Dick Van Dyke

John Rich (right), is pictured with Norman Lear in 1973 when they won an Emmy for outstanding series for "All in the Family." (Los Angeles Times)

John Rich, award-winner director of landmark sitcoms, dies at 86

LOS ANGELES — As a top television comedy director who won an Emmy directing “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in the early 1960s, John Rich was faced with a tough choice in 1970.

On the same day he received a phone call from Mary Tyler Moore wanting to set up a meeting to discuss his directing the initial episode of her new TV series, he got a call from Norman Lear who wanted to send him a script for a pilot he was about to produce.

Mary Tyler Moore will be honored tonight with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.  Dick Van Dyke will present Moore with the SAG award. 

MCT

That girl with the smile

LOS ANGELES -- In recent months the name Mary Tyler Moore has been bandied about with unexpected regularity bordering on reckless abandon. This is not just because she recently made her first TV appearance in many moons on pal Betty White's show "Hot in Cleveland" or because she proved at last month's televised fete for White's 90th birthday that she can still rock a white pantsuit or even because she is receiving this year's Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award tonight.

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