In the scene, Laura stands up straight with a look of obvious shock on her face, but recovers her cool expression as she leans in toward dumbfounded Rob. “I, uh … believe I finished the game, Mr. Petrie,” she says over the sound of the studio audience’s roaring cheers, then leaves Rob holding both pool cues. It’s a great sitcom moment that makes you wonder exactly how Moore could’ve pulled it off, and it’s one that’s recently resurfaced thanks to a bit of trivia about the scene shared by writer Geonn Cannon on X.
To accomplish the extremely tricky shot, Moore was apparently given a secret advantage: according to editor Bud Molin, who’s quoted in Vince Waldron’s “The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book,” the sequence was set up so Moore could simply give it her best shot with no expectations of actually sinking three balls in the pockets. The plan wasn’t actually to have Moore pull off the move, but to show her lean down and then insert footage of an expert pool player making the shot instead. “We had it rigged so that she just had to hit the balls in the right general direction,” Molin said, but the crew was still amazed to see Moore ace the shot on the very first try. Moore was amazed too, and it shows on her face; that miraculous first try was the take the show ended up using.