The Mary Tyler Moore Show: “Support Your Local Mother”
Monday, March 9th, 2009
Welcome to my synopsis of this, the sixth episode of the first season of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, “Support Your Local Mother“.
We open on Mary and Phyllis in Mary’s fabulous apartment. Mary has just finished sanding a little table, and before she paints it, Phyllis suggests she age it..with a chain. An old rusty chain, why didn’t I think of that? Anyway, Phyllis belts the table with the chain, and encourages Mary to do the same. Mary cannot hit the table without giggling profusely. It’s a little weird, but I think it goes to show us that Mary is really uptight.
Suddenly, a noise at the door interrupts Mary’s flailing attempt at flailing. A woman is sitting with her back against Mary’s front door. It’s Rhoda’s mom, played by Nancy Walker who did those Bounty paper towel commercials in the 1970’s (and 80’s?) . Rhoda is not at home, so Mary asks Rhoda’s mom to wait at her place until Rhoda returns.
The phone rings. It’s Rhoda. She doesn’t want to see her mother, and she doesn’t want Mary to say her name or yes and no too often as it will give her away to Mrs. Morgenstern . She gives Mary a silly code, if yes say a word that starts with A, and no is a B-word. All is going swimmingly until Mary says, “Ok, bye, Rhoda.”
We finally get to see Rhoda’s apartment and it looks like a cross between Jeannie’s genie bottle and the girls apartment in the Ted Knight show (post-MTMS) Too Close for Comfort.
Rhoda has issues with her Jewish Mom’s way of making her feel guilty. And because Rhoda is stubborn as a mule, Rhoda’s mom will be staying at Mary’s. She tries to pay Mary for the accommodations, and she is quite cute doing so — a frenetic struggle later, and she finally just puts it in Mary’s purse.
Next morning, and no Mrs. Morgenstern. Rhoda calls, trying to disguise her voice; Mary tells her to grow up and come down. Mrs. Morgenstern gets back and comes bearing a gift for Mary. Mary is starting to feel the same way about Rhoda’s mom that Rhoda feels. Mrs. Ida Morgenstern has a way of grinding on you, playing the victim, the long-suffering mother — a comedy staple. Mary’s gift is a duo of scarves, and even though she gushes about them, Ida apologizes for her not liking them. See what I mean.
Cut to the office. Mary is wearing two scarves.
WJM is doing a special story on the positive side of air pollution. Murray explains that the station is owned by the president of the local smelting plant. Brilliant. But Mary wasn’t aware of the special, and that means overtime and a late night. And she forgot Ted’s insignia (?), so she tries calling her “mama” to come by the station with it.
Mary freaks out in Mr. Grant’s office over the insignia. Grant tries a pep talk, and threatens to fire her. But he doesn’t mean it. Mary is super-lovable, but she has been distracted the last couple of days. She cries in that really odd fake cry that Mary Tyler Moore does, which is both off-putting and kinda cute.
Mary arrives home and Ida has the place spotless. She gives Mary her messages, by way of how many times the phone rang. And Ida drops the bomb that Mary should kick her out. She tries to assuage Mary’s pending guilt by making her promise to write. Like Rhoda did, just now, to tell her to go home to New York.
Mary tries one last time to convince Rhoda to see her mom. She visits Rhoda at her job. She’s a window dresser for a department store (wow, we get to see her at home and at work in the same episode). And Mary brought along Ida. She’s outside the window and as soon as Rhoda sees her…aw, it’s a special moment. And as Mary is left in the window, she tries out her best mannequin impression.
This is a great episode, not only for some nice physical humor, but we finally get to see more of Rhoda’s life, both in terms of her family background and her life outside of the Mary Universe. Personally, I adore Rhoda as a character, so this episode hit the spot. And her mother was a delight. The Ida Morgenstern character also makes it to the Rhoda spinoff.
Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary Tyler Moore, Rhoda, Ida Morgenstern, Nancy Walker, Bounty ads, Ted Knight, Too Close for Comfort, Phyllis, first season
Today we end our journey with classic 80’s commercials. I was a teen in the 80’s so I remember these vividly. How about you?
