Page "Mary Tyler Moore" Paragraph 4

In 1961, Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show, an acclaimed weekly series based on Reiner's own life and career as a writer for Sid Caesar's television variety show, telling the cast from the outset that it would run no more than five years.

The show was produced by Danny Thomas's company, and Thomas himself recommended her.

He remembered Mary as " the girl with three names " whom he had turned down earlier.

Moore's energetic comic performances as Van Dyke's character's wife, begun at age 24 ( eleven years Van Dyke's junior ), made both the actress and her signature tight capri pants extremely popular, and she became internationally famous.

When she won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Laura Petrie, she said, " I know this will never happen again.

" Mary Tyler Moore recently stated on The Rachael Ray Show that she was actually 23 years old when she first starred on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

She had told producers that she was 25 because she heard that initially Dick Van Dyke had stated that she might be too young for the part.