Rhoda: Season One

Comments

1. Doc Martian says:

   July 26, 2010 at 6:43 pm

   Why bother purchasing the first season of a 5 season series that’ll crap out after 2 seasons like MTM/Fox’s other DVD releases of MTM series such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show (4 seasons with a high-priced 7 season box set just released), Hill Street Blues (2 Seasons with a streaming 3rd season), St. Elsewhere (1 Season), Bob Newhart Show (4 Seasons of 7), WKRP in Cincinnati (1 Season), and Newhart (1 season). Save your money, wait for it to come out on Hulu or another streaming site. Don’t get roped into the first season of a series that won’t be completed (MTM hasn’t completed a series in season sets YET!). Buy a TV show from Universal, Paramount, Columbia, Warner or even Fox’s new shows that get complete series releases. Unless you’re into getting stuck with half a series that will probably never be completed or will get dumped on you in a full series box set 5 years from now maybe.
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. Movie Mania says:

   July 26, 2010 at 6:47 pm

   Rhoda is one of the great spinoffs of all time. Valerie Harper, Julie Kavner and the late great Nancy Walker created the first great woman show. While everyone was began by watching Rhoda & Joe, it was Rhoda, Brenda & Ida that kept you coming back.

   This has the greatest hour in comedy TV history – Rhoda’s Wedding. This is the one time the cast of Mary Tyler Moore guested on Rhoda.

   Let’s hope Shout Factory does a better job of releasing Rhoda than Fox did of its parent show, Mary Tyler Moore.

   The following is a list of the 25 episodes:

   Joe – While visiting her family in NYC Rhoda meets a hunky demolition company owner Joe.

   You Can Go Home Again – When Rhoda cannot find an affordable apartment she ends up moving into the last place she would think of staying – her parent’s house. (Les Stern makes his first appearance as cousin Lenny)

   I’ll Be Loving You, Sometimes – Joe pops the big question but not the one Rhoda wants. “Maybe we should see other people”

   Parent’s Day – It’s time to meet the parents. (Robert Alda guests as Joe’s Dad)

   The Lady in Red – Rhoda lands a job at a publishing firm but one of her first assignments is to give the eulogy for an author of x rated books. (Louise Latham guests as Rhoda’s boss and series director Robert Moore also makes a guest appearance.)

   Pop Goes the Question – Once again Joe pops the wrong question. “Let’s move in together” (MTM makes a cameo)

   The Shower – Brenda throws a bridal shower and invites Rhoda’s high school classmates (some of which Rhoda would rather not see.) (Linda Lavin guests)

   Rhoda’s Wedding – As stated above, this is the funniest hour and hopefully on the DVD they will keep it as originally shown, one episode and not two. This is so funny that parts of this episode become part of the title credits. And of course the whole cast of MTM makes a guest appearance including Cloris as the scene stealing Phyliss.

   The rest when I return!
   Rating: 5 / 5
3. Lotte says:

   July 26, 2010 at 6:56 pm

   I loved Rhoda on MTM. But as I recall the series was more about her sister and her mother (who both got on my nerves) and her parents were NOT as previously reviewed here, stereotypically Jewish parents. Jewish mothers DON’T act like Ida and very few Jewish husbands are henpecked. Jewish parents aren’t any different than non Jewish parents. In fact the Jewish parents depicted in Dirty Dancing (one of my favorite films) were much more like real Jewish parents. In any case I didn’t like the way those 2 were depicted on Rhoda or on MTM, and I always skipped those episodes on MTM because mother Ida got on my nerves and behaved like a complete idiot. No wonder, Rhoda left NY.

   In any case, the series Rhoda was unfortunately much more about her unfunny family than it was about Rhoda. Rhoda didn’t grow. All her friends were a bunch of goofballs, and her marriage fell apart because Rhoda was still so insecure that she drove her husband away. As I recall the show, Rhoda was much more about her sister than about Rhoda. Rhoda spent most of her time looking after her sister. The rest of the time she was worried about whether Joe loved her or not.

   Actually, I thought the writing on Rhoda was pretty bad. Valerie Harper did the best she could with lousy scripts. The only character I remembered liking on the show was the costume designer whose personality kind of reminded me of Mr. Grant. But he didn’t last long, and that was really too bad. Personally, I liked Phillis’s revised sit-com much better than Rhoda, because I thought the scripts were better, the characters were better cast and more talented, and of course, Phillis, Cloris Leachman was great.

   PS Despite what I wrote, I finally did order Rhoda and I was right. Few of the stories were very good. Many of the MTM characters came back as different characters on Rhoda. One of the best characters was a gal on MTM who was a terrible waitress and who got fired because Mary said something about her to the manager. In turn, feeling guilty, she hired her as a sec at the office and she was awful. The idiotic waitress-secretary (Feeb) was great in that story. In Rhoda, there was a character whose voice I recognized, and I knew that voice came from Mary. Like Mr. Grant, I thought I recognized that voice, but it took me a while to place her. Then I remembered. She had a lousy part in Rhoda and the story line was stupid. She played with Howard from MTM, who had a goofy part in both sit-coms.

   Well I bought Rhoda one. No joking about how really poor the qualities of the copies were. One of the stories was just completely distorted. The opening music was very bad, and all in all, though I was warned I thought I’d try anyway. It was probably a stupid waste of money. But I guess I had to see for myself. The only decent story line was the wedding, and that’s because some of the MTM cast was there and crazy Phillis stole the show. But the other characters were didn’t do much. No comparison to MTM. I will not be ordering any more Rhoda shows.
   Rating: 2 / 5
4. D. Coronado says:

   July 26, 2010 at 9:16 pm

   If this distributor does what the distributor of THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW did, then we will all be in trouble. With MARY, they released Seasons 1-4, THEN released the ENTIRE SERIES. And not the remaining seasons individually. This means we die-hard fans will have to buy the first 4 seasons AGAIN just to own the rest of the series! Although I LOVE RHODA, I hate being taken advantage of by these distributors. Please keep the individual seasons coming!!! And release PHYLLIS too!!
   Rating: 3 / 5
5. Pommie79 says:

   July 26, 2010 at 11:25 pm

   I’m so happy that Rhoda is FINALLY being released on DVD. Growing up in the 70’s, this show is the quintessential show from that period and will bring back so many memories. Can’t wait to purchase it!!!
   Rating: 5 / 5