undefined

Product Description ------------------- 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 ---- 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