A segment from The Dick Van Dyke Show Christmas episode "Alan Brady Presents," with Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam and Richard Deacon (air date December 18, 1963). | Midcentury Fashion

In the 1962 episode “Hustling the Hustler” of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore (portraying Laura Petrie) was scripted to make a complex pool shot. The production team planned to film her initiating the shot and then cut to a professional executing it. However, Moore astonished everyone by successfully making the shot on her first attempt. The genuine surprise on her face, as well as Dick Van Dyke’s, was authentic, and they remained in character, allowing the take to be used in the final