Mary Tyler Moore Became a Comedy Powerhouse 60 Years Ago Today

The Dick Van Dyke Show is having a fairly celebratory October. First there was the sixtieth anniversary of the present’s premiere—a premiere that changed television as we knew it into television as we still know it today. Now, per week later, we gotta have a good time the sixtieth anniversary of The Dick Van Dyke Present’s second episode, “My Blonde-Haired Brunette.” It’s extra than simply the second episode of this landmark sequence. Its affect on tv can’t be overstated, as a result of this hilarious episode marks the second that Mary Tyler Moore turned a famous person.

Moore was just about an unknown previous to touchdown the function of Dick Van Dyke’s TV spouse Laura Petrie. Her largest credit thus far had been because the uncredited and solely partially seen secretary in 10 episodes of Richard Diamond, Non-public Detective and because the dancing pixie mascot in Hotpoint equipment commercials. Her first time as a sequence common on a present that would come with her identify and face, and she or he was starring reverse Dick Van Dyke contemporary off of Broadway sensation Bye Bye Birdie, vaudeville legend and TV pioneer Morey Amsterdam, and Rose Marie, a triple-threat who’d been a nationwide famous person since she was three years previous. Mary Tyler Moore had a lot to show—however there was each chance that she’d by no means get the possibility to show something!

That is one more reason why The Dick Van Dyke Present was so revolutionary. Though I Love Lucy was a smash hit, sitcom wives within the late ’50s didn’t have a lot to do and so they had been not often hilarious. Exhibits like The Danny Thomas Present, Father Is aware of Greatest, Depart It to Beaver, and Dennis the Menace had been hits, and so they had been clearly centered on the husbands and sons. Even The Donna Reed Present introduced housewife Donna Stone as, properly, good. Laura Petrie simply might have been one other lovely spouse who ran the house and doled out recommendation to her perpetually in-over-his-head husband. As a substitute, sequence creator Carl Reiner made Laura Petrie virtually the anti-Donna Stone—and if that wasn’t clear within the pilot, it turned crystal clear in Episode 2.

Written by Carl Reiner, “My Blonde-Haired Brunette” is the primary of Dick Van Dyke’s many, many, many tour de pressure episodes for Mary Tyler Moore. In it, Laura worries that her romance with Rob (Van Dyke) is fading. They’ve been married some time, they’ve a child, he’s carrying ratty previous sweaters to breakfast, he plucked a grey hair out of her head—how will she rekindle the previous magic? Her neighbor Millie’s answer: go blonde! What follows is a back-and-forth of hysteria and hair shade as Laura takes the plunge after which hurriedly tries to dye it again earlier than Rob will get dwelling. Properly, she makes it midway…!

When Rob discovers that his spouse has changed into a suburban, 1960’s proto-Harley Quinn, Laura endures a breakdown—a hilarious breakdown. She’s wailing, blurting out syllables by way of heavy sobbing and making zero sense. It’s huge and broad and, most significantly, ugly. This script and this second allowed audiences to see that the clearly lovely Mary Tyler Moore was not afraid to seem like a multitude for comedy. Right here she is, half of her hair bleached, her face contorted into exaggerated hysterics—not solely is she getting all the eye, she’s getting all of the laughs. Critically—the reside studio viewers offers Moore a spherical of applause when she ends her breathlessly frantic monologue by wrapping her arms round Van Dyke.

I haven’t seen each episode of each sitcom of this period, however being aware of the general vibes of DVD’s friends, it appears extremely doubtless that audiences in October 1961 hadn’t seen a lady be this fearlessly humorous on TV since Lucille Ball. That’s an apt comparability, too, due to an anecdote Moore would later tell concerning the early days of filming DVD on Lucille Ball’s Desilu lot. Moore was nervous at first; she knew she was the least skilled solid member. However after one rehearsal, Ball walked proper as much as Moore, seemed her proper within the eyes, and mentioned, “You’re excellent,” after which continued on her means. Are you able to even think about?

Contemplating that “My Blonde-Haired Brunette” is Episode 2 and seeing simply how Lucy-ish this second is, you may simply think about Ball watching this scene in rehearsals and feeling compelled to let the newcomer know that she’s excellent. Moore’s flip because the comedic lead in “My Blonde-Haired Brunette” signaled that there was no weak hyperlink within the Dick Van Dyke Present’s ensemble and that there was a brand new comedy powerhouse on TV. A decade later, the world could be turned on my Mary’s smile. That journey began with Mary’s sobbing.

Stream The Dick Van Dyke Show “My Blonde-Haired Brunette” on Hulu