Isn't it funny the way things turn out sometimes?
A couple of years ago Valerie Harper was banished from her popular new NBC sitcom ("Valerie") for being a trouble-maker, and her television career looked like it was on the skids. But a few TV-movies and a $2.2 million dollar judgement against NBC later, here she is returning to series television on CBS with another brand new series called City (7:30 p.m., Ch. 5).And guess what show her new show is up against? That's right - her old show, which is now called "The Hogan Family."
But faster than you can say "What goes around, comes around," Harper will tell you that she doesn't see this as a ratings grudge match. Nor does she feel any driving desire to make NBC's Hogans eat her prime time dust.
"I don't have any bitter feelings toward `Valerie,"' she told TV critics in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. "In fact, the way I see it I've had a long, fortunate, lucky career, and I'm really excited to be back at MTM and CBS."
MTM, of course, is "City's" production compnay, the same company that turned her into a star as Rhoda Morganstern on the classic sitcom, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and the something-less-than-classic spinoff, "Rhoda." And CBS was the network home for those two series.
Those were better days for CBS, which was then in its heyday as The Tiffany Network. And they were innocent days for Harper, who was then just learning the craft of television acting.
"I remember freezing just before I was supposed to go out to shoot my first scene on `The Mary Tyler Moore Show,"' Harper said. "I grabbed Mary and I said, `How am I going to do this?' And she took hold of my arms firmly and said, `Valerie, just do it one scene at a time.'
"I've been doing it that way - one scene at a time - ever since."
Another lesson Harper said she learned from Moore was the importance of being a "team player."
"Even if you're the star of the show, it's real important to remember that you're not the boss - you're just part of the team," Harper said. "That's the way Mary always was, and that's the way I've always tried to be."
Which is interesting, when you remember that that issue was at the very heart of Harper's troubles on "Valerie." NBC officials claimed that she and her husband, Tony Cacciotti, were trying to wrest control away from series producers and Lorimar, the production company involved. Stories swirled around the industry that she was moody, disruptive and demanding on the set, and that she was threatening to close down the show if she wasn't allowed to take charge of its destiny.
Harper denied the accusations then, and continues to do so now. "It wasn't about taking charge of the show," she said during the press conference. "That's never been my intention. I just wanted respect, that's all."
She didn't get it from NBC or Lorimar. She left the series, and suits and counter-suits were filed, eventually leading to the substantial settlement in her favor.
"I can't really say that we've been hurt by all of this," Harper says now. "After the decision was announced, people would come up to me at the grocery store and say, `Valerie, I'm so glad you won.' The fact that I won seems to say to rank and file human beings that we won."
And now she's back in the series business again, producing and starring in a show that she and Cacciotti co-own with CBS. So is she worried about another network turning on her.
"Not at all," she said. "CBS has been great. Sure, they've had their input, but they've allowed us to create the series that we wanted to create."
That series is "City," an ensemble comedy in which Harper plays Liz Gianni, a city manager attempting to deal with her personal life as successfully as she does her professional life. And that's not always easy, since her college-age daughter (played by LuAnne Ponce) has just moved in.
Most of the show focuses on her office full of bureaucrats who are, as the series intro indicates, "all that stands between us and the politicians." They are an interesting bunch, including Todd Sussman as her crafty assistant, Stephen Lee as a bungling assistant mayor, Mary Joe Keenan as a ditzy social planner, Liz Torres and Tyra Ferrell as smarter-than-you-think secretaries, James Lorinz as a mindless security guard and Sam Lloyd (Christopher Lloyd's nephew) as an accountant who knows how to keeps his - and everybody else's - bases covered.
The pilot isn't exactly a knockout, but there are enough good moments to give the show a feeling of real promise. The performances are solid, if unspectacular, and the characters look interesting enough to be worth watching over the long haul, assuming they are developed properly. And then who knows? Maybe this Valerie Harper series will score enough ratings points to knock off that other Valerie Harper series.
And wouldn't that be funny?