Excuse me if this has been covered before but after reading some headlines of old newspapers, I am under the impression that back in 1997-98 there were palns for a new sitcom with Mary & Rhoda. The reunion movie came in 2000, but was this a pilot of sorts to test the waters for a new series?

Excuse me if this has been covered before but after reading some headlines of old newspapers, I am under the impression that back in 1997-98 there were palns for a new sitcom with Mary & Rhoda. The reunion movie came in 2000, but was this a pilot of sorts to test the waters for a new series?
Yes ABC did consider this movie a pilot for a new series. And although this movie won its time slot with 17.8 million viewers critical reaction was so adverse they decided to abandon the project.

Yes ABC did consider this movie a pilot for a new series. And although this movie won its time slot with 17.8 million viewers critical reaction was so adverse they decided to abandon the project.


Was it that bad?

Was it that bad?
I didn't think it was awful, but I didn't think it was good enough to qualify as a series. NOTHING could top what they had already done in the 1970s on the original show.

I really didn't like the movie,nothing against Mary or Valerie but the movie was all over the place,they were clearly trying to get a new series about Mary,Rhoda and their daughters,then it turned into a movie of the week,really found the movie a let down.

Was it that bad?
I think what critics didn't like was that not only were no other cast members from TMTMS or Rhoda in the movie but that aside from Rhoda's mother none of them were even acknowledged. Nor was much acknowledgment given to the years Mary and Rhoda spent together in Minneapoilis.

I recently bought the DVD of it and I like it.

However, it's just a little depressing. For one they're so much older. Mary is a widow, Rhoda's divorced again. I was kind of hoping she and Joe got back together some years after the show ended.

I just wish there was some mention of Brenda, since it was set in New York, which is where "Rhoda" was set.

If this was a series, i would have watched it though.

I should mention, I watched the movie after having watched a lot of episodes of "Rhoda" on DVD. So I was more concerned about the Rhoda aspect of the movie. I wanted references to Brenda, Carlton the doorman, Joe, Martin & Ida (I know she mentioned Ida, but I want to know what happened to her).

I didn't think it was awful, but I didn't think it was good enough to qualify as a series. NOTHING could top what they had already done in the 1970s on the original show.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

...but then it was decided [by Mary, I believe] that it wouldn't work out- and it became a "one-shot" reunion movie instead.

:tv:

20th Century Fox had just bought out MTM Productions, and Disney had owned ABC for just a few years and was still having trouble with anything not hosted by Regis Philbin. Compare this to The Bob Newhart Show reunion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB3K4n4mSu4) from 1991 (http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-17/news/tv-110_1_bob-newhart-show), where they got as many people from the original as possible and even managed to work in Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zp7Nt7ZQOU) from Newhart. Even The New WKRP in Cincinnati still managed to get three out of eight original cast members. But MTM Productions was still a going concern then despite being a shadow of its former self by that point. ABC wanted to get a series out of it but they were dissatisfied with the ratings.

Valerie Harper talks about it here:
0mijQx94RBE