Season One
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Season One
Episode Two: You Can Go Home Again
First aired September 16, 1974
The episode title is a parody of the famous phrase "You can't go home again."
Writers: Pat Nardo and Gloria Banta
Director: Robert Moore
Cast: Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern, Julie Kavner as Brenda
Morgenstern, Nancy Walker as Ida Morgenstern, David Groh as Joe Gerard, Wes Stern as Lenny
Fiedler
Memorable Quotes:
Ma: "If at your age you haven't learned that a man doesn't buy a cow if he can get
the milk for free..."
Rho: "I remember my first dress size: toddler stout!"
How we rate it:
Sarah: 7.5
Suzie: 3
The Short Version: Rhoda moves back in with her parents. Ida kicks her out, but only because she loves Rho so darn much.
The Long Version: When Mary sends Rho's trunk to Bren's apartment, Rhoda realizes that there isn't enough room for both of them in the apartment. She needs her own place, but that's no easy task, especially in New York City. Bren has a date with third cousin Lenny. Joe finds a ticket to the Knicks game and cancels his date with Rho, despite her attempt into seducing him into staying. Rhoda has nowhere else to go but Ma's. Ma brags about her to the neighbor over the phone and invites Rhoda to stay in her old room. Rho returns to Bren's, where Lenny is hiding behind the curtain to Bren's closet (assumably they've been *ahem* necking). Joe comes back from the Knicks game and Lenny runs away. Bren and Rho decide it really would be better if Rho moved out. We next see Rho calling Mary from her old room. Rho has been dragging her feet about job hunting and is letting Ma tend to her every need. Ma spills her guts to Rho; she's still not sure if Martin is 'the right one.' Rhoda spills her guts about being scared she won't make it on her own. Ma kicks her out of her old room, but only for her own good. Before the closing credits, Rhoda explains to Ma about dressing unsexy on the subway.
Firsts: Joe calls Rhoda 'Babe' for the very first time; he says "Hiya Babe" as he walks into Brenda's place.
What We Noticed:
This is the only episode in which we see Rhoda try to seduce Joe (so that he won't go to the Knicks game.) It makes for a very funny moment.
This is one of the few episodes where there aren't plastic covers on Ma's furniture (they're also absent in episode four.) It's the only episode where no one says anything about it.
The pictures of Rhoda on Ma's mantle are the same pictures seen in the opening montage, and are in fact pictures of Valerie Harper when she was a child.
The opening credits in this episode are a little different. This is the one and only time we hear Rhoda say: "In school my grades were okay, mostly B's and C's, except for self control, ugh...."
There's a typo in the closing credits, where Wes Stern is listed as 'Barry,' not 'Lenny.'
Ma [to Rhoda]: "Do you remember when you were 14 and you had to go to camp, and you hid under that very bed and refused to come out?" This is contradictory to episode 22 of TMTMS where Rhoda says the only camp she ever went to was a day camp in the Bronx called Camp Adelman.
Rhoda sleeps in the room she and Brenda slept in when they were young . In episode 11, "9-E is Available" Rhoda tells Joe: "The first time I had a room of my own was when I was in an incubator."
Fashions of the Decade:
Rhoda: Rhoda wears an army shirt. Army shirts were popular in the late 60's/early 70's. This is the first time we see Rhoda wearing a scarf: a landmark Rhoda fashion statement. (Valerie Harper's secretary was actually the one who suggested Rhoda wear scarves.)
Brenda: Brenda wears a midi. The midi was a reaction to the supershort miniskirt/minidress that preceded it. Of course, the midi was not nearly as popular.
Obscure References:
Rhoda [to Brenda, when unwrapping a bundle of newspapers]:"I hope it's not the Maltese Falcon." "The Maltese Falcon" is a 1941 film noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart. In the movie, the characters chase around after a mysterious, valuable statuette of a falcon, which is wrapped up in newspaper. Most of them end up dead.
Lenny [to Joe]: "How many points did Frazier get?" Walt Frazier was a point guard for the Knicks from 1969-1975. He was an all star in 1970, 1972, 1974 and 1975, and was elected to the hall of fame in 1975.
Rhoda [to Ma]:"A little snack? It looks like Cannon's lunchpail!" "Cannon" --a Quinn Martin television production-- was a hit CBS show (1971-76) about Frank Cannon, a cop turned private eye. Cannon was played by William Conrad, who was by all accounts a hefty guy. Thus, a large lunchpail.
70's Trendy Topics:
Joe [to Rhoda, on finding a Knicks ticket]:" Hey do you know how much these things are worth? And it's with the Celtics." The Knicks won the championship in '73, and the team they beat was the Celtics, which made the ticket particularly desirable.
Premarital Sex:
Joe [to Rhoda, as she's trying to seduce him]:"Only now I'm not sure I wanna for
another reason..."
Viewers frequently complained about constant references to premarital sex in the series. Before her marriage to Richard Schaal in 1963, Valerie herself was adamantly opposed to premarital sex. She later changed her mind, stating in an interview "I would like to write back and tell them that I not only condone [premarital sex] but I would picket for it."
The seventies were a decade of great change sexually: the divorce rate climbed above 50 percent and swingers, single parents (like Joe), and open marriages became much more common.
What's Going On:
09/11/74 "Get Christie Love" (ABC) and
"Little House On the Prairie" (NBC) debut.
09/12/74 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed by Ethiopia's
military, after ruling since 1930.
09/13/74 "Chico And The Man" and "The Rockford Files"
debut on NBC.
09/14/74 Eric Clapton’s "I Shot The Sheriff" is the #1 pop
single.
09/16/74 President Ford announces amnesty for Vietnam War deserters and
draft-dodgers, providing they agree to two years of public service.