One ‘Dick Van Dyke Show’ Star Was Jealous of Mary Tyler Moore
Rose Marie starred as Sally Rogers in The Dick Van Dyke Show. The actress would have been 100 years old this year and to celebrate her daughter Georgiana “Noopy” Guy Rodrigues is opening up about some of her mother’s stories of her time working on the show.
Remind Rodrigues said that her mother never became very close with star Mary Tyler Moore, who played Laura Petrie on the show. She explained, “Mary was… not really that outgoing as far as [being] personable with everybody because she was new. She was starting. She was learning. And my mother later admitted… she said, ‘I probably was a little bit jealous because she got a lot of attention and everything.’ As the show progressed, it became more about Dick and Mary [being] away from the office.”
Everett Collection
Despite not getting along too well with Moore, Rose Marie did get along great with her male co-stars. In her last telephone interview before her death in 2017, she talked about how much she enjoyed working with Dick Van Dyke, who played Rob Petrie. She said, “Mary Tyler Moore was brand new and very pretty. And everybody went crazy for her. She was very feminine, very charming. I was always with the boys. I was never in that position. I hung out with [show creator] Carl [Reiner] and Dick. Mary was very, very busy becoming a star. Even the first day we were at rehearsal, she said, ‘I’m going to have my first show.’ I would say, ‘Why don’t you wait until we do this one first?’ But Mary, she was very much a go-getter. She learned an awful lot from all of us. And we all helped her.”
Zinn Arthur/TV Guide/Everett Collection
Rodrigues added, “Dick was one of the easiest people in the world to get along with. He was never a problem – never. You could go, ‘Dick, go over there and stand on your hands.’… Off he’d go… We became close with Dick. I became very close with Dick’s daughter.” After The Dick Van Dyke Show ended, Rose Marie appeared on The Doris Day Show and she ended up becoming best friends with Day. Rodrigues said that her mother and Day even talked about two days before she passed away. They bonded over the fact that they were both huge animal lovers and truly admired each other.
Classic Comedy Duos
March 2021
Chuckle at television & films funniest comic duos.
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