Valerie Harper, best known to non-Muppet fans as Rhoda Morgenstern, best friend of Mary Richards in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spinoff, Rhoda has died.
Harper won 4 Emmys as Rhoda and she famously starred in the NBC series Valerie. She was fired from the show for asking the network and production company Lorimar, for a pay raise after the hit show's second second.
If Valerie doesn't sound familiar, It may because after she was fired, her character was killed off, and Sandy Duncan was brought in to raise her TV sons including Jason Bateman. The show was later renamed Valerie's Family then the more recognizable The Hogan Family.
A year after she was fired, Harper successfully sued Lorimar for wrongful termination and won $1.4 million and a share of the series' profits.
Valerie Harper was 80 years old.
In 2009, Harper successfully fought lung cancer then was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2013 and given just three months to live. She beat the odds and after her treatments appeared on Dancing With the Stars and Hot in Cleveland.
We'll always remember her for guest starring on the first season of The Muppet Show.
Even Statler and Waldrorf flipped for her:
Muppet fans know that audiences around the world saw The Muppet Show a little different than in the US. Below is an example of the different credit sequences the UK and US versions.
Valerie Harper was 80 years old.
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