Product Description
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If Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) was the single woman everyone wanted
to be, then Rhoda (Valerie Harper) was the one they wanted to
befriend. From her first appearance on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW,
Rhoda won hearts with her street-smart blend of sass and style.
By the time she had her own spin-off, the fans and critics were
eager to follow. This Emmy- and Golden Globe- winning sitcom
follows the outspoken New Yorker back to her hometown, where she
attempts to start a new life amidst interference from her pushy
family. RHODA: SEASON ONE includes the shows hilarious pilot,
along with every episode from the series first year. Starring
Valerie Harper, Harold Gould, Julie Kavner, David Groh, Lorenzo
Music, Nancy Walker Special Features: 4-Disc Set Region 1 NTSC
Keep Case Special Edition Full Frame - 1.33 Audio: Dolby Digital
2.0 - English Additional Release Material.
.com
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It’s easy to see why Rhoda fans are ecstatic that the series has
finally appeared on DVD (with all 24 first-season episodes on
four discs), a mere 35 years after its broadcast debut. Shows
like this are the comedy equivalent of comfort food:
uncomplicated, reliable, not very spicy but tasty and filling.
Sitcom meatloaf, you might say. Spun off from Mary Tyler Moore by
co-creators James L. Brooks (whose formidable resume as a writer,
director, and producer also includes The Simpsons, Taxi, and
movies like Broadcast News and As Good As It Gets) and Allan
Burns, the show finds Valerie Harper’s Rhoda Morgenstern
returning to her native New York after a decade in Minneapolis.
What begins as a short visit turns into a full-blown homecoming
when she meets and immediately falls for the manly-but-sensitive
Joe Gerard (David Groh); Rhoda at first lives with dowdy,
amusingly neurotic sister Brenda (Julie Kavner, later to achieve
considerable fame and fortune as the voice of Marge Simpson), but
we’re barely a third of the way into the season when she and Joe
decide to tie the knot.
Debuting in 1974 (it ran for five years), Rhoda is an
interesting reflection of its times. Harper’s character is a
feminist ("Thank you, Ms. Magazine," she says when Brenda
congratulates her for taking the initiative with Joe), but still
old-fashioned enough to balk at moving in with a man before
they’re married. Sexual revolution notwithstanding, references to
sex are chaste and fleeting. And in this pre-PC era, the show is
unabashedly, old-school ethnic, with its broad Bronx accents and
Rhoda’s stereotypically hovering, meddling, hard-to-please Jewish
mother (hilariously portrayed by Nancy Walker). But if it seems a
little out of date, Rhoda makes up for that simply by being funny
and likable; the hour-long "Rhoda’s Wedding," one of the
highest-rated TV episodes of its time, is a riot, featuring
Harper’s former Mary Tyler Moore mates (Moore, Ed Asner, Gavin
MacLeod, Georgia Engel, and the inspired Cloris Leachman) having
an absolute field day. And let’s not forget show producer Lorenzo
Music as the drunken Carlton the Doorman, never seen but often
heard via intercom. The sole bonus item is a paltry reminiscence
with Brooks and Burns but none of the actors. --Sam Graham