The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom created by Carl Reiner that initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961, to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Productions[notes 1] in association with the CBS Television Network, and was shot at Desilu Studios. Other producers included Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. The music for the show's theme song was written by Earle Hagen.[1]
The two main settings are the work and home life of Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke), the head writer of a comedy/variety show produced in Manhattan. Viewers are given an "inside look" at how a television show (the fictional The Alan Brady Show) was written and produced. Many scenes deal with Rob and his co-writers, Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), a balding straight man and recipient of numerous insulting one-liners from Buddy, was the show's producer and the brother-in-law of the show's star, Alan Brady (Carl Reiner). As Rob, Buddy, and Sally write for a comedy show, the premise provides a built-in forum for them to constantly make jokes. Other scenes focus on the home life of Rob, his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), and son Ritchie (Larry Mathews), who live in suburban New Rochelle, New York. Also often seen are their next-door neighbors and best friends, Jerry Helper (Jerry Paris), a dentist, and his wife Millie (Ann Morgan Guilbert).
Many of the characters in The Dick Van Dyke Show were based on real people, as Carl Reiner created the show based on his time spent as head writer for the Sid Caesar vehicle Your Show of Shows. Carl Reiner portrayed Alan Brady who is a combination of the abrasive Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason, according to Reiner, refuting rumors that Alan Brady was based on Caesar.[6] Van Dyke's character was based on Reiner himself.
The Dick Van Dyke Show was preceded by a 1960 pilot for a series to be called Head of the Family with a different cast, although the characters were essentially the same, except for the absence of Mel Cooley. In the pilot, Carl Reiner, who created the show based on his own experiences as a TV writer, played Robbie Petrie. Laura Petrie was played by Barbara Britton, Buddy Sorrell by Morty Gunty, Sally Rogers by Sylvia Miles, Ritchie by Gary Morgan, and Alan Sturdy, the Alan Brady character, was played by Jack Wakefield, although his face was never fully seen, which was also the case with Carl Reiner's Alan Brady for the first three seasons of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
The pilot was unsuccessful, which led Reiner to rework the show with Dick Van Dyke playing the central character (who went by Rob, not "Robbie", and pronounced his last name PET-tree rather than the pilot's PEE-tree.)[8]
The plot of the pilot was subsequently the basis of the series episode "Father of the Week".
At least four episodes were filmed without a live studio audience: "The Bad Old Days," which featured an extended flashback sequence that relied on optical effects that would have been impractical to shoot with a live audience in the studio;[10] "The Alan Brady Show Presents," which required elaborate set and costume changes;[11] "Happy Birthday and Too Many More," which was filmed on November 26, 1963, only four days after President Kennedy's assassination;[12] and "The Gunslinger", which was filmed on location. "The Last Chapter" was the last episode that aired; "The Gunslinger" was the last episode filmed.
In color
Reiner considered moving the production of the series to full color as early as season three, only to drop the idea when he was informed that it would add about $7,000 to the cost of each episode.[13] In 2016, several episodes were colorized by West Wing Studios and aired on CBS.
"That’s My Boy" (ep. 1, s. 3) – first broadcast December 11, 2016[14]
"Coast to Coast Big Mouth" (ep. 1, s. 5) – December 11, 2016 and July 3, 2020[15]
"My Blonde-Haired Brunette" (ep. 2, s. 1) – December 22, 2017[16]
"October Eve" (ep. 28, s. 3) – December 22, 2017[16] and July 3, 2020
"Where Did I Come From?" (ep. 15, s. 1) – December 14, 2018[17] and May 28, 2021
"Never Bathe on Saturday" (ep. 27, s. 4) – December 14, 2018[17] and May 28, 2021
Robert "Rob" Simpson Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) – Rob is the head writer of the comedy writing team for the fictional TV variety show, The Alan Brady Show, working with Sally Rogers and Buddy Sorrell. When not working, Rob enjoys life with his wife Laura Petrie, played by Mary Tyler Moore, and his son, Ritchie Petrie, portrayed by Larry Mathews. Rob, Laura, and Ritchie live in New Rochelle, New York. Their neighbors are longtime friends, Millie Helper and her dentist husband Jerry Helper. Rob is a big fan of old-time radio, cowboy movies, and Laurel and Hardy, as well as an excellent mime and fan of pantomime. He incorporates many favorite routines into his comedy writing. He has living parents, Sam and Clara Petrie. Rob was born in Danville, Illinois (Dick Van Dyke's boyhood home), along with younger brother Stacey Petrie, and served in the military at Camp Crowder, Missouri as a Special Services Sergeant. There he met his future wife, Laura Meehan, a USO dancer. After a number of jobs, he was hired by Alan Brady.
Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore) – Laura (née Meeker/Meehan) is Rob's wife. As a 17-year-old dancer in the United Service Organizations, she met and married Rob. Then, she became a stay-at-home mom. In early Season One episodes, Rob and others call her "Laurie" numerous times, as opposed to "Laura", which became his usual name for her. About 60 actresses auditioned for the part before Moore was signed. Moore later wrote that she almost skipped the audition.
Maurice "Buddy" Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) – Buddy is an energetic and at times sarcastic "human joke machine", and one of the comedy writers. Amsterdam was recommended for the role by Rose Marie as soon as she had signed on to the series. Buddy is constantly making fun of Mel Cooley, the show's producer, for being bald and dull. His character is loosely based on Mel Brooks who also wrote for Your Show of Shows. He makes frequent jokes about his marriage to his wife, former showgirl Fiona "Pickles" Conway Sorrell, who is a terrible cook. In several episodes, it is mentioned that Buddy is Jewish. He was identified by his birth name, Moishe Selig, when he had his belated bar mitzvah in "Buddy Sorrell – Man and Boy." Buddy plays the cello, which he sometimes incorporates into his comedy routines, and owns a large German Shepherd named Larry. Buddy made a guest appearance on the Danny Thomas Show episode, "The Woman Behind the Jokes" that aired October 21, 1963.
Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) – Sally is another of the comedy writers, and the designated typist, who is always on the lookout for a husband. The character was loosely based on Selma Diamond and Lucille Kallen, both writers for Your Show of Shows. She never drinks and quotes frequently from her "Aunt Agnes in Cleveland". She has an on-again/off-again relationship with her boyfriend Herman Glimscher, who seems to be too much of a mama's boy to get married. She frequently scares men off with her sense of humor and strong personality.
Richard "Ritchie" Rosebud Petrie (Larry Mathews) – Rob and Laura's son. His middle name is an acronym for "Robert Oscar Sam Edward Benjamin Ulysses David," all the names suggested by members of Rob and Laura's families in the episode "What's in a Middle Name?".[19]
Melvin "Mel" Cooley (Richard Deacon) – Mel is the balding producer of The Alan Brady Show and Alan Brady's brother-in-law. Though Mel can often be an obsequiously sycophantic yes-man to the demanding Brady, he is also shown to be a dedicated, competent producer who takes his responsibilities very seriously. Mel is constantly at odds with Buddy, who often makes insulting comments about Mel's baldness, to which Mel often responds with a simple "Yechh!"
Millie Helper (Ann Morgan Guilbert) – Millie is the Petries' neighbor and Laura's best friend from their days in the USO.
Jerry Helper (Jerry Paris) – Jerry is the Petries' neighbor, Millie's husband, Rob's best friend and dentist. He is an avid sailor, audiophile, and electronics and recording enthusiast.
Alan Brady (Carl Reiner) – Alan is the egocentric, demanding, high maintenance, toupee-wearing star of The Alan Brady Show. Originally an unseen character, then shown only with his back to the camera or only in voice, Brady began to make full-face appearances in season four.
Recurring:
Stacey Petrie (Jerry Van Dyke) – Rob's brother, played by Dick Van Dyke's real-life brother. Stacey – a quiet, shy, man – is prone to episodes of sleepwalking, during which he becomes, literally, the banjo-playing life of the party, and calls his brother Rob "Burford". He wrote love letters on behalf of his friend, a drummer named James Garner (not the famous actor) to a girl named Julie. Once Garner lost interest, Stacey continued to write to Julie as Garner because he had fallen in love with her. He confesses the truth, and eventually Julie becomes interested in getting to know him.
Fiona "Pickles" Conway Sorrell (Barbara Perry/Joan Shawlee) – Buddy's slightly nutty wife and former showgirl. Pickles's first marriage was to a convicted con man who threatens to tell Buddy she was married to a jailbird unless she bribes him regularly. She becomes an off-screen character after season two.
Herman Glimscher (Bill Idelson) – Sally's occasional and nerdy boyfriend. In the 2004 reunion special, Sally and Herman had been married for years (In an early episode, Sally mentioned having dated a Woodrow Glimscher, presumably a relative, until Woodrow's overbearing mother arranged for her to date Herman instead.)
Clara Petrie – (Carol Veazie/Isabel Randolph) – Rob's and Stacey's mother, Laura's mother-in-law, and Sam's wife. Clara doesn't like Laura, partly because Laura and Rob married quickly without either set of parents attending the wedding.
Freddie Helper (Peter Oliphant) – Millie and Jerry Helper's son and Ritchie's best friend.
Sol/Sam Pomeroy/Pomerantz – Rob's army buddy in flashback episodes, was originally played by Marty Ingels. The character's names changed over the course of the series. Ingels left the role in 1962 to star in I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. In 1963 the character was played by two actors, Allan Melvin and Henry Calvin.[20]
Delivery boy – originally a nameless character played by Jamie Farr in four season one episodes. Subsequently, he was given the name Willie, and Herbie Faye played the role (Faye also played other characters in later episodes).
Many of the show's plots were inspired by Reiner's experiences as a writer for Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, both of which starred Sid Caesar. Reiner based the character of Rob Petrie on himself, but Rob's egocentric boss Alan Brady is not based on Caesar, but is a combination of the abrasive Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason, according to Reiner.[6]
Johnny Carson was a finalist for the role of Rob Petrie, but Sheldon Leonard selected Van Dyke based on his Broadway performance in Bye Bye Birdie.[22][23]
CBS had intended to cancel the show after its first season, but Procter & Gamble threatened to pull its advertising from "the network's extremely lucrative daytime lineup" and the show was renewed, keeping its Wednesday night time slot.[24] The show jumped into the top 10 by the third episode of its second season, helped by coming directly after The Beverly Hillbillies, the number one show at the time.
The week of the final broadcast in June 1966, LIFE magazine reported: “The series is not being killed by the network. CBS is drooling to continue this consistent entry in the Nielsen top 20. But the five-year-old show decided to retire. ‘We wanted to quit while we were still proud of it,’ said Van Dyke.”[25]
On October 21, 1963, Morey Amsterdam guest-starred as Buddy Sorrell during the final season of The Danny Thomas Show on the episode "The Woman Behind the Jokes".
Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam reprised their roles on October 7, 1993, in the "When Hairy Met Hermy" episode of Herman's Head.
In a special that was first broadcast on April 13, 1969, Van Dyke and Moore reunited for a one-hour variety special called Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman. The program included a never-before-seen alternative take from one of the show's episodes in which Rob Petrie breaks down and cries after being dismissed from a film role.
A 1979 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Hour featured Van Dyke and Moore reprising their roles as the Petries in a short sketch presented as the brainstorming of Van Dyke (guest-starring as himself) and the writers of Mary McKinnon's (Moore) variety series, who noted McKinnon's resemblance to "the gal who played Laura Petrie".
In a 1995 episode of the sitcom Mad About You, Carl Reiner reprised the role of Alan Brady, appearing in a documentary by Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser) about the early days of television. The episode included several other references to The Dick Van Dyke Show, including the epilogue in which Reiner and Reiser discuss whether it would be funnier to trip over an ottoman or to step over it and sit at the last moment. Brady then notes that "sitting has never been funny".
In 2003 TV Land produced The Alan Brady Show, an animated special presented as an episode of Dick Van Dyke's show-within-a-show. Reiner, Van Dyke, and Rose Marie contributed voice performances to the show.
A 2004 reunion special, The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited, brought together the surviving members of the cast. In this continuation, hosted by Ray Romano, Rob and Laura have long since moved to Manhattan, where Laura runs a dance studio. Ritchie has recently bought their old New Rochelle home, widowed neighbor Millie Helper finds a companion in Rob's brother Stacey, and Alan Brady re-enters their lives to ask Rob to write his eulogy, with the help of a happily married Sally Rogers Glimscher.
Home media
Image Entertainment has released all five seasons of The Dick Van Dyke Show on DVD in Region 1. Season sets were released between October 2003 – June 2004. Also, on May 24, 2005, Image Entertainment repackaged the discs from the individual season sets into a complete series box set. On Blu-ray, the complete series, remastered in high definition, was released on November 13, 2012.[30]
In Region 4, Umbrella Entertainment has released the first three seasons on DVD in Australia.
Following the well-received colorizations of I Love Lucy in the US, two episodes, "That’s My Boy" and "Coast to Coast Big Mouth", were computer colorized by West Wing Studios in 2016 and broadcast by CBS.[33][34] They were later released on DVD and Blu-ray by CBS Home Entertainment as The Dick Van Dyke Show: Now in Living Color!
DVD Name
Ep#
Release Date
Season 1
31
October 21, 2003
Season 2
33
October 21, 2003
Season 3
31
February 24, 2004
Season 4
32
April 27, 2004
Season 5
31
June 29, 2004
The Complete Series
158
May 24, 2005 (DVD) November 13, 2012 (Blu-ray) November 10, 2015 (remastered DVD)
Now in Living Color!
2
March 3, 2017 (DVD and Blu-ray)
Six episodes of the series, all from the second season, are believed to have lapsed into the public domain and have been released by numerous discount distributors.[citation needed] There also seems to be no original record of copyright for episodes 33–62, which were released in 1962 and 1963. This does not preclude their creators from claiming royalties for them.[35] CBS policy has generally been to claim indirect copyright on such episodes by claiming them as derivative works of earlier episodes that were copyrighted.[36][37]
"Never Name a Duck"
"Bank Book 6565696"
"Hustling the Hustler"
"The Night the Roof Fell In"
"A Man's Teeth Are Not His Own"
"Give Me Your Walls"
In popular culture
In 2003, TV Land produced a pilot for an animated TV series, The Alan Brady Show, based on the fictional show-within-a-show on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Written and executive-produced by Carl Reiner, it was scheduled to air on August 17, 2003, and featured the voices of Rose Marie as "The Secretary" and Dick Van Dyke as "Webb", with Reiner reprising his role as Alan Brady.[38]
"Holy Crap", the second episode of the second season of the animated TV series Family Guy, first broadcast on September 30, 1999, features a parody of the opening of The Dick Van Dyke Show where Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) falls over an ottoman. In the parody, Petrie has a series of progressively more serious and dangerous accidents, until someone finally turns the TV off. In "PTV", the 14th episode of season four, first broadcast on November 6, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission censors the opening credits of The Dick Van Dyke Show, blacking out both "Dick" and "Dyke", because of their alternate meanings of "penis" and "lesbian".
Dick Van Dyke Show opener parody (animated): Tiny Toon Adventures, Season 1, Episode 62 "Here's Hamton"
Carl Reiner appears as Alan Brady in the episode "The Alan Brady Show" of the sitcom Mad About You, in which Paul hopes to hire Alan Brady to narrate his documentary about the history of American television.[39]
The first episode of the Disney+ series WandaVision acknowledges the ottoman gag in its opening sequence, with Vision avoiding tripping over a chair in the living room.[40] It was later confirmed in episode 8 that the pilot episode was based on The Dick Van Dyke Show and the Maximoffs are seen watching the episode "It May Look Like a Walnut."[41] When the producers of WandaVision (Matt Shakman and Kevin Feige) were making the first episode, they consulted Van Dyke for advice about keeping the episode as authentic as possible.[42][43]
Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), which "helped define a new vision of American womanhood" and "appealed to an audience facing the new trials of modern-day existence". Moore won seven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Ordinary People. Moore had a supporting role in the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie. Moore was an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism and diabetes awareness and research.
Robert Reiner is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of Mike "Meathead" Stivic on the CBS sitcom All in the Family (1971–1979), a performance that earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from September 19, 1970, to March 19, 1977. Moore portrayed Mary Richards, an unmarried, independent woman focused on her career as associate producer of a news show at the fictional local station WJM in Minneapolis. Ed Asner co-starred as Mary's boss Lou Grant, alongside Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Georgia Engel, Betty White, Valerie Harper as friend and neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern, and Cloris Leachman as friend and landlady Phyllis Lindstrom.
Carl Reiner was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999.
Moritz Amsterdam was an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. He played Buddy Sorrell on CBS's The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 to 1966.
The Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner. In 1975, frequent guest star Tim Conway became a regular cast member after Waggoner left the series. In 1977, Dick Van Dyke replaced Korman but it was agreed that he was not a match and he left after 10 episodes.
Richard Wayne Van Dyke is an American actor and comedian. His career has spanned over seven decades in film, television, and stage. Van Dyke is the recipient of a Golden Globe, Tony, Grammy, a Daytime Emmy, and four Primetime Emmys. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012. He was honored with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2021, and was recognized as a Disney Legend.
Mad About You is an American television sitcom starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City as they navigate life together. In later seasons, the couple has a daughter.
Jerry McCord Van Dyke was an American actor and comedian. He was the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke.
Diagnosis: Murder is an American comedy-mystery-medical crime drama television series starring Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a medical doctor who solves crimes with the help of his son Steve, a homicide detective played by Van Dyke's real-life son Barry. The series began as a spin-off of Jake and the Fatman, became a series of three television films, and then a weekly television series that debuted on CBS on October 29, 1993. Joyce Burditt wrote the episode in Jake and the Fatman and is listed here as the creator of the spin off series.
The New Dick Van Dyke Show is an American sitcom starring Dick Van Dyke that aired on CBS from 1971 to 1974. It was Van Dyke's first return to series television since The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Francis Gregory Alan Morris was an American actor. He was best known for portraying Barney Collier on the television series Mission: Impossible and Lt. David Nelson on Vega$.
Richard Schaal was an American film and television actor born in Chicago, Illinois.
Phil Leeds was an American character actor. He is best known for appearing in many movies and television series, including guest appearances in The Dick Van Dyke Show, Maude, Friends, Barney Miller, The Golden Girls, Everybody Loves Raymond, Boy Meets World and more.
Bill Idelson was an actor, writer, director and producer widely known for his teenage role as Rush Gook on the radio comedy Vic and Sade and his recurring television role as Herman Glimscher on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s.
Gloria Neil is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Beverly Hillbillies, as well as the 1960s-era films The Beach Girls and the Monster and The Karate Killers.
Estelle Reiner was an American actress and singer, described by The New York Times as "matriarch of one of the leading families in American comedy". She was the wife of Carl Reiner and the mother of Rob Reiner.
A writers' room is a space where writers, usually of a television series, gather to write and refine scripts. It is a common method of writing television series in the US, but is much less widespread in countries like the UK.
It May Look Like a Walnut is the 20th episode in season 2 of the TV series The Dick Van Dyke Show that aired February 6, 1963. The episode was ranked #15 in TV Guide's ''Top 100 Episodes of All Time'' 1997 list. It moved up to #13 in TV Guide's revised 2009 list.
↑ Waldron, Vince (2011). The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book. Episode Guide: Chicago Review Press. p.291. ISBN978-1-56976-839-6.
↑ Waldron, Vince (2011). The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book. Episode Guide: Chicago Review Press. pp.291, 299, 303, 320, 334, 351, 361, 377, 379, 383, 387. ISBN978-1-56976-839-6.
↑ Dick Van Dyke Plays Not My Job (October 23, 2010) NPR.org archive Retrieved September 6, 2011
↑ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (Ninthed.). Ballantine Books. pp.1683–1684. ISBN978-0-345-49773-4.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Brooks, Tim (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present (Ninthed.). Ballantine Books. pp.1634–1636. ISBN978-0-345-49773-4.
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