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Few shows have had the staying power of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Premiering on October 3, 1961, and wrapping up in ‘66, unlike most shows that end due to low ratings, this one simply concluded because the cast was ready to move on to fresher pastures.

A still from The Dick Van Dyke Show | Credits: FilmRise Television, Youtube

With such a talented team, it made sense to spread the creativity around. Even 10-year-old Larry Mathews, who played Ritchie, was already looking ahead to his next big break. There were no big speeches or tearful goodbyes on the final day of filming. Instead, the cast spent their last moments together cracking jokes, recording tracks, and trading one-liners.

Created by comedy legend Carl Reiner, the series saw the incomparable Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore bring performances to life that won the show 15 Emmy Awards in a five-season run. But what happened to...

Before she signed onto Showtime's "The Affair," Maura Tierney had done practically everything it's possible for an actor to do in television. Her first regular series role (on "The Van Dyke Show") was opposite no less than Dick Van Dyke; her second ("704 Hauser") was working for Norman Lear, on the same set where "All in the Family" took place. She's been the leading woman on a classic (if underappreciated in its time) sitcom in "NewsRadio," helped carry an enormous hit drama ("ER") as it transitioned away from its original cast, been the lead on a legal procedural ("The Whole Truth"), and was one of the original stars of "Parenthood" before a bout with breast cancer forced her to drop out of the role of Sarah Braverman. She had done all of those things on one broadcast network or another, which is why she agreed to play Helen Solloway, the wife...

"Theatre is not my comfort zone," admits Maura Tierney, who launched her professional career on television and has been there for 20 years. Two years ago she appeared Off-Broadway in Neil Labute's Some Girl(s), an McC Theater production, but the stage is largely unfamiliar territory. That's one reason she was ready to do another play. Also, her decade-long stint as Abby Lockhart on ER is coming to an end. When Nicky Silver's new play, Three Changes, was sent to her, she found it fascinating. "It's the way Nicky presents his thoughts through character," she says. "It's a funny play, but it's also very dark. It's about how far we'll all go to obtain whatever we think of as normalcy." Now playing Off-Broadway, Three Changes recounts what happens when the seemingly satisfactory lives of Upper West Side couple Laurel and Nate (Tierney and Dylan McDermott) are invaded by his estranged...