a question...everywhere on the web, including Wiki, it says Laura's dad was named Alan...i missed this...anybody have an episode reference?...

and speculation...on how Laura can have 2 maiden names...as a dancer with the USO, she was obviously aiming at show business...perhaps she took Meeker as a stage name...in her mind, easier to spell and/or pronounce than Meehan...then, marrying Rob, a dancing career was pretty much out...and since Rob's in-laws would be Meehans, it made sense for her to be a Meehan again too...and of course, Jim Darling and Mary Jane Staggs, whom she knew before Rob, remembered her as a Meehan...make sense?

a question...everywhere on the web, including Wiki, it says Laura's dad was named Alan...i missed this...anybody have an episode reference?...

and speculation...on how Laura can have 2 maiden names...as a dancer with the USO, she was obviously aiming at show business...perhaps she took Meeker as a stage name...in her mind, easier to spell and/or pronounce than Meehan...then, marrying Rob, a dancing career was pretty much out...and since Rob's in-laws would be Meehans, it made sense for her to be a Meehan again too...and of course, Jim Darling and Mary Jane Staggs, who she knew before Rob, remembered her as a Meehan...make sense?
Meeker was the last name of MTM's real life husband at the time. When they divorced the producers quietly changed Laura's maiden name to Meehan to avoid any discomfort for MTM.

Meeker was the last name of MTM's real life husband at the time. When they divorced the producers quietly changed Laura's maiden name to Meehan to avoid any discomfort for MTM.
yeah, i know about Dick Meeker...i'm suggesting there's a way within the show's universe for it to not be an inconsistency...unlike say Gerald versus Jerome Helper, where we're stuck with both...as for the producers changing it "quietly"...as Carl Reiner said: "Who knew anybody would pay attention"...

got it!...in "The Plot Thickens" 3-87 Rob calls him "Alan"...done and done...

One reference book states that Laura's maiden name was also given as "Mean" at one time, but I think that's just due to the way that J. Pat O'Malley, as Rob's dad, pronounces the last name as he uses it to address Laura's dad in "The Plots Thicken" (not as Alan or Mr. Meehan either, just as "Meehan", but in just one syllable).