As the front cover of People magazine recently declared, Dick Van Dyke really has had the time of his life. Celebrate his centennial with three friends of this podcast: former New York Times TV critic Bill Carter, Dick Van Dyke Show expert and “Walnut Times” publisher David Van Deusen and Cinecon president and fellow film collector Stan Taffel. Each has met Van Dyke. The Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe award-winning entertainer turns 100 years old December 13,
They say never meet your heroes but I’m sure glad I got to speak with the actor who delighted kids of all ages as Bert the chimney sweep in “Mary Poppins.” Van Dyke was everything you hoped he would be — friendly, welcoming, positive and uplifting. He was a guest at the Television Critics Association semi annual press tours on a few occasions, once with his Dick Van Dyke Show costar Mary Tyler Moore. That was in 2003 when PBS brought them together to promote a performance of “The Gin Game.”
The two met in the lobby of the press tour hotel (the Century Plaza?) and it was like four decades went by in 40 minutes. They sang, they danced, they waltzed into the press conference together. As a TV critic, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, like being a sports writer and watching the Leafs win the Stanley Cup.
The press session that followed touched on Van Dyke and Moore’s clear attraction to one another during their five years as husband and wife on the sitcom. When both copped to a having a crush on the other, some of the bolder (nosier?) reporters did not buy the pair’s insistance that the chemistry on-screen was never consumated.
On this podcasat episode, Bill Carter talks about how Van Dyke and Moore really were the first modern sitcom couple who looked like they actually coupled. These two were into each other, single beds be damned. Both, however, were married at the time, Van Dyke and wife Marjorie with four kids, with the actor an elder at his church. Moore, married and divorced at 23, was newly wed to TV executive Grant Tinker, so no tinkering.
Van Dyke was very candid on other subjects. At another press tour in 2004 when he was 78 (and looked at least a decade younger) we spoke poolside at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. In his later years Van Dyke came clean about his struggles with booze. I asked him if playing an alcoholic PR manager in the 1974 ABC movie of the week “The Morning After” helped him kick the addiction. “No, it made me drink more.” he said. Not long after that movie was shot, however, he beat the habit after a dedicated rehab stint.
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On the podcast you’ll also hear archival interviews with Van Dyke himself, original Van Dyke Show writer-producer Bill Persky, and a Canadian actress who guested on his later series, Diagnosis Murder, Claire Rankin (Son of a Critch). She tells a wonderful story about singing with Van Dyke between scenes on the doctor-sleuth series.
Enjoy this spoonful of sugar, then don’t miss Van Dyke’s 100th birthday salute December 12 at 8 pm on PBS’s American Masters featuring Julie Andrews, Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, Martin Short and others.
To listen to the podcast, simply click on the white arrow in the blue dot above.
