American Masters

-Yeah!

-Here we go!

-Yay!!

-Well, Dick Van Dyke was one of my idols growing up.

He was absolutely transcendent to me.

He was a comedy phenomenon.

-Rob, what’s the matter?

[Audience laughing] -Rob.

-Ca– I ca– can’t bend.

-He was a very big part of my childhood.

Dick Van Dyke was on my television when I was a little kid, and he was in the movies that I loved.

– Chim-chimney, chim-chimney, chim-chim-cha-roo Good luck will rub off when I shakes hands with you Or blow me a kiss, and that’s lucky, too -My friend Dick Van Dyke is an all-around performer.

I couldn’t name one of his talents that’s better than the next.

-He can sing; he can dance; he’s a comedian; he can do pratfalls and be funny.

And he’s also very sexy.

-He had a real physicality.

In a lot of ways he was like a cartoon come to life.

-I look at the line of Dick Van Dyke, and I go, oh, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Dick Van Dyke.

-He’s effervescent.

He’s like an Alka-Seltzer.

He’s always bubbling over.

-“The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Starring Dick Van Dyke.

-He’d come in and then do a brilliant fall over an ottoman.

How can you not be seduced by that?

-I think the whole thing about reinventing yourself, which is what we’re talking about with Dick Van Dyke, ’cause he has reinvented himself over and over again.

It’s because you’re not interested in fame; you’re interested in being creative, interested in just the joy of giving out and performing.

-What enables the longevity of his career is his spirit.

It emanates off the screen, big and small to this day.

-“The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

-On Tuesday, October 3rd, 1961, with little fanfare a new situation comedy makes its television debut.

-Oh, hi, Rob.

-Oh, for me it was, um, the Dick Van Dyke Show.

I was 11 when it went on, and I was obsessed with it.

It was my favorite thing to watch on television.

-Dick brought to the role much more that was in the role.

He brought his physicality and his unbelievable talent.

This man is the single most talented man who’s ever been in situation comedy.

–[ Holding back a sneeze ] -Uh, no, no, no, Rob.

-Sorry, Jerry.

[ Continues holding back a sneeze ] [ Continues holding back a sneeze ] [ Sneezes into air ] -It was the first sitcom that I can think of where you really saw the physical attraction between the husband and the wife.

-We might not have been talking about something sexual, but there would be a stage direction.

He puts his arm around her.

She looks up at him and snuggles further into the embrace.

You know, those kinds of things that hadn’t be in other scripts before.

-They just looked like what a couple was supposed to, you know, well, that’s the couple.

-One of the things about the couple of Dick and Mary Tyler Moore was that you kind of wished you were them.

You wanted to be married to Mary Tyler Moore.

–[ Growls ] -And I suppose the women wanted -to be married to Dick Van Dyke.

-That’s true.

-It felt like it was a fair fight between the two of them, meaning as performers.

I always think that acting, is really, when done correctly, a contact sport.

You know, you wanna be able to bounce off who you’re working with, and she could give as good as he could.

They were equals, and that was fun to watch.

-All he needs is just a little confidence and maybe a couple of tricks.

-Tricks?

-Yeah, you know, like the yawn in the movie.

-The yawn in the movie?

-You remember when you were in the movies with a girl and you were too shy to put your arm around her, so you went [ Yawns ] -My gosh, I haven’t done that in years.

-I hope not.

-I think what our show special was that chemistry, first of all, with Dick and Mary, and then on down through the cast, which was so good.

-Oh, is that the comedy spot?

-No, bubblehead, this is a comedy spot.

-Rob!

-Buddy.

-Sally.

-Mel.

-Rob.

-Sally.

-Buddy!

-Go ahead, Curly, it’s your turn, say, Rob.

-Rob!

-Beautiful.

-Oh, wonderful, wonderful.

-Talk about chemistry.

It was great with him and Mary, oh, my gosh, and, and, uh, Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie.

They had great chemistry, and it all starts with the top.

It started with him.

-Just by accident, we got together a group of people where the chemistry was just exactly right.

We all liked each other right away, enjoyed working together.

The more we worked together, the closer we became as friends.

-I loved that cast.

I mean, they were just so good.

There was nothing they couldn’t attempt.

– Come join us, come join us, just take a part and join us [ Imitating instruments playing ] [ Imitating flute sadly ] -“The Dick Van Dyke Show” does not attract a large audience.

Show creator and producer Carl Reiner and executive producer Sheldon Leonard believe eight o’clock is too early in the evening to broadcast a show aimed at adults.

After a good deal of effort, the producers persuade the network to move the program to a new day and time.

-I’m Dick Van Dyke.

Our show’s on in a new time spot — right now!

-The first episode broadcast at the new time expanded the type of subject matter that could be dealt with in a sitcom.

-Daddy?

-Hm?

-Where’d I come from?

-What’d you say, Rich?

I said where’d I come from?

-Uh, well, uh [Chuckles] uh, that’s what I thought you said.

Well, honey, did you hear what Richie just asked?

-Yes, I, I heard, darling.

-In this flashback show, Rob and Laura reminisce about the final frantic days of her pregnancy.

-It was every piece of shtick you could think of [Chuckling] through that show, everything.

I got to just do physical comedy and mime all the way through it, playing the nervous, uh, expectant father.

I had such a good time.

–[ Sighs ] [ Gasps ] -It’s time!

-Honey!

Rob, I am perfectly all– -I’ll get the car.

I’ll call the hospital.

-Rob, I am perfectly all right!

I just dropped the alarm clock.

-Despite the high quality of writing and performances, the show is rated 80th out of 117 shows.

After the sponsor decides to put its money elsewhere, CBS cancels the series.

Dick’s Hollywood dream is over before it’s begun.

Or is it?

Dick Van Dyke is a small town boy, growing up in Danville, Illinois.

Even at a young age, he has his eyes on the camera.

-My dad was a very funny man, and my mother was a very funny person, too.

As a matter of fact, between my brother and my mother and my father and me, I was the least funny of them all.

During World War II, in our little, uh, CBS outlet, most of the announcers were getting drafted, and they put an ad in the paper for part-time announcers.

So I went down, auditioned and got the job, so I was a disc jockey and a newsman at the age of 16.

[ Chuckles ] -Dick is also given the opportunity to show off his comedic acting on local entertainment shows.

-I’m Albert the Electron, and you’ll be hearing a lot from me.

Now where does that big stiff get off stamping around in here like an elephant?

Why, I go from here to there and back again.

-It’s, uh, about time we say that the studio players presented tonight’s story, and our cast included John Nickels, Lou Selby, and in case you hadn’t guessed, Dick Van Dyke was wired for sound as Albert the Electron.

-My next guest on the show is the man who gave me my start in show business back in 1947.

Those of you who would like to thank him for discovering me, line up over there.

[ Chuckles ] Those of you who’d like to get him, [ Chuckles ] line up over — Look at that line over there.

No, it’s true.

This man took me on as his partner back then, and we did an act together for several years called The Merry Mutes because we didn’t say a word.

We moved our lips to records.

So here’s the man who made me his silent partner, Phil Erickson.

Phil, come on in.

[ Applause ] -Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I didn’t make a bad choice, did I?

[ Chuckles ] -I was 21 and not really knowing what to do with my life at that time anyway, and I didn’t expect it to last.

I thought, uh, that it would be something that we’d do for fun for a summer or a year or something and it’d be a great experience, and then I would go on.

-In the summer of 1947, the Merry Mutes drive west to California.

They manage to find work in small nightclubs and hotels in and around Los Angeles.

-And we got to bigger and bigger nightclubs, played Las Vegas, and finally opened at the Blue Angel in New York, and those sophisticated people came in to see the act and stared at us.

Literally just sat there and stared at us.

-That’s murder, isn’t it?

-I think it was the beginning of my drinking.

-And now from Atlanta, Georgia, two youngsters who are, well, they are actually in the entertainment world, the biggest things to hit Georgia since Coca-Cola.

Definitely so, and down there at the Grady Hotel.

They’re awfully good.

I think you’re gonna get a great kick out of them.

They call themselves the Merry Mutes.

-TV in the 1950s was in a, in experimental phase.

So what you saw was a lot of stage stuff, a lot of Vaudeville stuff, a lot of Broadway stuff, so when we look at Dick and his partner coming on Ed Sullivan and sort of miming to a record, I mean, nowadays that might seem kind of silly to have somebody come out and just mime to a record, but that’s what people were doing in Vaudeville and on stages back then, and so it made sense to sort of bring it to a national audience on television.

– You always hurt the one you love The one you shouldn’t hurt at all You always take the sweetest rose And crush it till the petals fall You always break -Ca-runch.

– The kindest heart with a hasty word you can’t recall -Ah, you old bat.

– If I broke -Ca-runch.

– Your heart last night, it’s because I love you most of all -Everybody knew that television was gonna be more and more and more, and I really wanted to get into television because eventually I wanted to have a family, and I knew that nightclubs were no life.

-You married your high school sweetheart.

Just, is that one of those sickening things they put in your biography or is it really true?

-No, I really did.

-You actually did.

-Really married my high school sweetheart.

-And you married her on, on radio as you’re probably sick of hearing, but — -Yes, on Bride and Groom.

-Our, our younger viewers won’t remember, but there was a radio show, believe it or not, called Bride and Groom, and people had the poor taste to get married on radio.

-From Hollywood we present… [ “Wedding March” playing ] …Bride and Groom.

[ Applause ] -I was a starving nightclub actor at the time.

-You were glad to get it.

-Yeah, because they gave you furniture, the ring, they paid for the license, and they sent you away on a week’s honeymoon, all free.

-Really?

-That’s the only way I could get married.

I had no money at all.

-When the show was canceled, did you feel divorced?

Uh — –[ Laughs ] -Dick and his wife Margie become parents to two boys, Chris and Barry.

To provide for his growing family, Dick reluctantly splits from Phil Erickson and heads for New York in search of better paying jobs.

-I never had a career plan, and, you know, I think it’s good because you don’t pass things up that b– if your nose is headed in that direction, a lot of nice things can happen along the way.

I’ve just kind of taken what came.

-We proudly present… …a character sketch.

-This is what’s known as a, as a circuit audition, closed circuit audition, which means that it’s piped directly to the studios up at 45 Madison Avenue, the executives of this network, and your whole [Chuckles] your whole career can count on it.

You think I’d be nervous.

[ Nervous Laughter, Weeping ] -You’ve just been introduced to Dick Van Dyke, a new television personality.

-They offered me a 7 year contract, and I was totally speechless, unable to speak, and the first thing they did was put me in as anchor on the CBS Morning Show.

I interviewed people, introduced guests, did the weather.

-I love that he was literally an anchorman with Walter Cronkite.

Literally.

-And he was absolutely a total unknown, but he was very funny, but it was not going terribly well.

I think Dick, uh, in his first show on network television was a little concerned about it, uh, without a script and all of that, and CBS decided they wanted a news person who could, uh, do a little dialogue occasionally, ad-lib dialogue with Van Dyke to loosen Van Dyke up is what they told me.

It was a little hard ge– making that thing work, and maybe I wasn’t good enough at throwing him cues and lines.

One morning, Dick danced over to my news desk and said, I think I’m gonna live or die on this program.

And I said, Dick, maybe you already have.

[ Chuckles ] I mean, ju– just a joke I thought, you know, and he’d pick it up from there, and I only learned later what had happened.

They had already decided to fire Dick Van Dyke, and they thought that I knew it, and I was tipping him off to it.

-It was a kind of a misuse of my abilities ’cause I, I wasn’t that good at interviewing.

I was 29 at the time and a little green.

-When the Morning Show doesn’t work out, still betting on his talent the network assigns Dick to host CBS Cartoon Theatre, a summer replacement program for kids.

-Each week, our stars, whom I’m very happy to call my friends, will appear — -Hey, boss!

Hey, boss.

-Yeah?

-You’ve got s’nexts on your sleeve.

-There’s nothing on my sleeve.

-Oh, yes, you’ve got s’nexts on your sleeve.

-I have?

What’s s’nexts?

The show, the show’s next.

[ Laughs ] -It was kind of pieced together because I interacted with the cartoon characters, so it had no performance flow to it at all.

My recollection is not good about that.

-“Cartoon Theatre” ends production after just 13 episodes.

Uncertain how to best use Dick’s talents, the network tries headlining him in a variety show.

-“The Dick Van Dyke Show”… …starring Dick Van Dyke.

-Right about here, you see, is where we would ordinarily have our commercial message from the sponsor, but of course right now we don’t know who our sponsors are gonna be or even what kind of a product we’re gonna be selling.

But I can tell you that right now, whatever the product is, here is where we would say that it’s bigger, it’s faster, it’s drier, it’s gentler, it’s shinier, it’s foamier, it’s livelier, roomier, water-proofier, better tasting, longer lasting, quicker acting, easier spreading, smoother driving, cleaner smelling, closer shaving, deeper frying, and it’s kid-proof.

Get it!

-The pilot is not well received by network executives, and no weekly series comes from it.

-I didn’t actually live out my 7 year contract.

They let me go after 3 years.

I was devastated.

Scared to death.

What am I gonna do now?

-When, uh, Dick Van Dyke came on the show, we hit off.

We were like brothers.

I mean, we thought the same things were funny.

You know, I, have, as I say admired Dick for quite a while because to my way of thinking he has a fresh, new approach to comedy.

-Oh, well, thanks, Pat.

I think about all I really do, though, is just kind of avoid slapstick.

-Oh, is that it?

-Yeah, I think people today like more subtle humor.

They’re tired of people throwing pies and making foolish mistakes of some kind.

-Oh, I see.

-Oh, man.

You remember, uh, for instance, Dorothy Parker or Oscar Wilde, people like that?

And, uh, George Bernard Shaw.

-Yeah.

-Pat, you’d be surprised how many people admire that kind of humor.

Really.

People laugh just at the anticipation of that kind of humor.

Don’t you, don’t you think that, uh, people enjoy that sort of thing, Pat?

-Sure, sure.

Mm-hm.

-Well, that’s the way I feel, and I rest my case on that.

Whoop!

-I see what you mean.

He made it so easy, and I just went right with him, and, uh, and, and we both thoroughly enjoyed that.

-I didn’t know I could sing or da– I didn’t know I could do anything.

[ Laughs ] I just, uh, in those days if they said, Can you do it?

You say, Yes, I can do that.

Mention my name in Sheboygan -You been there?

– It’s the greatest little town in the world -Do you know Silas Long?

– Just tell old Si you’re an old friend of mine -He knows him.

– Every door in town will have a big welcome sign – We’ll mention your name in Sheboygan -They love me.

– And if we ever get in a jam – Here’s what you do Mention my name -What is it?

– Mention my name -What is it?

– Please don’t tell ’em where I am -He was funny even if he wasn’t talking.

I mean, he could’ve done the silent films.

[ Chuckles ] You know.

-Well, needless to say it was great fun having you on the show, Dick.

-Pat, I enjoyed myself.

I laughed my head off.

-Did you?

No kidding.

-Yeah.

[ Applause ] -When I was a kid I loved all of the great physical comedians.

To this day, I’m a Laurel and Hardy fan.

That relationship that they developed is unlike any other comedy team that ever existed.

-Dick Van Dyke was definitely informed by the greats of the past.

He did Stan Laurel all the time.

-I loved Chaplin, I love Buster Keaton.

-As a boy, Dick learns from the best.

He spends Saturdays in the local movie theater, soaking up like a sponge how effortlessly his screen idols move with an impeccable sense of timing.

Their inspiration serves him well as he struggles to find his own career footing.

-Stan Laurel, Buster Keaton, I mean, talk about physical comedy, and Dick Van Dyke.

I mean, he is in that category of, of performers.

-I think we come from the same DNA strain, all of us.

Uh, only for us it doesn’t stand for deoxyribonucleic acid.

It stands for divine nutcase alumni.

-My first impression of him was that he, uh, he, he was so, um, supple.

-Hello, sweetheart.

-Hello, darling.

-How are you this evening?

-Fine, dear.

-Oh, dinner.

I’m so hungry I could die.

-Yes.

How soon do you think it will be before the poison will take effect?

-In 3 seconds.

One, two, three!

[ Laughs ] Talk about supple.

Oh, my.

Oh.

It’s, it’s incredible what he, what he does with his body.

I mean, ti– the w– the way he walked around the floor and all the — I had totally forgotten that sketch.

It’s like he didn’t have any kind of a bone in his body.

He was all rubber.

It was brilliant.

-Hedging his bets against unemployment, Dick tries emceeing a game show.

-“Laugh Line.”

Here is your host and cartoon interlocutor, Dick Van Dyke.

-Good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you very much and welcome, everybody, to “Laugh Line.”

-Bad idea, and it didn’t work.

Just didn’t work.

Deadly, deadly.

Yeah, I, I’ve died many times, and that was one of the worst.

-“Laugh Line” is canceled after only 9 episodes.

Next, Dick and his manager take it upon themselves to produce another pilot.

-Dick Van Dyke tells a story.

-The eyes began to droop, and the mouth begins to quiver.

And the hands, they begin to shake from weakness, and the legs, they could hardly stand up, they were so rubbery and weak.

Oh.

-This concept also does not sell.

Dick is not fulfilling his early promise and fears he’s on a treadmill to oblivion.

In late 1959, Dick is cast in a supporting role in “The Girls Against the Boys,” a stage production featuring songs and comedy sketches.

Dick receives good notices, but the show itself is panned by critics and lasts only 16 performances.

Discouraged, concerned about how he’s going to support his family, which now includes a daughter, Stacy, and another daughter, Carrie Beth, on the way, Dick continues to audition for Broadway shows.

One day, he finds himself in front of the well respected choreographer and director Gower Champion.

-I walked in and, uh, did a little song and dance for Gower Champion, and he came up on the stage and said, You’ve got the part.

I said, I can’t really dance.

He said, I’ll teach you to dance.

And he did.

Little did I know that that would be a big break for me.

-Well, you know, he was a Broadway star.

-Yeah, he was a Broadway star.

-“Bye Bye Birdie.”

-Bye — that’s right, that’s right.

-And, uh, made the movie.

-He must’ve killed.

Can you imagine seeing — -Yeah.

-You’re going to Broadway and you see Dick Van Dyke on stage and go who, who is that?

-I only found out many, many years later that in Philadelphia, when we were doing the out of town tryout, the producers wanted to, to replace me.

They didn’t think I was coming through, and Gower Champion said, This kid’s gonna be alright and stood up for me.

-To give Dick a standout moment in the first act, Champion instructs the songwriters to rewrite a number originally intended for his costar Chita Rivera.

It turns out to be a career maker.

– Gray skies are gonna clear up Put on a happy face Brush off the clouds and cheer up Put on a happy face Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy It’s not your style You look so good that you’ll be glad you decided to smile Pick out a pleasant outlook, stick out that noble chin Wipe off the full of doubt look Slap on a happy grin And spread sunshine all over the place Just put on a happy face And I won a Tony Award of all things.

When they were going to fire me.

I said, Life is strange.

I was in “Bye Bye Birdie” for a year, and everyone said this is where you belong.

I knew that th– this wasn’t the steady income from it, and with my family I was just afraid to, to try that, so I was looking for a television series.

-I guess you’re, I guess you’re very happy to see her, aren’t you, Al Duncy?

He certainly is.

He’s overwhelmed.

Al, I wonder, Al, I wonder if you’d tell — Al?

Al?

I wonder if you’d tell our audience exactly who this lady is?

-I don’t know who she is, but it’s alright with me.

-I had just finished working on “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour,” and people were offering me a lot of situation comedies.

My wife and I read them, and they weren’t very good, and she said in her infinite wisdom, Hey, you could write better than this.

I had never written a situation comedy, but I said what piece of ground do I stand on that nobody else stands on?

I said, well, I’m a husband, a father, I live in New Rochelle, I’m an actor, a writer, I work in television.

I’ll write about that.

In 4 days I had written a thing called “Head of the Family.”

I did a pilot, didn’t sell, and I was very disappointed.

They, they told me it was very good.

So Carl came and we talked, and I learned that he had written a pilot for himself, that he had been encouraged to think that he could sell a pilot in which he would play the lead and says I knew that he was talented.

I wonder why it hadn’t sold.

I asked if I could see it.

-I know Carl Reiner originally was going to be Rob Petrie, and when I’ve seen the footage of Carl Reiner as Rob Petrie in the test shoot, it’s just no.

[ Chuckles ] He’s not Rob Petrie.

-Robert, your son dislikes you.

-What are you saying?

How can he dislike me?

I’m his father.

-Some children have been known to hate their fathers.

-He’s only 6 years old.

He doesn’t know me long enough to hate me.

This is ridiculous.

Richie, Richie, do you hate your daddy?

See?

-It seemed apparent to me the reason it hadn’t sold is because he was mis-cast.

[ Chuckles ] The written material was so great that I said, Do you mind if I try it again, recast it and try it again?

-He said, We’ll get a better actor to play you.

-I went to see a young man playing in a show called “Bye Bye Birdie.”

I went backstage.

I said to him at the time, Look, kid, I, I think we’re gonna find something to do together.

-Sheldon Leonard suggested Dick.

When I went to see him, I realized that he really could command a stage, and “Bye Bye Birdie” was just charming and wonderful.

-At that point, I had a script of my own that I was trying to sell, and I really had been out trying to promote it, and Carl sent me 8 scripts, which I sat down and read and threw mine out the window because it was the best writing I have ever read in my life.

-January 20, 1961.

John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th President of the United States, ushering in a new era of hope and optimism in American politics and culture.

Later that same day, a group of talented people gather on a soundstage in Hollywood under the direction of Sheldon Leonard to film the pilot of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

-You don’t mind if I go alone?

-Not at all, darling.

-Well… -It’s just that I couldn’t go to a party knowing my son was on the verge of being sick.

I couldn’t enjoy myself.

-Alright.

Alright.

You win.

We’ll spend a quiet evening at home frying liver.

-You don’t have to stay!

-I’m not going!

I’m as good a mother as you are!

-It’s crazy that the idea existed before they had discovered Dick Van Dyke because he’s perfect in every single way.

-The first time Dick Van Dyke read the part of Rob Petrie, I knew he was a character.

He’s amazing.

He’s amazing.

And he always added something to a script just by his very behavior in essence.

-I give you my impression of my wife’s Uncle Henry coming home from the annual office party.

And who should he meet, but his wife.

Sally, you know the bit.

-I’ll do it.

-I need the chair and a hat.

-I got it right here!

-First of all, he brought to the pilot something I wouldn’t have dreamed of.

He brought a piece of material that he had done on a Broadway show of a guy who was so frightened of his wife that even when he got drunk and he saw her, he’d sober up.

-Whoo!

-Darling!

-Thank you, honey.

Sweetheart, was there any mail today?

-Oh, yes, some very important letters.

I’ll get them for you.

-Thank you.

-Here.

Here’s the letters.

-Oh, thank you, sweetheart.

Uh-huh.

-Listen, honey.

Are you hungry?

Would you like a sandwich?

-I would love a sandwich.

-Alright.

-Whoo!

-Hey, hon!

How would you like a ham on rye?

-Oh, I’d love a ham on rye.

-Fine.

With mustard?

-With mustard.

-With pickle?

-Pickle!

-Honey, you don’t look right.

You know what I think you need?

I think you need a nice, stiff drink.

[ Cymbal crash ] -Dick is not a trained actor, dancer, or singer, but he does everything very, very well.

He’s a great, great talent.

I don’t think he knows how much talent he has.

-I first met Dick when we were shooting the pilot.

He just made you feel so comfortable and so at ease.

I felt like immediately we had a — a family connection just at that very first moment ’cause they were so good at what they did, Dick especially.

Mary.

They were just so professional.

They just made me feel like their son, and it worked out perfectly.

-This is a nice vanilla cupcake.

-Vanilla?

-Yeah, with vanilla icing.

-Vanilla icing?

-Yeah.

-I like chocolate!

-The finished pilot is so refreshing that Proctor & Gamble swoops in and agrees to sponsor the program before any other company has a chance to see it.

-Hi, Daddy!

-Hiya, Rich!

Mm!

Where’s Mommy?

-She’s in the kitchen taking a bubble bath.

-Oh.

Kitchen?

Ritchie said you were taking a bubble bath.

-No, I said Joy’s as mild as a bubble bath.

It’s the new sudsier Joy.

-Oh?

Let me see this.

-At the time that “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was airing, it was much more common for sponsors to be much more visible in how TV shows operated.

-This is it.

The ’57 DeSoto with a new low price.

Friends, go in and see a DeSoto Plymouth dealer tomorrow, and when you do, tell ’em Groucho sent ya.

-Nowadays, you’d call that product placement.

Now we think of product placement as something that might downgrade the quality of the show, but back in those days they were very open about the process.

Everybody knew that these characters were indulging in a different kind of commercial.

-Hey, honey, look at this!

-What’s that?

An electric hat-dog cooker.

-“Hat-dog” cooker.

“Hot dog”!

-There were always segments inside the show where the stars would hold up the product, talk about how great it is, and so it wasn’t necessarily that unusual for viewers of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” to see Laura Petrie holding up Joy dishwashing liquid.

-Those suds are mild.

You can see the mildness on my hands.

-Mm.

They look nice.

Awfully wet, though.

-Well, they wouldn’t have to feel wet if you’d give me a hand.

Oh, would you like a hand?

Alright.

-Well, I’m not a real actor, so I’m one of those guys who plays himself.

Rob Petrie was pretty much me.

I saw him as a guy who was, you know, bright and, uh, creatively talented, but who still emotionally was not really that grown up.

And, uh, I played him that way, as kind of emotionally immature but, uh, with good judgment and a good father and a good husband, and that made him funny and a klutz.

-Jerry says I’m too poor… -Dick Van Dyke is like a Gumby that’s constantly being twisted and torqued by things that Mary Tyler Moore has done or things that his kid has gotten him into.

He’s constantly getting twisted and spun around, but his body bends, you know, as his personality does.

-Part of his job, I think, as a character, was to allow the audience in, but he’d get mad or disappointed or sad or scared or whatever.

He did all of the human things but in such an elegant way.

You could laugh at it and you could be part of it and you could recognize yourself.

-He was not only massively talented, but he had this self-deprecating, awkward, vulnerable side, you know, that just made you fall in love with the guy.

-Well, I’ll be happy!

Sailing’s gonna make me happy, honey.

And a person who is happy has an infinitely larger capacity for love.

And who is gonna be the recipient of all of that love?

-Oh, boy!

[ Door slams ] -That was rotten.

Nobody would buy that!

-He must be one of the most likable TV characters of all time.

-Despite finally finding the ideal showcase for Dick’s talents, despite receiving very good reviews and despite having 39 episodes to prove themselves, ratings for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” are mediocre.

Proctor & Gamble ends their sponsorship, and CBS elects not to renew the show.

-It was cut down prematurely the first season.

They canceled us.

I was devastated.

-Refusing to accept being canceled, executive producer Sheldon Leonard hops on a plane to Cincinnati and makes a passionate presentation to Proctor & Gamble executives, pleading with them to give the show another chance.

Impressed with the vision for a second season, they agree to stay on but only as sponsor of half the program.

Leonard then flies to New York and works his verbal magic, persuading Kent Cigarettes to sponsor the other half.

Had it not been for Leonard’s power of persuasion, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” would’ve been tossed into the dustbin of canceled TV series.

Instead, it’s given the rare gift of a second chance.

-Surprise!

-Surprise!

[ Indistinct shouting ] -At the start of the second season, viewers are presented with an entirely new main-title sequence.

It’s the result of a happy accident.

-I said, “Okay.

Let’s wrap it up.”

Then Carl said, “Oh, my God!

I forgot!

John, we need an opening.”

“What do you mean?

Opening what?”

He said, “For the show.

We need to ha–” I said, well — The first year, we had had pictures, and he was tired of that, Carl was.

He said, “We need a little clever opening.”

“Oh, God.

What do you wanna do?”

He said, “I don’t know.”

I said, “Let’s do something where, uh… Who’s in the shot?”

He said, “Everybody.”

I said, “Oh, Christ.”

I said, “Alright.

Rosie, Morey, you’re there.

And Dick comes home, and, uh…” Carl said, “He falls.”

I said, “Great.”

-“The Dick Van Dyke Show”!

Starring Dick Van Dyke!

I said, “Print.

That’s it.

We did it.”

Carl said, “Let’s do a variation.”

He’s very clever, you know?

He said, “Let’s do one where he misses, then we’ll change it week by week.”

-Starring Dick Van Dyke!

-It was actually two takes that fast.

Maybe 4 minutes.

And that became the signature of the show.

[ Chuckles ] -As soon as I saw Dick Van Dyke tripping over the Ottoman and getting up with a smile on his face, I was hooked because I felt like that’s what Dick is here to say.

It’s not a pratfall.

It’s a metaphor.

If you tumble, you gotta pop right up and laugh at yourself because you’re ridiculous.

We’re all ridiculous.

And life is an absurd obstacle course of unforeseen Ottomans.

-I’m sorry and I apologize.

Honey, I-I don’t blame you for not jumping to forgive me.

I’m not even asking you to forgive me.

I’m not even asking you to be nice to me.

I’m — I’m just asking you to let me live here.

-Ohh… -With the new comedy hit “The Beverly Hillbillies” as a lead-in, ratings for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” explode.

It vaults into the top 10 and will stay there for the remainder of its time on the air.

Everything Dick has experienced in his career up to this point, every reinvention undertaken has prepared him for this success.

-Dick is probably just the most chill guy.

He was always in a good mood.

He never had a bad thing to say about anything.

Um, he just — And he was like the ultimate professional.

-Watch closely now.

-What’s going to happen?

-It’s gonna disappear.

All gone.

And there it is in the joint.

[ Chuckles ] -He was that in touch with what was funny instantaneously.

I never saw him make a bad choice.

He never went the wrong way to do something.

He just instinctively knew where the funny thing was.

-Dick is effortlessly funny.

It never feels staged or planned.

It’s just in him to be comedic.

It’s a gift.

-The most beautiful thing was Carl saw that I loved to do physical comedy, which he had not written into the script or didn’t see in the lead character.

He incorporated it.

He made Rob Petrie a little bit of an awkward, bumbling man.

-What’s for dinner?

-Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and string beans.

-Mmm!

Hm.

Roast chicken, huh?

-Man.

I just sat back and watched.

It was like watching the circus with him.

He was like a Flying Wallenda.

[ Chuckles ] [ Piano notes run ] -His body and how it moves is elegant and funny.

He is physical comedy, for me, at its best.

And that is always something that I have tried to either steal from or emulate or have it encourage, you know, what I do on camera.

-When I became an actor, especially in the early years, I’d get a script for something, and I’d put in the margin “DVD.”

It means just do Dick Van Dyke.

-Glasses, nuts.

I checked everything.

Cigarettes, ice cubes, cola.

Everything’s perfect.

-Good.

-Kind of a shame, too.

-Why?

-Because I’m calling off the party.

You’re not wearing that dress!

-What’s wrong with this dress?

-Well, honey, I — It’s — The fabrics.

-What’s the matter with the fabric?

-Well, there’s not enough of it.

-In all marriages, the symbiotic relationship is always there.

One person fills in the part of the other person that is either lacking or never been there or never will be there.

A successful marriage, two people make a whole.

The thing about this situation-comedy couple is they were for the most part two against the world rather than two against each other.

-The power of Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke together was something we just hadn’t seen.

-No.

-There was something — And I’m — I’m gonna use the word “clean,” but I don’t mean it clean in terms of morality.

It was just crisp and funny and lighthearted.

-Do you remember what I said when you asked me to marry you?

-Yeah.

You said, “Yes.”

-Well, before that.

-Before that, you kept saying, “No.”

-In between those two.

-In between.

Yeah.

Yeah, you said something real dramatic like… -Like, “Take me away from all this.

I don’t wanna be a dancer.

I wanna be your wife.”

-Yeah.

You’re really crazy about me, aren’t you?

-Well!

-Baby, anybody ever tell you that you’ve got beautiful legs?

-It seemed to me like he was most passionate about his wife.

[ Chuckles ] I think that was one thing that made the show appealing and also was different than other sitcoms, in that Rob and Laura seemed to really have a strong attraction for one another, and I think that worked in our favor.

And it was no problem at all being attracted to Mary Tyler Moore.

-He’s a nice guy.

I think I’m a nice lady.

And we just liked each other right from the beginning.

And he was so good-looking.

Um, there was just right away a sense of being very happy, very safe, very comfortable in humor that we shared and appreciation for each other’s gifts.

– You wonderful you I’m glad I found -Ohh.

Rob, we did it 12 times for the Bermonts.

-Aww, honey.

This one’s for me.

One more time?

Come on.

-Alright.

– Remember Finders keepers – Losers weepers – And because that’s true You’re mine now You wonderful you -Why did you mess up my hair?

-I like to.

-Dick loved doing his song-and-dance numbers that he got to do during the show.

It was something else he could do besides just being Rob Petrie.

It was just he was performing, he was singing, he was dancing with Mary, and he just loved that so much.

– If I had Aladdin’s lamp for only a day I could make a wish, here’s what I’d say Nothing could be finer Than to be in Carolina in the morning -And, of course, the Twizzle.

You know the Twizzle, don’t you?

Everybody, now you’re doing the Twizzle – That’s the Twizzle, yes, the Twizzle Yes, the Twizzle, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah – You twist a little then you twist a lot – And now let’s really get hot -Is this what you do all day?

-No.

No, no.

Sometimes I do the cha-cha.

Rob?

-Yes?

-Would you do me a favor?

-Sure, honey.

-Would you grab me and stop me so I can finish setting the table?

-Oh.

-I think the best and most impressive show we ever did was one in which we thought the baby was mixed up.

-Oy, what a day.

-Yeah.

-Exhausted.

-Well, listen, that hospital could wear anybody out.

I never saw such confusion!

-Yeah.

Jer?

-Hm?

-Who, uh, do you think the baby looks like?

-You know, I don’t know.

How can you tell at this age?

I mean, their looks change every day.

-Yeah.

-It was the opening show third season.

The story was that Dick was obsessed with the idea that their son, Ritchie, was the baby of another couple whose wife was in the hospital at the same time.

-There is also a great similarity, Mr.

Peters, between our names — Peters and Petrie.

Now, our wives had a baby on the same day in the same hospital, and the hospital was very busy, Mr.

Peters.

What am I getting at?

Mr.

Peters, uh, let me ask you a personal question.

Who does your baby look like?

Uh-huh!

Well, ours doesn’t look like neither one of us neither!

I think I’m making myself very clear, Mr.

Peters.

We have each other’s babies!

Mr.

Peters, how do you wanna handle this?

-The only thing we didn’t have at the point was an ending, since there was no DNA, that was irrevocably the answer that Dick was wrong and that it was their baby.

I’d say we all came up with the idea, and it was beyond daring.

-And CBS said, “We will not pay for this.”

God bless Carl and Sheldon.

They said, “Look, we’ll do the show, and if the audience tells us it’s bad taste, we’ll pay for it.

If the audience accepts it, you pay for it.”

That’s pretty brave.

-It was very nerve-racking ’cause there was an audience, and there was no idea of how the audience would take this.

-Well, honey, that’s probably the Peterses now.

Brace yourself.

-Rob, nobody is taking this baby!

Do you hear me?!

Nobody!

-I think it’d be better if you went to your room.

I can handle this.

-I am staying right here!

-Hi!

We’re Mr.

and Mrs.

Peters!

-There was a silence.

Enough time for Carl to say, “Oh [bleep]” to me.

‘Cause it looked like… And then…a gale of laughter.

-It was the longest and biggest laugh I have ever heard.

[ Chuckles ] -Uh, come in.

[ Audience laughter ] -I believe — I believe we have your Aunt Bertha’s figs, and you have taken Betty’s flowers.

-Mrs.

Peters!

Won’t you come in?

-This episode I think is key for a bunch of different reasons.

Number one, it highlights how white the world of the Petrie family was because the audience did not expect to see a Black couple because they have never seen a Black couple in this world.

So that’s an overt act by the producers to say, “We’re not only gonna highlight how white our world has been before, but we’re gonna play off of that.

We’re gonna use that for a big humor point.”

-Uh… W-Why, uh… Why didn’t you tell me on the phone?

-And miss the expression on your face?

-Even though Rob made a mistake, he’s not made to feel bad about it.

He’s not criticized for it.

They don’t come in with the sense of, “We’re insulted,” or, “We’re angry.”

There’s a sense of, “You understand and you made a mistake.

Let’s all have a laugh about it.”

-Hey.

That is a beautiful baby.

-Yeah?

-You know, he looks exactly like you.

-You really think so?

-No, but why start him off again?

-There is communication happening there and the connection happening there, and you get the sense that after Rob’s little mistake that these couples are gonna be friends.

And that’s a wonderful message to send.

[ Applause ] -On May 31, 1964, the Los Angeles Coliseum hosts the Religious Witness for Human Dignity event with a keynote address by Dr.

Martin Luther King.

-In reality, segregation is nothing but a new form of slavery covered up with certain niceties of complexity.

[ Applause ] -Prior to Dr.

King’s address, Dick, an early advocate for civil rights, delivers and impassioned speech on race relations in America, written especially for him by celebrated writer and creator of “The Twilight Zone” Rod Serling.

[ Applause ] “The dignity of human beings is not negotiable, and the desperate need for an understanding and a respect between all men is as fundamental as the process of breathing in and breathing out.”

-So, my mother passed away earlier this year.

77 years in the same house.

We had to go in and start cleaning things.

There was a couple closets full of my father’s home movies, so I packed them up and I sent them to a friend of mine who was gonna transfer them for me.

And I remember he called me up and he says, “Oh, my God.

Do you know what is part of your dad’s collection?”

I said, “No.”

He says, “There’s a movie of behind-the-scenes rehearsals of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ that your father shot.”

And when I saw that, I just thought this is just a special thing that I’m so fortunate to have that now is another part of the history that I’m part of which I’m so proud of.

-The last episode is perfection, which is Dick is getting a tooth pulled.

-Oh, he dreams.

Yeah.

-And he has a dream that he’s in a Western.

And he’s — It’s high noon.

And his opponent is Carl.

–[ Laughs ] [ Patrons murmuring ] -Well, Sheriff, we meet again.

-Yup.

-Got a good show for me?

-There ain’t gonna be no show.

-Did he say what I think he said?

-He said there wa– -Shut up!

-Yes, sir.

-Go stand in the corner.

-The last show we did, “The Gunslinger,” which was ’cause Dick had once said, “Geez, I’d love to be in a Western.”

It’s a bittersweet memory of that.

You know, they were all fun to write and they were all challenges, and it was such a joy, and it was too bad it ended.

-I thought it was way ahead of its time, and it was very cleverly done and it was funny and it was brilliant, and I enjoyed going to work every day.

-The whole “Van Dyke Show” was such a golden little kingdom.

They could have gone on for another five years, but they all decided — Carl, Mary, and Dick decided that they wanted to go out when people wanted more.

-It was devastating to me because while I, too, wanted to succeed and I wanted to go on… I had been offered “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” on Broadway.

It was the end of a family.

And I didn’t want it to end.

I so loved those people.

-I was heartbroken.

I mean, I was, you know — I was a child that had grown up with these people.

This was my home away from home.

These were my other family.

This was in some ways some closer than I was with my brothers and sisters at the time, you know, ’cause I was there all the time.

And I just — I remember I was really sad and I cried.

I was, like, very upset that this was coming to an end.

-You know, the first day, Carl said, “Five years is it.

If we go five years, that’s all.

Because you get repetitive.

You get stale.”

-You.

Give me a little of that… [ Imitates piano ] –[ Suspenseful piano music ] -That’s it!

Yeah!

That’s better.

-Gotcha!

-Gotcha!

-Nah, that’s not gonna work.

-We all wanted to go out winners.

We were offered a lot of money to stay on another year, but we knew that if we had another year it’d be slogging.

We had already done almost every premise that we knew of, and we sometimes started eating off ourselves doing something like the premise we did before.

We ended the show with a lot of energy.

-I’ll count to three.

We draw and shoot!

-Right!

-One.

–[ Piano plays ] -Two!

Three!

-You didn’t say to turn around!

You’re supposed to tell us to turn around!

-Well, that was implicit!

-Gee, I didn’t mean — I didn’t mean to shoot him.

I meant to shoot him!

–[ Grunts ] [ Theme music plays ] -I think there was a decency in the show, a kindness, and kind of a happiness about life.

-You know, the one thing about “The Dick Van Dyke Show” is — Everyone should know this about show business.

Being in a hit is a fluke.

There’s no guarantees.

It’s just when the stars line up.

-Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

-That’s why I wish he’d done the show longer.

-If you wanna watch a show and watch a performer over and over again in your living room, you’re gonna want someone you want to spend time with, funny, that they make you laugh.

That’s what Dick did.

He gave people a laugh.

He uplifted people.

And he did it in such an elegant, funny, extraordinary way.

-The Emmy Award is presented to Dick Van Dyke!

-The winner is Dick Van Dyke!

-And the winner in Hollywood is Dick Van Dyke.

[ Cheers and applause ] -I don’t believe this.

[ Chuckles ] You know, to get this on a, uh, last series after being — We’re now off the air, to all intents and purposes.

We stopped shooting our show.

That little group of people down there at our table know how gratified I am to them.

I would like also to thank the television industry for what they’ve done, you know, for the way they’ve treated me, which has been pretty ni– Well, look what they did for me.

[ Chuckles ] Thank you very, very much.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Dick has often said that starring on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was the best five years of his life.

The series has rarely, if ever, been off the air since production ended in 1966, showing in reruns around the world and attracting new generations of fans.

-Your husband, the man who left this place this morning an ordinary writer, has been offered a part in a movie.

-You’re kidding!

-No, I’m not.

-A regular movie, where you go in and pay two dollars to see it and everything?

-Well, yeah.

Well, I mean, I could get you in free.

But it’s, yeah, a regular movie.

[ Beep ] -Growing up, Dick dreams of starring in a movie.

The film adaptation of “Bye Bye Birdie” provides his first role on the big screen.

It is the eighth-highest grossing picture of the year and receives positive reviews.

Around this time, Dick says in an interview that he will only take on roles and films that he can watch with his children and not feel uncomfortable.

That philosophy catches the eye of a Hollywood visionary.

-Aww.

Beloved Uncle Walt.

We all got to call him Uncle Walt.

And he was — He was magic, a magic man.

And actually a lot of Dick’s qualities remind me of Walt.

I can see why Walt would cast him, because if Walt hadn’t been having to run this great big studio of his, I think he’d have been as silly a boy as Dick Van Dyke.

-Well, you know, ever since I was a child and went to see, uh, Disney movies, I always had an ambition to be in a Disney movie, and so when I got the call from Walt and he showed me all the wonderful drawings and I heard the music, I about fell down ’cause this is what I’ve dreamed of doing.

-“Mary Poppins” was so special.

So many indelible moments in that movie, and a lot of them were because of Dick Van Dyke’s performances.

His singing, his dancing, his acting, his pathos.

I mean, he was transcendent.

He jumped off the screen and gave you a giant hug.

-Let’s see.

You think… you wink… you do a double blink… you close your eyes…

and jump!

-Bert is several things during the picture.

In the beginning, he’s a one-man band, and the next time you see him, he’s a sidewalk artist, and then the next time you see him, he’s a chimney sweep.

He a kind of a jack of all trades, but mostly I think he’s a chimney sweep.

He seems to be the only one who knows Mary Poppins from sometime before, knows who Mary Poppins is and what she does, and Bert himself the character shows that he has found the secret of happiness, what life is about.

– Now as the ladder of life has been strung You might think a sweep’s on the bottom-most rung Though I spends me time in the ashes and smoke In this whole wide world there’s no happier bloke Chim-chimney, chim-chimney Chim chim cher-ee A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be -It’s always about the joy with Dick and finding the good stuff, finding something fun about anything.

I mean, he would make you laugh uproariously, and then the camera light would go on, and we were meant to be in scene.

Forget about it.

We all couldn’t stop laughing.

-Dick was so good-looking and tall and endearing and a wonderful partner to work with.

-Dick, did playing the role of Bert, Mary’s Cockney sidekick, present any interesting or special challenges to Dick Van Dyke the actor?

-Well, I think it was the acting, the comedy, and the skilled dancing and singing that gave me the most trouble.

[ Laughter ] The biggest problem I had was with the Cockney accent.

That was the really big fight I had with that picture, and I don’t know whether the people in England will, uh… -Oh, they will, they will.

–[ Chuckles ] -I think it’s a good Cockney accent.

-But it was, uh, — It drove me crazy, to tell you the truth.

-I didn’t think it was that bad.

There’s not just one kind of Cockney.

It depends where you come from.

And he was so rivetingly entertaining, funny, and sweet, and doing so much on camera that one really didn’t get bothered by it, I don’t think.

-I would have to say to the people that don’t like the accent over in England when they see “Mary Poppins”… [ Cockney accent ] Don’t worry about it, guv’na!

-It’s all me pals!

Step in time!

Step in time!

All: Step in time!

-When Dick Van Dyke and his chimney sweeps perform “Step in Time,” that was a, um, silver bullet that went into my brain.

– Step in time, step in time Come on, mateys, step in time – Step in time Step in time, step in time, step in time, step in time Never need a reason, never need a rhyme To step in time, to step in time -I saw him dancing.

Some of the moves are really absurd and crazy.

Dick uses his legs a lot as a dancer, and he uses his physicality.

I think that’s my idea of what dancing is.

-I think it’s the most exciting dance sequence I’ve ever seen on film or on stage or anywhere else.

-Yeah, yeah.

–[ Chuckles ] That was Julie Andrews saying, “Yeah, yeah.”

And movement — even dancing doesn’t describe what’s happening on the rooftops of London.

These maniac bodies flying across the screen, over the rooftops and down the chimneys and up the chimneys.

-It’s one of the most exhausting, too.

It was incredible to try and do it, wasn’t it, Dick?

-Oh-ho.

–[ Chuckles ] I remember you being exhausted at the end of the day.

–[ Chuckles ] Every day.

-I’ve never seen anybody dance as fast or as hard as you did.

– Step in time, you step in time -And he’s a hoofer!

On top of everything else, he can hoof!

So he’s — It’s just incredible, his ability.

-He’s physically one of the most fluid people I’ve ever met.

You know when you go past, like, a car dealership and you see one of those sock things that are wiggling their arms and legs?

Well, that’s what he’s like.

He’s like an air sock.

He sort of wiggles all over the place.

-He just did it so brilliantly and originally.

It was great fun.

-That’s the chairman of the bank, the elder Mr.

Dawes, a giant in the world of finance.

-A giant?!

-Shh, shh, shh, shh!

-Oh, one of the most kind of startling things was, you know, where you have the bank scene, Jane and Michael go to the bank to deposit their tuppence.

-So…you have tuppence?

-And there’s this very elderly bank owner who’s really scary.

I mean, as real-life kids, I was terrified of the man.

He was ugly as sin and very dodgery.

And I thought he was gonna fall on me.

-Corporations.

-Amalgamations.

Banks!

-While stand the banks of England, England stands… Whoa, oh!

-And then I get to the premiere in London, which was the first time I saw the film, and at the end of the movie, the credits gets all kind of jumbled up.

And you realize that he had played the old banker.

Hadn’t got a clue, which was wise because I wouldn’t have been scared of him.

I would’ve been waiting for him to crack a joke, but actually he’s a very convincing crotchety old man.

-There probably aren’t words to describe your emotions.

-Now, now, now, now.

Gentlemen, please.

On the contrary, there’s a very good word.

Am I right, Bert?

-Tell ’em what it is.

-My favorite song to do in the film was “Supercalifragilistic.”

I think it might have been Dick’s, too.

We both loved the speed of it and the silliness of it.

And dancing with Dick is such fun.

When we were in rehearsal, he made me laugh so hard because, as we all know, he can kick his legs up so high with superb ease and talent.

It’s… Supercalifragilistic expialidocious -Well, I’ve heard people having fun with music but never quite like this.

What a song.

What a title.

What a team.

Julie and Dick, you both sounded like you’re having a real ball doing, uh, “Super,” doing that song.

[ Laughter ] -Supercalifragili… Supercalifragilistic expialidocious.

-Well done, well done.

-Mm-hm!

–[ Chuckles ] It was fun to do, wasn’t it?

-It was so much fun to do, but we finished together.

-With the giggles.

–[ Both chuckle ] -No, we didn’t.

Did they leave that in the film, the giggles?

-The giggles?

No, well, I think they must’ve cut that bit out.

– The biggest word you’ve ever heard And this is how it goes Oh, supercalifragilistic expialidocious Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious If you say it loud enough you’ll always sound precocious Supercalifragilistic expialidocious Um-dittle-ittl-um, dittle-I Um-dittle-ittl-um, dittle-I Um-dittle-ittl-um, dittle-I Um-dittle-ittl-um, dittle-I Um-dittle-ittl-um, dittle-I, um-dittle-ittl-um, dittle-I -I haven’t seen it for a long time, but I think it’s fantastic.

It’s great.

-Oh, I loved it.

It’s a work of art.

-Yeah.

-“Mary Poppins” was a work of art.

[ Chatter ] -Ladies and gentlemen!

One of the stars of “Mary Poppins”!

Dick Van Dyke!

-We welcome you, Dick.

Congratulations.

-What an ex– Oh, thank you.

I’m so nervous, I’m about to die.

It’s such an exciting night.

-This is the night of all.

I’ll tell you.

It’s really something.

They’re raving.

-It was a high point of my life when I saw that finally put together with the real animation in there.

What a masterful job it was.

The whole thing was just a turning point for me.

It was such a contribution to family entertainment, and I know that it’s gonna be around for a long time.

It stands as the perfect Walt Disney movie as far as I’m concerned.

– Supercalifragilistic expialidocious Supercalifragilistic expialidocious!

[ Applause ] -What?

Oh, the hair.

What do you think?

That’s for a picture.

I’ve been in England since this time last year making a picture called “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

-Yeah, this is the story about the car.

I supposedly renovate the car, which was an old wreck, and then it takes on magical properties of its own.

-This sounds a rather different role from the kind of things you’ve been doing, in that it’s more of a character part, is it, than a straight humorous creation?

-Yeah, it’s a little more of a character part, but it still is, uh, pretty much myself, I’m afraid.

[ Chuckles ] -The second movie I ever saw was “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” and I sat there galvanized, and I sat there going, “That’s it,” you know?

I already knew I wanted to be Dick Van Dyke, but, holy moly, this is the big screen!

And he is just eating it and killing it in every shot.

And, uh, I wanted to be in that car.

I wanted to be one of those kids.

[ Engine popping ] -What a funny noise it’s making!

-It’s talking to us.

All engines talk.

-What’s it saying?

It’s saying, “Chitty chitty, chitty chitty, chitty-chitty.”

All: Chitty chitty, chitty chitty, chitty chitty.

Bang bang!

-Chitty chitty bang bang.

Chitty chitty bang bang.

-Chitty chitty bang bang!

Chitty chitty bang bang!

– Chitty bang bang, chitty chitty bang-bang Chitty bang bang, chitty chitty bang bang Chitty bang bang, chitty chitty bang bang Oh, you pretty Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you And in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang what we’ll do -I loved “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”

Loved it.

I mean, that was my favorite movie when I was a little kid.

[ Dog barking ] -Whoa-whoa-whoa!

[ Laughter ] -Whoa!

[ Laughter ] Oh!

Ohh!

-Hold on!

Hold on!

[ Dog barking ] [ Sizzling ] –[ Gasps ] Ohh!

Whew.

Thank you!

-We had our youngest granddaughter over for a sleepover, and we were trying to figure out what to watch, and we went, “Have you ever seen ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’?”

She went, “No.”

It was like, “Oh.

[ Chuckles ] You’re gonna love this.”

– It isn’t far To Hushabye Mountain And your boat Waits down by the key The winds of night So softly are sighing Soon they will fly Tour troubles to sea -We turned it on thinking it would be like half an hour and then she’d go to sleep and we could, you know, go read or something.

We were all mesmerized and ended up watching the whole thing.

–[ Gasps ] Look out!

-Daddy!

Daddy!

–[ All screaming ] -Daddy!

-Ohh!

Oh!

What’s happening?!

-Look!

-Oh!

-Look at that!

-It’s fantastic!

-We’ve grown up in this CGI world and we’re so sophisticated about special effects, it’s hard to explain to people what that meant when the car goes over the cliff and then the wings comes out and it flies.

It was electrifying.

I just thought that movie was magical.

-Having starred in two classic movies, it’s somewhat surprising that Dick’s other film roles in the 1960s are largely undistinguished.

Then comes a real passion project that pays tribute to his childhood heroes.

-Well, let’s make movies!

Hiya.

-Hey.

What are you dressed for?

-This is what I wear in my act.

-Well, this isn’t a circus.

We’re making a movie.

-But this is my trademark.

-You want the job, get rid of the trademark.

-No.

No, sir.

No, sir.

This costume is Billy Bright.

It took me years to get the right look here!

You think this hat just happened?

-Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!

–[ Gunshot ] -Pfft!

-It was a collaboration between Aaron Ruben and Carl Reiner and myself.

Took this old movie off the shelf with Columbia — it’d been sitting there for 20 years — about a silent-film comedian.

We rewrote it and, uh, as I must admit, rewrote it every day on the set.

-“The Comic.”

Yeah.

A film about some comedian back in the silent days, somebody who was, you know, a huge star who then became destructive.

It was beautifully acted, you know?

You put Dick Van Dyke over here, and, oh, he’s gonna make me laugh, but he can also make you cry and think, and, you know, I just thought that performance was amazing.

-Don’t listen to him, Sam.

He was made for talkies.

-Sam, I don’t think it’s for me.

Comics don’t talk.

They act.

Look, don’t you try to tell me, mister.

I know how to make people laugh, and they don’t laugh when I talk!

Now, there’s nothing more to think about.

You just get yourself another boy.

-Listen, you fool.

I worked like hell to get him to say they’d even do a talkie with you, and you just loused it up!

Don’t you know that your last four pictures were disasters?

-It was one of those little movies where nobody from the head office ever came down and said anything.

We just did what we wanted to do.

We had a great time with it, and it’s a unique movie.

It’s very, very different than anything you’ve ever seen.

-The film does poorly at the box office and has largely been forgotten.

By the early 1970s, Dick’s movie career is running out of steam.

-CBS presents this program in color.

-They signed me up to do some specials, which I did for CBS.

I did one sketch that I still like to this day.

I did the return of the oldest magician in the world.

95-year-old magician who comes back for one last performance.

Oh, mercy.

Ohh!

Oh, dear.

Ohh!

[Breathlessly] For my first trick, I will endeavor to get up.

Ohh!

[ Grunting ] Sim sala bim!

-And I just had a ball doing that.

He’s so old, he can’t even remember the tricks.

[ Chuckles ] Walked around the stage with cards and alarm clocks falling out of my tuxedo.

[ Clock ringing ] -Sim sala bim!

-That sketch was written to be 8 minutes long.

It went for 14 minutes.

-And now out of the air a lovely bouquet of flowers.

Marigolds.

What did you do with the flower– Oh.

Sim sala bim!

-I also did a special called “Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman” where I brought Mary on and just let her do everything she wanted to do, and we did some great stuff together.

– Life is like a situation comedy A series of incidents that happen every day Life is like a situation comedy The trivial things that make your hair start turning gray – But we were very lucky, the parts we had to play – They taught us how to handle life the sane and sober way – So nights at home were nothing but a rerun of the day But comedy – Ha ha!

– That’s life -Mary’s career after “The Dick Van Dyke Show” had hit kind of a valley.

She was, you know — She had attempted to do a Broadway show that was a musical version of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

It was doomed.

It was — It was doomed.

But we thought it would be fun to do a special reuniting the two of them.

-I’ve worked with a lot of wonderful actresses, but, you know, after doing a series together for five years, well, Mary just kind of holds a special place in my heart.

-With his wife’s approval.

-Yes, ma’am.

Right.

Boy.

[ Chuckles ] Normally that phrase, uh, “the other woman,” implies a relationship between two people which might be considered unsavory.

-Yeah.

-But, of course, the relationship between Mary and myself is — is, of course, completely savory.

-Completely!

–[ Laughs ] -Actually, when we were doing the series, people thought we were married!

[ Chuckles ] -Oh, boy, so much so that I often had trouble checking into a hotel with my real wife, Margie.

-And I had trouble checking into a hotel with my real husband, Grant.

-And Margie and Grant had trouble checking in anywhere.

[ Chuckles ] -Terrible.

They gave me a wonderful opportunity to sing and dance and clown and do everything that I felt comfortable doing, and Dick stood by applauding my every move.

It was very successful, and CBS noted how successful it was, how comfortable I seemed being in the spotlight, and they asked me if I wanted to do my own show, uh, to which I said yes.

-“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” captures the changing times perfectly and becomes a TV classic.

But as the 1960s turn into the 1970s, Dick is trying to find his place.

Wife Margie, never fond of the Hollywood lifestyle, convinces him to buy a ranch near Phoenix and move there full-time.

In 1971, Dick returns to series television in “The New Dick Van Dyke Show.”

He persuades CBS to shoot the show at a studio near his home in Arizona.

He then coaxes Carl Reiner into writing and directing the pilot and several episodes.

-I was the executive producer, and I came down on Fridays for the readings of the next show and made my comments.

And I don’t know.

It was half working, half not working.

-I think one of the things we learned from shows like “The New Dick Van Dyke Show” is that it’s awfully hard to make lightning strike twice, and sometimes it’s not such a good idea to even attempt it.

-We did some very, very funny shows, but as a general rule, we never got that good, but we always were in the top 20.

You know, the show did okay, but I wasn’t as proud of it.

It wasn’t working as well as I would’ve liked it to.

I went to the network and couldn’t believe what I was saying, but I said, “I’m not… This isn’t what I would like it to be.”

And we took it off.

-“Van Dyke and Company” is Dick’s next attempt at starring in a TV series, despite the fact that variety shows are falling out of favor with the viewing public.

-And it was a pretty loose — pretty loose affair.

We tried a lot of things that hadn’t been tried before, not in matters of taste.

We didn’t attack subjects that hadn’t been treated before, but just kind of attitudes about comedy that we changed.

-What are you doing?

-This is called the ancient Japanese art of paper folding.

Origami.

-Isn’t that origami?

-And the deal was that I look at it, open it up, which, of course, ruins it.

Can’t read it, though, too good unless you open it up.

-And I was supposed to say, “Stay tuned for the second half of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show.'”

That’s all they wrote.

-Stay tuned for the second half of “Van Dyke and Company.”

-And without any rehearsal, without any preparation, without any idea… -I wish you hadn’t have done that.

-…he hauled off in slow motion and socked me in the stomach.

I caught on, and I fell down, all in slow motion.

And I went… [ Smack! ]

[ Smack! ]

-Out of nowhere, we did a pantomime that wasn’t planned, and we did 10 minutes of rolling around the floor in a slow-motion fight.

-And they kept the cameras rolling.

–[ Laughing ] And I threw… [ Laughs ] And it went on and on.

[ Smack! ]

-You would’ve thought we’d rehearsed it for weeks because it looked like it was choreographed.

And it was all instinctual.

[ Crack! ]

That chemistry between us, it was like we were one person.

We were on the same page.

It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done, and that’s because of he got the idea.

[ Crack! ]

[ Cheers and applause ] -It only lasted for I think 12 or 13 episodes.

I don’t think the public ever really discovered it.

But we won the Emmy.

We actually beat “Saturday Night Live” for an Emmy that year, and people said, “What show?

I never saw it.”

Carol and I did a lot of sketches together on various variety shows, and we finally said we should be working together, and somehow I kind of ended up on her show as a replacement for the irreplaceable Harvey Korman.

They had been such a team for so long that it was probably not a good idea for me to do it, but I loved working with Carol.

-When Harvey Korman left my show after the 10th season to go do a show of his own, we asked Dick to come on as a regular, and he did, and he was wonderful, but we did him a great disservice.

The writers were writing for Dick what they would write for Harvey Korman.

They did not write to Dick’s strengths as much as they should have.

-315 Elm Drive?

-That’s me.

That’s it.

-Well, sir, I’ve found your problem, mm-hmm.

-You have?

-Yes, I know exactly why your electricity’s been cut off.

-Why?!

–[ Chuckles ] Well!

You’re deceased!

-I’m what?!

-I said you’re deceased.

Lady, are you crazy or am I?!

I’m dead?!

-I’m so sorry.

-We were all very sad about that.

It didn’t work out.

I didn’t — I didn’t feel comfortable.

-There were some wonderful things that we did do with Dick, but not enough.

Not enough to suit the kind of talent he is.

-The 1980s proved to be a challenging time for Dick.

He and Margie drift apart and eventually divorce.

He is now middle-aged, famous, and beloved, but no great projects are coming his way.

Dick starts to question not just the meaning of his life but what’s working for him and what’s not.

-Dick, in terms of being inventive, forward-thinking, inventive of his career, it starts out with his ability to play any and every character on such a high level and reinvent himself in each one of those roles, and Dick is a genius at it, and he loved doing that.

-I think that if you’re Dick Van Dyke, you can go from Broadway to television to movies, and it’s just a different muscle, so that reinventing yourself is just simply surviving in show business.

So I think that he no doubt went from great opportunity to great opportunity, and if you have a great deal of talent, then you can do it.

-After “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” Dick could have lived the rest of his life going to conventions and just talking about Rob Petrie, but he didn’t do that.

Or he could have just lived his entire career on being in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and “Mary Poppins” and gone to, you know — opened bridges and malls.

He’s just exploring a different path.

-Amidst attempts to find a new foothold in the ever-shifting entertainment landscape, Dick makes a completely unexpected choice.

It is gritty, intensely personal, and shocks his fans.

-You have had enough!

-Ohh.

Alright.

You wanna be a wet blanket?

[ Glass shatters ] Are you happy now, sweetheart?

Okay?

-You know, in the ’60s, TV may have been escapist.

In the ’70s, TV was trying to learn how to face very real problems and create, in particular, TV movies that would speak to that.

We not only saw movies about alcoholism, we saw movies about rape, about the challenges of poverty.

All of a sudden, TV is interested in tackling these problems in a way that educates people, in a way that sort of explores the issue in a very authentic and real, at least for the time, depiction.

And that’s what we get in “The Morning After.”

-My agent sent me the script, and I was really flabbergasted at how well-written it was, how true to life it was.

There wasn’t a false moment in it.

-Fran thinks I’m a drunk.

-And?

-Well, no.

Forget that.

I mean, I shouldn’t say that.

It’s not just her.

I mean, I do drink too much.

I’m not an alcoholic or anything like that, but… I do drink too much, and I mean much too much.

-It was about alcoholism, about a rising young corporate executive, you know, not a Skid Row bum, who gets trapped in the addiction and cannot get out.

Beautifully written, and, uh, it was a big step for me to do it.

-You’re just like my mother!

Nothing Charlie does is right!

Well, you go straight to hell!

-Get in!

-I’m driving my own car!

-No, you are not!

You’re not in any condition to drive!

-I said I’d drive my own car!

I don’t need a chauffeur, and I don’t need a nursemaid!

-No, you will not!

-Get out of my way!

-No!

-Get — [ Punch lands ] -He was absolutely astonishing in that role of the alcoholic, and I was proud of him.

I was proud that he did it, that he plunged in and didn’t hesitate, but I wasn’t surprised because there’s no limit to his talent.

-The pamphlet’s here on the dresser, and it names a doctor, a doctor who specializes in alcoholism.

And he’ll see you if you call him for an appointment.

But you have to call him, Charlie.

-Alright.

Alright.

I’ll call him, honey, but — -You — You know where we’ll be.

-Fran.

-You better take care of that cut, Charlie.

It looks infected.

-Fran.

You don’t understand!

You don’t understand!

[ Sobbing ] -When I saw it, I was really happy with what I had done.

It’s one of the few times in my life I have looked at something and said, you know, I played it like it should’ve been played, and I was very happy with it.

-I think the best actors utilize experientials.

And where Dick does not wear whatever trials and tribulations he’s endured on his sleeve, they are in him.

-As the movie comes out, Dick Van Dyke reveals that he personally is an alcoholic and that he personally has gone through some of the things he’s depicting, so not only do we get a landmark TV film, we also get a landmark declaration from a celebrity.

Of course, now we’re much more used to celebrities talking about their personal failings.

Back then, it was much, much, much less common, particularly for a performer like Dick Van Dyke who was a comedic performer, who was in a lot of kid-friendly and family-friendly projects.

To have someone like that admit, “I have a drinking problem,” he was risking a lot.

-That’s really a frightening thing to see you that way, and, uh, I know that a lot of people, friends of mine, were shocked when they found that you — I guess the news came out in one of the news magazines first, I think, that you had been an alcoholic.

Actually, that isn’t correct to say, is it?

Because, um, alcoholics never say they “were” alcoholic.

They say they are alcoholic.

-That’s absolutely right.

You’re always an alcoholic.

-Yeah.

-They say they’re recovered or recovering alcoholics.

-Could, could we t– I’d love to talk to you about that.

-I’d love to talk about it.

-I’ve wanted to for some time.

-For me, it took many, many years as just a social drinker along with everyone else.

Yeah.

-And, of course, by the time I realized I was in trouble, I was too deluded, like most alcoholics are, to be able to understand what was wrong with me.

-Did anybody like an agent or anyone ever warn you to stop drinking or you’d ruin your career?

-No, uh, but a very dear friend of mine did.

-Yeah.

-About four years ago, I believe.

Very dear friend of mine.

And it’s amazing how deluded I was, because I really wasn’t very nice about it, and I said, “That’s my business.

I enjoy it.

That’s my business.

I don’t think you have any right.”

And the poor man cried.

And I couldn’t see it.

Took me a long, long time to understand, you know, that he was seeing me objectively, and I was totally deluded about it.

-At the later point when you — did an agent or anyone ever warn you not to admit that you were an alcoholic because that would ruin your career?

-Oh.

Oh, boy.

Many, many of them.

-Really?

-Yes.

“Don’t.

Please don’t do this.”

-They didn’t care if you didn’t quit, but they just didn’t want you to talk about it.

-Yeah.

“Please don’t talk about it.”

Well, I didn’t know, you know, what might happ– what kind of reaction I might get.

I must say, I’ve received thousands of letters and not one negative letter from anyone.

Not one.

Which I think shows that at least we’re changing.

It doesn’t have the stigma that it used to have.

-Yeah.

Do you envy me that I can take a drink and not — -No, I went through about a year — as I guess most recovering alcoholics do.

It takes a year for your system to get back to where it was before.

Really resenting it sometimes.

Other people could drink.

Now I have no desire to drink, and I don’t envy people who do at all.

-People think, “Oh, well, you’re a comedian.

You can’t do drama.”

But that’s not true.

I think it’s easier for a comedian to do drama than it is for a dramatic actor to do comedy.

-At the base of comedy — Martin, write this down.

-No.

I — Believe me.

I’ve heard it.

-The base of comedy is drama, so, you know, when you’re doing comedy, you feel this reality underneath it all, so in your head it makes complete sense that you could do a drama.

And also one’s career, if you think it’s going to be long, you want to have a little range, and you have to kind of break the ice with a drama.

-“The Morning After” proves that Dick’s talents are not confined to being a clown or a song-and-dance man.

More dramatic opportunities come his way, including “Dick Tracy.”

Director Warren Beatty cast actors in roles that are completely different from what they’re known for, hoping to add an element of surprise for the audience.

-How can I support a maverick police detective who keeps making false arrests of private citizens and throwing them in jail?

Tracy, I am district attorney.

-Tracy, Tess can’t get the kid to take off these smelly clothes.

-Chief, I am a candidate for mayor.

If you can’t control Detective Tracy, you’ll just have to take him off duty… or I’ll have to prosecute him and take you off duty.

-Freddy Silverman, you know, the former president of almost all networks that have ever existed, came and said, “Would you do a pilot for an hour show?”

And I said, “At my age?”

I was 65 then.

I said, “I don’t wanna do an hour series.

I think that’s a little tough.”

“Just do the pilot.

You know, just do the pilot for me.”

-Do you, uh, like living alone?

-I certainly do.

How did you know that I lived alone?

-Well, apart from no wedding ring, there’s not one personal thing in this office, not even a photograph.

And, uh, your cuffs are always frayed, and there’s a button missing there on your jacket sleeve.

My wife when she was alive had to police me.

You’re a regular Sherlock Holmes, aren’t you, Dr.

Sloan?

–[ Chuckles ] Not quite.

I played a doctor who solves crime, and I was the one who said, “Are you sure this is credible?

A doctor who’s a criminologist out solving crime and the head of internal medicine?”

Listen, Norman, you know anything about him, where he came from, his background, fam– -Wait, wait.

What’s with this twenty questions?

You’re not playing detective again, are you, Sloan?

-Well, there are times when all doctors have to be detective, Norman.

-When we talk about “Diagnosis: Murder,” we’re talking about a TV show that reflected a lot of the trends that were going on on TV at the time.

There was a real market for centering murder mysteries or police procedurals around a performer who’s popular with older TV audiences.

You think about Buddy Ebsen and “Barnaby Jones.”

You think about “Murder, She Wrote” and Angela Lansbury, as well as Andy Griffith in “Matlock.”

In terms of taking a star like Dick Van Dyke and putting him in the middle of a mystery show, I mean, in a sense, it was a no-brainer.

-So, I got to the audition.

I was quite relaxed and went into the room, and there was Dick Van Dyke sitting at the table!

I just got chills, and I couldn’t believe it.

Gotta keep it together.

And there I was auditioning.

There was a comment that I was told later that someone in the room said, “But she’s Black.”

And Dick said, “And she’s good.”

-What’s wrong?

-Well, I can’t find my glasses.

-Oh, well, I don’t know how to tell you this, but, um… -Oh, no.

–[ Chuckles ] [ Laughs ] I remember when this first happened to my father.

I thought, “Oh, gosh.

He’s an old fogey now.”

–[ Chuckles ] -You know, I tried to help him up out of the chair, too.

-That’s considerate.

-Oh, he kicked me.

Now I know just exactly how he feels.

[ Chuckles ] Don’t tell Steve.

-I won’t.

But who’s gonna help you up?

–[Weakly] Why, you young whippersnapper!

You go to your room!

-Dick thought that there was a way to bring a murder-mystery show to bear but without all the gore, without all of the violence so that families could watch the show.

We were a little bit of Nancy Drew, a little bit of Agatha Christie, and it just had, if you will, a germ of “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

–[ Gasps ] -Call 911.

-There’s not another show like it on the air.

Sometimes we’re an open murder mystery.

Sometimes we’re not.

Sometimes we’re a comedy.

Sometimes we’re a dark comedy.

So we have almost become the variety show of murder mystery.

I am so surprised to be working at my age now.

I had no idea that I would be or that anybody would want me to, so it’s very satisfying.

-Dick is 75 when he decides to end the series after eight seasons.

It wasn’t edgy or groundbreaking, but “Diagnosis: Murder” served up a steady diet of comfort-food viewing for a significant portion of the TV audience.

At an age when most of his contemporaries have retired or passed away, Dick’s philosophy is… keep moving.

He loves to work and takes on smaller roles in a variety of projects.

-Oh.

It’s you.

-Hi.

I was in the neighborhood, thought I’d drop by.

-Dick had done a serious turn on “Becker,” a show that I was doing, a few years back, and he played my father.

-I didn’t ask you to leave.

You know, I didn’t argue with you.

Why didn’t you at least come back and see me?

-Because your mother asked me not to.

You didn’t know that, did you?

And, yes, I could’ve insisted I have a bigger part of your life, but I didn’t.

I took the easy way out, and I regret it.

-I’ve done a lot of television and some film and all of that, and so I’ve had a lot of amazing actors around me that I got to work with.

And then some of them are like royalty, you know?

They come in, and everybody, the crew — Everybody stops and wants to soak up Dick Van Dyke.

-Can I just say how lucky we are to have this amazing man here with us today?

[ All cheering ] -It’s rather wonderful just to meet Dick Van Dyke, and then to see him in a Mary Poppins story, that is one of the great highlights of my life.

-It was so moving when Dick Van Dyke came on set.

We all found ourselves staring at him quite a lot.

You couldn’t quite believe he was there and that was him.

-They were some of the most emotional days we had shooting this film, just by virtue of his presence connecting us to that original “Mary Poppins.”

-He was so spritely and so sharp and literally tap-dances on top of a desk, which was like, “What is happening?”

[ Tapping ] -We have been so honored to be in the presence of extraordinary, beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, lovable, kind, talented, brilliant, iconic legend Dick Van Dyke.

[ All cheering ] -And I was so honored to be included.

I had such fun with it.

It’s kind of like bookends for me.

-I may be circling the grave, but I got a few steps left in me.

[ Ding! ]

-I have these little moments in my career where they’re for me.

I hope people at home are cool with it, but this is — this one’s for me.

And I’ve had a few of those every now and then, and getting to have Dick on my television show was a religious experience.

Absolute thrill to have you here.

-Oh, thank you very much.

I’m a fan, you know.

-Oh, well, thank you very much.

-Oh.

Oh, yeah.

-Oh.

-I like the way you move.

You move pretty good.

[ Laughter and cheers ] -Dick, this is getting creepy.

Uh… It just never occurred to me that I would meet Dick Van Dyke.

Suddenly, he’s there, and… I have an out-of-body experience.

[ Whimsical music plays ] [ Cheers and applause ] –[ Laughs ] -And he was so nice and genuine.

[ Cheers and applause ] -He’s got it!

-Yeah.

That — That’s a dream come true for me.

He’s the Dick Van Dyke that I wanted him to be.

He is that guy.

-Do you know how old you are?

–[ Chuckles ] Well, you know, from the looks, I’m pretty old.

If I’d have known I was gonna live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself.

–[ Chuckles ] -I’m charming though, right?

-Yes, yes.

I would agree with that.

-In 2023 at 98 years young, Dick appears as a man with amnesia in four episodes of the long-running soap opera “Days of Our Lives.”

-And the Emmy goes to… [ Gasps ] Oh!

Dick Van Dyke as mystery man Timothy Robicheaux.

“Days of Our Lives.”

Peacock.

-Dick Van Dyke makes history with this win tonight as the oldest Daytime Emmy winner.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you so much.

This really tops off a — a lifetime of 80 years in the business.

I love you.

God bless.

[ Chuckles ] [ Cheers and applause ] -On the personal front, Dick finds new love with producer Arlene Silver, and they marry in 2012.

Dick credits Arlene with keeping him alive.

Dick has always been generous with his time for causes he believes in.

Over the years, he volunteers with organizations such as the Big Brothers, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Society for the Prevention of Blindness, and The Midnight Mission in Los Angeles.

–[Cockney accent] I’m Dick Van Dyke.

-No.

No Cockney accent.

–[Normal voice] Okay.

-I’ll do my American if you do that.

And I’m Anthony Hopkins with The Midnight Mission.

-He goes down there consistently to serve food for the least of us.

He really understands suffering, but he also understands redemption and second chances because they were given to him.

He doesn’t care where you’re from, doesn’t care how much money you have.

He cares about you as a person.

-The Midnight Mission and volunteers create a way out of poverty, drug addiction, and mental illness as a hand up, not a handout.

-In 2011, Dick writes an autobiography detailing a good, full, and meaningful life.

Four years later, he writes another book offering tips and truths about living well longer.

-People will tell me they can’t dance and they can’t sing.

Everybody can.

They may stink at it, but you gotta be able to do it.

[ Chuckles ] Keep moving.

-Oh, yeah, here’s — here’s another wonderful image.

We were both living somewhere in the Malibu area.

About the second or third time I went to the gym — and it was early, maybe even 6:30 in the morning.

And I’m lifting weights or something, and Dick Van Dyke actually comes dancing by me, in front of me, to go from one machine to another.

And he’s dancing.

For real.

Not showy-offy.

Just dancing to the next machine.

And [Chuckles] I’m knocked out.

-All you old guys out there, listen to me.

I’m telling you.

You can — You can keep going for a lo– I’m still dancing.

-He has the childlike joy of being alive and being creative, so I imagine he will keep doing that until he’s not doing anything.

-I don’t know how long I should stay for the audience’s benefit.

I realize that at this point I’m part of the furniture, you know?

[ Chuckles ] I’m just… I’m one of those familiar faces that’s always been there, and I suppose people aren’t surprised to see me, but at some point, I should not wear out my welcome.

-In 2024, at age 99, Dick has a viral moment when Chris Martin and Coldplay feature him in their latest music video.

– We’ve been through high Every corner of the sky And still we’re holding on together – You’ve got all my love -Almost on G.

-Yeah.

I’ll go up the octave.

Ready?

–[ Chuckles ] -Here we go.

– You’ve got all my love – Love [ Chuckles ] -If I had to sum up how Dick will be remembered… it would be that he is the consummate performer.

-I think Dick should be remembered as one of the most talented and entertaining human beings in the history of our business.

He has proven that he can do any role in any capacity and do it amazing.

-Well, uh, by not being forgotten.

I don’t know.

Uh… –[ Laughs ] That’s a good — That’s a good way to be remembered.

By not being forgotten.

-I call him a special niche that you can’t define.

You know, he’s had this fabulous television career.

He had a fabulous movie career.

He has a likability factor of 10.

-I think he is remembered and will be remembered as a multitalented performer whom I — you would like to know.

-A nice guy all around.

The characters he played were nice guys, and he happened to be one of the nicest of them all.

-Dick so purely represented a kind of performing and put out a personality that has no expiration date.

There’s an essence there.

He represents a whole kind of comedy and also a way of being that I think is never gonna go out of style.

–[Voice breaking] Now you — you hit a nerve.

He’ll never be “gone” because Dick Van Dyke’s legacy, it’s infinite… because he’s touched generations in so many ways.

-I think he’s eternal.

I think he’s — You’re never gonna forget him.

-To me, it’s like he has spread so much joy, happiness, and laughter and done it in such an elegant way.

-I think in a generation of people that are kind of drifting a bit and floundering a bit and, uh, seem to be losing their faith in humanity, we should all go back and watch those reruns, and we should watch his movies because not only are you gonna be blinded by an immense talent, but you’re gonna see a person on that screen… [Voice breaking] …that’s not just a good man on screen.

[ Chuckles ] He’s a good man.