In a way we’re fortunate to have TV Land around to televise classic shows from the past. There are some great ones out there that never lose their appeal. The most obvious example is ILove Lucy” which still seems funny 60 years later. It may be that the best shows are timeless, always entertaining no matter how many years have past.
Just think of some of the greatest movies of all time; “Gone with the Wind,” “Casablanca,” and “The Best Years of our Lives” are perfect examples of movies that are timeless. They are as intense and entertaining today as when they were made three generations ago.
Television is no different. If you had to pick one television show from the 1960s that defined comedy it would have to be “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” The program ran for five years, from 1961 through 1966, before it took itself off the air. The show’s creator, Carl Reiner, felt that a TV show gets stale after five years and pre-determined “Dick Van Dyke” would run no longer than that despite being at the top of the ratings.
Reiner was also astute enough to not make any references to current events or politics so that the show could remain timeless. It is one reason the show today is as hilarious as it was 50 years ago. Funny is funny.
The show comes alive (as well as a lot more) with the publication of Dick Van Dyke’s autobiography, “My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business.”
Van Dyke describes his upbringing in Illinois and how he became an entertainer. Like most successes in life his lucky breaks often had to do with being in the right place at the right time. He was not a nationally known commodity when Reiner chose him as the lead in his hit comedy series. The fact that the show skipped using a clever title and went with “Dick Van Dyke” only added to his celebrity.
As with many successful situation comedies, chemistry between the actors was a must.
Co-stars Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie were already well known but Mary Tyler Moore was a young, relatively unknown 23-year-old actress who absolutely jelled with Van Dyke as husband and wife. Their rapport appeared so genuine that many viewersassumed they were married in real life.
In fact, in the 1970s when he was appearing in his “originally” named new situation comedy, “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” one woman viewer apparently didn’t take kindly to his new on-screen wife, Hope Lange. She came storming up to Van Dyke in a grocery store and hit him with her purse screaming, “How dare you leave that sweet Laura!”
Between situation comedies and slaps in the face Van Dyke managed to star in some very successful movies such as “Mary Poppins,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” and “Divorce American Style.” Working with Julie Andrews on “Mary Poppins” was clearly one of the highlights of his life.
In real life (and not the make-believe that some lunatic viewers take for real) Van Dyke seemed to have the same success that he had on-screen. He married to his high school sweetheart and eventually had four kids.
But life wasn’t all peaches and cream. He eventually developed alcoholism and his marriage went south. Van Dyke does not shy away from describing these developments in detail.
Most of the book is sprinkled with wonderful stories that include his actor brother Jerry Van Dyke (Luther from the long-running series “Coach”), real-life incidents that inspired many episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, and the time Jerry Lewis managed to deliberately embarrass him in front of Queen Elizabeth.
Other than having the usual celebrity pitfall of namedropping once too often, Van Dyke’s autobiography is a fascinating and fast-paced read. He may have had his share of depressing moments but he has been very lucky in life. We are fortunate he has been able to share much of it with us both on-screen and off.
Book Notes
October 20, 2011
Book Notes: Van Dyke autobiography ‘fascinating’
- Book Notes
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- Memoir reflects on 'roller-coaster life and career' Apparently, the third time wasn't the charm. The way Reynolds described him, the third husband was worse than the first two combined and that's saying a lot. Eddie Fisher literally walked away from Reynolds and their two infant children to chase a sex goddess. At least he got his just desserts when Elizabeth Taylor tossed him aside for Richard Burton.
- 'Who's on Worst?' reveals the ugly in baseball The Baseball Hall of Fame celebrates the greatest players, managers and owners from our national pastime. Any of us who have watched Major League baseball have inevitably seen some of these immortals practicing their craft. But we have also likely witnessed a sample of their opposite brethren, players who shouldn't have been in the Major Leagues. Has there ever been a definitive source that "celebrates" the non-accomplishments of the worst that Major League baseball has to offer?
- Book takes readers on path for equal rights One of the most troubling aspects of our history is race relations. It takes a long time to achieve true equality in a society when the heritage of one ethnic group is slavery and Jim Crow laws. Even today African Americans are more likely to be stereotyped as athletes than doctors, lawyers or entrepreneurs. The path to a "color-blind" nation is still a work in progress.
- Piazza wasn't considered much of a prospect for the majors It's probably going to be a quiet few days in Cooperstown when Hall of Fame weekend rolls around this summer. The baseball writers did not elect anybody this year despite some heavyweight candidates. The problem was that at least three of the poster boys for the steroids era, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa, were on the ballot for the first time. The writers were clearly making a statement when nobody got elected.
- Who would have thought e-books would be so popular? When I was in library school 25 years ago, a future concept was presented that seemed absurd at the time. It was the notion you could read books on a small computerized device about the size of a pocketbook.
- 2012 was a year of great films, future favorites The year 2012 was a blockbuster year for great films. Several of the movies up for Best Picture would have been runaway favorites almost any other time. They will make for easy pickings for the library when they become available on DVD.
- Blockbusters are not the only movies worth watching Hollywood makes enough movies that there are always a few that you don't hear about until they are on DVD. Sometimes they are simply horrible films that end their theater run quickly, but often they are "diamonds in the rough" that made their mark at film festivals.
- Mickey Mantle biography shows the good and the ugly It has become obvious in recent days that bestowing "hero" status on athletes is a misplaced priority.
- Book looks at 50 years of James Bond movies When I was in elementary school, James Bond was all the rage. For some reason I didn't see any of the early films with Sean Connery playing the infamous 007 British spy, but my siblings and several friends certainly did.
- Two thumbs up for the film 'Arbitrage" Arbitrage is a word that 99.99 percent of us probably never heard of until the movie with that title appeared. I looked it up on Wikipedia and discovered why nobody had heard of it. It refers to Wall Street financiers and has a meaning so convoluted that I couldn't figure it out.
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