48 Fun Facts About The Dick Van Dyke Show

Which Marvel series opened with a black-and-white episode made as a homage to The Dick Van Dyke Show?

WandaVision. Before filming, its makers sought out Dick Van Dyke for advice, and he gave them his sitcom's rule: however silly the gag, nothing could happen that couldn't happen in real life.

In The Dick Van Dyke Show's finale, Alan Brady decides to turn Rob's memoir into what?

TV series. The last of the 158 episodes ends with Rob's account of his home life about to become a sitcom, just as Carl Reiner's own had.

What was the title of the 1960 pilot in which Carl Reiner himself played Rob Petrie?

Head of the Family. It failed to sell, and producer Sheldon Leonard told Reiner the script was fine but he was wrong for his own lead, so the part was recast.

Which future late-night host was a finalist for the role of Rob Petrie before Dick Van Dyke got it?

Johnny Carson. Producer Sheldon Leonard chose Van Dyke instead, and a year after the sitcom began Carson took over The Tonight Show, which he hosted until 1992.

Ann Morgan Guilbert, the Petries' neighbour Millie Helper, later played Grandma Yetta on which 1990s sitcom?

The Nanny. She went back to Millie once more for the 2004 reunion special, in which the now-widowed neighbour takes up with Rob's brother Stacey.

In which New York suburb do Rob and Laura Petrie live?

New Rochelle. Carl Reiner had lived there himself, on Bonnie Meadow Road, and he gave the Petries his own address with a single digit added.

In the episode 'October Eve', what turns up in an art gallery to Laura Petrie's horror?

A nude painting of her. Years earlier she had sat fully clothed for the portrait, but the artist, played by Carl Reiner, painted what he imagined instead.

Which garment did Mary Tyler Moore insist Laura Petrie wear around the house instead of a dress?

Capri pants. She argued that real housewives didn't vacuum in frocks and heels; objections that the trousers were too clinging at first kept them to one scene an episode.

While playing Mel Cooley, Richard Deacon was also Lumpy Rutherford's father Fred on which other sitcom?

Leave It to Beaver. Off screen Deacon was a keen cook, and after Mel Cooley he wrote a microwave cookbook and hosted a microwave-cooking series for Canadian television.

Which former child performer played wisecracking writer Sally Rogers?

Rose Marie. She had been a radio star at five as Baby Rose Marie, and once she was cast she suggested an old friend of hers for the part of Buddy.

Who played Buddy Sorrell, the joke-a-second writer who torments producer Mel Cooley?

Morey Amsterdam. He also wrote lyrics for the show's wordless theme tune; they were never heard on air, though Dick Van Dyke has sung them in public since.

How is bald producer Mel Cooley related to the star, Alan Brady?

Brother-in-law. Being family earns Mel no respect at all: Alan greets almost everything he says with the same three words, 'Shut up, Mel!'

What is the profession of Jerry Helper, the Petries' next-door neighbour?

Dentist. Jerry Paris, who played him, was given an episode to direct in 1963, won an Emmy for directing the series a year later and went on to direct most of Happy Days.

What piece of furniture does Rob Petrie trip over, or sidestep, in The Dick Van Dyke Show's opening credits?

An ottoman. Carl Reiner had both a pratfall and a neat sidestep filmed, and episodes opened with one or the other, so viewers never knew which they would get.

Dick Van Dyke shared his 1965 Emmy as Rob Petrie with which singer?

Barbra Streisand. That year the Emmys swapped their usual categories for a few catch-all awards, so his prize, one of the show's 15, was shared with her, Leonard Bernstein and the Lunts.

Which sponsor saved The Dick Van Dyke Show after its low-rated first season by threatening to pull its CBS daytime ads?

Procter & Gamble. Its soap operas were the difference between profit and loss for CBS in the daytime, so the network backed down and gave the sitcom a second year.

Which number one show served as The Dick Van Dyke Show's lead-in when its ratings took off in season two?

The Beverly Hillbillies. Slotted behind the new number one hit, the sitcom that had nearly been dropped rose to ninth in the ratings that season and third the next.

Why did The Dick Van Dyke Show end in 1966, while still a top-twenty hit?

Its makers chose to stop. CBS wanted more, but Carl Reiner and his star preferred to bow out while they were still proud of the show, one of the first sitcoms to plan its own ending.

Calvada Productions was named for Carl Reiner, Sheldon Leonard, Dick Van Dyke and who else?

Danny Thomas. CA-rl, L-eonard, VA-n Dyke, DA-nny: Thomas was Sheldon Leonard's producing partner, and Leonard later guest-starred as a mobster named Big Max Calvada as an in-joke.

Who composed The Dick Van Dyke Show's jaunty theme tune?

Earle Hagen. He also wrote the theme of The Andy Griffith Show, and did the whistling on that recording himself.

In The Dick Van Dyke Show's flashbacks, Rob met Laura while he was a soldier and she was what?

A USO dancer. Carl Reiner set the romance at Camp Crowder, the real Army post where he had been stationed himself during the Second World War.

What middle name did Ritchie Petrie get to please both sides of the family?

Rosebud. It is an acronym of Robert, Oscar, Sam, Edward, Benjamin, Ulysses and David, one initial for each name the two families pushed.

Rob's shy brother Stacey, played by Dick Van Dyke's real brother Jerry, becomes the life of the party only when what?

Sleepwalking. Asleep, Stacey is a banjo-strumming comic; Jerry Van Dyke later turned down the lead in Gilligan's Island and starred in My Mother the Car instead.

In the episode 'It May Look Like a Walnut', where does the alien Kolak come from?

The planet Twilo. Carl Reiner wrote the episode as a science-fiction spoof, closetful of walnuts and all, in which Rob can't tell a nightmare from his wife's revenge.

What secret does Laura blurt out on national television in 'Coast to Coast Big Mouth'?

That Alan Brady wears a toupee. A game-show host tricks it out of her, and she ends up stammering an apology to a furious Alan across a desk lined with his now-useless hairpieces.

In 'Never Bathe on Saturday', which part of Laura Petrie gets stuck in a hotel bathtub faucet?

Her big toe. For most of the episode Laura is only a voice behind a locked bathroom door, while Rob, a maid, a house detective and an engineer all fail to free her.

Which Dick Van Dyke Show season opener, where Rob fears the hospital swapped babies, was colourised in 2016?

That's My Boy?? Rob is sure the hospital sent them home with another couple's baby, until that couple arrive and turn out to be Black, to the longest laugh of the show's five years.

Who hosted the 2004 reunion special The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited?

Ray Romano. He introduced a new story by Carl Reiner in which Alan Brady asks Rob to write his eulogy while he is still alive to hear it.

At which studio was The Dick Van Dyke Show filmed?

Desilu Studios. The failed New York pilot had been shot with a single camera; the Hollywood remake was played to a live audience on the lot Lucille Ball's company owned.

Carl Reiner insisted Alan Brady was not Sid Caesar but a blend of which two overbearing TV comedians?

Berle and Gleason. Milton Berle was notorious for shouting at his crew and Jackie Gleason, Reiner said, was hard on his writers, whereas Caesar was a close friend.

Which future film director wrote Dick Van Dyke Show episodes with his partner Jerry Belson?

Garry Marshall. He and Belson became one of the show's most prolific writing teams, and both turn up among the saloon extras in the last episode filmed, 'The Gunslinger'.

Which Broadway musical won Dick Van Dyke a 1961 Tony and got him cast as Rob Petrie?

Bye Bye Birdie. Producer Sheldon Leonard saw him in it and recommended him for the part Carl Reiner had written for himself; Van Dyke made the film version while the series was on air.

Besides Bert the chimney sweep, which Mary Poppins character did Dick Van Dyke play under heavy make-up?

The old banker. Walt Disney cast him as Bert after seeing The Dick Van Dyke Show; Van Dyke then lobbied to play ancient Mr. Dawes as well, and won the part with a screen test.

Which silent-era comedian, his boyhood hero, did Dick Van Dyke imitate on his sitcom and eulogise in 1965?

Stan Laurel. Years earlier Van Dyke had found his idol's number in the phone book, rung him up and been invited round, the start of a friendship.

Which 1950s David Janssen detective series showed Mary Tyler Moore only as the legs of switchboard girl Sam?

Richard Diamond. The mystery of Sam's unseen face made her a minor sensation, but when Moore asked for a raise she was fired and the legs were recast.

Dick Van Dyke at first thought co-star Mary Tyler Moore was too what?

Young. Moore was 24 to his 35, but Carl Reiner insisted viewers would hardly notice the gap, and his star soon came round.

In 'Where Did I Come From?', which vehicle finally takes Laura Petrie to hospital to have Ritchie?

A laundry truck. Rob has slept in his suit and kept the car running for days, yet when the moment comes he locks bumpers with the taxi and a laundry man has to drive them.

To stop The Dick Van Dyke Show dating, what did Carl Reiner say he kept out of its scripts?

Slang. He had a feeling the show would last a long time and wanted no line to give away its age; in 2013 the Writers Guild ranked it 14th on its list of television's 101 best-written shows.

Buddy Sorrell's wife, a former showgirl and terrible cook, goes by what nickname?

Pickles. Her real name is Fiona, and in one episode Buddy suspects an affair when she is really paying off a blackmailing first husband, a forger who had gone to jail.

Buddy Sorrell was loosely based on which Your Show of Shows writer?

Mel Brooks. He and Carl Reiner had met on Sid Caesar's staff, and the two friends went on to record the 2,000 Year Old Man routines together.

Which instrument does Buddy Sorrell play, sometimes working it into his comedy routines?

The cello. The actor who played Buddy had been a child cello prodigy, a concert violinist's son who took the instrument into vaudeville and built a comedy act around it.

Sally Rogers has an on-again, off-again romance with which nerdy mama's boy?

Herman Glimscher. His mother keeps a wedding at bay for the whole run, but by the 2004 reunion special Sally has finally married him.

Future M*A*S*H star Jamie Farr played what in The Dick Van Dyke Show's first season?

A lunch delivery boy. Farr was still taking bit parts a decade later when a single day's work as Corporal Klinger on M*A*S*H turned into eleven seasons.

What one-word response does Mel Cooley usually give to Buddy's insults about his baldness?

Yechh! When the writers finally talk Mel into standing up to Alan Brady's bullying in the last season, he is fired on the spot, and they have to win his job back.

How was Alan Brady usually filmed in The Dick Van Dyke Show's early seasons?

From behind. Carl Reiner meant Brady to be heard and talked about, not seen; once stories began to need the look on the star's face, the show turned him around.

Jerry Van Dyke, who played Rob's brother Stacey, later earned four Emmy nominations as Luther on which sitcom?

Coach. After a run of short-lived series, among them the one-season My Mother the Car, the part of befuddled assistant Luther Van Dam finally gave him a hit of his own.

Which New York town, Lucille Ball's birthplace, has the comedy museum holding The Dick Van Dyke Show's scripts?

Jamestown. On his 97th birthday, in 2019, Carl Reiner announced that the museum would preserve his own hand-annotated scripts for all 158 episodes, shut away since 1966.

Carl Reiner won an Emmy for reviving Alan Brady in a 1995 episode of which sitcom?

Mad About You. Paul Reiser's character hires the fictional star to narrate his documentary on the early days of television, three decades after Brady last bullied a writer on screen.