She Thought She'd Dance

I have been an avid fan and faithful viewer of Dancing with the Stars since the very beginning, but as it is with many relationships it hasn't always been perfect.  

For instance, I never really understood the need for that second night of programming - a full hour just repeating the performances, and then an hour-long "results show" full of filler and contests for kid dancers.  It all seemed extraneous to me.  I really just wanted to see who was eliminated, and if the truth be told it was fine with me if I was just surprised the following week with which celebrity didn't show up.

So I was pretty optimistic when I heard that Season 17 of DWTS, which begins airing next week, will now be just one two-hour broadcast on Monday nights.  The viewers' scores from the week before will be combined with the judges' scores of that night and the eliminated couple will be announced at the end of the night.  Works for me.

The cast this season seems like a pretty good bunch.  I'm intrigued by the fact that Bill Nye the Science Guy will be a contestant this season.  Will he bring the same wacky approach to dancing that he always brought to  science?

But my favorite Season 17 DWTS cast member by far is Valerie Harper.  Back in the 70's, Harper played Rhoda Morgenstern on the The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  I loved Rhoda.  Rhoda was the neurotic, smart, wise-cracking, self-deprecating, overweight friend of Mary Richards, the star of the show. She reminded me of, well, me.  

I hung on Rhoda's every word and move.  I cheered when she lost weight, and when the character was so popular that she was spun off into her own show, entitled Rhoda.  She gave hope to wise-cracking sidekicks everywhere that we too could emerge from the shadows of our more glamorous friends to get lives of our own.

It wasn't until much, much later that I came to the realization that...are you ready?...Rhoda was never overweight.  Not ever.  And furthermore, Valerie Harper (and therefore Rhoda) was and is an extraordinarily beautiful woman, at least as beautiful as Mary.  I can't speak for all the viewers, of course, but she certainly had me fooled.  That's when I realized the true genius of Valerie Harper and what an exceptional actress she actually was.  She had me convinced that she was as ordinary-looking as I was.

Back in March, Valerie Harper, now 74, made it public that she had been diagnosed with  a rare and terminal brain-related cancer, almost three months after she was diagnosed and given three months to live.  Like Gilbert Grape's brother, she could go at any time. Sadly, I braced myself for her death announcement.

But Valerie wasn't done living yet.  First she started shooting a movie, and now when Dancing with the Stars came calling, she decided to dance.  She has said that she made a decision to live life fully until she dies.  Maybe that's a lesson we all should embrace.   She continues to inspire us all.