Is there not a Mary Tyler Moore box set? (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Will it also mean that Rhoda (Season 5) and possibly Phyllis be on the docket anytime soon for a DVD release?

Rhoda only ran four seasons.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Rhoda only ran four seasons.

Five.

The final season was a short 13 episode run and it hasn't made its way to disc yet.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Actually, the ratings for Rhoda's fifth and final season were so bad that CBS cancelled it after only nine episodes were shown, never airing the remaining four. They made their premiere in syndication.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Actually, the ratings for Rhoda's fifth and final season were so bad that CBS cancelled it after only nine episodes were shown, never airing the remaining four. They made their premiere in syndication.

Well, you answered the question I was going to eventually look up or ask.

I was wondering why just a half season order for the final year.

So it tanked that badly? Was it a new time slot, were people just tired of the show after Joe left, what?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Actually, the ratings had already deteriorated. The first two seasons, the show was in the Top Ten. The third season it ranked #32. There were indications that some people didn't like Rhoda as a married woman, which is why they decided to have Joe and Rhoda get divorced. This plot thread began with the first episode of Season 3. It must not have been such a good idea, as the ratings indicate.

Things improved for Season 4, when it was #25. But the 5th season, they moved it to Saturday nights and things fell apart. It was at #43 when CBS pulled the plug.

 

[Matt Hough]

Five.

The final season was a short 13 episode run and it hasn't made its way to disc yet.

My gosh. I missed the whole thing! I'm serious! Wow!

 

[Brian Himes]

I think that the whole Rhoda series was mishandled from the start. If the goal was to get Rhoda married, it should have happened at the end of the first season. Not eight episodes into the first season. Then have the separation and divorce at the beginning of season 4 so that by the start of season 5, Rhoda was divorced and once again on the singles scene. Structured just a little bit better and the series could have worked pretty much the way it turned out only slightly better. They just married Rhoda off way too early for it to be believable. It just seemed that the writers really didn't know what direction to take Rhoda.

The same with Phyllis. Phyllis started off strong and just seemed to stagnate. By the time the second season came around and they found a direction for Phyllis, it was too late. No one was watching so CBS pulled the plug. Sad, because most of the time Phyllis was quite funny and fun to watch.

 

[Matt Hough]

Phyllis was also the victim of a misguided time slot change. It did great on Monday night, but CBS was trying to shore up a weaker night and ended up killing momentum for the series. The second season wasn't as funny as the first with the death of Judith Lowry, sad to say.

 

[bmasters9]

Phyllis was also the victim of a misguided time slot change. It did great on Monday night, but CBS was trying to shore up a weaker night and ended up killing momentum for the series.

And ABC did the same w/Mork & Mindy: it did well on Thursdays from 8-8:30 for its first go-round in 1978-79, but then for 1979-80, ABC decided to move it to Sundays at 8 (it would, for two episodes, be on Sundays at 8:30). That proved to be disastrous, as those who were expecting it to be on Thursdays couldn't find it, and had to wait 3 extra days. ABC seemed to realize what a colossal blunder they had made, and Mork & Mindy went back to Thursdays where it was originally, after 16 Sunday shows (this is how it was for the remainder of the second season, and the balance of the series [one other episode was from 8:30-9 on a Thursday). That change, however, proved to be too little too late, as the ratings went into a tailspin and never recovered, and Mork ended out after 4 seasons' worth in 1982 in 60th place.

 

[Jack P]

The Mork move was ABC thinking it could save money by cancelling "Battlestar Galactica" and holding the same numbers Galactica had given them on Sunday nights (which were much better than anything ABC had there before) by moving "Mork" there.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Phyllis was also the victim of a misguided time slot change. It did great on Monday night, but CBS was trying to shore up a weaker night and ended up killing momentum for the series. The second season wasn't as funny as the first with the death of Judith Lowry, sad to say.

Speaking of bad time slots, In looking up Rhoda on Wiki, that and Good Times were on opposite CHiPS, which probably didn't help matters any.

Both shows were pulled in December, but Good Times came back to close out its final season.

 

[Rob W]

Rhoda's time slots were the least of it's problems . Speaking as someone who watched it first-run, the series never really found it's groove compared to TMTMS. It seemed like every year supporting characters changed, which indicates the show runners knew what they had wasn't working. And is it just me, or were most of the supporting characters merely annoying losers, rather than funny characters ? The series went a long way simply because of the goodwill generated by Valerie Harper, Julie Kavner and Nancy Walker. I stuck with it for several years simply because Rhoda was one of the great characters in sitcom history, but eventually I just gave up on it as you could never really depend on it for consistently funny scripts.
I picked up the Shout! Factory discs a few years ago and my memories of the show were pretty much confirmed. I still haven't found my way through all of them.

 

[FanCollector]

It's interesting that Rhoda got pulled from the schedule ranked 43rd when the last season of MTM was ranked 38th, I think. Had it gone for an eighth season, the end might have been less heralded.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

The media have been exaggerating the success of The MTM Show. It was far behind the blockbuster status of shows like All in the Family & Sanford and Son. It did well enough and was prestigious enough for CBS to keep it going.

What they're really wrong about, but repeat over and over, was that Mary Richards was the first unmarried, independent female sitcom character with a career. Then what was Our Miss Brooks 18 years earlier? Also in the '50s, Ann Sothern qualified in both her sitcoms. In the second one, she was the assistant manager of a large hotel in a big city, very much analagous to the kind of job Mary Richards had.

Even Lucy qualified in the second format of "The Lucy Show" and in "Here's Lucy." "That Girl" presented a single career woman four years before MTM, as did "Julia" two years before.

I liked MTM just as much as anyone. I think she was one of the greatest comic actresses in TV history. I'm just saying the "alternative facts" given out about her show are very debatable.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

If I was younger and the only thing I knew about TMTMS was what I saw from the media last week, I'd have to assume the show's only value was as an inspiration to Oprah Winfrey. (Pardon me while I gag.)

So it hasn't surprised me that the media won't bother to stick to facts. (Why would they try something new?) The show was great and highly entertaining, and it doesn't need the media creating false narratives about being "the first [fill in the blank]" to try to convince people of its greatness.

 

[BobO'Link]

^While I wholeheartedly agree I must reluctantly add that it was seemingly only Oprah's involvement and prodding which persuaded Fox to finally finish releasing the series.

It doesn't help that TMTMS hasn't seen much syndication (at least in my area) since its original airings. That's somewhat surprising considering its superb ensemble cast and that the scripts don't focus on "timely" topics making the program somewhat timeless. Give it another 5-10 years and this one, along with many other programs from TV's Golden Age, will disappear - unless we older enthusiasts introduce our kids and grandkids to them.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

^While I wholeheartedly agree I must reluctantly add that it was seemingly only Oprah's involvement and prodding which persuaded Fox to finally finish releasing the series.

True, Oprah's push to get Fox to finish releasing the series is the one positive thing I can say about her.

Too bad she wasn't also influenced by several other Fox-owned shows that they will probably never bother to put out.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

True, Oprah's push to get Fox to finish releasing the series is the one positive thing I can say about her.

Too bad she wasn't also influenced by several other Fox-owned shows that they will probably never bother to put out.

If only she had raved about the Dogs scene in WKRP, eh? Or One Day at a Time.

As for the MTM Show not getting much syndicated action... it was a cornerstone of Nick at Nite and then TV Land for years. I'd wager that's where your average 30something knows the show from better than anything.

 

[TravisR]

As for the MTM Show not getting much syndicated action... it was a cornerstone of Nick at Nite and then TV Land for years. I'd wager that's where your average 30something knows the show from better than anything.

Yeah, Nick At Nite is where I first saw it. I was talking to a friend the other day and he said the same.

 

[BobO'Link]

As for the MTM Show not getting much syndicated action... it was a cornerstone of Nick at Nite and then TV Land for years. I'd wager that's where your average 30something knows the show from better than anything.

Interesting... I guess I just wasn't paying attention to their schedule at the time. I'd say it was before we got "Nick at Nite" here but we had "TV Land" from its inception so I have no excuse other than forgetfulness...