It's hard to overstate what Mary Tyler Moore meant to television. One of the biggest icons in the history of the medium, and especially for women on TV, she became famous after being cast as Laura Petrie, the wife of Rob Petrie on Carl Reiner's legendary 1960's sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66). She and Van Dyke were the epitome of the happy married couple on a show that was groundbreaking in the Kennedy era, and she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy, but after that, she formed a production company with her husband Grant Tinker, and went on to star in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77). As Mary Richards, successful single working woman, she changed the face of how women could be seen not just on television, but culturally as well.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show was emblematic of a changing society in the 1970's, but amazingly, it still holds up today, mostly because it was so damn funny. One of the great ensemble casts of all time that saw nearly every single actor win at least one Emmy during its run, it led to many spinoffs, including Rhoda, Phyllis, and Lou Grant. MTM Productions was responsible for not only the spinoffs, but also such television staples as The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, Remington Steele and Newhart. The impact of the show (for which Moore won three Emmys as Lead Actress) would leave Moore forever seen as that character, but she went on to act in films, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for 1980's Ordinary People, a role that turned her cheery, sunny image on its head as a cold, distant mother. She was also an activist for various causes, including animals rights and juvenile diabetes, which she was diagnosed with in her early 30's. She won the SAG lifetime achievement award in 2011 and died yesterday from cardiopulmonary arrest due to pneumonia. Her legacy lives on, as one of the most influential comediennes in television history, up there with Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
The Dick Van Dyke Show was often times a flat out musical comedy, and the chemistry between Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke is what made Rob and Laura such an appealing couple:
Since they have the whole thing on youtube, I'm just posting the full episode of the classic MTM from Season 6- "Chuckles Bites the Dust":
