With the recent passing of producer-screenwriter Norman Lear, the roster of living television legends is becoming increasingly small. Last week, Dick Van Dyke, a true icon of the medium, celebrated his 98th birthday. On Thursday, the CBS network honors their longstanding partnership with the appropriately titled special “Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic.” Set to air at 9 p.m., the emotional impact of the festivity left the usually gregarious performer “speechless,” even though he and wife Arlene Silver also served as producers of the show.
Working the “magic,” a decidedly diverse slate of Van Dyke’s friends and admirers — including Carol Burnett, Rob Reiner, Jason Alexander, Jane Seymour, Ted Danson and “Weird Al” Yankovic — converged to sing, dance, and recall their favorite moments from the still-active performer’s storied career.
That long career brought him to Atlanta in his early, pre-stardom days. Van Dyke and fellow comedic actor Phil Erickson, working as The Merry Mutes, briefly settled down in the Atlanta area in the early ‘50s. The duo had a show on Channel 11, then known as WLWA-TV (now WXIA).
Credit: AJC file
Credit: AJC file
“I loved Atlanta,” said Van Dyke, moments after the early December taping session for his 98th birthday celebration special in Los Angeles. “I had a little television show there, [it was on] every day of the week, and we had little kids on. But that was in the ‘50s. Atlanta has changed a lot. It’s a much different city now.”
“I can’t tell you how it feels,” said a visibly surprised Van Dyke in a video message to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, immediately after the gala wrapped on Dec. 7. “I really am speechless and stunned by it. What I expected was just [to be] sitting down and answering a few questions. But this kind of ‘Broadway production’ has blown me away. It’s something I’ll never forget. The dancing and singing and the whole thing, I wasn’t expecting anything like this at all. I mean, whoever had something like this before?”
In April, his longtime friend and collaborator Burnett, 90, commemorated and co-produced her own milestone birthday party with a similar televised fete. After filming a segment of the Van Dyke broadcast, the legendary entertainer spoke about their enduring friendship by phone from her home in southern California.
Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Q: How long have you known Dick Van Dyke?
A: Oh gosh, we were great friends long before we’d been on each other’s variety shows. I think the first time we worked together, we were guests on the [popular ‘50s TV game show] “Pantomime Quiz,” which is really charades. He had been a guest on my show in the ‘70s and I had been a guest on “Van Dyke and Company,” his variety show. Then we did “Same Time Next Year” at the Huntington Hartford Theater one summer for a month or two. Since we were both on CBS for so long, we’d just run into each other all the time.
Q: So working together seemed inevitable.
A: It truly was! And since we both loved physical comedy, during our eleventh season we thought it would be a good idea to have Dick come on as a regular. We wanted him to just “get in the sandbox” with us every week and play. Harvey [Korman] had left to do his own program at that point.
Q: In your memoir [2016′s “In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox”], you mention your partnership was solid, but the execution wasn’t exactly a home run.
A: Right. He’s funny, he’s attractive, he can sing, he can move. It all seemed like a good idea. Looking back on it now, I think the writers were still doing what they’d create for Harvey but that didn’t work for Dick. They didn’t give him what he could do best. So he wasn’t happy and I wasn’t happy for him. Finally, we had a little conversation about it and hugged and that was that, because we were totally good friends and loved each other. He was just too nice to say he wasn’t pleased with some of the material and wanted to leave. But still, the magic was certainly there in moments. We had some wonderful musical numbers, including a takeoff on Shirley Temple movies. He’s just brilliant — when it all works. He sang and danced and when he wasn’t doing a character, he was great.
Credit: Courtesy of CBS/Paramount
Credit: Courtesy of CBS/Paramount
Q: Does any one moment stand out in your mind?
A: One of my most favorite things we ever did — and I hope it makes it into the special because I just did a video about it — was supposed to be a “stay tuned for the second half” bumper for “Van Dyke and Company.” We were both playing old people, I mean really old. Unscripted, it just turned into a big, slow-motion, knock-down brawl and we were really going for it. Luckily, [producer] Bob Einstein kept the cameras rolling and it was hilarious. I love taking pratfalls and jumping out of windows and so did Dick, so it worked. I mean, he’s best-known for tripping over an ottoman, so physical humor is a natural thing for both of us.
Q: He was also present in one of the most famous bloopers from the Burnett show.
A: (Laughing) Yes, he was in the Family sketch when Tim Conway did the elephant sound! We all just broke up. But I must say, he was such a fine actor, even in drama. Did you see him in the movie called “The Morning After”? He played an alcoholic and it was riveting.
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Q: You’ve both turned in some fine dramatic performances over the years, even recently.
A: Well, I do think comedians can do drama. It’s not foreign to us and I think in some ways, it may be even easier than for dramatic actors who try to do comedy. Maybe it’s the timing or what, I’m not sure.
Q: What was he like offstage?
A: He was always very nice and very sweet. But you could tell whenever he wasn’t happy. He tried not to show it, but sometimes you could see it. We are similar in that, I guess in our youth, we were what you’d call “people pleasers.” It’s hard for us to say no, or to try to say what we actually feel — without hurting someone else’s feelings. That’s Dick, he’s so kind. But I think we’ve found that there are moments when it’s ok to say “no” — and it can be a complete sentence.
Credit: Courtesy of CBS/Paramount
Credit: Courtesy of CBS/Paramount
Q: After knowing him all these years, how would you describe him?
A: He’s just a wonderful person and of course he’s a legendary figure, in so many different ways: TV and movies and plays — and even music! But if I could cut it down to one word, I really think it would be “kind.” If you look up kind in the dictionary, the definition should just be a picture of Dick Van Dyke.
WHERE TO WATCH
“Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic”
9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, on CBS and stream via Paramount+.
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