I Miss Rhoda Morgenstern

For the last several months, I've been watching the Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD. It was one of my very favorite shows back in the 70s. I loved Mary Tyler Moore when she was Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke show and I loved her even more as Mary Richards. She was a role model for me: an independent career woman navigating life.

I loved the reparté between Mary and her best friend Rhoda who lived upstairs. Rhoda was witty and sassy and just plain fun.

I just watched season 5 and Rhoda is no longer there. In the show, she returned to NYC. On television, she starred in her own show which I watched, but watching Mary and Rhoda separately was just not the same as watching them together.

There are other characters on the Mary Tyler Moore Show who had larger roles beginning with season 5. Sue Ann Nivens was played by Betty White, who is great. But Sue Ann's caustic wit is best in small doses. And Georgette, Ted Baxter's ditzy girlfriend, a sort of Gracie Allen character, can also become more annoying than funny.

Since I watched the show in the past, I know that Mary is going to move from her funky apartment in the building owned by Phyllis to a more modern complex. I remember that I really didn't enjoy those episodes nearly as well as the first 4 seasons.

I plan to continue through to the end which is 2 more seasons (2 more sets of DVDs, several more evenings in front of the TV set), but it won't be the same without Rhoda.