Valerie Harper
Actress, "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife"
Friday, March 7, 2003; Noon ET Valerie Harper is probably best known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern in "Rhoda" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year and Hollywood Women's Press Club Golden Apple Award). She has also starred on Broadway and off, been on numerous television specials, and guest starred on television series ("Sex and the City," "That 70s Show" and "Touched by an Angel"). Her film credits include "Blame It on Rio" and "Last Married Couple in America." Harper is now in Washington starring in the Tony-nominated Broadway comedy, "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife," now playing at the National Theatre. Written by Charles Busch and directed by Lynne Meadow, "Wife" is the tale of Marjorie Taub (Harper), a culture-obsessed upper middle-class New Yorker whose mid-life crisis worsens when a glamorous childhood friend comes back into her life. She was online Friday, March 7 at Noon ET, to talk about her current play, her many television and film appearances and her career in general. Harper has been an active participant in The Hunger Project, an organization committed to ending world hunger and is currently developing a board game/TV game show (SMARTZ!) to help children improve their math and science skills. A transcript follows. Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
washingtonpost.com: From your TV and film work many people feel they know you, your personality. Now you're in The Allergist's Wife at the National. It's a funny play and very New York. How are audiences on the road reacting to it? Valerie Harper: Over the past 15 that the tour has visited the surprising thing is how much the audiences love this play. The play is very universal in that it is about family. A lot of people of every culture have difficulty with their mother, wish their husband was different, or would love to meet up with an old girlfriend from the past and more painfully, wish that they had done things with their life that they haven't accomplished. So these are universal themes. You don't have to be Jewish or a New Yorker or from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to really laugh with this family. I think Charles Busch, the playwright, wants us to seize the day, stop worrying about what we could've, would've or should've done. Just enjoy today.
Washington, D.C.: Do you find that the stage offers more opportunities at this point in your career, and do you plan on continuing performing in the theater? Valerie Harper: I have always performed in the theater. In between the filming season for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, I often did a stage production and I will continue to do so and I love working in the theater. This was such a compelling character in a wonderfully funny play that I could not turn it down. I'm still going to work in television as well, although I will say that I think the stage is far more welcoming to women over a certain age than TV and movies.
Sterling, Va.: Valerie, we saw you in "Allergist's Wife" on Broadway, New Year's Eve in 2001. You came out and thanked the audience for supporting the arts in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. We thought your performance was great, as were those of Michelle Lee and Tony Roberts. How come they didn't join you here in D.C? Valerie Harper: Part of it was finances. It's very difficult to send out a touring company with three star salaries. And also, both Michelle and Tony didn't feel they wanted to tour. But mainly, it's monetary. Touring productions often have to decide on sending out one star because of the salaries that we all command.
Arlington, Va.: Valerie, welcome to D.C.! Here is where you can find some of the best onion bagels outside of NYC: The Brooklyn Bagel Bakery in Arlington, VA (just a quick hop across the Potomac River). Use the link below to get the review in the Post. Brooklyn Bagel Bakery Valerie Harper: How sweet of you to send this message. You have been watching the commercial and thank you for the generous and loving tip for those of us who are food junkies.
Arlington, Va.: Do you miss series television? Valerie Harper: In some ways, yes. I had such good experiences on every series that I've done that of course, that would be an area that I'd love to work in again. When the series is a hit, you really do become family -- not just the actors but the crew and production staff as well. It's a "family" situation that I enjoy working in.
Burke, Va.: Welcome to Washington, Ms. Harper!
Do you find the theatre audience in Washington differs in any way from the Broadway crowd? Valerie Harper: I noticed that the Washington audiences really laugh at any political joke. They're also a very smart, well-read audience. I don't know how different they are from New York, but each city has its own character. It's interesting how the audiences in each city laugh at different references within the play. Also, I'd like to mention that after 9/11, our audiences were very much filled with people from around the country. You would be amazed how beautifully Americans from every region responded to Rudy Guiliani's request that they visit New York, buy tickets to a play. By heaven, they came in droves. So the complexion of the audience was not a New York audience. It was an amalgam of many people from around the country. But Washington, D.C. has very smart, very well-read and attentive audiences. Also, they're willing to laugh.
Washington, D.C.: Do you keep in touch with any of your old castmates? Julie Kavner for instance. Valerie Harper: I haven't. I saw Julie out in Malibu when I went to a friend's home and she and her husband were walking on the beach and it was chance meeting and it was great to see her again. I'm in touch with Cloris Leachman and Gavin McLeod and Ed Asner. Mary, of course, lives on the opposite. (I live in LA.) I saw David Groh. He was producing a play in LA and he came to see my show. I hadn't seen him for years. The nice thing about show business is that you may not see someone for years, but there's a good chance you'll meet up through work or some social event having to do with the industry. I'm in touch with Ed through SAG (Screen Actors Guild.)
20036: Ms. Harper - First, I am a long time fan. I'm just curious as to how involved you still are with SAG given the much publicized officer elections last year. Have you and Melissa Gilbert made nice with each other? Valerie Harper: In the last SAG election I was re-elected as a national SAG board member and am currently in talks with Mike Farrell and many other members of the board on some of the pressing issues. Melissa and I were never enemies. We worked together very well on the board and she is doing a fine job. And it's lucky for me that I lost the election in that this tour has taken my full attention for the past year and the union -- would not have liked to turn down this job -- SAG deserves a full-time president.
Every single issue that I campaigned on, won. The two campaigns that were run educated more SAG members to important issues that maybe they might have been oblivious to.
Washington, D.C.: Hello Ms. Harper -- What is your take on all of these so-called reality shows that are currently filling up our airwaves? Personally, all those shows do is make me long for old faves like "Mary Tyler Moore," "Rhoda," and "Bob Newhart," just to name a few. Do you ever have moments where it dawns on you just what a big part of television sitcom history you actually are? Valerie Harper: My feeling is that the reality shows are what you call a pendulum swing. It's something that is popular now. Viewers are looking in on what's purported to be other peoples' lives and it seems to have some interest for the public. I also would say that in no way is this the end of good storytelling on television. Shows like Mary Tyler Moore and Rhoda and MASH and Cheers and Northern Exposure and many more are storytelling in character. And they are carefully written and carefully acted for realism as well as laughs. The viewer is watching a story about someone like them. With reality programming, they're not watching a story. Storytelling is as old as humanity itself. We sat around the fire in a cave telling each other stories and that storytelling process is eternal. And perhaps, better storytelling on the sitcoms would bring people back from the the so-called reality programming.
Lately, yes. Hearing from someone like you that both shows were classics is thrilling and it's very warming to the soul and I feel very lucky that I was part of such great shows.
Valerie Harper: And let me add Roseanne, Seinfeld and of course, Lucy.
Arlington, Va.: How do you keep the show fresh, after performing it so many times? Valerie Harper: It's a real challenge but it's one we must meet as actors and I try every performance to hear the others actors for the first time. In other words, I'm living the life of Marjorie Taub for those two hours and Marjorie does not know what's coming next, so Valerie, the actor, has got to do her very best to keep every moment fresh and new and as if it's happening for the very first time. It takes concentration and a commitment to the audience which I feel very strongly.
Alexandria, Va.: It is so hard to keep a career going in show business no matter how talented you are. How hard has it been for you to get the kind of rewarding work you are doing now? Valerie Harper: It's very true. It is a difficult field and I have many colleagues that are very talented and have not had the opportunities that I have had. Part of it is being at the right place at the right time. Certainly a willingness to work very hard and to not succumb to outside opinion about what you're doing. That's a very important aspect of surviving in show business. Having said all that, I had the most extraordinarily wonderful gift of this role of Rhoda. Rhoda has opened doors for me for decades. That character and those shows have been the wind in the sails of my career. So part of the longevity of my career is the work I did pre-Rhoda for 12 years. So when the role came along, I was prepared to act it. But not everyone has a role like Rhoda Morgenstern come along. So for that, I'm eternally grateful.
Bethesda, Md.: Ms. Harper, Welcome to Washington. What do you think is the primary difference between television writers like those who wrote for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Rhoda" and those who write for sit-com TV today?
Valerie Harper: Talent. No, to be more specific, the writers of the Mary Tyler Moore show wrote characters that were true to life and they never violated the reality of the character with an out-of-character joke. They wrote the shows like little plays, with a beginning, a middle and end. What I see often on television shows today is a "sameness" and a willingness on the part of the writers to leap from joke to joke regardless of the reality, the life and the point of view of the character.
I have great hope that new wonderful shows will come our way. I am not a believer in the good old days. I think the best days are right now and so some wonderful, new innovative shows will come along. I just wish there was more room now for greater quality and creativity.
Rockville, Md.: Ms Harper,
You mentioned David Groh. Was it scripted/ planned you were to ultimately divorce him, in your series? I recall when Mary came to your apartment, right before the wedding, and he showed up unhappy about work and virtually ignored her... a harbinger of things to come? I loved the show, incidentally.
p.s. Mary pretends to wash her hands in the bathroom while you read him the riot act.... Valerie Harper: No, the original plan of the writers was to write a genuine and funny marriage. In retrospect, I think my writers were trying to write Mad About You. Standards and Practices would not allow certain things and I remember they had some trouble trying to write stories of a real marriage because we were in the family hour and were restricted.
The writers also felt that Rhoda had lost her comedy base when she became "Sadie, Sadie, married lady." She could no longer struggle with bad dates or looking for Mr. Right or finding great solace in her girlfriend Mary. They did not like the turn the show was taking. I personally was upset with Joe and Rhoda broke up, but I'm an old softie. And the writers were correct in ending the marriage in terms of the longevity of the series. And Mary was hysterical hiding in the bathroom while Joe and I fought. It was hilarious.
McLean, Va.: What do you think Rhoda would be doing in the year 2003? Any plans for any sort of reunion? If Dick Van Dyke can do it... Valerie Harper: Just a couple of years ago, we all got to see how Rhoda and Mary were doing in the ABC movie, Mary and Rhoda. Rhoda is still living in New York. Rhoda's daughter Meredith is finishing her third year in med school at Barnard in New York. It seems Rhoda raised a Jewish doctor instead of marrying one. Rhoda is fighting against being Ida to her daughter and losing the fight part of the time, and she's friends with Mary Richards a probably pursuing some artistic venture in the Big Apple.
Valerie Harper: Thank you everyone, for your wonderful questions. It's been a pleasure chatting with you online through the fantastic Rocci and if you can, please come see The Tale of the Allergist's Wife at the National Theatre through March 23. Take care of yourselves and be well and it's been my pleasure to be with you.
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