Episode 1.6
originally broadcast October 24, 1970
Written by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns
Directed by Alan Rafkin
Storyline: Rhoda's mother comes to Minneapolis for a visit, and all hell breaks loose. Rhoda doesn't want to see her because they end up fighting every time they see each other. So, she stays with Mary in her apartment, with Rhoda just one flight up. After seven days of havoc and not seeing her daughter, Mrs. Morgenstern gets ready to return to New York. Rhoda's working late at the store that night and Mary stops by as she's taking Mrs. Morgenstern to the bus station. Finally, mother and daughter reunite. They return to Mary's apartment and straighten everything out.
Memorable Quotations/Exchanges:
(Mary and Phyllis are working with a new endtable that Mary has...they want to rough it up to make it look more like an antique)
PHYLLIS: You just use this chain and hit it, like this...you know, to give it a more antique look. (picks up the chain and whips it against the table). If you have any hostility, this is a great way to work it out. I haven't had this much fun in years!! Here, you try.
MARY: Well, uh...
PHYLLIS: Go ahead!
MARY: Okay, okay. (She can barely do it without giggling...she slaps it against the table gently and can't get the feel for it)
PHYLLIS: Apparently you have some sort of hangup about this...either get over it or buy genuine antiques. I'll see ya later!
MARY: Who is it?
IDA MORGENSTERN: Nobody.
(opens door)
MARY: Can I help you?
IDA: No, I'm fine, thanks.
MARY: I thought I heard something hit the door.
IDA: It was just my head.
MARY: Your head?
IDA: I was leaning back to rest my head, and I misjudged the distance. Don't worry about me, though, I'm fine.
MARY: Are you sure?
IDA: Positive.
MARY: Uh...
IDA: I'm sorry you didn't get to marry that fella you were gonna marry. My daughter wrote me all about it, Mary.
MARY: You're...Rhoda's mother?!
MARY: Go ahead, sit down.
IDA: I don't want to inconvenience you.
MARY: You won't inconvenience me if you sit down! People sit down in here all the time. Practically every time someone comes in the door, they sit down.
IDA: Rhoda was right....you have a cute personality. I don't want to keep you from doing what you were doing.
MARY: No, that's okay, I'll do it later.
IDA: I don't want to inconvenience you. Go back to what you were doing.
MARY: Oh, okay. (picks up chain and whips it against table) It's something you do to furniture to make it look more antique.
IDA: Uh...uh huh. Well, it's nice you have a hobby that makes you happy.
RHODA: Mary, it's Rhoda. And don't say 'Hello, Rhoda.'
MARY: Okay, uh, hi! Why?
RHODA: I'm going to ask you a couple questions but I don't want you to answer 'yes' or 'no'. Because a lot of 'yes's' and 'no's' will make it look suspicious that there's someone there with you. There's someone there with you, right?
MARY: Uh, yes.
RHODA: I told you not to answer 'yes' or 'no'!
MARY: Well, how else am I supposed to....
RHODA: I've got a code system worked out. If the answer is 'yes', just say a word that begins with the letter A. If the answer is 'no', just say a word that begins with the letter B. Is my mother there?
MARY: Uh...apple.
RHODA: Does she know I'm home up here?
MARY: You're...bagel....
RHODA: Could you make some excuse and come up here real quick?
MARY: Aaaabracadabra.
RHODA: Good, I'll see you in a minute, then.
MARY: Okay, Rhod...
RHODA: Did my mother suddenly look up when you said 'Okay, Rhoda?'
MARY: Alabama.
RHODA: Read the card.
MARY: 'Nobody in the world will love you as much as I do.' That's lovely!
RHODA: To the naked eye, it's lovely. But think about it, Mary. I'm thirty years old and single. No matter where I go or who I meet or how long I live, nobody will ever love me as much as she does. That's not a card, it's a curse!
MARY: What about your father? Does he treat you this way?
RHODA: No. I was five years old before I knew my father could talk. The first thing I remember him saying was, 'Listen to your mother!' Understand now, Mair?
MARY: No, I'm sorry, I don't! Your mother is down there, and you're up here and you say you love her...
RHODA: You're talking about midwestern love. I'm talking about Bronx love. There's a certain amount of guilt that goes along with it. My mother wants the people she loves to feel guilty. Like with her pill. My mother hasn't been taking her pill for as long as I can remember.
MARY: What hasn't she been taking them FOR?
RHODA: I don't know. For all I know, they're an aphrodisiac.
IDA: I never eat, I just nibble.
MARY: Well, if you're still hungry, there's half a chicken in the refrigerator.
IDA: Not anymore, that's what I nibbled.
IDA: This is ridiculous, I'm going to a motel. I found a place down by the river for five dollars a night. I hope they let me in without a car. Oh, I only hope and pray that it's clean.
MARY: Please, Mrs. Morgenstern, if it will make you stay, you can sleep on the chairs.
IDA: Well, the least I can do is give this to you.
MARY: Oh, please Mrs. Morgenstern, I can't take your money.
IDA: Oh, come on.
MARY: No! I couldn't take it! Just for letting you sleep on my chairs? No! (chase ensues where Ida tries to get the money into Mary's pocket... they eventually stop and Ida puts it in the cookie jar.) Goodnight, Mrs. Morgenstern.
IDA: Goodnight!
MARY: Sleep well!
IDA: (trying to get comfortable on the chairs) Oh, this is going to kill my back!
PHYLLIS: How can you live with a woman for three days and not know her first name?
MARY: Well, I never thought of her having a first name.
PHYLLIS: Oh Mary, that's SO you. Going around and calling a woman by Mrs...she doesn't want to be called that!
MARY: Well, I don't think I can call her what she wants to be called.
PHYLLIS: Ida?
MARY: Momma.
MARY: Hello? Yes, Mrs. Morgenstern is still here...well, I don't know... Rhoda, is this you? Yes it is too you, Rhoda, so you can cut out the Italian accent. I don't know if she's taking her pills. I suppose if she needs to, she's taking them. Goodbye, Rhoda.
MARY: I really love these scarves!
IDA: Well, it's nice of you to say that, anyway.
MARY: Here...(she puts one of them on) Isn't that great, huh?
IDA: Well, I'm sorry you don't like the other one.
MARY: Mrs. Morgenstern, did you take your pills today...Momma?
MARY: (frazzled) I called my house because my friend's mother is staying with me, and I wanted to see if I could get her to bring down Ted's insignia, and my friend isn't speaking to her mother and I'm just.... you know what's bothering me?? Really bothering me??
LOU: I have no idea.
MARY: (beside herself) I just sounded nuts!
LOU: Mary, life is tough.
MARY: No, it's not really tough.
LOU: What do you mean, 'not really'? I give you a cliche, three dumb words, and you want to argue with me?
MARY: Well, yes, it is a little tough.
LOU: It's getting tougher all the time. I'm not interested in your friend's mother, that's tough. I don't care if Ted gets his insignia. That's though too. And if I don't come up with a bunch of reasons, by tomorrow night, about why pollution isn't so bad, the chairman of the board is going to get pretty upset! At me! Like I said, life is tough.
MARY: You're right...life is tough.
LOU: You know what else is tough? If you don't start shapin' up, I'm going to have to fire you.
MARY: (quavering) You mean that?
LOU: No. Just a scare tactic. But I'll tell you what I do mean, the last few days, you've been doing a rotten job around here.
MARY: Well, yes, I've been a...a little off.
LOU: No, no, no. Not a little off, ROTTEN! There are two things I'm trying to get through to you. Life is tough and you've been rotten!
MARY: The last couple days, all I've been able to think about is Rhoda and her mother, Murray has been doing half my work for me out there....
LOU: Yeah, well, you've been a little off...
MARY: No! I've been rotten! (she exits)
LOU: (to himself) What happened here??
MARY: Rhoda, could I talk to you out there? I feel...kind of funny in here.
RHODA: I'm sorry, Mair. I've gotta get this display done in a hurry. I think the bride is in trouble.
MARY: Listen, Rhoda, aren't you going to ask me how your mother is?
RHODA: How is she?
MARY: She's going home tonight, to New York! That's how she is!
RHODA: What do you want out of me?
MARY: Rhoda, would it hurt you so much to go down to the bus station and say goodbye to her? And hello?
RHODA: No, it wouldn't.
MARY: Well, then?!
RHODA: But if I go down there, I won't get off with just a goodbye. I see her, and it'll set me back twenty years.
MARY: Well, then don't turn around.
RHODA: (turns around) Hello, 1950.
MARY: Okay, I told her you'd be working late tonight.
RHODA: (crying) My mother. You gotta hand it to her. She's got a back that can break your heart. (Mary beams) C'mon, I always cry at weddings. (Rhoda comes out from behind the window to the sidewalk) Hi.
IDA: (they embrace) Oh, Rhoda. You make me so happy.
RHODA: (tries to pick up suitcase but can't...then Ida picks it up with ease) Whaddya got in here, anyway?
(They exit; Mary beams at them...then sees passersby and realizes it might be more appropriate for her to stand like a mannequin, so she does.)
Credits:
Associate Producer/Unit Production Manager: Lionel A. Ephraim
Music Composed and Conducted by Pat Williams
Theme Song "Love is All Around" Written and Sung by Sonny Curtis
Director of Photography: Paul Uhl
Film Editor: Douglas Hines, A.C.E.
Assistant Director: John C. Chulay
Art Director: Lewis E. Hurst, Jr.
Set Decorator: Raymond Boltz
Script Supervisor: Dorothy Aldworth
Title Visualization: Reza S. Badiyi
Assistant to Producers: Lorenzo Music
Camera Coordinator: Don Bustany
Music Editing: Ed Norton Music, Inc.
Makeup Artist: Ben Nye, II
Hair Stylist: Donna M. Cox
Men's Costumes: Don MacDonald
Women's Costumes: Leslie Hall
Wardrobe for Mary Tyler Moore Furnished by Evan-Picone
Men's Wardrobe Furnished by Palm Beach, Designed by John Weitz
Comments: A beautiful episode in every category, "Support Your Local Mother" defines for us the (as Rhoda calls it) "Bronxian-love" relationship between Ida Morgenstern and her daughter. Mary would often get caught in the middle of these mother-daughter verbal fistfights. The 'fistfights' are indigenous to the Ida-Rhoda relationship, and of course, never result in any long-term estrangement. A number of great episodes of "Rhoda" covered the same ground. However, nothing but nothing could ever drive these two apart, no matter what. Moments of high comedy abound. The final sequence in the department store window is especially touching.
Trivia: This classic episode, that the knuckleheads at CBS originally detested, won James L. Brooks and Allan Burns their first Emmy. It also marked the very first time Ida Morgenstern appeared on our TV screens. She'd appear semi-regularly for the next eight years.
Rating: 94
Humor: 22
Writing: 22
Acting: 25
Story Concept: 25
Category: Top 10%
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