Rhoda's Dad

A nice man, a fine actor, a mensch. Harold Gould died over the weekend at the age of 86.  He's best known for playing Martin Morgenstern on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and its spin-off, "Rhoda." I'll always treasure the time I got to work with him, when he played a Holocaust survivor in the CBS Schoolbreak Special I wrote, called "The Writing on the Wall."  Hal Linden stars in the true story of Rabbi Markovitz, whose synagogue and home are defaced by some Swastika-loving boys, on the eve of Halloween.  Rather than send them to jail, he opts to work with them, instead, and ends up changing their lives.  Harold Gould plays one of the neighbors who'd rather see these punks rot in hell.
In the courtroom scene, I sit next to him.  We filmed it at the Malibu courthouse, and in between takes, we traded favorite lines from "You Don't Have To Be Jewish."  The courtroom setting inspired us to re-enact "The Verdict." Harold Gould channeled Mr. Rabinowitz, the jury foreman, perfectly.  I blew most of my lines as the judge. (I kept laughing.  An actor, I'm not.)  We did a brief version of the following routine.  The whole thing goes something like this:

Judge:  Has the jury reached a verdict?
Mr. Rabinowitz:  Judge…Your honor, we have been listening to the facts of this case for six weeks, and it has been a wonderful experience for us all. We, the jury, would like to thank you for the way you have conducted this case.
Judge: Thank you, Mr. Rabinowitz.
Mr. Rabinowitz:  Don’t mention it.
Judge:  And now, Mr. Rabinowitz, the verdict, please?
Mr. Rabinowitz:  In a minute, your honor. (Here he starts listing the entire jury) The lovely Mrs. Berkowitz.
Mrs. Berkowitz:  Thank you, Mr. Rabinowitz.
Mr. Rabinowitz:  You’re welcome.
The judge:  Mr. Rabinowitz! The verdict!
Mr. Rabinowitz:  Coming, your honor. Mr. Goldberg, Mr. Katz, Mr. Stein, Mrs. Cantor.
Mrs. Cantor:  I’m not lovely?
Mr. Rabinowitz:  The lovely Mrs. Cantor!  Lovely.
The judge:  Mr. Rabinowitz!
Mr. Rabinowitz:  Mr. Finkelstein, Mr. Bloom, and Mr. Pinkus, the furrier. Your honor, the 12 of us have spent the last six weeks, debating this case, going pro and con and backwards and forwards, asking ourselves, did he, or didn’t he do it? And, after further deliberation, we’ve decided… we shouldn't mix in.

Harold Gould, you'll be missed by many.  Put the SJG at the top of the list.