How Mary Tyler Moore Pulled Off A Tricky First Take In The Dick Van Dyke Show
Pool hustling is one of those things, like quicksand, that pop culture trained us to believe we'd encounter a lot more often in everyday life. In reality, most people don't play pool often, and when they do, they're not pulling some long con to steal twenty bucks from a stranger. On TV, though, pool hustlers used to show up weirdly often, frequently swindling unsuspecting characters out of their dough to great comedic effect.
Classic black-and-white sitcom "The Dick Van Dyke Show" is one of the earlier shows to include the trope, in a second season episode called "Hustling the Hustler" which aired just a year after Paul Newman's "The Hustler" hit theaters. The episode is all about Rob's (Van Dyke) coworker Buddy's brother, Blackie (character actor Phil Leeds), who blows into town and gets the cold shoulder from Buddy. It turns out Blackie was a pool hustler, but by episode's end, he's proven he's actually reformed. Rob's wife Laura (scene-stealing Mary Tyler Moore), meanwhile, shows she has some hidden pool skills too — sinking three balls with just one perfect shot.
An impossible pool shot
In the scene, Laura stands up straight with a look of obvious shock on her face, but recovers her cool expression as she leans in toward dumbfounded Rob. "I, uh ... believe I finished the game, Mr. Petrie," she says over the sound of the studio audience's roaring cheers, then leaves Rob holding both pool cues. It's a great sitcom moment that makes you wonder exactly how Moore could've pulled it off, and it's one that's recently resurfaced thanks to a bit of trivia about the scene shared by writer Geonn Cannon on X.
To accomplish the extremely tricky shot, Moore was apparently given a secret advantage: according to editor Bud Molin, who's quoted in Vince Waldron's "The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book," the sequence was set up so Moore could simply give it her best shot with no expectations of actually sinking three balls in the pockets. The plan wasn't actually to have Moore pull off the move, but to show her lean down and then insert footage of an expert pool player making the shot instead. "We had it rigged so that she just had to hit the balls in the right general direction," Molin said, but the crew was still amazed to see Moore ace the shot on the very first try. Moore was amazed too, and it shows on her face; that miraculous first try was the take the show ended up using.
Laura can do anything Rob can do better
"It was just luck," Molin said. "She hit it, and she dropped every ball!" More importantly, Moore and Van Dyke kept straight enough faces afterwards to save the shot. "We were able to use the shot, because Dick and Mary didn't go to pieces after she finally got it." Throughout "The Dick Van Dyke Show," Moore stands out among a talented cast thanks to her dynamic relationship with Van Dyke and moments of real humor and joy that shine through in her performance.
This is one of them: the scene was clearly written with the purpose of having Laura casually sink the four balls and stride off, showing how effortlessly good the housewife is at a "man's" sport. Yet the fact that we get to see a quick look of triumphant surprise on her face makes the whole thing even better, bringing her superhero housewife character down to earth — while still allowing her to leave awestruck Rob in the dust. It's one of countless endearing and comedically nimble moments that makes "The Dick Van Dyke Show" a great TV classic that remains rewatchable to this day.