Season One
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Season One
Episode 5: "The Lady in Red"
First aired October 7, 1974
Writer: Gail Parent
Director: Robert Moore
Cast: Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern, Julie Kavner as Brenda
Morgenstern, Harold Gould as Martin Morgenstern, Louise Latham as Louise Shattner, Robert
Moore as Mr.Graham, James Burrows as Agent, Byron Webster as funeral director, Bill
Smillie as minister, Helen Winston as woman in line, Loretta Fury as clerk, and L. Music
as Carlton the doorman.
Special Guest Stars: Robert Moore (1927-1984) gained fame for his 1968 staging of the gay-life Broadway hit, "The Boys in the Band." He appeared in the TMTMS as Phyllis' gay brother. It should be no surprise, therefore, that he himself was gay. As well as directing many first season episodes of Rhoda, he also directed Valerie Harper in two movies: "Chapter Two" and "Thursday's Game," the latter also featured Nancy Walker.
James Burrows is the series' co-creator. He appears this episode as a literary agent at the funeral.
Memorable Quote:
Brenda [reading from Rhoda's book, entitled "How to eat anything you want, whenever
you want and get very, very fat"]: "How to eat a Boston creme pie in a
closet";"How to enjoy exercising, or eating while jogging."
How we rate it:
Sarah: 7
Suzie: 6.5
The Short Version: Rhoda crashes a funeral and gets a job-- but gets fired two hours later.
The Long Version: Rhoda has the gall to ask for a raise at the unemployment office. Instead of getting more money, she gets cut off. She goes home and goes to bed. At 5:30! In conversation with Brenda, we learn that Rhoda's written a book. Brenda thinks it's hilarious and secretly sends the manuscript to a publisher. Later, when Martin comes over to bring Rho leftovers, she gets mail from the publishers, who want to meet with her. It turns out they can't publish her book, but Louise, who sent the letter, wants to hire her. Louise invites Rho, in her red dress, to the funeral of Frank Prescott, writer of 'great dirty books.' Rhoda is forced to speak at the funeral even though she never met Prescott. When she and Louise return to the office they both get fired-- Prescott was the only author of Louise's that meant anything to the company. Martin shows up to take Rho to lunch. When he learns what happened to Rhoda, he tells her the story of how Ma wanted to be a model, but was nearly heartbroken when she was told she was too short. In the last segment, we find out that Rhoda has found work as a freelance window dresser.
Production notes: Series creators Allan Burns and James L. Brooks realized in the middle of filming this episode that it was possible for someone to be a freelance window dresser. This is the position Rhoda holds until episode 23: "Windows By Rhoda."
Allan Burns: "We thought... a certain amount of unemployment would be useful to us...We didn't want Rhoda tied down to a job every day. ...[We] thought that if we put her in a department store it would smack of The Diana Rigg Show (a short-lived series of [1973])...Gradually the idea evolved for her to work for a publisher, but none of us was ever really thoroughly sure of that idea. Something didn't seem right about it.... To many viewers, any job in publishing has a feeling of glamor to it. Rhoda isn't a glamorous career girl...We had a script which we had to use, in which she went to work for a publisher, but we rewrote it so that both she and her boss got fired! I'm glad we decided not to get her in that world. It did cost us an episode-- it was an awful show...We stumbled across something we hadn't realized... most window dressers don't work for one store. They do displays for different stores. That opened up a whole range of possibilities. We got her out of publishing in a hurry!"
Firsts:
This is the first episode in which Joe does not appear. The only other episodes
(during the marriage) where he does not appear are episode 21,"Chest Pains," and
episode 29, "Ida's Doctor."
First episode written by Gail Parent.
What We Noticed:
The bright red, low cut dress that Rhoda wears to the funeral is one that we also saw her in during the opening montage in the first episode.
Classic Elements:
Classic eulogy: Rhoda [to the funeral-goers]:"I never knew Frank
Prescott....honest!"
Her eulogy-by-fire is hilarious, as she tries to convince everyone that she doesn't know
the author that wrote "great dirty books."
Classic dialogue: This episode, despite its flaws, is a gem because of the well-written dialogue between Valerie Harper and Harold Gould. The last scene is an especially good example of the show's strong writing.
Fashions of the Decade
Rhoda wears a different style in this episode. She discards her usual semi-formal office attire for an softly gathered ankle-length floral skirt with a scoopnecked t-shirt, a favorite fashion of 1974.
Obscure References
The minister at the funeral wrote a book called "Rapping with God." "Rapping" was a slang term for informal conversation, and when somebody had a "rap session," it meant they were having a talk.
Brenda [to Rhoda]:"I haven't seen so much smiling since Ralph Edwards had Bert Parks on 'This is Your Life.' " Edwards was the emcee of 'This is Your Life,'(which started as a radio show in 1948 and ran on TV 1952-61, 1970, and 1983.) 'This is Your Life' was a popular show which revolved around the life story of a featured guest, usually, but not always, famous. The guest would come on stage while people they knew would hide offstage and tell stories about their life. Then the two would be reunited onstage. Featured stars on 'This is Your Life' included Laurel and Hardy, Dick Van Dyke, and Betty White. Bert Parks was a game show host, but is best known for being the host of the Miss America pageant for 25 years (1955-80) and popularizing the song 'There She is-- Miss America.' So, when the two hosts got together, you can imagine how much smiling there was.
Rhoda [to Brenda]:"...The one thing I don't need in my life right now is a pipedream." A pipedream is a daydream or wish. You can see it, but you can't reach out and grab it (like smoke from a pipe).
Rhoda: "It's too late to be Shirley Temple." Shirley Temple (later Shirley Temple Black) starred in many classic children's movies (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Little Princess) when she was young, and later on in life became an ambassador.
Rhoda: "Gee Louise, don't you feel we should be sitting in some hotel ballroom wearing straw hats listening to a Dixieland band play "We Ain't Down Yet"? "We Ain't Down Yet" is a song from the musical 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown,' (The 1964 movie version starring the unsinkable Debbie Reynolds is probably what she's referring to here.) In the story, Molly, confronted from birth by a series of catastrophes that would send any normal person 'round the bend, overcomes every disaster thrown in her path --including the sinking of the Titanic. She lived happily ever after, of course.
70's Trendy Topics:
Premarital Sex:
The Reverend [to Rhoda, on what to write down in the guest book at the funeral] "Most
of the other ladies chose 'cousin.'"
Brenda [to Rhoda] "Why are you going to bed so early? Are you alone?"
Once again, the series makes reference to the controversial topic of premarital sex...This episode also makes reference to sexual harassment: Rhoda took a job, but quit because she was groped by the boss. Unfortunately, this causes her Unemployment to be cut off. In the seventies, of course, these complaints weren't taken as seriously (legally) as they are now. Injustices like this one were part of the reason that the feminist movement was such a strong and visible force in the seventies.
Woman in the unemployment line hooking a rug: Making latch-hook rugs was a trendy thing to do in the mid to late 70s and early eighties. They came in kits, with short colored bits of yarn and a backing with a preprinted design. The yarn was attatched to the rug using a latch-hook, which looked sort of like a skinny crochet needle with a wooden handle. The rugs were often made into throw pillows when finished.
Martin: "You see too little of that today, unwanted hair." It was common in the seventies for some women connected with the feminist movement to stop shaving their body hair. For the first time, they decided that it was not 'unwanted hair.'
Ring of Truth:
Rhoda [on unemployment]: "They've got a whole new system-- They throw coins off the roof and we dive for them.": "Rhoda" began when there was an economic recession, demonstrated in Rhoda's unemployment of 17 weeks.
What's Going On
10/05/74 Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" is the #1 album.
10/05/74 Olivia Newton-John’s "I Honestly Love You"
is the #1 pop single.