Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961)

Rob Petrie is the head writer for the television sketch comedy, the Alan Brady Show, starring the egotistical Alan Brady. Rob’s appointment started off as being a controversial one, especially to his two co-writers, the more experienced Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers, who end up becoming his friends regardless. Rob has to balance his New York City work life with his New Rochelle home life with wife Laura Petrie, who he met while he was in the army and she a dancer with a USO troupe, and their young son Ritchie. Although largely content in her roles as housewife and mother, Laura on occasion aspires to her former dancer life, which places added complications into the marriage.