The New Dick Van Dyke Show
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| The New Dick Van Dyke Show | |
|---|---|
 Van Dyke as Dick Preston and Hope Lange as Jenny Preston |
|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Starring | Dick Van Dyke Hope Lange Fannie Flagg Nancy Dussault David Doyle Dick Van Patten Barry Gordon Henry Darrow Richard Dawson Chita Rivera Barbara Rush |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 72 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | September 18, 1971 – September 2, 1974 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
The New Dick Van Dyke Show brought Dick Van Dyke back to television in 1971. But despite running for three years, the show was not particularly popular and is rarely rerun today. This is in contrast with the original Dick Van Dyke Show.
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[edit] Premise
In this sitcom, Van Dyke played Dick Preston, a local talk show host in Phoenix, Arizona. Like Van Dyke's previous series, this show divided its time between Dick's job in show business and his home life with his wife and child. The show also featured Hope Lange as his wife, Jenny; Fannie Flagg as his sister, Mike; David Doyle as his boss, Ted; and Nancy Dussault as the Prestons' friend, Carol. Carl Reiner served as creative consultant. The show actually was filmed on location in Carefree, Arizona because Van Dyke was living in Arizona at the time and did not want to move back to Hollywood.
[edit] Reception
The show's Nielsen ratings were good during the first season due to Van Dyke's popularity and a timeslot between All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (which starred Van Dyke's former co-star). But the ratings were comparatively much lower than the shows surrounding it. CBS wanted to cancel the show, but the network had been so anxious to have Van Dyke back on the air that they had already signed him to a three-year contract. When the show was moved to a different time for its second season, the ratings fell tremendously.
Carl Reiner also wrote and directed numerous episodes. One episode from the third season included an off-camera scene in which Dick and Jenny's daughter walked in on them while they were having sex. Titled "Lt. Preston of the 4th Calvary," it was the 53rd episode produced for this series and the fifth episode produced for the third season. CBS refused to air the episode claiming it was incompatible with Van Dyke's "Mary Poppins"/"Chitty Chitty Bang Bank" image. This so incensed Carl Reiner that he refused to continue on the show beyond the third season, citing the network's hypocrisy. Notably, CBS at this time was allowing a number of other shows, such as "All in the Family" (ironically starring Reiner's own son, Rob) to deal openly and with much more controversial topics. Reiner promised never to work with the CBS network again. (A few years later, he starred in the short-lived ABC sitcom Good Heavens.) Dick Van Dyke, for his part, had no desire to continue the show without Reiner. As such, the third season turned out to be the last. (Note: Some sources have inaccurately reported that the controversial unaired episode was produced during the second season, and that Carl Reiner quit the series before the start of the third season. In fact, that episode, "Lt. Preston of the 4th Calvary," was produced during the third season and Carl Reiner remained as producer of the series until the final episode produced, "The Hickey," which he also wrote and directed.)
[edit] The final season
For the third season, the setting and production of the show moved to Hollywood. Dick and his family move there after he lands a role in a soap opera. New cast members were: Dick Van Patten as the show's producer; Barry Gordon as the show's writer; Henry Darrow as the stage manager; Barbara Rush as the show's star and Richard Dawson and Chita Rivera as the Preston's neighbors. Ratings improved but Van Dyke no longer enjoyed working on the show away from his home and did not want to work without Reiner. He chose not to renew his contract and moved back to Arizona.
