Nah, I watched them new too and always lusted after Rhoda. I can assure you I’m not from a Jewish family, not from New York by a long shot, and there were no artist types in our immediate family.
I always thought Valerie Harper was very attractive. Even when they had her in sweats and stuff, I never bought that Rhoda was “Mary’s dumpy friend”. Now Phyllis- she was unattractive because she was a snooty jerk to everyone. No wonder Lars cheated on her!
Man, that show sure did have a lot of spin offs. Rhoda, Phyllis, Lou Grant.
Has anybody ever beat it for direct spin-offs?
Maybe not direct spinoffs, but All In The Family had The Jeffersons and Maude. Maude had Good Times. The Jeffersons had the short lived Checkin’ In. Both of which are rare spinoffs of spinoffs.
Happy Days had Joannie Loves Chachi, Mork and Mindy, Laverne and Shirley, [Checks wiki], Blansky’s Beauty’s, Out Of The Blue, The Fonz and the Happy Day Gang.
It’s worth noting that although the Rhoda character is definitely Jewish, Valerie Harper is not. Her ancestry is “English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and French” and she was raised Catholic. She claims to have based the accent of Rhoda on a Jewish friend of hers.
I think Archie Bunker’s Place was technically a spin off.
Rhoda never struck me as having a “Jewish” accent. “Lawnguyland”, sure, but not necessarily Jewish. But in Minneapolis, I can understand folks confusing the two.
It was called “Some of My Best Friends are Rhoda.” Beautiful episode. The waspy friend was played by the actress who would play Bob Newhart’s wife on Newhart (the Vermont one).
Law & Order: 1) L&O: SUV; 2)* L&O: CI*; 3) L&O: LA; 4)* L&O: UK*; 5)* L&O: Trial by Jury.*
She seemed Jewish to me, and there were so few Jewish characters on TV (I say that like there are so many now).
It was more than Rhoda being homely (which she wasn’t). She had a rain cloud following her around. Mary was perfect in every way, except for her terrible dinner parties. Nothing ever went quite right for Rhoda. She was a bit of a shnuek, and a shlamazel, words I really don’t know good English translations for. I never connected this with her being Jewish at the time, although apparently my mother did, and it also didn’t pass my mother’s notice that they “goyed her up” (my mother’s phrase) a bit for her own series.
Three of those I never heard of; one of THOSE sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon show, and I’m kinda iffy on letting Mork and Mindy count.
But, yeah, it looks like the champ (ETA: but only if we’re specifying sitcoms, as RivkahChaya makes clear).
Blansky’s Beauties wasn’t a spinoff
Archie Bunker’s Place wasn’t a spinoff, the main character was still involved living in the same house. it was a continuation of the original under a new name
Mork and Mindy is a spinoff. Mork appeared on Happy Days in the spring of 78 and he got his own show in fall of 78
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Plus Fonzie appeared in the 1st episode of Mork and Mindy
Good Times was a spinoff, it was a Norman Lear Comedy starring Esther Rolle
Actually, the “Mork” episode of Happy Days just aired last night, and I put it on for my son (something else was supposed to be on), and I wouldn’t have voluntarily watched it, but I thought my 7-year-old might like it, and he thought it was hysterical. At the end, Mork gets his assignment to go live in, and study, 1970s America. So the ep. was actually a backdoor pilot.
I don’t know if a backdoor pilot is quite the same thing as a spin-off, because Mork wasn’t a regular character on Happy Days. I’ll leave that to other people, though. I mean, I guess my L&Os aren’t really spin-offs either. They’re franchises, and some of them had backdoor pilots.
It’s always funny when backdoor pilots that failed still linger in the reruns of a series, like the “Kelly’s Kids” episode of The Brady Bunch.
It was a backdoor pilot that lead to the spinoff which included the happy days house and fonzie
When I was a kid, I has one hellava crush on Mary Tyler Moore.
Or the “Gary Seven” episode of ST:TOS.
What does that mean? 
Nitpick: Laura danced once or twice on the Alan Brady Show over the course of the series, but it was never a regular thing. She was a former USO dancer, which is how she met Rob.