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When your main jams are superhero comics and classic sitcoms, your mind picks up on some parallels that could be called “unexpected” or maybe even “peculiar.” While watching every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show in broadcast order, my superhero-charged brain made an unlikely connection between the Mary Tyler Moore sitcom universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe — most notably that “Rhoda’s Wedding” is the Avengers of ’70s sitcoms. Ridiculous as it sounds, you’ll see this too if you watch every episode of Mary Tyler Moore and its spinoff Rhoda from the fall of 1974 — which I’ve now done, twice.
On the surface, these two franchises couldn’t be more different. The Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off in 2008 with the release of Iron Man. The franchise charged ahead from there, releasing a series of interconnected films all leading up to 2012’s Marvel’s the Avengers. The MCU now comprises 15 feature films, six TV shows, a handful of “one-shot” short films and dozens of tie-in comics. The Mary Tyler Moore Show launched in September 1970 and grew with the launch of Rhoda in 1974. Two more spinoffs (Phyllis and the one-hour drama Lou Grant) would follow, creating a sitcom universe containing 440 episodes of television. Of all those episodes, the wedding episode of Rhoda truly feels like an Avengers-level event—complete with an epic climax on the streets of New York City.
When Valerie Harper left The Mary Tyler Moore Show, it wasn’t even mentioned! Harper, an original cast member, last appears as a series regular with two episodes left in season four. Rhoda, Mary’s best friend, leaves the show with zero fanfare. Can you imagine the fan hysterics if Parks & Recreation had not given us a sob-filled goodbye scene between Ann and Leslie? Viewers got that goodbye when Rhoda debuted on September 4, 1974. Rhoda didn’t get a sentimental sendoff because the character was only going to New York City for what she thought was a vacation. A pre-credits scene in the Rhoda pilot, one that has been inexplicably excluded from Hulu and the Rhoda DVDs, features Mary dropping her best friend off at the airport. Airports of the ’70s were sparse, comparatively chill, and very tan.
This is where things get Avengers-y. First, there’s a secret pre-credits scene that ties the two shows together. Iron Man had a secret post-credits scene featuring Nick Fury, the guy that would tie Marvel’s first wave of films together leading up to The Avengers. From there, Rhoda and Mary Tyler Moore ping-pong back and forth as they build to a legit event. The first seven episodes of Rhoda cover the courtship of unlucky-in-love Rhoda and her new beau Joe, making shout outs to its parent show along the way. After Rhoda decides to move for Joe, Mary ships all of her BFF’s belongings halfway across the country in a trunk. After Joe pops the question in the Rhoda episode “Pop Goes the Question,” Rhoda gives Mary a late night phone call; like Nick Fury in a nightie, Mary Tyler Moore appears at the end of that Rhoda ep. The momentum starts to pick up over in The Mary Tyler Moore Show with the episode “A New Sue Ann.” That episode, which dropped two days before “Rhoda’s Wedding,” features the MTM cast buying wedding presents. Both “A New Sue Ann” and Captain America: The First Avenger feature finales that directly lead into the upcoming massive installment. The MTM episode ends with Lou (Ed Asner) and Murray (Gavin MacLeod) driving Mary to the airport, and Captain America concludes with Steve Rogers waking up in the 21st century and a sizzle reel for The Avengers.
And then, there’s the wedding — a wedding with build-up in seven Rhoda episodes, one MTM episode and one secret pre-credits scene. The double-sized episode takes place over one weekend, starting on Friday and ending with Rhoda and Joe tying the knot on Sunday. Mary arrives in New York City on Saturday morning with a drunk Murray and Lou as well as the purposefully uninvited Phyllis in tow.
In a bit of comics-style obsessive continuity, Mary, Lou, and Murray are even wearing the exact same outfits they had on in the previous Mary Tyler Moore episode. Halfway through the episode, Rhoda’s old co-worker Georgette (Georgia Engel) arrives, bringing the number of Mary Tyler Moore guest stars up to five. The guests actually outnumber the regular Rhoda cast, which just included Rhoda, her sister Brenda (pre-Marge Simpson Julie Kavner), her mother Ida (Nancy Walker), and her soon-to-be husband Joe (David Groh). The Rhoda regulars more than hold their own with the MTM guests, as Harper, Kavner and Walker have crackling chemistry as the Morgenstern women. This could easily be episode 80 of Rhoda instead of episode eight.
Just like The Avengers, “Rhoda’s Wedding” takes every opportunity to pit characters against each other. Mary’s mild-mannered-Midwestern-ness clashes with Joe’s aggressive New York attitude; later in the episode, Brenda offers to curse out Phyllis on Rhoda’s behalf when Mary blushes at her best friend’s request. Soft-spoken oddball Georgette shares a scene with Rhoda’s brash mother Ida, and we even get to see a clash of the egos when Ida goes toe-to-toe with Rhoda’s frenemy Phyllis. It’s kinda like seeing Thor and Hulk throw down, albeit with a lot more polyester. After learning that Phyllis forgot to pick up Rhoda on the way to the wedding, Ida staggers backwards in a numb and contained rage. She’s definitely on the verge of hulking out, and instead point-blank says to Phyllis, “I’ll kill you.”
Both The Avengers and “Rhoda’s Wedding” culminate in an elaborate New York City set-piece. No, Rhoda doesn’t have to fight alien invaders and close a sky portal during the trek to her wedding, but she does have to get from the Upper West Side to the Bronx in peak-sketchy New York City. The sequence deviates from sitcom tradition as the laugh track disappears and the action moves outside and on location in New York City. Rhoda tries to hail a cab but gets accosted by angry drivers. She instead hops on a graffiti-ravaged subway, getting looks from very ’70s passengers. She gets off in the Bronx and then hoofs it to her parents’ apartment where all those guest stars are waiting.
I also want to point out that “Rhoda’s Wedding” made an Avengers-sized impact on pop culture when it aired in 1974. The Avengers was a box office juggernaut, earning $623 million domestically and becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time. It’s hard to confirm just how many people watched Rhoda; numerous sites say it was watched by 52 million people and that it became the most-watched TV episode of the ’70s until Roots a few years later. Vogue reported that the episode was so hyped that, in the pre-streaming or DVR era, travelers pulled off the road and checked into hotels to watch this television event.
Rhoda and Mary popped up on each others’ shows a few more times, and both Rhoda and Phyllis returned for the MTM finale in 1977. Nothing ever topped “Rhoda’s Wedding,” though, in terms of mass appeal and cultural impact. The same can be said of the MCU, as no film has yet to unseat Marvel’s the Avengers as the franchise’s box office champ. It’s definitely an odd comparison, but “Rhoda’s Wedding” really does feel like the sitcom Avengers — albeit one that replaced fights with hugs and laughs.
Except for Ida’s threat to kill Phyllis. That was serious.
