In November 1997, it was announced that Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper would be reuniting in a new sitcom as Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern, their characters from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. After years apart, Mary and Rhoda were to reconnect in New York City following the deaths of their husbands. At first, 13 episodes were ordered for the proposed series before it was scrapped in favor of a one-off reunion. The result was a made-for-TV movie titled Mary and Rhoda, which eventually aired on ABC on February 7, 2000.
Although Moore and Harper’s reunion attracted a lot of attention, it was not well-received. “Were this a series, as had been planned, its ability to have a life beyond an initial 13 episodes would have been doubtful,” a review in Variety said. Caryn James wrote in The Day, “Nostalgia is the only reason to watch Mary and Rhoda, which comes across as the characters never did, a little sad.” The film would mark the last time Moore and Harper would play Mary and Rhoda.
It also marked the first time TV audiences caught a glimpse of another comedy star in the making. At just over 27 minutes into the movie, Charlie Day of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame shows up as the mail boy at a TV station where Mary’s looking to get a job. After he points her in the direction of the boss’s office, he catches her looking at herself in the mirror and takes that opportunity to hit on her. “Looking fine,” Day’s character says to Mary, who was 40 years his senior. “You think so?” she asks, before he looks her up and down and reassures her with a wink:
Day recently told Jimmy Kimmel that he originally thought he was supposed to say “Looking fine” sarcastically because of the age difference between him and Mary. The director, Barnet Kellman, then explained to Day that he should legitimately be hitting on her to make her feel better about herself in that moment. Day also told Vanity Fair that he remembered Moore being “lovely” to him on set, even though he was only there for a few lines.
Day bounced around for a little while after that until landing his breakout role as Charlie Kelly on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in 2005.
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