♦—Shout! Factory Exclusives title, sold exclusively through Shout's online store

VHS releases

A two-tape set, Rhoda—Volumes 1 & 2 containing two episodes on each cassette, was released by MTM Home Video in July 1992.
VHS NameEp#Release DateTitles
Rhoda—Volume 12July 1992
  • Joe
  • You Can Go Home Again
Rhoda—Volume 22July 1992
  • I'll Be Loving You, Sometimes
  • Parents' Day
    • The Very Best of Rhoda, a four-tape boxed-set containing the best episodes from each season, was released by MTM Home Video on April 28, 1998.
    VHS NameEp#Release DateTitles
    Season 1 2April 28, 1998
    • Rhoda's Wedding
    • Rhoda's Wedding
    Season 2 2April 28, 1998
  • Friends and Mothers
  • A Night with the Girls
    • Season 3 2April 28, 1998
  • The Separation
  • An Elephant Never Forgets
    • Seasons 4 & 5 3April 28, 1998
  • One is a Number
  • Happy Anniversary
  • Martin Doesn't Live Here Anymore

    • Syndication

    In 1979, Rhoda began airing in syndication to local stations, and was originally syndicated by Victory Television from 1979 to 1987. On July 8, 2013, Rhoda began airing on Me-TV at 9:30PM Eastern Time. From 1994 to 1996, reruns of Rhoda aired on FX. In 1996, Nick at Nite began airing reruns of Rhoda. The show was removed from the lineup in 1998. In the UK, it aired on BBC2.

    Books

    Julius C. Burnett wrote Rhoda Revisited, which summarized the series was released by Ju-Ju & Co. Entertainment LLC on December 21, 2010.