Dick van Dyke Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Dick Van Dyke is 100

bupkis

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!

Ten Favorite TV Characters

I was reviewing my draft posts recently when I came across a piece from 2009 (!), titled “Ten Favorite TV Characters.” I had only finished the first three and then likely forgot about it.

Peggy Fair, Mannix (Gail Fisher, 1935-2000): Peggy was Joe Mannix’s secretary, and most of the time had little to do but patch up her boss. But about once a year, there was a Peggy story; Peggy wooed by an African prince or some such, and those episodes always showed how utterly underutilized Peggy was.

Subsequently, I wrote about Gail here when I discussed a short film titled “The New Girl,” which Steve Bissette introduced me to. She was one of a relatively few black people on network TV in 1968.

Rob Petrie, The Dick Van Dyke Show (Dick Van Dyke, 1925-): Rob had a talented, beautiful and charming wife, great friends/colleagues, and about as complete a back story as I can remember. He also had a pill for a boss, but no life is perfect.

I wrote about the show in 2012, and how my daughter was turned onto it via our DVD DVD collection in 2013. But I’ve mentioned Dick at least 100 times in this blog.

Boomer

Dr. Jack Morrison, St. Elsewhere (David Morse, 1953-): Jack was, at once, a major screwup – he got through med school at a less-than-credible Caribbean locale, and yet so dedicated to his work that he neglects his marriage. His wife’s death made him a single dad just trying to muddle through. I always related to Boomer, as he was often referred to.

I have the first season of St. Elsewhere on DVD. It wasn’t a gift as such; someone sent it to me to review, which, it appears, I never did. Morse appears on various TV shows and movies; I last saw him in the movie Cabrini in 2024.

Frank Pembleton, Homicide: Life On The Street (Andre Braugher, 1962 -2023): Pembleton was passionate, intelligent (he knew Latin and Greek), focused, and very intense, very successful in eliciting confessions from suspects. But he was also impatient, particularly with his young partner.

I also enjoyed him in a half dozen episodes of Law & Order: SVU as a defense attorney. He was on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I rarely watched, but he was surprisingly funny.

Hawkeye

Benjamin Franklin Pierce, MAS*H (Alan Alda, 1936-): Captain Hawkeye Pierce evolved tremendously, especially after Trapper left and B.J. joined. I wrote about the show in 2015.

I saw Alda most recently in the movie Marriage Story in 2020, just before COVID.

Kermit the Frog, Sesame Street/Muppet Show (self). The frog was the relatively rational center amidst chaos. And he’s green, which, I can tell you from personal experience, is not easy.

Frasier Crane, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer, 1955-) Frasier was even more arrogant on his own show than on Cheers, and therefore even more oblivious. His cop father was smarter than he was. Frasier was unaware of his brother’s great infatuation with a woman staying in Frasier’s home.

He just turned 70.

Bob Newhart Show or Newhart?

Emily Hartley, from The Bob Newhart Show (Suzanne Pleshette, 1937-2008), was very smart – a third-grade school teacher and later an assistant principal – sarcastic, and a good sounding board for her psychologist husband, Bob.

This season’s final Celebrity JEOPARDY! Final JEOPARDY clue: “In Memoriam 2024” category: “This comedy legend always credited his wife, Ginnie, for the idea behind what is still called one of the greatest finales in TV history.” The response is Bob Newhart. The classic ending of his Newhart show, which has its own Wikipedia page, can be seen here.

Det. Sgt. Arthur Dietrich, Barney Miller (Steve Landesberg, 1936-2010). Very intelligent, but also delivered his lines with a deadpan expression, monotone voice, and comedic timing.

From here: “Dietrich is very low-key and highly intelligent, having trained in both the medical and legal professions, and he has a vast knowledge of specialized topics. He can be counted on to define some esoteric concept quickly and clearly. “

Sue Ann Nivens, The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Betty White, 1922-2021) – she was the perky star of The Happy Homemaker on WJM, whose TV persona did not match the backbiting, snarky, sexually obsessed real Sue Ann.

Famously: “On The Golden Girls, debuting eight years later, White was cast as man-hungry Blanche Devereaux, with Rue McClanahan, the befuddled Vivian Harmon on Maude, cast as naïve Rose Nylund. The two actresses realized how similar their new roles were to their previous ones and, at the suggestion of veteran comedy director Jay Sandrich, approached the producers about switching roles. (White quotes Sandrich as saying, ‘If Betty plays another man-hungry neighborhood you-know-what, they’re going to equate it with Sue Ann and think it’s just a continuation of that.’)“

First 12 of the 36 questions

1977

Here are the first 12 of the 36 questions posted by my friend Sarah.

The 36 Questions That Lead to Love. A study by the psychologist Arthur Aron (and others) explores whether intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of personal questions. The 36 questions in the study are broken up into three sets, with each set intended to be more probing than the previous one.

Set I

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

Every time I’ve ever answered this question in the past I assume that the person would probably be somebody deceased, such as Thomas Jefferson or MLK Jr. It occurred to me that that doesn’t necessarily follow. I’m going to pick somebody who is still alive but very old. That would be Dick Van Dyke.

I saw this quiz somewhere which said you had to give talk about something and you didn’t have time to prepare for it. What would the topic be? The answer would be either comparing the British and American Beatles albums or The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66). Not only did I watch it when it was first on, I bought the DVD of it, and I watched all the episodes with my daughter in the early 2010s.

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

I probably don’t, but if I were, it’d be based on my (purported) wisdom.

On the phone

3. Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?

Personal calls, I don’t. Business calls, especially dealing with the bureaucracy that screwed up my bill, I almost always rehearse because if I don’t, they sometimes take the question far afield from what I wanted to get addressed.

4. What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

Do you mean things that I would put in a blog post? I get up without the alarm, specifically my wife’s alarm. Someone would come over and make us or bring us breakfast. I go upstairs, listen to music, and write a blog post that flows quickly and is brilliant. I’d read the newspaper. We would go out to the movies and eat popcorn. I would get a massage, then go home and take a nap. We go out to dinner at a nice but not gaudy restaurant. Go home, watch JEOPARDY, and read a chapter of the book. Go to bed.

5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

I sing to myself constantly and to my wife frequently, usually asking questions like, “When do you want to eat?” or “Where’s the cottage cheese?”

6. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?

The mind, for sure.

7. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?

Yes.

Match

8. Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

Political leanings, church attendance, appreciation for Alison Krauss.

9. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

Besides the kid? Probably an appreciation of music.

10. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

Nah, if I changed the way I was raised, it would affect other events that I would never want to forget. It is what it is.

11. Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.

I was born in Binghamton, New York, in 1953. I was named after no one, though my father, Leslie, named his first daughter Leslie after himself, which always confounded me. We have a baby sister, Marcia. We lived in a two-family house. My paternal grandparents, McKinley and Agatha, lived upstairs. She died in 1964, the first important person in my life to die.

Because my mother worked at McLean’s department store, our address to go to school was where my maternal grandmother lived at 13 Maple St. We would go home at lunchtime. As a result, I went to Daniel Dickinson School, where I met several people, at least three of whom I’m still in touch with: Carol, Karen, and Bill.

Sis boom bah

I went to Binghamton Central High School, where I was student government president and sang in choir. Then, I went to New Paltz for college as a political science major. I was in student government.

In 1977, I bounced around all over the place, including to Charlotte NC, where my parents and Marcia had moved in 1974. Then, New York City, crashing at Leslie’s apartment, and then back to New Paltz.

I ended up in the Capital District in late ’77 and lived in Schenectady for a little over a year, working at the Schenectady Arts Council. I went to grad school at SUNY Albany in public administration and hated it. I worked at the comic book store FantaCo for 8 1/2 years, a significant part of my life to this day. After working at Blue Cross for a difficult year, I worked the Census and then went to library school at SUNY Albany. I worked as a librarian for 26 years and 8 months.

I have a wife and daughter. I grew up in Trinity AME Zion in Binghamton but then fell away. I attended the United Methodist Church in Albany in the 1980s and First Presbyterian Church in 2000.

{It’s interesting what makes it under time pressure.]

12. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

Remembering names. I suck at it.

Kennedy Center Honors on TV June 6!

Dick, Minori, Joan, Garth, Debbie

Usually, the Kennedy Center Honors take place in early December. They are then edited and broadcast between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It’s one of our family traditions.

But because of COVID, the ceremonies were postponed, and I lost track of the event. My wife said she recorded CBS This Morning this past week because Dick Van Dyke was on. Even though I knew Dick was one of the honorees, since I didn’t watch the news segment, I didn’t make the connection.

It wasn’t until I saw this interview of DVD by Al Roker that I decided to see, “When is the KCH airing anyway?”

It’s June 6, 8 pm EDT on CBS! Per the New York Times: “The ceremony, usually held and televised in December, was moved to May, and split over several days. Then the organizers and producers began stitching together a mixture of recorded at-home tributes and in-person performances across the center…

“If the Kennedy Center Honors had to be stripped of much of its glamour this month to accommodate rapidly changing coronavirus health guidelines, the subdued ceremony offered a chance for the honorees to help usher in the reopening of the nation’s cultural institutions after a grueling year for the arts.”

The honorees

Debbie Allen: I first knew her from the TV musical-drama Fame (1982-1987). She played dance teacher Lydia Grant – great first name, that – and choreographed much of the program.

She produced more than half of the episodes for The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World (1988-1993).

Since 2011, I’ve watched her in her recurring role as Dr. Catherine Avery on Grey’s Anatomy, for which she is also an executive producer/director.

Joan Baez: Someone who was a HUGE part of my growing up, as I noted here when she turned 70. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. The website notes: “Joan Baez breathed new life into folk music in the 1960s, powering rock music’s turn toward social and political consciousness.

“Baez’s unwavering dedication to activism shows that volume isn’t the only way to be loud—and totally rock and roll.” As Joan said in December 2016: “As part of the folk music boom, which contributed to and influenced the rock revolution of the sixties, I am proud that some of the songs I sang made their way into the rock lexicon.”

Garth Brooks: He is a MASSIVELY successful artist, ostensibly country but with crossover appeal. He has nine albums that have sold over 10 million copies each. “According to the RIAA, he is the best-selling solo albums artist in the United States with 156 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, and is second only to the Beatles in total album sales overall.”

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Country Music Hall of Fame the following year. Out of curiosity, I bought a box set of a half dozen of his studios; it was under $25. While I didn’t love them all, there were some solid songs I enjoyed.

Not a fiddle

Midori: Sometimes, there’s a KCH awardee I know much less well than the others. In this case, it’s this concert violinist. From her website: “Midori is a visionary artist, activist, and educator who explores and builds connections between music and the human experience and breaks with traditional boundaries which makes her one of the most outstanding violinists of our time.

“As a leading concert violinist for over 35 years, Midori regularly transfixes audiences around the world, bringing together graceful precision and intimate expression.”

Dick Van Dyke: Him I know about. I’ve written about his seminal TV show, which I own on DVD, so I know more than bupkis about the series.

I never saw Mary Poppins until late 2011.

He appeared in the late Carl Reiner’s documentary If You’re Not In the Obit, Eat Breakfast in 2019.

I had forgotten this about the early career of Walter Cronkite: he had a “tenure as a morning show newsreader having dialogues with a lion puppet and Dick Van Dyke.”

January rambling: quotidian stupidity

How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually

The Impact of Climate Change on Language Loss

NBC’s Meet the Press devotes the entire show to climate change with no time for deniers

Saving American Democracy

Are powerful women likable?

A double diagnosis — cancer while poor

NOW I AM

Chronic lying and self-contempt

Why He Reigns as King Cyrus

He Is the Damn Emergency; Post-Speech

The wall speech v. the prediction; it is not about the wall

He Was Never Vetted

Celibacy isn’t the cause of the church sex-abuse crisis; the priesthood is

Comic book artist Batton Lash, October 29, 1953 – January 12, 2019

Former Yankees Starter, Pitching Coach Mel Stottlemyre Dies at 77 – I was there at the Stadium when they retired his number

Broadway legend Carol Channing dies at 97

Bob Einstein, R.I.P.

Arthur answers my questions about blogging stuff and gay conversion therapy and current gay issues and his parents

The Crimson Permanent Assurance (Monty Python’s)

Everyday smartness is definitely no match for quotidian stupidity

On books, and joy, and hoarding, and having too many books…

I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon

After 30 years, Elisa Streeter has retired from WTEN-TV 10 in Albany

Every The Dick Van Dyke Show Episode, Ranked

Review time! with ‘Planet of the Apes Visionaries’

Lady Cop: A 70s Comic that Tried (and Failed)

Disgusting Food Museum opens

What is Glitter?

Cookie Monster in the UK, interview by Melissa Nathoo and Cookie Monster visits the Ellen show

Now I Know: The Dog With Strings Attached and Meet Kelly, The Really Smart Dolphin and The Avengers Burial Ground and Why You Can’t Make a Phone Call with a Calculator and How to Beat Traffic in Moscow

11 foot 8 bridge

Archie Comics

2018/2019

In review

The Story that Really Mattered

Bringing out the dead

fillyjonk’s year

The Worst Political Predictions

35 years ago, Isaac Asimov was asked to predict the world of 2019

Dave Barry: What made 2018 so awful? A month-by-month look at the most outrageous highlights

MUSIC

Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have – But I Have It – Lana Del Rey, and other songs

K-Chuck Radio: Sail on, Captain… (Daryl Dragon)

Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Fanfare For The Common Man (complete)

Winter Melody – Donna Summer

Getting Better – MonaLisa Twins

All Along The Watchtower – Playing For Change

Loving You Today – Amy Barlow

Downtown – Saw Doctors with Petula Clark

Lawyers, Guns and Money – Warren Zevon

Don’t Turn Away – Hollie Sue

Some People, from the Broadway show Gypsy, performed by several big stars

Safety Dance – Men Without Hats

Overture to Johann Strauss’s operetta The Gypsy Baron – Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

22 Musicals In 12 Minutes w/ Lin Manuel Miranda, Emily Blunt, and James Corden

Year Of The Cat – Al Stewart

Nature Boy: Eden Ahbez and Annie Haslam and Sun Ra

Coverville: 1246: Cover Stories for Marilyn Manson and Foo Fighters and 1247: Cover Stories for Susanna Hoffs and Sade

Dawn over the Land – Night Breeze

I Just Want to Be a Star – Nunsense

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life – Sonny Vande Putte

Meow Mix – cats at a rave

Baby Shark went viral and hit the Billboard Hot 100

How one designer created the “look” of jazz

The End of Owning Music: How CDs and Downloads Died

Review time! with ‘Crossroad Blues’