Rhoda Morgenstern (fictional character)

Infobox character
name = Rhoda Morgenstern


caption = Rhoda Morgenstern
first = "Love Is All Around"
last = "Mary and Rhoda"
cause = End of the series
gender = Female
age = 29 (in 1970)
born = December, 1941
death = None (still alive as of 2000)
occupation = Window-dresser
Photographer
family = Martin Morgenstern (father)
Ida Morgenstern (mother)
Debbie Morgenstern (sister)
Brenda Morgenstern (sister)
spouse = Joe Gerard (divorced)
Jean-Pierre Rousseau (divorced)
children = Meredith Rousseau (born after 1978)
portrayer = Valerie Harper
creator = James L. Brooks and Allan Burns

Rhoda Faye Morgenstern Gerard Rousseau was a fictional character on the sitcom, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the subsequent spinoff series "Rhoda". She was played by Emmy-award winning actress Valerie Harper.

Mary's best friend

Rhoda was a window dresser at Hempel's department store in Minneapolis, Minnesota and lived in the same house as Phyllis Lindstrom. She lived in an attic studio apartment, having moved to Minneapolis from New York City because she thought she would keep better in the cold.

She had been wanting the large apartment on the level below where she had lived; but it was promised to Mary Richards, since Phyllis had signed a year's lease for her, to keep Rhoda out of the apartment. At first, Rhoda had disliked Mary, mainly due to their competition over the apartment, but soon, the two bonded and became best friends. She and Phyllis had despised one another from the outset, but Rhoda had a great bond with Phyllis's young daughter, Bess Lindstrom, because she knew it would horrify the oblivious Phyllis. To Bess, she was "Aunt Rhoda". In fact there was much doubt about the Rhoda character, who tested very poorly with audiences in the pilot. Mary Tyler Moore later said when they reshot the scenes with Bess, they had the child say "I like Aunt Rhoda," and this somewhat brought the next test audience around to the Rhoda character, thinking if a child likes her she is not really being "mean" to Mary, but sarcastic.

Rhoda also had to contend with her parents, Ida Morgenstern and Martin Morgenstern. At various times, she had a sister named Debbie (Liberty Williams) and her more well-known sister, Brenda (Julie Kavner). In an early "Mary Tyler Moore Show" episode, Rhoda also mentions a brother, Arnold, who was never shown, but was mentioned twice.

After losing weight, Rhoda went to visit Brenda and eventually stayed. She met Joe Gerard (David Groh) and married him not long after she moved back to New York. The two moved into the same apartment building in which Brenda lived. The marriage soured after two years, and they divorced.

Soon after arriving in New York, Rhoda started her own window dressing company, but after a few years, she took a job at a run down costume company.

When Mary lost her job, she, along with Phyllis, whom she still had animosity with, flew to Minneapolis to be with Mary in her time of need.

She later gave up being a window dresser and pursued a career as a photographer.

Eventually, she remarried and divorced again, this time to a Frenchman named Jean-Pierre Rousseau. This second marriage produced her first child, a daughter named Meredith. The real high point in her life was when she was reunited with her best friend, Mary, by now, widowed; who had a daughter of her own, named Rose.