Rhoda's Wedding, October 28, 1974

There was no reason to suspect Rhoda would be more popular than Mary Tyler Moore, but the spin-off was a power house from the start. As Mary Richards' best friend, Rhoda was not the American dream girl next door. She was fiery, witty, heavy-set, and neurotic, but she had a heart of gold. So after 4 seasons on Mary Tyler Moore's show, she visited her family back home in the Bronx, met a man named Joe, and fell in love.

In just nine episodes, the romance blossomed into engagement, and on October 28, 1974, marriage. The classic episode featured the entire gang from Mary Tyler Moore, and was expanded to a full hour special broadcast. As America's favorite ne'r do well and first popular Jewish television character, Rhoda and her wedding were par for the course. There were bickering relatives, the put-upon sister, plus the prickly gang from Minneapolis, including her nemisis Phyllis (played by Cloris Leachman). And Rhoda, deliciously played by Valerie Harper, nearly missed her wedding! The climax came as she ran through the streets of New York in full wedding attire late for her own ceremony.

The episode was the highest rated sitcom episode ever at the time. Valerie Harper won any Emmy, also becoming the first Emmy-winning character for both supporting performance and lead performance. This feat has never been matched again in television.

THE Wedding, July 29, 1981

During the morning hours of July 29, 1981, 600,000 people lined the streets of London between Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathedral to witness the marriage of a 20 year-old nursery school teacher to the future King of England. Lady Diana was the queen of the day, lavishly presented in highest royal fashion and horse-drawn carriages. The global interest in the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana peaked on television that morning with 750,000,000 viewers! It was the most popular broadcast ever at the time, an audience unsurpassed until 1997.

Lady Diana, wearing a 25 ft train and sumptuous, romantic gown, appeared angelic. The event even ended like a fairy tale. The Prince and Princes acesended a balcony; at last, overlooking hundreds of thousands of cheering subjects, they blew kisses and waved.

The cultural shift after this event is part of the fabric of the 1980's. Suddenly, books, movies, and television shows were featuring weddings and royalty. Childrens toys shifted toward princes and princesses and elaborately adorned fairytale horses. Even Barbie joined the royal resurgence with a collection of Princess Diana releases. The decade of the 80s perhaps, in deed, is aptly defined as being on "A Fairy Tale High." Only four months after THE Wedding, television viewers were engrossed in Luke and Laura's wedding from General Hospital.