The Roush Review
February 5-11, 2000
by Matt RoushLove Them, Not the Movie
It's a long way from Tipperary.
In 1977, when last we saw Mary Richards and the WJM gang--Rhoda Morgenstern had long since left Minneapolis--they were tearfully singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," in a final chorus of sitcom cameraderie. And yet, in an example of how poorly the memory of one of TV's finest comedies is being served by ABC's lugubrious Mary & Rhoda (February 7, 8PM EST), Rhoda never even asks Mary how Murray, Mr. Grant, Sue Ann, or Ted have fared. Out of sight, out of mind. Out of sync, if you ask me. Still, it is joyous to see Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper cavorting like schoolgirls on a busy Manhattan street, oblivious of traffic as they exult in each other's company: "It's Rhoda!" Mary shrieks. For a moment, we know how she feels.
Legions of viewers who watched The Mary Tyler Moore Show either when it was new or on Nick at Nite will likely flock to this TV-movie--however apprehensively. Who doesn't harbor fond memories of these independent 70's women, role models for a generation? As odd couples go, few equal the plucky Midwesterner and her brash big-city friend, who together could take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile. Here, the duo achieves miracles despite a lackluster script, but even Harper's boisterous comic energy and Moore's eternal likability can't breathe life into this tale of two sixty-something dames starting over with their dull college-age daughters.
Rhoda is in retreat from Paris and a bad marriage ("I went back to my first love. Of course, you can only eat for so long.") and finds work as a gofer for a fashion photographer. Mary, newly widowed, returns to TV producing, with a bratty kid boss who's the opposite of Lou Grant: he's unfunny. The Journalism 101 subplot in which Mary battles tabloid-TV standards fatally stalls the movie. The good news is that our love for Mary and Rhoda will long outlive our disdain for Mary & Rhoda. Let's just be glad they found each other again, and leave it at that.
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