Deep down, Valerie Harper's Rhoda Morgenstern knew she was cool

Los Angeles Times

"Rhoda was, ostensibly, Mary’s sad-sack neighbor turned friend, but that was just a ruse," says Mary McNamara in an appreciation of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda star, who died Friday at age 80 after battling cancer. "Mary, the career gal come to the big city, may have been the lead, but Rhoda had all the best lines — 'Rhoda, chocolate solves nothing.' 'No, cottage cheese solves nothing; chocolate can do it all.' — a deadpan delivery, killer cheekbones, a wardrobe to die for and a bedroom, crowned with an 'etc.' plaque, that any young woman would (still) envy. Urban Outfitters, if I am not mistaken, bases at least 80% of its women’s apparel and decor selections on the fashion of Rhoda Morgenstern. (Seriously, check out Rhoda’s clothes rack.) Rhoda was frank, she was loyal, she was smart, and she was hilarious. One of the great door-openers of TV’s last golden — and very dependent on door-opening — age, she often entered a scene with some tale of wry woe. Her job, her love life, her mother, 'that Phyllis' (Cloris Leachman). Her life was a mess, a punchline. Whaddya gonna do? But if Rhoda’s jokes were often at her own expense, Harper told them in a way that made it clear Rhoda was only stating the facts and the facts didn’t really bother her that much. An imperfect life was OK too, and if you keep your expectations low, anything good is a wonderful surprise. Deep down, Rhoda knew she was cool."

ALSO:

• James L. Brooks, who co-created The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, honors Valerie Harper: "Valerie Harper could be in a room, at the height of it all, with people wanting to pay her tribute, and she would automatically find and go to anyone who seemed to be lonely or  uncomfortable & engage them thoroughly & honestly," he tweeted. "Such was her basic humanity always. Bless her soul."
• Inside Valerie Harper's friendship with Mary Tyler Moore