Dick Van Dyke is 100. I have loved DVD since I watched his 1961-1966 show, which I wrote about at length here. And I loved sharing my DVDS DVD set with my daughter. Here are my favorite episodes. I know more than bupkis about the show.
But I saw him in many other programs, including his many appearances on The Carol Burnett Show, the Diagnosis: Murder series, the movie Night at the Museum, and even the New Dick Van Dyke Show, a lesser offering than the first series.
I adored his small part as old man Mr. Dawes in Mary Poppins Returns (2018), reprising a role he played in the original movie, with a lot of makeup no longer needed in the latter.
A movie I saw on television, more than once, was Cold Turkey (1971). “Hoping for positive publicity, a tobacco company offers $25 million to any American town that quits smoking for 30 days. Amid the media frenzy, Eagle Rock, Iowa, accepts the challenge–and the company’s PR man tries to sabotage the effort.” It was directed and co-written by Norman Lear.
I watched Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic two years ago, plus several other game show/variety show/special programs.
Other voices
In his 2017 documentary film, ‘If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,’ Carl Reiner had his old friends Lear and DVD come over to be interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning’s Tracy Smith. Dick has said publicly that he misses his old friends. Lear and Reiner are gone, as are almost all of his DVDS co-stars.
Here’s one of Ken Levine’s favorite episodes. Mark Evanier saw a taping of a show when he was a kid, and links to his TEN favorite episodes, and notes the comic book.
In December 2024, Kelly Sedinger linked to a couple of Dick Van Dyke Christmas-related pieces. One was the December 18, 1963, The DVDS episode of The Alan Brady Show Presents. I remember that episode extraordinarily well. As I recall, someone – Carl Reiner or maybe producer Sheldon Leonard – was resisting doing a holiday show until he realized that he could show it every year, which turned out to be two more years.
99-Year-Old Dick Van Dyke Reacts to His Life in Photos: ‘Mary Poppins,’ ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.’ American Masters on PBS will be saluting him in an episode that debuted yesterday.
All My Love – Coldplay
Happy birthday, Dick Van Dyke!
Since Judy Garland was about to turn 100, I decided to see The Wizard Of Oz at Albany’s Spectrum Theatre in early April, and my wife accompanied me. We had never seen the film in a cinema before. There were only the two Tuesday showings, at 4 and 7 pm, so I figured it would be packed; there were less than ten of us there at the latter.