'60s Throwback: See Dick Van Dyke & Mary Tyler Moore At The Dick Van Dyke Show Premiere
Dick Van Dyke has been a comedic entertainer for over 75 years. In the early '50s, Van Dyke and Phil Erickson formed the silent comedy duo "Eric and Van — The Merry Mutes" and moved to Atlanta to perform. He juggled his budding comedy career with hosting local radio and TV shows and gradually worked his way into bigger gigs. The Midwestern entertainer moved to New York and made his Broadway debut in 1959. Carl Reiner, the iconic father of director Rob Reiner, cast Van Dyke on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" after seeing him in the 1960 Broadway production "Bye Bye Birdie." Van Dyke starred in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" from 1961 to 1966 alongside co-star and friend Mary Tyler Moore.
Van Dyke and Moore had a great relationship while playing husband and wife on set, but they didn't have a real-life romance out of respect for their marriages. However, Van Dyke fondly remembers that he and his co-star practically performed in sync. "You could just tell us a scene, and we could make it up," the actor told Entertainment Tonight. "She read me very well, and I read her timing very well, and it was just such a pleasure to work with her."
Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore from the premiere of "The Dick Van Dyke Show", 1961. pic.twitter.com/oGfeT2ZH0v
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The on-screen couple's chemistry radiated in a photo from the sitcom's premiere. Moore sat in front of Van Dyke, donning a V-neck dress with jewels hanging from the bodice. She looked comfortable as the comedy legend leaned behind her and gave the camera a confident, closed-mouth smile.
Moore cleared up Van Dyke's doubts about her comedy skills
Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore won audiences over as Rob and Laura Petrie in the former's self-titled comedy show. Although Van Dyke instantly got along with Moore, he had doubts about the choice to cast her as his on-screen wife. The radio host-turned-actor wrote about his initial concerns in his 2011 memoir, "My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business."
"For one, I thought she was too young to play my wife. She was 12 years younger than I was, though as time went by, no one ever noticed or mentioned that fact," he recalled. Moore was only 24 years old when "The Dick Van Dyke Show" premiered, while Van Dyke was almost 36. The Broadway alum was also worried that Moore wasn't that funny after reading the first episode's lines. However, he found that he underestimated her ability to learn from other comedians on set." Mary was an A-plus student," Van Dyke wrote. "She absorbed everything — the chemistry, the rhythm — and emerged a comedienne herself" (via MeTV).
Moore became such a seasoned comedian that she ended up having her own self-titled comedy show in the '70s. During the seven-season run of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," her working relationship with Valerie Harper had a similar harmony to the one she held with Van Dyke. Upon Moore's death in 2017, Harper wrote, "Working together we knew each other so well we could anticipate each other's moods ... I will always feel privileged and honored with the amount of quality time I was able to spend with Mary" (via Vanity Fair).