At first, Rose Marie was jealous of Mary Tyler Moore's role in ''The Dick Van Dyke Show''

"The attention that Mary got didn't sit well with Rosie."

February 16, 2024, 10:33AM By MeTV Staff

What's a little jealousy between coworkers? We've all been jealous of someone else in our lives, whether it was for the way they looked, or the things they had. Everyone falls victim to their insecurity once in a while, and even the best of us might look at someone else and wish we had their life.

As amusing as the cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show was, they too dealt with their feelings of jealousy between fellow actors. In fact, Rose Marie— best known for playing comedy writer Sally Rogers— became a bit upset when she felt that Mary Tyer Moore's role of Laura Petrie was upstaging her.

Originally, the expectation was that Laura Petrie would act as a voice of reason to the quirky characters around her, never really venturing into comedic territory herself. Of course, this was all before Mary Tyler Moore was cast, and creator Carl Reiner realized how funny she could be. From that point on Laura Petrie's role began to expand, giving Moore frequent opportunities for comedy.

According to Mary Tyler Moore's Memoir, After All, she wrote, "As the show began to swing more and more to the home for its main stories and away from the writer's office, in equal proportion to my excitement was Rose Marie's disappointment. She was to have been the leading lady, if nothing else, by virtue of her billing." She continued, "As a result, there developed a kind of trucelike worth ethic. We were polite to each other, even if we didn't laugh at each other's work."

Ironically enough, Moore was dealing with her own feelings of inferiority at the time. She wrote, "I was very insecure with my newfound opportunity, and convinced that it might be taken away at any time were I not always on my toes. There was an ever-present wariness: two cats drawing a wide arc around each other."

Dick Van Dyke's memoir, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business, also touched on Rose Marie's feelings about the way events turned out. He wrote, "The attention that Mary got didn't sit well with Rosie. She had come on board thinking the focus was going to be on the comedy writers and the TV show Rob worked on. She felt Mary's part should be a more minor one, at least as the role of wife was thought of in those prefeminist days, meaning she should serve as more window dressing to Rob's glitzier life in show business."

He continued, "However, Carl made it clear that the show was about both of Rob's lives, work and home, and that the marriage was the foundation for everything else. Indeed, Rosie came to understand that the show worked just fine as it was."

Moore was also sure to explain that later, she and Rose Marie would grow to become great friends, and while jealousy was corroding, it was also fleeting. The actor wrote, "Today, Rosie and I can laugh about what then seemed to be life-threatening."