Issues that wouldn’t even register to TV viewers right this moment have been as soon as thought of too risqué for community tv, together with married characters sharing a mattress. Rob and Laura Petrie, portrayed by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, didn’t share a mattress in The Dick Van Dyke Present, and there’s a cause why. The community was having none of it.
Why didn’t Rob and Laura sleep in the identical mattress on ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’?
When Carl Reiner initially pitched the thought of The Dick Van Dyke present, he wished Rob and Laura to share a double mattress, like a standard married couple. The community wouldn’t permit it. In 2014, Reiner informed Entertainment Weekly that Laura and Rob’s twin beds have been a little bit of a sticking level.
Reiner informed the community that he wished them to sleep in the identical mattress, similar to he and his spouse did. He went on to say that Broadcast Requirements and Practices informed him it merely wasn’t allowed. Apparently, it was thought of to be in poor style. Reiner gave up on the double mattress concept and moved on to different, extra necessary points.
Who was the primary tv couple to sleep in the identical mattress?
Reiner went to bat for Rob and Laura to share a mattress, and he had good cause to. There have been tv {couples} who got here earlier than them that shared a mattress. Within the Forties, Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns shared a mattress on their long-forgotten sequence Mary Kay and Johnny. Ozzie and Harriet additionally shared a mattress in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in the Nineteen Fifties, and by 1955 Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez have been seen sharing a double mattress in I Love Lucy, albeit not frequently. Rob and Laura Petrie have been completely different, although. Not like the opposite on-screen {couples}, Van Dyke and Moore weren’t married in actual life.
Darren and Samantha Stevens of Bewitched have been the primary single costars to share a mattress in 1964. Lily and Hermann Munster shared a double mattress the identical 12 months. Just a few years later, followers would see extra bed room time on The Brady Bunch. Mike and Carol Brady famously shared a double mattress in 1969.
The sequence was a trailblazer in one other approach, although
Whereas Reiner misplaced the battle over a double mattress, the sequence nonetheless modified issues. Mary Tyler Moore’s character donned pants, one thing that was thought of off-limits on the time. Moore led the cost to maintain her character in capri pants, she defined to NPR in 1995. Reiner backed her up. The objective was to make sure Laura was not the usual sitcom spouse, and placing her in pants made her extra fashionable and a bit edgy.
The community wasn’t initially onboard with the capris, although, Rainer defined to CNN. In line with the famed entertainer, there was a priority that Moore’s behind was too well-defined in her form-fitting pants. Regardless, the pants stayed and modified the way in which sitcom wives have been portrayed in a really huge approach.
Dick Van Dyke Nearly Didn’t Painting Rob Petrie on ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’