♪
-♪ Wind's in the east, mist coming in ♪
♪ Like something is brewin', about to begin ♪
-Are you ready? -Yeah!
-Here we go!
-Yay!!
-Well, d*ck Van d*ke 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.
d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck Van d*ke,
and I go, oh, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, d*ck Van d*ke.
-He's effervescent. He's like an Alka-Seltzer.
He's always bubbling over.
-"The d*ck Van d*ke Show."
Starring d*ck Van d*ke.
-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 d*ck Van d*ke,
'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 d*ck Van d*ke Show."
-On Tuesday, October rd, , with little fanfare
a new situation comedy makes its television debut.
-Oh, hi, Rob.
-Oh, for me it was, um, the d*ck Van d*ke Show.
I was when it went on, and I was obsessed with it.
It was my favorite thing to watch on television.
-d*ck 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 d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke. -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 d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck Van d*ke.
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 th out of shows.
After the sponsor decides to put its money elsewhere,
CBS cancels the series.
d*ck's Hollywood dream is over before it's begun.
Or is it?
d*ck Van d*ke 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 w*r 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 .
[ Chuckles ]
-d*ck 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,
d*ck Van d*ke 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 .
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
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 ,
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 m*rder, 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 s 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 d*ck 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 ]
-d*ck and his wife Margie
become parents to two boys, Chris and Barry.
To provide for his growing family,
d*ck 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 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 d*ck Van d*ke,
a new television personality.
-They offered me a 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 d*ck, 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 d*ke to loosen Van d*ke 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, d*ck danced over to my news desk
and said, I think I'm gonna live or die on this program.
And I said, d*ck, 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 d*ck Van d*ke,
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 at the time and a little green.
-When the Morning Show doesn't work out,
still betting on his talent
the network assigns d*ck 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 episodes.
Uncertain how to best use d*ck's talents,
the network tries headlining him in a variety show.
-"The d*ck Van d*ke Show"...
...starring d*ck Van d*ke.
-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 year contract.
They let me go after years.
I was devastated. Scared to death.
What am I gonna do now?
-When, uh, d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck 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, d*ck.
-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.
-d*ck Van d*ke 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, d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke.
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 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,
d*ck tries emceeing a game show.
-"Laugh Line."
Here is your host and cartoon interlocutor, d*ck Van d*ke.
-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 episodes.
Next, d*ck and his manager take it upon themselves
to produce another pilot.
-d*ck Van d*ke 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.
d*ck is not fulfilling his early promise
and fears he's on a treadmill to oblivion.
In late , d*ck is cast in a supporting role
in "The Girls Against the Boys,"
a stage production featuring songs and comedy sketches.
d*ck receives good notices,
but the show itself is panned by critics
and lasts only 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,
d*ck 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 k*lled.
Can you imagine seeing -- -Yeah.
-You're going to Broadway and you see d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck 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 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 sh**t,
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 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 d*ck.
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 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 , .
John F. Kennedy is sworn in
as the th 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 d*ck Van d*ke Show."
-You don't mind if I go alone?
-Not at all, darling.
-Well...
-It's just that <span tts:fontStyle="italic">I</span>couldn't go to a party
knowing my son was on the verge of being sick.
<span tts:fontStyle="italic">I</span>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 d*ck Van d*ke
because he's perfect in every single way.
-The first time d*ck Van d*ke 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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic">love</span>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 ]
-d*ck 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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic">he</span>knows how much talent he has.
-I first met d*ck when we were sh**ting 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, d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke Show" was airing,
it was much more common for sponsors to be
much more visible in how TV shows operated.
-This is it. The ' 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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...
-d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck's talents,
despite receiving very good reviews
and despite having episodes to prove themselves,
ratings for "The d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck comes home, and, uh..."
Carl said, "He falls."
I said, "Great."
-"The d*ck Van d*ke Show"!
Starring d*ck Van d*ke!
♪
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 d*ck Van d*ke!
♪
-It was actually two takes that fast.
Maybe minutes. And that became the signature of the show.
[ Chuckles ]
-As soon as I saw d*ck Van d*ke
tripping over the Ottoman
and getting up with a smile on his face,
I was hooked because I felt like
that's what d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke Show" explode.
It vaults into the top and will stay there
for the remainder of its time on the air.
Everything d*ck has experienced in his career up to this point,
every reinvention undertaken
has prepared him for this success.
-d*ck 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.
-d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke.
-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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 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.
-d*ck 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 d*ck 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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic"> very</span>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 d*ck 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 sh*t" 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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic">is</span>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 , ,
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 sl*very
covered up with certain niceties of complexity.
[ Applause ]
-Prior to Dr. King's address,
d*ck, 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.
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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck 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 d*ck 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 d*ke Show" was such a golden little kingdom.
They could have gone on for another five years,
but they all decided --
Carl, Mary, and d*ck 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 sh**t!
-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 sh**t him.
I meant to sh**t <span tts:fontStyle="italic">him!</span>
-[ 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke!
-The winner is d*ck Van d*ke!
-And the winner in Hollywood is d*ck Van d*ke.
[ 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 sh**ting 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 ]
-d*ck has often said that starring
on "The d*ck Van d*ke Show"
was the best five years of his life.
The series has rarely, if ever, been off the air
since production ended in ,
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, d*ck 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, d*ck 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 d*ck'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 d*ck Van d*ke.
-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
d*ck Van d*ke'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 d*ck
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.
-d*ck was so good-looking and tall and endearing
and a wonderful partner to work with.
-d*ck, did playing the role of Bert, Mary's c*ck sidekick,
present any interesting or special challenges
to d*ck Van d*ke 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 c*ck 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 c*ck 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 c*ck.
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"...
[ c*ck accent ] Don't worry about it, guv'na!
-It's all me pals!
Step in time! Step in time!
-All: Step in time!
-When d*ck Van d*ke and his chimney sweeps
perform "Step in Time,"
that was a, um, silver b*llet 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.
d*ck 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, d*ck?
-Oh-h*. -[ 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 d*ck's, too.
We both loved the speed of it and the silliness of it.
And dancing with d*ck 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 d*ck, 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"!
d*ck Van d*ke!
-We welcome you, d*ck. 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 d*ck Van d*ke,
but, holy moly, this is the big screen!
And he is just eating it and k*lling 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 d*ck's
other film roles in the s
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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic">is</span>Billy Bright.
It took me <span tts:fontStyle="italic">years</span> to get the right look here!
You think this hat just happened?
-Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!
-[ g*nsh*t ] -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 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 s,
d*ck'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.
-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 minutes long.
It went for 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
"d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck 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 s turn into the s,
d*ck 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 , d*ck returns to series television
in "The New d*ck Van d*ke Show."
He persuades CBS to sh**t 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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 .
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 d*ke and Company"
is d*ck'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 d*ck Van d*ke Show.'"
That's all they wrote.
-Stay tuned for the second half
of "Van d*ke 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 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 or 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 th season
to go do a show of his own,
we asked d*ck 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 d*ck
what they would write for Harvey Korman.
They did not write to d*ck's strengths
as much as they should have.
- 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 d*ck, but not enough.
Not enough to suit the kind of talent he is.
-The s proved to be a challenging time for d*ck.
He and Margie drift apart and eventually divorce.
He is now middle-aged, famous, and beloved,
but no great projects are coming his way.
d*ck starts to question not just the meaning of his life
but what's working for him and what's not.
-d*ck, 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 d*ck is a genius at it, and he loved doing that.
-I think that if you're d*ck Van d*ke,
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 d*ck Van d*ke Show,"
d*ck 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,
d*ck 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 's, TV may have been escapist.
In the 's, 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 r*pe, 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 d*ck does not wear
whatever trials and tribulations he's endured on his sleeve,
they are in him.
-As the movie comes out, d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck Van d*ke
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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic">are</span>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 d*ck's talents
are not confined to being a clown
or a song-and-dance man.
More dramatic opportunities come his way, including "d*ck 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.
<span tts:fontStyle="italic">-Tracy, Tess can't get the kid</span>
<span tts:fontStyle="italic">to take off</span> <span tts:fontStyle="italic"> these smelly clothes.</span>
-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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic">you</span>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 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: m*rder,"
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 m*rder 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 "m*rder, She Wrote"
and Angela Lansbury,
as well as Andy Griffith in "Matlock."
In terms of taking a star like d*ck Van d*ke
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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 d*ck 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 <span tts:fontStyle="italic">you</span>up?
-[Weakly] Why, you young whippersnapper!
You go to your room!
-d*ck thought that there was a way
to bring a m*rder-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 d*ck Van d*ke Show."
♪
♪
-[ Gasps ]
-Call .
-There's not another show like it on the air.
Sometimes we're an open m*rder 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 m*rder 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.
-d*ck is when he decides to end the series
after eight seasons.
It wasn't edgy or groundbreaking,
but "Diagnosis: m*rder" 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,
d*ck'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.
-d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke.
-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 d*ck Van d*ke,
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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 sh**ting 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 d*ck Van d*ke.
[ 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 d*ck 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 ]
-d*ck, this is getting creepy. Uh...
It just never occurred to me that I would meet d*ck Van d*ke.
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 d*ck Van d*ke 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 at years young,
d*ck 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!
d*ck Van d*ke
as mystery man Timothy Robicheaux.
"Days of Our Lives." Peacock.
-d*ck Van d*ke 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 years in the business.
I love you. God bless. [ Chuckles ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-On the personal front, d*ck finds new love
with producer Arlene Silver,
and they marry in .
d*ck credits Arlene with keeping him alive.
d*ck 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.
-[c*ck accent] I'm d*ck Van d*ke.
-No. No c*ck 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 , d*ck 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 : in the morning.
And I'm lifting weights or something,
and d*ck Van d*ke 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 , at age ,
d*ck 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 d*ck will be remembered...
it would be that he is the consummate performer.
-I think d*ck 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 .
-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.
-d*ck 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 d*ck Van d*ke'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.
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
♪
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Starring d*ck Van d*ke (2025)
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