New Rochelle Revisited Trivia Quiz

Answer: Katharine Hepburn

With very little comedy experience to fall back on, MTM initially played Laura as the straight woman to Rob's funny man, something that the show's producers were more than happy to let her do. "If you listen closely," she said in one interview, "you can hear me trying very hard to sound like Katharine Hepburn.

There were a lot of 'oh, darlings'." But her unexpectedly hilarious performance in the early episode in which Laura dyes her hair blonde in an effort to re-spark Rob's interest changed everything.

After that, both she and everyone else connected with the show realized what a potentially fine comedic actress she really was.

Answer: Make Room For Daddy

According to Carl Reiner, MTM lost out on the role of Danny Thomas' daughter because neither he nor anyone else involved thought that a girl with such a small nose could realistically play the offspring of someone whose probiscus was as large as Mr. Thomas'.

But Mr. Thomas got his revenge a few years later when he made a guest appearance on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," playing an alien version of himself in a dream that Rob has after watching a late night TV show called "Twilo."

Answer: they had secret crushes on one another

Dick Van Dyke has recalled in interviews this persistent tendency on the part of himself and MTM, following which recollection he mentions his former co-star's take on the situation. "Mary says she thinks it was because we had secret little crushes on each other," he claims. "It probably was." Well...duh. Anyone watching the show can't miss the chemistry between the couple that one critic called the "first TV couple who acted as if they actually slept together."

Answer: The Morning After

Some viewers were startled to see the former, bumbling, good-natured Rob Petrie replaced by an ill-tempered, sometimes violent drunk. But Dick Van Dyke claims that many of the movie's scenes were based on his own real life experiences with alcoholism. The movie does have a positive ending, though, as did Mr. Van Dyke's personal struggle with the disease.

Answer: pants could not "cup under" the curve of her buttocks

Not only could Laura's pants not "cup under," she had to wear a skirt or a dress in at least one scene per episode. Such strictures may seem laughable now, but at the time, to disregard them would have been a certain death knell for the show. If you watch closely, on almost every episode, you can see MTM tugging on the back of her capris after rising from a seated position, as if conscious of the judgmental eyes of the network execs leveled upon her.

Answer: Rose Marie

Laura Petrie and Sally Rogers got along just fine, but according to Sally's alter ego, Rose Marie, there was always an undercurrent of jealousy between her and MTM. "It kept us from being as close as we could have been," she has said, adding that, in her role as Rob's friend and co-worker, she couldn't help but resent the scripts that took him out of the workplace and put him at home, with his wife and son.

But that's all old hat now, and the two are good friends who appeared together on the "Dick Van Dyke Show"'s 2004 reunion special, reprising their roles as Laura and Sally for the first time since the show ended in 1966.

Answer: cocktail glasses

In retrospect, Mr. Van Dyke's penchant for drawing cocktail glasses on his script might seem ominous. At the time, though, it was just an innocuous little signal that told everyone on the set that it was time to think about going home.

Answer: My Mother, The Car

"My Mother, The Car" was not the best vehicle that Jerry Van Dyke could have chosen (pun intended) for his first starring role. Playing a man whose deceased mother had somehow come back as an old-fashioned car that talked to him in her voice was a bit too far-fetched even for the decade that spawned "Star Trek." Luckily, he got another shot at TV fame playing Craig T. Nelson's grumpy assistant on the nineties sitcom, "Coach."

Answer: False

On the contrary, Orson Welles was a fan of the show and appreciated its smart references to art, literature, and film. Fellow director and close friend, Peter Bogdanovich has said that Mr. Welles would take breaks from his work during the afternoon just to watch reruns of the show.

Answer: Meehan

Meehan...I guess that makes her Irish. An Irish girl from Brooklyn who married a successful comedy writer and moved to New Rochelle and made television history. Inspiring, don't you think?