shows, that s a very famous writer s room, and you had two women who worked at separate times, the first with lucille callen and the second was selma diamond. it s always great to have the women s viewpoint and who better than woman to say, women will laugh at that. so when i put together the characters for the van dyke show, i said, we need the women s viewpoint. and when i told my agent, he immediately said rose marie. it s a beautiful piece of writing. it really is. but you know alan, if he doesn t get a laugh every ten seconds, he calls the cops and has the audience arrested. rose marie on the dick van dyke show was great for women who might aspire to being in the writer s room, because that was the first glimpse we got that maybe that was possible. it s not like there were plenty of career women on tv. women were mainly housewives in the sit-coms or they were secretaries and teachers. they weren t writers. you mean you d be willing to say you ll give up your job for us
times, the first with lucille callen and the second was selma diamond. it s always great to have the women s viewpoint and who better than woman to say, women will laugh at that. so when i put together the characters for the van dyke show, i said, we need the women s viewpoint. and when i told my agent, he immediately said rosemary. it s a beautiful piece of writing, but if he doesn t get a laugh every ten seconds, he calls the cops and has the audience arrested. rosemary on the dick van dyke show was great for women who might aspire to being in the writer s room, because that was the first glimpse we got that maybthat was possible. it s not like there were plenty of career women on tv. women were mainly housewives in the sitcoms or secretaries, they weren t writers. are you willing to say you ll give up your job for us? compared to you, i m a rat. compared to a rat, you re a rat. my mother didn t want me to be funny. how was i going to get married
men. you ve got spunk. [ laughter ] well, yes. i hate spunk! mary tyler moore was 80 years old. i m joined on the phone by the great carl reiner, a friend of mary tyler moore, he directed the dick van dyke show and played alan brady, the guy who was supposed to be the star of the show. he s a mark twain prize winner for humor and everything else, in my book. carl reiner. mr. reiner, sir, why did you pick mary tyler moore to be the start of the dick van dyke show ? because i was smart like anybody else. anybody who ever had to audition anybody, there was no question about her, the first time i saw i knew she was it. i had already seen 23 people for that role and i told sheldon london, our executive producer i don t know what i m looking for. he says you ll know when you see. and i saw 23 people and actually i went to danny thomas who put up the money and i said i just
louis-dreyfus. she s the latest greatest. have women gotten to be more funny? being able to be more funny? well, i think women have always been funny on television but in a different way. the original one was lucy with her husband desi but that show was about man against woman and the van dyke show was the first one where it was man and woman together. man and woman against the world and mary was the perfect one for that because she had a grace about her that informed all of us that women not only can be equals but sometimes superior in their opinions and their knowledge of how marriages in the world works. you know, when i look at mary tyler moore, for many years i watched her on the mary tyler moore show after your show and it was like the delightful show of a saturday night. it kept you home. i think a lot of people stayed
home to see her, that s how good she was and she made life better. well, the mary tyler moore show was the show that i think started not only started but supported the equality for women and it informed the world that women are not only equal but in many ways superior to men and that show was a template for many other shows that could come where women not only were strong but correct. they were sometimes smarter than their husbands which in my case was absolutely true. my wife was much smarter tn me, about everything. and so based on that is why mary s character laura was who she was and mary richards, my god, took it many steps ahead and i think we have her to thank for the women s movement today. i love you, mr. reiner, you