 Ultimately, all four women learn to conquer challenges in work and relationships, to forge their own identities and stand up for themselves.The film's producers reportedly wanted to make the characters “current", and as a result, little time was spent in the characters discussing their former life in Minneapolis.This disappointed a number of longtime fans, as did the fact that former "Mary Tyler Moore Show" characters Lou Grant, Ted Baxter, Murray Slaughter, Phyllis Lindstrom, Georgette Baxter and Sue Ann Nivens were never directly referred to, nor were Rhoda's sister, Brenda Morgenstern, or her father, Martin Morgenstern.