It’s no secret that Dick Van Dyke appreciates Mary Tyler Moore’s talent. As he recalled in his biography “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business,” when Tyler Moore joined the show, he was far from confident that Carl Reiner had made the right choice and was concerned that the as-yet-unproven actress couldn’t do comedy. However, Tyler Moore soon made her imprint on the show, evolving beyond the role of “straight man” to Van Dyke’s clowning to become one of the show’s biggest sources of laughs. As well as her delivery and screen presence, Van Dyke highlighted Tyler Moore’s improvisational skills.
Read Related Also: Who Inherited Joan Crawford's Money After She Died?
But Van Dyke’s admiration seemingly went further than Tyler Moore’s acting talents. As he recalls, when the pair were reunited to film the second season of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” after several months apart, he found it hard to control himself and kept descending into fits of giggles whenever his on-screen wife was around. As their corpsing threatened to slow the production down, Van Dyke sought out an explanation from a psychiatrist friend, who simply pointed out that Van Dyke probably had a crush on his glamorous and charming co-star. Tyler Moore also admitted to Larry King in 2003 that the two connected on a personal level, which set the tone for their working relationship and chemistry on camera (per Bustle).
