Re this movie clip debating the issue I never thought Rhoda was all that less attractive than Mary.
Was Rhoda really considered that far behind Mary?
Go to this “Rhoda” show clip at about 9:20 infor a head to head to head. They’re different but Rhoda is quite attractive.
When Rhoda was a supporting character on MtM, she was slightly pudgy and frumpy; her look was deliberately less polished than Mary’s. I think Romy and Michelle were discussing MtM Rhoda, not New York Rhoda Rhoda.
I watched them when they were new shows, and I always thought Rhoda was the more attractive, both physically and in terms of her personality and story. This probably reflects my being from a Jewish family from New York, with an artist for a mother, in an environment in which all hip women wore colorful scarves and big hoop earrings.
Both women were attractive but Mary just had a prettier face
Well, Mary was America’s Sweetheart, so all females on the show would look inferior compared to her.
Rhoda couldn’t turn the world on with her smile.
And she comes in second as Marge Simpson’s sister too.
But unlike Mary she wasn’t playing impossible to get.
See TV Tropes on “Hollywood Homely” in which attractive actors play putatively plain characters. According to that page, Rhoda was supposed to be the homely one on The MTM Show but the pretty one on Rhoda. I don’t remember the latter well enough to comment.
That’s Rhoda’s sister, not Rhoda. (I always thought Brenda was better looking than Rhoda.)
yeah Brenda was cute in the face it was just her down and out personality that made her average looking
Semi-rambling answer: At the beginning of the series, Rhoda was a frumpy, though not horrifying, young, single, Jewish friend of Mary, and somewhat addlepated, female neighbor, juxtaposed against Mary’s lean, WASP-ish turning the world on with her smilej attractiveness.
Rhoda was tolerable, but no great shakes-the kind teenage boys would fuck, but not brag about.
Somewhere in the series, and I can’t remember when, Rhoda toned down to a slightly neurotic friend, instead of the female “Howard Borden” neighbor that she started out being. And, she started losing weight and getting more toned, and less frumpy. Then, on one episode, the storyline was Rhoda’s weight loss, and how she was starting to look hotter, and had transformed. Neighbor Phyllis said something like “Gee,Rhoda, you’ve lost a ton!” In the 70s, and with Phyllis’ delivery, this was considered amusing. She was now a (semi-) co-equal to Mary, with, IIRC, a better job/career. This worked out to make it a kind of a ‘buddy’ series, which made it easier to steal old plotlines.
In the looks department, she was now an equal of Mary, just, again, more ethnic.
Watching the series, in the late 90s, I was amazed by how spooky Mary looked in the series. Not the hot babe of the Dick Van Dyke Show, not even a milfy-version of the same-more of a sunburned, haggard reflection of what had been. I think that she was living off of her DVDS reputation, and that, along with her acting talent, and the shows writers, made her ‘seem’ more attractive than Rhoda.
Rhoda syndrome. The frumpy sidekick meant to make the lead female look more glamorous gets purtier every season. It happens in almost every situation. Remember Abby in the early days of LA Law? Frumpy student paralegal. End? Out-glammed Susan Dey.
Moving to CS.
I had the same observation and mentioned it once to my brother, who worshipped MTM. He just looked at me and said “Diabetes.”
FWIW, I always thought Rhoda was attractive*, and couldn’t understand why the show’s producers were going to such great lengths to make her appear otherwise. I guess the “sidekick” explanation provides the reason.
*And no, I’m not Jewish … so far as I know.
Well, there is the “wholesome Caucasian lady” versus “suspect ethnic hippie” factor.
To some degree. But they actually did do an episode on that very topic in the first season: Mary hooked up with another beautiful WASP-type and quit spending time with Rhoda, until she realized her new friend was a bigot. One of the few “message” episodes in the series’ history.
I’d chalk that up to a couple of things:
1)It was 10 years later, that might be the main thing. She was in her 20’s in DVD and in her 30’s in MTM, so she’s going to lose some of that ‘cuteness’.
2)She played a similar but different character. In MTM she was much more serious. If you were attracted to her sense of humor in DVD, you might lose some of that in MtM. While she was the straight man in both shows, she was straighter in MTM. Plus she had to be the bad guy from time to time on MtM bossing around some of her co-workers or friends.
3)She had different hair and clothes in the two shows. In DVD she had much more of a pin up look. Remember, she was an ex-dancer from the Allen Brady show (and IRL IIRC). I remember hearing an interview with Mary Tyler Moore once where she said she had it written into her contract that she could wear capri pants in at least one scene in each episode because, in her opinion, housewives don’t actually walk around in dresses all day like they had her (and Millie) doing.
4)This may or may not make a difference, but DVD was in B&W and MtM was in color. Remember when shows started going to HD before the makeup departments caught up. Add ten years to the DVD version of her PLUS seeing her in color.
I think you’re referring to “Rhoda the Beautiful,” the sixth episode of Season 3. That’s when she wins the beauty contest at Hempel’s department store - although she’s too bashful to admit it at first.
Personally I think Rhoda is the sexier of the female leads. She’s got more going on in the derriere department.
She actually lied about her age to get the part of Laura Petrie. (IIRC, she claimed to be 23 or 24 when she was actually 20; something like that.) On YouTube, there’s an interview with MTM and DVD on Johnny Carson. Dick says he was astonished to see how young she was the first day they worked together. (He was around ten years her senior.)
She of course did look more mature on MTM; one of the series’ central themes was how a woman in her 30s would cope with being alone and building a career after walking out on her no-goodnik fiance.
We recall the DVD episode about Laura lying about her age (therefore, the wedding wasn’t valid, IIRC).