For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.
Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on ATVN with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances.
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Showplace is featuring prominent female-driven classic programs and women who “changed the game” and made a lasting impact in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
As we featured last week here at “The Showplace,” Rose Marie’s career started while performing on a vaudeville stage at three years of age and then made her national radio debut singing less than a year later.
For several decades she had successes in various mediums and entertainment venues. In 1960, she thought she realized her biggest accomplishment when TV creator/writer Carl Reiner asked her to star in a television sit-com show, later to be titled, The Dick Van Dyke Show. However, after the first several episodes Marie quickly learned that her on-screen character would not be the featured role she was promised and, instead, would be a more supportive role to a relative newcomer to television, Mary Tyler Moore.
On the channel “TV Land’s” website which features a number of “legend” interviews, Reiner recalls a conversation in which he told Marie that the audiences “wanted to see Mary Tyler Moore’s legs and not [Rose’s] legs” as to the reasoning why the change in the direction of the show.
Though she felt betrayed and considered quitting the program, Rogers reasoned that she was still serving as a landmark character, portraying a woman working in a traditionally male-dominated profession. Marie decided to continue working on the show to serve as a societal gamechanger and to provide a role model for women to look up to on television.
Following that show’s five-year run, Marie quickly found more work as another formidable on-screen female presence on The Doris Day Show, which ran for another five seasons. Rose also became a regular (and frequently earned the honor of being a “center square”) on the wildly popular Hollywood Squares game show, hosted by Peter Marshall for 14 years. She also continued performing and singing for several years back in Las Vegas while also touring around the world with Rosemary Clooney and others.
Rose continued to make guest-starring appearances on popular TV shows throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, including S.W.A.T., Adam-12, Kojak, Remington Steele, Wings, Suddenly Susan, The Hughleys, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Love Boat and Caroline In The City as well as guest starring in the Cagney and Lacey reunion show.
Her voice talents were used again later in her career, portraying the “voice” of the infamous (and still deceased) Norma Bates (Norman’s mother) on Gus Van Sant’s version of Psycho and also as a regular on the cartoon series Garfield from 2008-2013. She also appeared with a number of her Dick Van Dyke castmates in various television roles, including The Alan Brady Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show: Revisited.
It was also on the Dick Van Dyke: Reunion show in 2004 in which she revealed she had been approached by many women who said her “Sally Rogers” character inspired them to work in many male-dominated fields or to go into jobs in which hiring a woman was “unthinkable.”
You can see Rose Marie in her classic role of “Sally Rogers” in episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, which is part of a regular rotation of classic television shows on ATVN’s Classic TV Showcase, seen every Tuesday at 9am on the Astound TV Network.
To view the complete rundown of classic programming on ATVN, check out the weekly listings here.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.
