Lunch Break Video: Mary and Rhoda visit Rosie

For the first four seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the characters of Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern were neighbors in a Minneapolis apartment building and the absolute best of friends. They were played by, of course, Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper.

Harper, who had won three straight Emmys for the role, was given her own spinoff, Rhoda, which ran for five seasons on CBS and won her a fourth Emmy. Her departure resulted in a different Mary’ Tyler Moore Show for that show’s final three seasons – one that was far more workplace oriented. (Penny Marshall was Mary’s neighbor in her new apartment building for three episodes but she turned out to be more of a LaVerne than a Rhoda).

Harper returned for the series finale of Moore’s series in 1977 while Mary made several guest appearances on Rhoda including the famous one-hour wedding episode.

Nearly a decade ago, Harper and Moore stepped back into the roles again for the two-hour television movie Mary and Rhoda. It was supposed to serve as a pilot for a new series but, thankfully, that did not happen. Still, both women looked terrific and paid a visit to The Rosie O’Donnell Show to promote the film.

Here is part of it:

Harper and Moore would both make several attempts to make TV series comebacks over the years. Mary did two failed variety series (David Letterman was a regular on both!) in the late 70s and two pretty good but short-lived sitcoms in the 80s. Harper scored another hit with the sitcom Valerie but things ended badly after less than two seasons when she got into a bitter legal battle with producers. Her character was killed off and the show was first renamed Valerie’s Family then The Hogan Family. She won in court but was unable to strike sitcom gold again with both City and Office lasting less than one season.

Still, Moore and Harper are television icons who have continued to work in provocative TV movies and in guest starring roles. Moore won her seventh Emmy for her performance in Stealing Babies while Harper most recently portrayed Golda Meir in the film Golda’s Balcony.