The secret Jewish life of Mary Tyler Moore
By Jeffrey Salkin | 12 hours ago
No, Mary Tyler Moore, who died today at the age of eighty years old, was not Jewish.
True: her husband, Dr. Robert Levine, is Jewish. In terms of her personal life, that seems to be all.
But, in at least one role, she played a character who, in real life, would have been Jewish.
I am talking about her role as Laura Petrie, wife of Dick Van Dyke’s Rob Petrie, on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
The word “Jewish” was rarely, if ever, uttered. And yet, according to David Zurawik in The Jews of Prime Time: “The Dick Van Dyke Show was a Jewish show.”
Really?
In fact, The Dick Van Dyke show had started its screen life as “Head of the Family.” Carl Reiner was to have played Rob Petrie.
But, typical for television at that time, the show was deemed “too Jewish.” They had to recruit the thoroughly gentile Dick Van Dyke to play a television writer for the elusive Alan Brady, who was played by Carl Reiner.
In fact, Rob Petrie was Carl Reiner – even down to the New Rochelle, New York address.
The Petries lived at 448 Bonnie Meadow Road, and the Reiners lived at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road.
In the words of Oscar Katz, former head of programming for CBS: “They de-Jewishized it, midwesternized it and put Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore in the leads.”
http://religionnews.com/2017/01/25/mary-tyler-moore-death-dead/
