Rhoda Morgenstern

Rhoda Faye Morgenstern, portrayed by Valerie Harper, is a fictional character on the television sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show and subsequent spin-off, Rhoda. 2Character background The original opening of the series Rhoda establishes that Rhoda Faye Morgenstern was born in the Bronx, New York, in December 1941. She is the daughter of Ida and Martin Morgenstern (Nancy Walker and Harold Gould), and grew up in New York before moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota sometime in the late 1960s. On The Mary Tyler Moore Show Rhoda had a sister named Debbie (Liberty Williams), seen in one episode, and a briefly-mentioned brother named Arnold; these two were retconned out of the back story when the character got her own series. On Rhoda, Rhoda's only sibling was a younger sister named Brenda, although in the sixth episode, Brenda refers to herself as Rhoda's "youngest sister." 2The Mary Tyler Moore Show Relocating from New York City, Rhoda was a window dresser at Hempel's after being fired from Bloomfield's department store in Minneapolis. (She also became the proprietor of a plant boutique in one third-season episode, though this was not referenced again). She rented an attic loft apartment in the same house as the building manager, Phyllis Lindstrom. In the debut episode, Mary Richards moved into the larger apartment, one floor below, which Rhoda had been trying to secure for herself. This caused the two to initially clash, but in spite of themselves and their differences (Mary was a polite, sophisticated mid-westerner, Rhoda was an astringent, brash New Yorker) they quickly became best friends. Throughout the series, Rhoda and Phyllis maintained an adversarial-but-friendly relationshi