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An accurate forecast but an unnecessary one. After a few more picketing assignments—notably antiwar demonstrations in New York and the Poor People's March on Washington—Valerie and Dick moved to Los Angeles, where Schaal founded his own theater company, including Valerie, who acquired some polish and a few more ounces. When she heard that MTM was auditioning for the part of a Bronx Jewish girl, she tried out without much hope: "I'm not Jewish, not from New York, and I have a small shiksa nose." She was, in fact, a lapsed Catholic, but she had a flawless ear for intonation. After considering more than 50 actresses for the part, Mary beamed at Valerie and said the magic words: "That's Rhoda."
MOM: How come you 're not wearing a bra?
RHODA: Ma, I'm 33 years old.
MOM: That's all the more reason.
After long seasons of Big Rhoda jokes, the star finally put her weight —and her foot—down. Viewers had long suspected that underneath the avoirdupois there was a slim beauty screaming to get out. Now she emerged funnier than ever—and too big to stay put. Thus Rhoda was born.
But new security does not mean sanguinity. Valerie is still making her federal and local protests. "When Nixon fired Cox," she remembers, "I fired off a beauty of a telegram, and when Ford pardoned Nixon, I sat up half the night composing a wire about how ashamed he made me feel to be an American. The White House knows me by now."
Nor does she pull her punch lines backstage. On an upcoming show, Rhoda suspects that she's pregnant. The script called for her to say to the doctor: "I'm 33—I've just got under the wire, huh?" Valerie complained, "Hey, people get married at 33. What do we say to them?" The joke was expunged.
Valerie's demands are, in the end, a minor part of the MTM schedule. Both Rhoda and The Mary Tyler Moore Show are filmed on the spot where Mack Sennett once ran his fun factory. It is as delightful to work there in 1974 as it must have been in old Celluloid City.
Edward Asner, who plays Mary's on-screen boss, speaks for all MTM personnel when he says, "We never get bored around here. The scripts are too good."
MARY: So she dates the station manager. So they become good friends... very good friends. Why does that necessarily mean she's going to get your job?
SUE ANN: How do you think I got it?