Remembering Actress Valerie Harper - Plus, MeTV and getTV give Special TV Tributes

image: Hallmark Crown Media

Last week we lost one of television's leading ladies... legendary actress, Valerie Harper, who lost her battle with cancer, at the age of 80, on Friday, August 30, 2019.

Whether you watched in real time or reruns, many of us know and love Valerie Harper in her various roles... from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Love Boat, the sitcom Valerie, and lots of guest roles and TV movies, including: The Great Mom Swap, Promised Land, Touched by an Angel, Mary and Rhoda, UPtv's The Town That Came A-Courtin' and so on. Valerie also starred in Hallmark Channel's Fixing Pete and Signed, Sealed, Delivered (the TV Series).

image: Hallmark Crown Media

I especially loved Valerie in her role on Signed, Sealed, Delivered as the Dead Letter Office Supervisor, Theresa Capodiamonte. She had such an inspirational spark about her with this character. One of the episodes was aptly named Time to Start Livin' and in the episode Valerie's character did just that, as she decided to take a chance and live out her dreams while it was still possible to make them happen!

We are blessed now by Valerie's legacy of films and TV series, that have brought joy, laughter, and inspiration to generation after generation.

Valerie Harper leaves behind her husband, Tony Cacciotti, and her daughter, Cristina. My thoughts and prayers go out to her dear family and friends.


MeTV will be giving a special TV tribute to Valerie Harper this Sunday. Please see the press release below...

Plus getTV, will have a special tribute this Friday. See details below...


PRESS RELEASE - MeTV:

MeTV NETWORK PAYS TRIBUTE TO VALERIE HARPER

WITH A SPECIAL PRESENTATION OF “THE BEST OF RHODA”

TRIBUTE BEGINS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th AT 5:00 PM ET/PT

September 3, 2019 – Chicago, IL – MeTV Network pays tribute to the career of beloved actress Valerie Harper with a special presentation of select episodes from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, airing on MeTV this Sunday, September 8th beginning at 5:00pm ET/PT through 8:00pm ET/PT. (Episodes listed below).

Valerie Harper will forever be remembered as Rhoda Morgenstern, the wisecracking and lovelorn best friend to Mary Richards on the Primetime Emmy award-winning series, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. With her signature charm and snark, Harper made Rhoda one of the most memorable feminist icons of television in the 1970s, and earned three Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance, before landing her own spin-off series Rhoda in 1974.

Rhoda is the first and only television series to earn the top spot in Nielsen ratings for its premiere episode, where Rhoda leaves Minneapolis to return home to New York City and fires up a whirlwind romance with divorcee Joe Gerard, played by David Groh. At the time, the iconic New York wedding between Rhoda and Joe was the most watched television episode of the 1970s, with a whopping 52 million Americans tuning in. Airing from 1974-1978, the series earned 17 Primetime Emmy nominations, and seven Golden Globe nominations. Harper herself earned her fourth Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, as well as the Golden Globe for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy.

Harper went on to appear in a handful of television series, including The Love Boat, Touched By An Angel, Melrose Place, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Dancing with the Stars and 2 Broke Girls. In 2000, Harper reunited with Mary Tyler Moore for the made-for-TV movie Mary and Rhoda. In 2013, Harper revealed that she had been diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of brain cancer, but continued to work, appearing in short films, on stage, and even voicing characters on animated series, The Simpsons and American Dad.

Throughout her career, Harper earned four Primetime Emmy Awards, one Golden Globe, and one Tony nomination. Outside of show business, Harper was a longtime representative for the Hunger Project, an organization that supports rural women in developing countries, and co-founded L.I.F.E. (Love Is Feeding Everyone) in 1983, a charity dedicated to preventing hunger in Los Angeles. Harper is survived by her husband of 32 years, Tony Cacciotti.



The complete schedule for MeTV’s Tribute to Valerie Harper includes:

Sunday, September 8, 2019 (All Times are Eastern/Pacific)

5:00pm-5:30pm: The Mary Tyler Moore Show – “Rhoda, The Beautiful”

Rhoda enters a beauty contest but continues to put herself down.

5:30pm-6:00pm: The Mary Tyler Moore Show – “Is a Friend in Need”

Rhoda loses her job, but Mary doesn't tell her about an opening at WJM.

6:00pm-6:30pm: The Mary Tyler Moore Show – “A Girl’s Best Mother Is Not Her Friend”

Rhoda's mother visits with the intention of being her daughter's best friend.

6:30pm-7:00pm: The Mary Tyler Moore Show – “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Rhoda”

Mary and Rhoda are best friends, but can they be roommates too?

7:00pm-7:30pm: Rhoda – “Rhoda’s Wedding Part 1”

Rhoda's wedding day has finally arrived and is filled with mishaps.

7:30pm-8:00pm: Rhoda – “Rhoda’s Wedding Part 2”

Complications may ruin Rhoda's wedding day.



Viewers can see our complete schedule and find out where to watch by visiting MeTV.com.


About Weigel Broadcasting Co.

Weigel Broadcasting Co. is a family-owned media company based in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to producing the new series Collector’s Call, the company owns and operates national television networks, as well as local broadcast stations throughout the country. Weigel is the leader in the multicast television network space with "MeTV," Memorable Entertainment Television, the number-one rated and distributed multicast network, as well as the "Movies!" Network in cooperation with the Fox Television Stations, the "DECADES" Network, the "H&I" Network and the “Start TV” Network in association with the CBS Television Stations. Weigel's local stations include CBS, ABC, The CW, MyNet and Telemundo network affiliates. Weigel and its affiliate companies broadcast network and independent television stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Cedar City-St. George, Milwaukee, South Bend and Rockford. Weigel is also the creator of the nationally syndicated music format “MeTV FM”. For more information on Weigel, visit: https://www.weigelbroadcasting.com/

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image courtesy: getTV

Tribute for Valerie Harper - details below via getTV:

getTV Remembers Valerie Harper (1939-2019) With Special “Hot in Cleveland Episode” Reuniting Her and “Mary Tyler Moore Show” Co-Stars on Friday, September 6 at 7:30 pm ET

getTV will pay tribute to four time-Emmy-winning actress Valerie Harper, who died Friday, by airing a special 2013 episode of “Hot in Cleveland,” in which Harper guest-starred, on Friday, September 6 at 7:30 pm ET. The episode, entitled “Love Is All Around,” also guest stars Mary Tyler Moore and Cloris Leachman and series regulars Betty White and Georgia Engel, who all co-starred with Harper on the long-running “Mary Tyler Moore Show.” On that series, Harper created the role she was best-known for, of Rhoda Morgenstern, who she later played on a spin-off series, “Rhoda.”

The actresses all play former members of a bowling team who reunite, causing old rivalries to resurface. “Hot in Cleveland,” which also stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick, airs weeknights from 6-8 PM ET on getTV.