Episode Transcript
📍
Welcome back to sort of sophisticated, uh, the podcast where basically we try to bore you to death while you are, uh, driving on the highways of Southern California and bring you as much interesting information as we can until you either put a bullet in your skull or get in a crash.
Wow. You go way dark
and like. Depressing.
I mean, what are we, what are we really doing here? I mean, I'm just letting you know what are we really, what are we really Attention people? Do you, this sweatshirt
I'm wearing? I am cozy today. You're, I am living cozy.
Wait, wait a second. Are you saying like you're a living, breathing like poster child of
like, I am like sorta something.
I'm absorbing our last episode and I'm
living it. A DH ADHD galore. Um, your husband. What about it? What he made? He made us the new jingle. The new Oh, the jingle. Not, not even a jingle. It's not even a jingle. It's a song. I dunno, folks. It's not even a jingle. It is a full on song that he like wrote lyrics to and recorded did.
And I have no idea what it, I, we gotta play this. We gotta put this like on You need to, let's just put it on our socials. Okay. But basically it's like how does it go? It goes like it goes, sorta of so sophisticated. Never overrated. We'll teach you things you never know You hated Ba It does some it other shit.
It's
very, I think it actually should be our intro. Get rid of the drinking song. Okay. It's our intro. You think so? I think so. I like the Slavic drinking
song though. Yeah, but I
think it's kind of like a fun little, it's a fun Diddy.
All right. It's
little intro. It, it's a little it intro. It just kick everyone in the mood.
That's all I'm saying. Diane. All I'm saying
Two American. Okay. Um,
so what's new with you today?
Do you really wanna know what's with me?
Kind of. Oh,
okay. Uh, understand. I ended up in the, uh, er over the weekend
in the er,
uh, the emergency room. What? Dun And there wasn't like even, it's the first time I'm hearing of this, there wasn't even like a hot doctor or hot by the way, like all those shows you watching tv.
No, they're not real. Not really. Not real at all. No. I had some pretty, pretty ugly doctors. Oh dear. Okay. Anyway, um, yeah, so I had that eye thing again. You remember like, oh, yeah, yeah, I had it before in my right eye. Uhhuh. It's called Old Man Eye Disease. Oh, glaucoma Melanoma carcinoma. No. Oh, not melanoma. No,
don't do that one.
Don't do that one. Oh, that's cancer stuff. Don't do that. Don't do that one. Yeah. Okay. It's like glaucoma. Glaucoma,
yes.
Glaucoma. And cataracts.
Okay. Cataracts
or cataract? I don't know. I don't know. Alright. Anyway, it's none of those. Uh, I ended up with, uh, what's called PVD, which is basically like some gel that like, you know, gets stuck in your eye and like settles.
It's just, it's when you're old. Uh, but Okay. But it's very similar to a detached retina. And so like if I didn't go to the er, then like, am I retina detached? I'd be blind. So I didn't want that.
Okay.
So. Here's the funny part of the whole thing. While I'm in the er, the doctor comes in and, and they don't know two shits about like
what's happening.
Sure. Well, because they don't, they're not there for eye stuff. They're not Yes. They're not ophthalmologist or s Right. Let's start with that. Exactly.
So he comes in, he starts looking at me. He is like doing all the eye tests and he's wearing a pair of glasses while he's doing it. And I'm like, doc. Do you really think you should be wearing a pair of glasses?
And he's like, what? What? Whatcha talking about? I'm like, pilots, pilots can't wear glasses. They need 2020. But like, somehow you are like you're, I don't think the
doctor needs to have 20.
I think it's bullshit. He's looking at my eyes. I don't think trying to diagnose something in my eye with a pair of glasses on.
No. Ah, I'm just saying. I think doctors need to have 2020 I want doctors, an ophthalmologist, an optometrist
you
want, do you want your brain surgeon? to not have 2020 vision. Like he's using tools and shit. Looking at computers, images. Wait, wait. I don't know. Well, he wasn't doing eye surgery on
you.
I just, I'm telling you just in
general.
Doctor,
I can see just fine when I have my glasses on,
whatever.
Wow. Wow. Anyway,
that was my story. I'm well, good to know you. I'm alive. You have
eye problems and you can never be a surgeon. Yeah. Okay. You can never fly a plane. Why do you, why do you always ask me about my weekend?
I never ask about yours. Never do anything. What,
what did, what did you do? Did you have, did you do anything fun?
We did a team party.
What? Wait, what? Oh, let's go. You're still in that? Soccer about
life. Yay.
And you had all like the trophies of like, we did little. We did. Most improved like. Yeah. Biggest you know, cheer person.
Yeah. And like, most loyal. Yeah. No, not really. . Whatever. Okay.
Committed.
Yeah. I, I just remember I used to give them candy bars. That was all that mattered.
Oh yeah. We didn't that I'd give him an award.
I'd give 'em a candy bar. Trent. It was really, so we
did a d differently. Trent gave them a strong adjective.
Mm-hmm. Um, maybe they weren't all adjectives. Okay. But like valor or, okay. You know, gladiator or could you do me a favor force or do you have them all written down? He does. Yeah,
we could use them as our words of the day.
Oh, what I did, I mean, lemme tell you, these little fourth and fifth graders were like.
That's our, that's our podcast
right there. We, we did a bunch of definitions. This is great. But it was great. It was a lot of fun. I mean, it was
good. Why don't they listen to sorta sophisticated Never ro overrated. They did. Okay. Sorry. Uh, let's move on.
Yes. What is our topic for today?
Sir? We haven't even introduced the topic. You have not. We are like, I thought we were on Word of the day. Six minutes in and, oh, this
is embarrassing. Okay. We are talking about, we're doing an anniversary.
Okay.
We're doing a hundredth. Birthday party celebration for none other than our main man, Dick Van Dyke.
Dick Van Dyke. Dick
Van Dyke turning off hundred years old. You legend? Yes, I know
he's, I just saw him recently.
Wait, why? I'm like
he was on some show. No, no, not in person. Oh, okay. Like on a tv?
Yeah.
Segment.
Okay. Um. He's still, he's still going. Yeah. A hundred years old. The guy's still going. He's not like Jimmy Carter.
You remember Jimmy? Yes. I know Ron. You remember when we did the Jimmy Carter episode and like two weeks later you, let's hope it's not right. Here we go. And they like, they rolled him out 📍 in the
wheelchair.
I know. It was not good. It was not good. Okay, folks,
folks, listen to this. This was hysterical because we did that.
It was like a while. I don't know. Go back and listen to the old episode. Sure. But, um, Amanda and sent. She sends me a week after we record the podcast, she sends me a picture of Jimmy Carter's hundred birthday party looking up at the sky with his, I don't know. His, his like mouth was wide open. Look, he looked dead.
He was,
yeah, he did look good. He looked like he was dead. It was bad. Yeah. And
they were celebrating his birthday. Yeah. And you're like, why did we do this? I'm like, I, I don't know. I thought it was a good idea. So, but Dick VanDykes, but he's still killing it. That guy's still up and around. She's super healthy.
Yeah. No, no, no. That guy, that guy's an ana. Total animal. Anyway, uh, the official title is called Still Tapping. At a hundred 'cause he's, you know Yeah.
Still tap dancing. Tap. He's
a tap dancer. Yeah. The joyful genius of Dick Van Dyke. Um, and we're gonna talk about how this sort of tall, skinny kid from a small town in Illinois ended up becoming America's favorite sitcom.
Dad, if you didn't know, uh, Disney Legend Boy knew that one musical icon and somehow. Somehow a man, the only man who's still tap dancing at a hundred years old. I mean, I'm sure there's somebody else, but he is the no bullshit. I don't believe it. There's not even people that are alive anymore at a hundred years old.
They all die early. Um, and then we're gonna talk about like what, what like we're doing about, because I mean, I'm sure there's some celebrations going on, so like I'm gonna
Sure. Kind of like that. Uh, the other lady. Yeah. Fci. Yeah. Yeah.
Girl Margaret Thatcher. I got a lot of shit for that episode. Oh, you did?
Yeah. A lot of Irish people gave me shit. Oh. Oh, I got a lot of comments. Yeah. They were not happy. They're like, what are you doing? But I thought we like. Gave both sides of like, she was good and she was bad. And like, I
mean, here's the thing,
but like we try to be neutral. We're apparently. We're polarizing.
We
we're. Well, I am,
I'm polarizing. Amanda's wonderful. I
was gonna say, I was
gonna say, there we go.
All right, so we're gonna learn about Dick Van Dyke. He's a hundred, he's still tap dancing, but besides being like this legend for TV and Disney and on Broadway, what else about him? Like, I mean, that's already a lot, so I mean, it is a lot. Even covering those bases makes us cultured and curious.
Right? So is there anything else in your little brain that. I'm sorry
you trying
to like target,
I'm sorry, did everybody just catch that? I mean big brain, so like this is, here are the nuance. This is Amanda. This is why I love you because you're the only person that could do that shit.
Like, like I didn't even mean, oh, bullshit. You didn't. Okay. Anyway. Um, yeah, so I'm gonna just go out and, no, there's nothing major different, but like, nobody has an 80 year career. I mean, that's, that's also crazy. Like if you think about it, it's insane. And I think that's the biggest thing because, because he's still going.
Yes. And he spans so many different, like Hollywood generation. So go all the way back to like. The vaudeville acts, when they were doing miming and like, not even like, doing like, um, television. You mean like silent television film? Yeah, like a little bit of silent film. Vaudeville was like that silly, funny, like dancey stuff where there was no, it was music, but no.
Oh, like slapstick. Yeah. Little slapstick and no, , audio. Like they just did it, but
did they do it in person?
Yeah, it was all in person. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Those were the acts back in the day. Right. See, I
don't know. How can you be like. Muted. But that's how he start. Like, it's like you turn
off the tv.
So he started doing that and he's still alive. What? Like, that's my point. And then he goes into, then he goes into tv, then he goes to Hollywood, goes, oh, goes in. Oh, sorry, forgot, uh, Broadway. Then he goes back to television, right? And then he does all like the, the standup stuff. He was in radio, tv, everything.
So I think that's. Sort of the culture is he did so many, I guess genres, I don't know best. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, because nobody really does that because he is, nobody has a career that long. Right. Realistically. Um, anyway, does that make sense? I love it. Alright.
But I'm also now curious
what
like, is there anything else? I guess mine is, I love your history. Are we gonna talk about anything like pre all of this? Like did he just get his career and he launched? Are we talking about baby, you know? Dick Van Dyke, or are we,
we're gonna talk about Little Dick.
Okay.
Oh, for sure. Stop it. Yeah. Like how I have a little brain. Okay. Oh, we'll talk about Little Dick. So not just
the history of, of like all the things he did. We're also, we're
gonna go, we're gonna go from Little Dick. Okay. All the way up to Big Dick.
Okay.
How does that, is that, that's okay.
Yeah. I'm sorry.
Open that door. Yeah. Um, why don't we just start with the word of the day. Okay, great.
I love that. Alright, so our word of the day today is Teer Temerity. Teer. T-E-M-E-R. ITY te, so Teer. T, 📍 but I say Temerity. yes.
Nope. Got nothing.
You have nothing.
No. You don't have like, I don't, I can't even think of a word that's term termites.
No, nothing. No, because that has an R terminus and like there's terminating.
All I anyway. '
cause it's TER you said it's TEM? It's TEM. Yeah. I yet Teer? Nope.
Okay. Okay. Tumultuous. That's closest thing I got. Okay. I'll do tumultuous. Uh, temerity is just a fancy way of saying, uh, you had the nerve to do something you definitely should have thought about for five seconds before you actually decided to do it.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like,
should have ran it through your brain a little longer.
Yeah. Like Elon Musk. Anything Elon Musk does. He is full of temerity. Okay. Right. So like, you gotta think of temerity, like, um, like sort of bold, like, okay, audacious. Like, like you have to have balls to do it.
It's not like, um, it just like you didn't think it through. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like impetuous. It's, it's, that's a little too soft. Te medi iss like, no, no, no, I'm doing it anyway. It's sort of a fuck you moment. Okay. Does that make sense? Yep.
Got it. So it comes from the Latin root Tam Mere, which means by accident or without thinking. And it's basically just a way to say , oh shit. Uh, you really just did that.
Alright, well let's go.
Tell me everything I need to know about the Tamari Dick Van Dyke in 30 minutes
less. Can you really do that? Can you just change it from like a noun I know to an adjective. Tamari. I did That just rolled, I don't
know, I just wanna get it outta the way, like done and done. Wait, so you just won? Yeah, sure.
Bullshit. I don't know. I don't if Tamari did. I did I? I don't know if tamari counts, but I'm gonna say that was awesome that you just threw that shit in there like that. So good for you. Lemme here we are. Okay. That
counts. Okay.
Alright.
So
little dick. We start with little Dick. Yes. Alright, here we go.
Baby Dick Van Dyke please. Baby,
, Baby Dick Van Dyke was born. Richard Wayne Van Dyke.
Okay.
Born. This like gross, like wet baby. All covered in placenta Gross. Like
why? Why, yeah. Came
out and then they had to cut the court. Because I want people to know that they're just, everybody's born the same way.
Amanda. We're all the same way. No, I just, you like
the rise?
Maybe I do. Okay. I don't know. So he's born in West Plains, Missouri. Missouri. You know what Missouri is? It's a show me state, you know Missouri? Oh yeah. Motto. Okay. You know, California state motto?
The gold. You're a
terrible human state. No, that's, that's the golden state that,, it is, uh, Eureka. Right, because that's where they found all the goal. Okay. Okay. All right. Anyway, sorry. Terrible model. Let's get back on check. Uh, he was born on December 13th, 1925.
Dang. 1925. Yeah.
Okay. And, uh, didn't stay in West Plains very long at all. Why? Uh, 'cause he didn't want to.
He looked at his parents when he was three months old. Oh God. And he said, mama, mommy dandy. I wanna
move. So where did he crawl? His little baby ass.
Crawled his little dick over to Danville, Illinois, baby. That's where he went. Danville.
Okay.
For all of you playing at home, uh, is about 150 miles south of Chicago.
Okay. Like straight down. Sure. Like, well, Chicago's up. Sure. Like on the, I don't care. Oh, okay. It's like really close to like Indiana. Great. Okay. Somewhere over there. A little small town. Okay, got it. Understood. Where like everybody knows each other's name.
Yes. Right.
Like cheers. You remember?
Cheers the bar. Cheers. You
have to list the biggest metro area and
you have to, I hate, I honestly I hate you. I don't even know why we do this together. Okay,
so he grows up this tall, skinny, teenage kid who looks a lot like the kids from Stranger Things, you know? Okay. All those lanky sort of, I mean, there's
growing wing, they're teenagers, they're growing into their bodies.
Can we do an episode on Stranger Things? Sure. I know
It's coming out.
Number two, this
is happening.
Number three or final? The final. Do you you to go number two?
No. What's happening? Number two's coming out. Number five's coming out? Yeah. Yeah. I got five. What is this? What is this? Number two? Bullshit.
I had to count.
Alright. Alright. Anyway,
I meant Stranger Things is coming out too.
Came
out. Oh, is that what you meant? Oh, and then, okay. Yeah.
Snowball downhill from. Literacy. Yeah, that was very
Tamari, tamari of you. Okay. Okay.
Um, did not run through my brain an extra five seconds.
No, no. Just fell out. So he, so he immediately was into drama. Like he was drawn to drama even when he was a kid.
Okay. So like, he's like in church programs, so In natural. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's doing school plays. He's do like drama club, like all that kind of stuff. Right. For sure. Uh, fun fact. Uh, he even thought about being a minister for a minute, but not for the reasons you would think. Uh, he actually just liked to perform.
Huh? Until one of his teachers was like, dude. You'd be way better making people laugh than actually Okay. Trying to like make a sermon. Convert people. Yeah, exactly. So sorry kid. No, good for you. So he was like, fucking people's
afterlife. He was like,
fuck, dream crushed. I guess this is over. So what did he do?
He just kept at it. That's what he did.
No, but he didn't become a, a minister obviously, so No. So he just kept out
at like the drama club stuff. Okay. So he's like, all his friends are like, Danville don't know, I don't what there is to do in Danville. I don't know. Who cares? Right. Cow tipping, I don't even know.
Right. They're just doing the things they do, getting drunk, whatever. Um, but he was practicing these little comedy routines. He made up messing around at radio stations. Just, just like honing his shtick. Right, okay. Like realizing what he wanted to do. 'cause he had totally found his calling. He wasn't trying to be famous or anything like at this early stage. He was just like doing what he loved.
Okay. You know what I mean? So he was just a young kid. Experimenting with life, what his passion was. Yes. Okay. Fair. And
unfortunately for me, it took me 50 years before I realized I should do that too. And, uh, here we are, recruited you for this wonderful podcast. Here we are. Anyway, here's the podcast. Um,
So then did he get famous No. From doing his no stick?
No. He doesn't get no.
Oh no, you don't
get famous from doing your little shtick.
Oh, okay. Then Dickie,
Dicky, little Dicky had a little stick stick. So Rapid. Alright. Um, hell slow burn man. I mean, he's a teenager. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Slow burn. Defining
himself his passions, blah, blah, blah. And then that's relax. We get to it's, we're in history. We not 30 minutes. You're taking so long. Alright,
fine.
World War II happens.
Oh well, shit,
everything is like that. Right's, it's like, it's always the bomb drop, right? World War ii. Yeah. Yeah. Television. Okay. Okay. It's always major events, right? Yeah. Yeah. So this one was World War II and he had to enlist. Oh, okay. So he goes into World War, but. When he enlisted, he enlisted in the Air Force.
He, uh, went in as a radio did in 2020.
Vision.
He, he did. I like that. That was good. They needed him. , Put me in coach. Uh, he went in as a radio announcer and an entertainer. Oh. 'cause by that time, they realized. It wasn't like they were just recruiting people for frontline all the time. They wanted people in certain jobs.
They were like, dude, that guy like, huh, he's got a thing. Yeah. Yeah. And the idea was he was supposed to rally the troops. So it was sort of like, you remember the USO, you know, like, um, yes. Bob Hope and the whole, right. Yeah. Yeah. So it was like he was working for the USO, but not really, like he was really in the military doing it.
Um, which was kind of cool. And actually, that's where he learned to sort of. Hone his skill. Okay. Because he is on the radio all the time. Love it. Talking to all these troops. So he was learning about timing, he was learning about how like to perfect his craft. Right? So serving
the country.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was leaning into his passion. Totally. And using Yeah, things, his skills. That an absolute
side note, because I don't wanna forget about personal life shit. Uh, it was around this time too that he married his like, hometown sweetheart. Oh. From Danville. 📍 Good old Margie .
📍 Before he left. Okay. 📍 Margie Willett. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. And they, uh, they ended up, having four kids. Okay. Four kids. Yeah. Christian Barry. Stacy and Carrie Beth.
Alright.
That's kind of, I know nothing about them. Right. Interesting. This guy's trying to like, build a career in show business. He's changing diapers.
He's in the military. Who is this guy? Right.
He's just been a good old dad. Good old,
good old Dickie Van Dyke, right? Let's go. Okay. So then after the war and the whole like. Military thing. Yeah. Like he's done. Yeah. Did his duty. He bounces around a little bit. 'cause I mean, he's got, he's got mouths to feed. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he gets
out the war. Yeah. He's not, not
bringing, and he's looking for a job.
He's not moving back home with mom and dad, with Mar, with margie loved it. That ain't happening. Well that's good. So he's, I mean he's doing everything. Radio dj, car salesman, road ads for department stores. For a while he was even a weatherman. Oh, for a second. He was. Fun fact.
Fun fact about being a weatherman.
You ready for this? Yeah. He got fired like his first week on the job. He did this for one week, right? 'cause he would make up the weather reports on the air because he admitted that he didn't understand them.
Maybe that's why we actually need meteorologists in those positions.
Is that really, is that, is that really like a science?
Does that really count? I mean, I think
so.
Are you sure? I think so. Have you seen the
meteorologist nowadays? I,
there's a very certain kind of, of meteorologists. Oh, I see. Okay. I'm just saying
they look a certain way. They
look a certain way. Okay. Yes. All right. But anyway,
so that's not how we got famous then.
No.
That's, someone didn't see him on TV and was like, that guy, we need that guy.
Not at, not at all. Oh. But what that taught him, if I may say so, is it taught him resilience. Oh. Because he had to do all these jobs. Right. So first of all, he's honed his timing.
Yes.
He knows how to perform. Now all this resilience, what was our word of the day?
It was like last week or something. It was w what we wereit, abate. Abate, abate, right? Re resilient, I think it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So he was abate. That was him. He wasn't te, what was it? Teer. Teer. He was abate. No
temerity.
Temerity. It
was our technical word of the day. Today
this mofo was abate. Okay.
So then when did he actually get famous and what was he doing when he got famous?
I can't tell you that. Like an accident. I'd have to kill you. Oh yeah.
Comes in late 1940s. Okay. So he's like, uh, 25 years old, like 49, whatever. Yeah. Okay. 1949, somewhere around there. Team up with this guy. One of his friends. Mm-hmm. Bestie. Mm-hmm. Phil Erickson. And they form a comedy duo called the Mary Mutes. The Mary Mutes. I'm sorry.
They're, they're doing comedy, but they're mute.
They're co. Yes. Slap, like that slap stick, like a physical, physical comedy. Right?
So, so this guy's like tall. This is where the, the slapstick black. Um, so you
gotta, you gotta imagine who he is, right? Like he's tall, he's lanky. He's, he's got a lot of facial expressions, like super elastic face. He jumps around like Jim Carrey.
Oh, okay. Think Jim Carrey. Okay. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Very similar, but like. Jim Carrey came out in what, the nineties? I don't know what it was. Sure. So like, but this was like back in the day when vaudeville was a thing. Yeah. So like, this was hysterical and nobody was really doing this in that, in the duo set. I mean, they had comedians, they had things happening, but this was sort of like a new-ish, he was like pushing the limit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So fair. Basically, what ended up happening was somebody found, they literally like. Went around America. Mm-hmm. Nightclubs, little shows wherever they could get work. Literally like did the grind, , until, uh, somebody found him. Okay. Uh, some Broadway producer guy came a calling, all right.
And, uh, signed him up, said, you're awesome. And he starred in. Bye bye birdie. Oh. In 1960, and that was super, super famous. . He played a songwriter who was trying to manage his rockstar. Okay. Quote unquote rockstar. And all the critics went bonkers for him, and he won a Tony Wow. In 1960.
Yeah. That's crazy. He was, he was like that Good. Which then subsequently moved him from Broadway to, uh, television. 'cause television became a thing. Oh yeah, yeah. Remember 1950? So television hits. So 10 years later they're like trying to fill the airwaves with all this television. , And he stars in the Dick Van Dyke show.
Mm-hmm. Which is where like. He went super favorite sitcom. Dad. Got it. Like, do you remember the dick van? Did you ever watch Dick Van Axel? Yes. Or not? Not really.
I mean, I I watched reruns, but not like originally. Yeah. Right. Because clearly I was not alive. I wasn't even born. Okay. Bring it down a notch.
We can both say we weren't born right, but that, but the whole idea of the sitcom. Like he, I, he more or less created. I mean, there were other sitcoms out before it, don't get me wrong. Sure. But the concept of sort of the, the dad comes home from work, dad's got his work for, they see the neighbors, they hang out.
There's funny things that happen to like , I mean, every sitcom is based on the Dick Van Dyke show. Huh. That's, that's like the whole concept. And
so that's how he gets to be known as like the dad.
The dad. You wanna be
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because up to that point, dads were like. Stuffy and you know, came home from work and they didn't even have lines in the shows. Like really, I mean, they were just there. It was mostly the moms or like, I love Lucy.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
I mean, she took over the show. That's true. Right. And they didn't even have kids in that show, right? Yeah. So this was like a dad who would hug his kids and like taught ,
so it was like a different version of the traditional dad. He made it, or not the traditional, but like the dad, the normal dad that was presented as the one who was.
Always, uh, being the worker, the hard worker. Yeah. Wearing a suit, coming home. Mom takes care of everything. But he was now like the dad that was involved.
Yes, absolutely.
So he becomes America's favorite dad, basically, and then he flies a car. Like how does, how does that transition happen? To like yeah, yeah, yeah. To shitty Bang, bang and Mary Pop. Bang, bang. We love
you. I mean, I get it. He's a TV
star, so he obviously is getting picked up for roles.
Well, right,
because you got, do you remember chemistry? Cozy?
Yes.
Yeah. Right. So like clearly mind sweatshirt, like he took over America. I mean, people would sit in front of the television, television. Sure, yeah, yeah. Like I said, brand new, uh, and watch all this stuff. And so , it was so easy for him then to like, they just sucked him up right away into, movies.
Right. Hollywood was like, bonkers for him.
Okay. So,
Okay. Hold on though. But we want, I gotta go sideways first for a second because I wanted to go back to personal life. There's like two paths going on here, right? It's like getting married, doing things in his life, but then there's like his movie career.
Well, it's his professional life and home. Life and personal life. Got it. So at the same time all this crap's happening, um, shit starts hitting the fan a little bit. So, he starts down this road of like, I don't know. Getting drunk Oh. A lot. And became an alcoholic. Okay. So spoiler alert, he's an alcoholic for 40 years.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. From like when he's 40 years old to like 80 years old. Um, and then now he's, so he's been sober for the last 20 years. Wow. Totally fine. Okay. Um, high functioning drunk, like, don't get me wrong. Well, 'cause
clearly, I mean, because we haven't covered Mary Pops, but, but like, it did,
Suck.
Mm-hmm. Um. But my point of all, like he, he really struggled with fame, so he loved performing. Yeah. But he didn't love entertaining people afterwards. So he had to go to parties. Uhhuh, he had to go on television, he had to do shows, he had to like all sorts of interviews, all that kind of shit. Yeah. Just
took the edge off.
Oh my God. So he could do all the things. Yeah,
yeah,
yeah. Okay.
The, what do you call it? What do what when you, um, liquid courage. No. Yes. Yes. , What I need. For this podcast?
I don't think you do, but, okay. Well,
what most people need for a podcast. You know what I mean? Yeah. What I should need. What should need for this podcast?
No. Yeah. Yeah. It's good that you don't, it's good that you don't. Yeah. So that kind of sucked. 'cause like for a long time he was like on the wagon.
Oh, I don know. Yeah. I don't know. There's a wagon wrong. Yes.
Wrong
personality, but we agree
there's a wagon. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he's on or around a wagon for a really long time.
And then he does the opposite thing at the end of his life. Okay. And he gets off. Well, he's, it's not, he's not dead yet. No way. But like then he's like in a better position.
Well, I did not see that coming, to be honest. Yeah. I didn't even know that he was a functioning alcoholic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. But anyway, let's get back on track. So does he
talk about that?
He does.
Okay. Well now like, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.
I don't think, well, while he was sure an alcoholic Sure, sure. But, but afterwards, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Now he like looks back and he's like, okay, and y yada, yada, yada. And I think like he has good relationships with his whole family and everything.
Everything I looked up like there was nothing bad.
So then is the joy and all the radiance that he exudes, is that because he was drunk all the day?
No, absolutely not. No. That wasn't who he was. Abs No, no, no, no. That was only like. Like off screen. No, he was excellent. He was a maniac. He genuinely joyful.
Oh, okay. , That, that is how he won The Hearts of America. I mean, this guy exuded, I, I mean we see
it in Mary Poppins. Yes. Right. You see it everywhere,
right?
No. Which also, now that you've like, told me the timeline, you're telling me that when to marry Poppins, he's about 40, which kind of blows my mind.
Right, because he's a good looking, good looking dude.
Yeah.
In Mary Poppins. Yeah, he was,
he was hot af Okay. Like we're not, we're not messing around here. 40-year-old. What? What do you think of me?
Well, you're over 40, so.
Okay. Yeah. So just put me in the box, blah.
I'm just kidding.
Okay. That was
really nice of you.
Um, anyway. Okay. So back to whatever the hell it was we're talking about. Oh, we're talking about Mary Pops. Yeah. So then, yeah. So Hollywood picks him up. He does Mary Poppins. Yep. It goes, um, absolutely bonkers. Okay. Um, and then well, he's Bert, right? Mary? Yes. Okay. Sorry for those of you playing at home.
Yeah. He's the chimney sweep. Yep. He, he dances with the penguins. He does. Excellent. Um, I went down that rabbit hole. With the whole Mary Poppins?
Nope.
Nope. Wait, you don't even know what, you don't know what I'm gonna say.
Nope. I just, I know you and I don't know if we wanna talk about that.
Do not ruin Mary Poppins for me.
I'm not, I'm gonna do the opposite. I'm gonna say, gosh, like you're gonna hold Julie Andrews in high regard. They did not hump.
Why? Why does your brain go there?
I thought. 'cause I'm a man.
Oh my gosh.
That's all. That's all. I can't, I can't. We're so , we're so basic.
Well, I am glad that they did not,
there was no humping, there was no humping onscreen.
Well, 'cause I like they, they, the whole idea of Mary Poppins was he liked her. Like they were
Okay, but not a relationship. Every, like .
Do you know, I don't know. Do you know men and women can be friends? Have I have? No. Do you know they can't be friends? Yes, I can. Have you seen when Harry met Sally?
They cannot be friends.
Billy
Crystal, you are correct in when Harry met Sally. Oh
gosh.
Men and women can't be friends. What? We gotta get back on track because you
were so far down. I don't even know. Some rabbit hole. I don't even know where I'm met. Julie Andrews.
Okay, so then they go to chitty shitty Bang bang, chitty shitty bang bang, Chitty chitty bang bang.
We love you. It's so good. He's a dad and he's got the kids and they're in the car. Cute. They flying. It's really cute. Cute. It's cute. And I just re-watched that where like, the car uhhuh right. Actually like takes, does the backfire. And that's how it like starts. 'cause he's like, oh, oh my god.
That's a bang, bang, chitty chitty bang bang, chitty chitty bang. And
you didn't get that?
No. I don't wanna
even know what you thought. Bang, bang was. We No focus. No focus, focus. I just rewatched.
It was, it was just really good. It's a good one. So from Chi is a good one. So he goes from, so he go, it's good.
Movie goes whatever, Mr. Pot. I don't know what he, Mr. Pots, I think that's, yeah, I think so. Yeah. I don't remember his first name. 'cause it was really hard to say. So anyway, the whole reason he's like super famous at this time, he goes from. Now, imagine Right.
Comfort tv. Yeah. Dick Van Dyke. Yeah. Then goes in Mary Pop ist Shitty Bang Bang. Sure does a bunch of other shit too. Yep. Dont get me wrong. Yep, yep. Um, think of what's going on at the time. Okay. We're in the middle of the 1960s, like, I dunno, 65 6, 6 7, like right. You're, so you got the Vietnam War.
Okay.
Right.
You got major protests going on all over the place. You got, you got Nixon being a lunatic. You got, uh, JFK died in 60, what was it, 62. This
is very, very terrible. Luther. You, Luther King
who dies. Right, right. Or 64, I think it was like a lot of bad shit.
So Hollywood is pushing this like, enigmatic, joyful, like awesome, right? 'cause he was the
anomaly of the time. He
was exuded, he was making America smile when America didn't wanna smile and, and for decades. But through the sixties especially, it was. Escapism. Times 10. Yeah, times 10. So total
like right time, right guy?
Oh, 10 America needed him. Unbelievable. Hence why he became this legend. And America's sweetheart of
sorts. Yes, he absolutely hit like, galactic fame because of what was going on. Right. But yeah. Yeah.
Have you noticed like he doesn't. Age?
No, he doesn't age. I
mean he does, obviously he has gray hair and Yes.
Certain things, but like he's still tap dancing. Okay. He did
all of these movies. Okay. Let's just start with the fact that, because number one, he exudes joyfulness and gratitude. Absolutely. Right. I know.
This is, I think what you think that the fountain of Youth is. It is. And then
and physically he like takes care of himself.
He's one in a billion, it's not even one in a million.
He's one in a billion. Right. Think of, like, think of people who define their career like, like Dick Van Dyken acting is like LeBron James in like the NBA. Sure.
Or
like the anomaly or like Tom Brady in the NF nfl. Like there, there are people that defy the odds because they're not, it's not 'cause they're good at their craft.
Right. They love what they do. Mm-hmm. And then they physically take care of themselves. So it's a combination of joy and physicality. Got it. Yes. So this guy doesn't like ever slow down. He just, he keeps going. So the seventies and eighties, he does a little bit of everything.
Because now everybody wants him, like he's the hottest commodity. There is variety shows, guest spots everywhere. A couple more TV sitcoms still drinking, you know? Yep, yep, yep. Because these are all the things where he is like, I gotta drink, I gotta drink more movies, Disney specials,
, wait. Personal shit. Oh, okay. Back to personal shit. Our parallels. Yeah. We're paralleling this, uh, sad part. So around the same time we're in the late seventies after 35 years of marriage to Margie. Oh. Sad day he gets a divorce. No drama though. No juicy stuff. There's nothing there. I looked it up. I thought it was 'cause of Julie Andrews.
It wasn't 'cause of Julie. Oh my gosh. There was another woman. But like later. Yeah. Yeah. Like it was sort of like she was around, but it wasn't because it wasn't technically because of Yeah. They just said they grew apart, he was busy with his career and his schedule and all that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. And they both said their marriage wasn't a priority anymore.
So he was,
he was the ideal dad on tv, but maybe not the ideal husband.
Yeah. Yeah. And, and I, I looked up if alcoholism was a part of it. No, they said no. Okay. Absolutely not. So, uh, they officially divorced in 1984 after being separated for like. A lot of years. Like 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A long, a long time.
Yeah. It's
kind of like the Hollywood sad story.
Womp. Pomp. But does he get remarried? I'm sure he is. He's married now.
Yes.
I'm pretty sure he is married.
Oh, he gets remarried. Fun fact. I have one later. Okay. It's gonna blow your mind. Okay. Okay. And it helps me in my situation.
Oh Lord. Okay, so I'm not on, I'm ready for this. Prepare, prepare to get mind blown. Where was I?
Uh, nineties ish.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, okay, here we go. Shit gets real again. 1990, right?
Doing all these like interviews, shows. Gets divorced. 1996. Here we
go again. Ready? Uh, diagnosis,
murder.
oh, that's right. Do you remember it? It was him.
Dun, yes. Diagnosed all these, all the Gen Zers nowadays watching whatever it is, Grey's Anatomy reruns in er, dude, diagnosis, murder. It was og. That's where that, let's go. All right. So like, he basically was this genius grandpa, like Dr.
Guy, okay. Named Dr. Mark Sloan, Dr. M Sloan, um, at some fake hospital. They made up right here in Los Angeles. Let's go la uh, who apparently, also just decided that it wasn't enough to be a doctor. He wanted to. Solve murders as a side hustle. Yes. 'cause that's totally normal. Basically, every episode went like this.
Um, somebody died, of course it's a hospital. Or gets murdered and murdered. They roll into the hospital and the police are confused and they're scratching their head. And Dr. Mark Sloan raises an eyebrow 'cause he could do that. Like
Jim Carrey
solves the whole thing and then goes back to his nightly rounds.
Okay.
He was very good at it. Dun. I
watched Rerun through that dude all the time with my parents. Dude,
it's the most wholesome crime solving show you've ever seen. Everybody loved it. That's true. That's true. Comfort tv. This guy was the king of Comfort TV. Fair. Okay. Fun fact. Fun fact.
Okay. Yeah. His actual real life son. Played a detective that he worked with, huh? On the show? I did not know that. Yes. How cool would that be to work with your son? Oh, I don't know. Or daughter on the, I would love it, I guess. Well, if you act, if you're acting, yeah, that's true. Like if you actually had to work with him and like make them do stuff that'd be different, but like Yeah.
Anyway,
but it would all be a big game to you, so I can see why you think it would be fun. It would
be totally cool. I would love that.
So it basically becomes. I mean now a doctor, a detective, so he reinvented his image, right? Well,
not a real doctor. No,
but I mean like as an actor, right? I only play one on tv.
He finally broke free of just like tap dancing and being in musicals. Et cetera.
Yes, except he still did all that shit on the side, but yes. Well, sure. Yes.
He's just the new genre that he got into
and just again, just reinventing himself all the time. Smoke it. Who's a smoke show? Total smoke show. Let's go.
You said he was hot? What do you want me to say? I mean,
fair. I don't remember what he looked like in diagnosis. Murder? Yeah.
I'll tell you right now. I just looked him up right now. He's still hot.
Okay. Well, I mean, no shame dude. He does look good for a hundred. I must say I have no Amen. Must say amen to that.
Okay. Wait, so he worked on diagnosis murder with his son, but what happened to his like co-host from like the OG days? Did he become as famous as Dick? The
Vaudeville dailies? Yeah. Yeah. Nobody, first of all, nobody says as famous as Dick. What's name? Erickson Erickson. Phil Erickson.
Phil. What happened? What,
what's gonna happen with Phil?
I mean, obviously
he's not as popular.
Phil. Phil. Phil goes and Phil's a hole. That's what he does, right? Because there's nothing there. It's Phil, it's not Dick. You gotta be a dick to be famous, not just Phil. Okay? What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a ditch? Phil. Okay. All right. Let me tell you what happens to Phil. Oh my God. Alright. Phil Erickson, the guy from the Mary Mutes. Nothing. Nothing happens to him. Really. I mean, listen. It was no like big drama or anything between these guys. But like Dick had star quality. Phil didn't have, so Phil was in Hollywood.
His whole career was in Hollywood. Okay. But just never sort of like, made it big. But he performed and worked and did the grind, but just never hit the one role that launched him like Dick did with the Bye bye birdie. Okay. On Broadway. Um, so not a failure, just like shout out to Phil Erickson, but just not a
legend,
but, right.
I'll tell you this, , I guess the
legendary nesses. Maybe being in the original
right? With Dick. Yeah. Yeah. Here you go. We're not doing a podcast on Phil Erickson. No, sorry. Snooze, snoozefest. Sorry. No, maybe not. Maybe he's very interesting. But they're super good friends.
They stayed. No, I checked it all out. They stayed super good friends until he died.
Good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. So, fast forward through the nineties, because we kind of filled that, I think with diagnosis, murder. Yeah. Now we're what, two thousands?
Yeah, we're in two thousands, but we're, we're skipping around now. 'cause basically we're done now. 'cause now he's aging out, like he's getting old.
But I do wanna bring up, the guy never stopped dancing. Like never because we're talking about you know, reinventing himself. So this guy is like, that's his secret, we talked about his joyfulness.
Yep.
But then also his physicality.
Yep.
So this guy, like literally was dancing into his nineties in 2018, , at 93 years old.
They do a a reboot of Mary Poppins. It's called Mary Poppins Returns. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. And he put, he doesn't play Bert. No, no, he doesn't play Jimmy Chimney. Sweet. He plays a guy named Mr. Dawes. And I just rewatched it. He does a dance scene. He starts tap dancing. Yeah.
Saying on a roof. No, on a, he gets up on, on table. Sorry. A table. Yes. He gets up on a fucking, on a desk and starts freaking ripping at thing. Sorry.
It's, but it's reminiscent of when he was on the roof.
Uh, absolutely. So it's like
his, his, but my point is flashback,
93 years old, they don't have him in some crap side part.
They got the guy doing an entire number. That's true. Ridiculous. I mean, and 93 is
crazy.
Yes, dude, if you guys don't wanna watch any of this shit, just go on YouTube and watch that three minute scene. It is, it was so good.
Right? So good. So
here, here's the thing, 'cause people, people ask, it's a big question.
Yeah. Yeah. He always gets asked like, what's the secret to life? Right? Right. Oh my God, you're 99 years old. He is the secret. He is the secret. Why is
he the secret? Because
of his joy, right?
Wait, here's the quote. You ready for the quote? Yes. Okay. Staying youthful isn't about avoiding age. It's about avoiding cynicism. Oh, I'm gonna die.
I'm
fucked. Yep. Okay, keep moving. Sorry. You're not making to a
hundred moving.
Right.
Keep moving, keep laughing, keep learning. And it's not just physical, it's emotional too. Okay. Dude. The man radiates gratitude. He's been through loss. Yeah. Reinventions. Personal challenges. Yep. Alcoholism. Yep. Right. But never once let bitterness set in. People could learn a whole lot about how to get busy living from this guy.
But anyway, very Dick Vandyke.
Very inspiring.
He is
very, very inspiring. Yes. Not in a cheesy
way. Yeah. In a good way. Way. And this is why we're doing a podcast
on him. And that's why he is, I mean,
because he is like a hundred
hundredth birthday. Yes. Is a whole extravaganza. So is he's
wearing a rager. Is anything big happening?
Is this town doing anything? Is anyone doing anything? I mean, it's kind of a big deal. Hundred's, a big deal.
Well, we're doing something. I mean, we just did I podcasts. We just did a whole damn po. So what? That's awesome. It's awesome. Do you think anybody's doing a podcast for me when I'm a hundred years old?
Wanna, I mean, probably not. I wanna be in the damn box.
Okay, well here we are. Here we are. So,
alright. , Number one, there's a movie coming out, a documentary new one. Okay. Okay. It's called Dick Van Dyke. A hundredth celebration, very sophisticated title, right?
What's that all about? Why could they think of something better than that? Okay. Anyway, it's hitting theaters on his actual birthday, December 13th. Okay, let's go. We gotta figure this out. Watch it somewhere. Uh, plus PBS is airing a special from the series, American Masters titled. Starring Dick Van Dyke.
That's the title. Oh, starring Dick Van Dyke. That premieres on December 12th. And I quote features some never before. Seen footage. Major interviews with stars like Julie Andrews. Probably admitting finally that she banged him, uh, and Steve Martin, uh, and traces his eight decade, eight decade career from radio DJ to TV legend.
Movie icon. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Big deal. Yeah. So I mean, there's gonna be, Hollywood's doing shit.
Yeah. I love it. I love the, Hollywood's doing shit for it, but like, I think originally I had asked you if there's any hometown stuff happening.
Oh, there's hometown.
Totally. Dude, Danville's going crazy west. I I mean, you have to be's like you're claim to fame. West Plains ain't doing anything 'cause he remember he crawled outta West Plains. Three months it three called. Bye bye. That's why he started. Bye bye birdie. Because he said, bye bye. Okay. So yeah, no, um, Danville's totally doing something.
So they're hosting a two day festival at some place called the Fisher Theater. On December 6th and seventh.
Okay.
Uh, called Fisher Fest celebrating the life and legacy of Dick VanEck. Why are, why are they calling it Fisher Fest?
Why don't they call it Dick Fest? Because that's the Fisher Center,
so,
Oh, man.
Yeah. Wow. I think they should
call it Dick. I literally thought that was like a legitimate question, Dick fest. And you just, I like that.
Let's, I think they should rebrand it to Dick Fest.
Uh, okay. So on December 6th, huge party, right? Like huge dinner, hor d'oeuvres, live art, early premiere of the documentary that's coming out a week later. So big thing in that town. Um, and then on that Sunday, uh, the seventh, they're doing, uh, they're gonna screen like. All his old films all over the town.
Very cool. It's a full day event for everybody to watch together, so kind of cool. Like I wonder if he's gonna go be there. You remember Grant Park gets grooving? We did. Uh, the jazz festival. Yeah, I think they're doing like they're opening all of Danville to it. Very cool. Which would be kind of like, yeah, I like, we're not going obviously.
I know, but like it's cool.
Yeah.
Like, yeah. Yeah. I wonder if
he'll go, I wonder if he'll like make a cameo appearance. I wonder if he would. That'd be kind of cool. Yeah, that'd be, that would be cool. Go back to your roots. I dunno. Let's go anyways. Okay. Love it all. Bo my fun facts. I 📍 know you sprinkled a little bit in there, but then you have one that you have yet to go back to, so I need to get to that one.
I have no fun facts.
It's not, I didn't prepare
bullshit at all.
Mm
sure you didn't. I'm so I know, right? No.
Are you ready? Yeah. Here we go. Number one. He loved his barbershop music, like really loved it. He did it his whole life, like a barbershop quartet. Oh, okay. His whole life, he started singing in a barbershop quartet in 1939. Oh, I think
of the Dans from Disneyland.
Dude's four, right? Huh? Yeah. 14 years old. He started even in his nineties.
He's performing with his group. . The van sticks.
That's cool. Yes, I love it. They sing in
malls, charity events, basically anywhere they can get a gig, dude. Oh, so good. Can you imagine like going into like Fashion Island and running into Dick Van Dyke? Still play? Could be. I love it. What?
What a bad
no.
Always be here for you. This is my point of how he stays young. For sure because he's just like living the life. Well 'cause he is doing
what he loves. Right? And that's kind of like, isn't that,
I think it's excellent. All right. Number two. This one's wild. You're gonna love this one. He once fell asleep while driving on the 1 0 1, like the freeway one Fell asleep.
Yeah. Fell. Yeah. And his car literally caught fire. How does that even happen? He had crashed and caught fire. , 'Cause he is old. I don't because he's drunk because he's,
oh my
God. Oh, I shouldn't say that. Okay. I don't know. I don't know. But he did. Okay. And then he was rescued by a random jogger who totally like got him outta the car before he burned.
Yes. Well, thank goodness for the joggers. Yeah. I don't even, who wouldn't celebrating? I
don't even know the joggers, his
birthday and having this podcast.
Absolutely. Thank you jogger. Kudos, man. Guy, we don't even know. Okay. Uh, number three. . So even though he danced his whole life, did you know he was never trained as a classical dancer?
I mean, okay. One blows my mind that that's true. But tracks because you didn't ever bring up that he actually went to school, or did you know any of that? I know,
yeah. I would've to. So then how did you
learn how to dance
in his living room? What I know. Yeah. So he watched old reruns of, uh, Fred Astaire movies.
Huh. And just sat there and memorized the dance. Yes. Okay. And just practiced. And practiced and prac. He was abate. All right. Resilience. Well, yeah, resilience, baby. Okay. Did it? Okay. Natural. Natural talent. Sheer evidently grit. Evidently. I love it, huh? Yeah. Okay. Anyway, , number four. Remember, , I said I had the fun fact about getting remarri.
Yeah,
yeah. This is one I wanna know about.
Okay.
Okay. I've been waiting,
uh, here we go. 2012. 2012, he got remarried. He was 86 years old. Oh my
gosh.
Hot af still,
right? I guess
he gets remarried to a woman named Arlene Silver Uhhuh, who get this. Amanda was 40 years old when he married her. 40. I
got questions.
Uhhuh. He's 86. She's 40. 46 year age gap. Yeah,
but that means that she's younger than her. His kids.
All his kids. I looked that shit up.
Oh no. His
kids were 62. Oh, I 2, 61, 57 and 52 at the time. She was 40 years old. That's so
interesting. It's like Belichick. I don't know how I feel about this.
Yeah. Did you do now?
Do you see why there's still hope for me? Oh gosh, no. Do you know what that means? Because I'll totally make that. Can we do quick math?
Oh, you're,
I can marry a 6-year-old. Is she born? No, she's six. Ew. That's my
daughter's age.
Oh my God. Let's go Emmy. Oh, All right.
Ready? Okay. Number five. This one's pretty weird too. I don't
know if they can get weirder than that.
Okay. Shut up. Okay. 📍 So When he was a young, up and comer performing at all these nightclubs, he actually passed out on stage one night because he, are you sure
he is not narcoleptic air quality air? Like how, how does that happen?
Air quality? Yeah. No, no air quality. I guess these nightclubs would get pretty filled up with cigarette smoke.
I mean that makes sense. It was the forties. It's not like osha, like they didn't even have osha. It's not like they were out there patrolling nightclubs. Huh. Okay. So I guess he fainted and they had to call the paramedics and everything, but he was fine.
Just like a good old fashioned lack of oxygen because of all the people in there. Alright. You know, smoking on the cancer sticks. Okay. Here we are. Whatcha gonna do? Yeah, here we're anyway. Glad he made it back. Yep. They resuscitated him. Oh man. Uh, and finally, I saved the best one for last. Dick Van Dyke had a thing for practical jokes.
Well come on.
Duh. Is that a fun fact? It is a fun. Well, but fun, like uplifting, practical jokes. Not like the practical jokes you see on TV where everyone's like an ass to each other nowadays. 'cause I don't even watch that shit. I think it's terrible. Okay, so check this.
During the filming of diagnosis murder, he would sit in wheelchairs and roll himself into scenes in the background. Nah, that's funny. Unannounced. Just to see if anybody would catch him. That's so funny. Funny. Like he'd, he'd roll through the back of the screen. I think that's kind of funny. Um. Then in 2018 for Mary Poppins returns, remember he played Mr.
Daws? He didn't play Burt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he shows up on set as Burt. Like a 93-year-old man with like the whole like chimney sweep. Okay. Like so colored suit. Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. And started dancing to, for everybody there, and they were like, oh my God. Totally. Like reminiscent of his birthday.
So like, like cool pranking stuff. Like, love it like 90 years old pranking people. I love it. Like, go dick could. That's what you're gonna be if you make it to 90. I hope so. Shit. I don't even know. I'm making it a 60. Oh, come on.
Right. Well that's sad. Well, yeah, you gotta make, well, because I gotta marry your daughter first. Okay. Oh my God. That's all I got.
I was just gonna say you did such a good job and then we end on that one and they take
it all back.
My
bad.
Alright, well it does seem like Dick Van Dyke was like one of the most delightful humans on earth.
Hopefully he was. You know, genuinely, unless he was a good guy. Right. Unless
he was drunk or, or divorcing somebody or marrying my
6-year-old daughter. Right. Um, so there's those parts, but mostly fun. Mostly fun. Yeah. Mostly fun. So if there's anything that like people want to do to maybe further their knowledge or, you know, be more in the Dick Van Dyke, mood, I guess.
What do we do? Yeah. How do we scratch that itch.
Yeah. Or how do you learn more in order to like emulate more of you? His joyfulness. You know, it, it's all,
I, I got books, I got documentaries I got, right. It's all the same stuff. Well, you didn't already say watch the documentary. Yeah. Watch documentary.
Yeah. Let's, we'll do that. December 13th, uh, his memoir's out My lucky life. Oh, actually, so by the way, he wrote five books. Whoa. But the, like, they're all good, but I mean, I haven't read 'em all, but like I Sure a lot of good reviews. Uh, but I did read My Lucky Life in and out of show Business and that is like the one, like if you had to pick one of them, pick that one for sure.
Okay.
Um. If you need something lighter, just like go back and watch like Mary Poppins or Chi Shitty Bang Bang or any just reruns of episodes. Like, okay, anything, because he's just fun, right?
So not, not a lot of heavy lifting to learn more about him. I mean, just, uh, you know, or go to Dan Dan's aura or go over to Danville. Let's just hang out. Just be around his aura. . And then remember these details to seem sort of sophisticated.
Dick Van Dyke, the lanky kid from Danville, Illinois, went from church plays and local radio to becoming America's favorite sitcom. Dad on the Dick Van Dyke Show number two, he reinvented the idea of fun. Dad on tv, physical comedy, warmth and charm. Totally different from the stiff sitcom fathers before him.
Number three. In the 1960s, he became a full blown movie star with Mary Poppins in Chi Chi. Bang, bang, chi, bang, bang. We love you. Bringing pure optimism to a chaotic world at the time. Number four, he stayed relevant for decades, reinventing himself again in the 1990s with diagnosis, murder, acting alongside his real life son.
Finally, he somehow never aged dancing, singing, and performing into his nineties. Even appearing in Mary Poppins returns at age 93 and the best part, Dick Van Dyke didn't just entertain America. He made America smile for the last hundred years. What a legacy.
Thought he was, man. Alright, well, there you have it. Fellow listeners, A joyful century spanning glide through the charming, chaotic, and magical world of Dick Van Dyke. From a lanky kid in Danville to America's favorite sitcom dad. He didn't just entertain us. He helped shaped what American comedy family TV and movie musicals even are if we've done our job today.
Hopefully you're walking away a bit more sophisticated with a Sharper Van Dyke iq, and maybe a better sense of why the man still matters a hundred years later. Whether you adore his goofy physical comedy, admire his optimism, or just marvel at the fact that he's still dancing at nine. Nine. Dick reminds us that joy is a skill and one you never have to age out of. His legacy isn't just entertainment, it's the way he made people feel lighter in a world that can get pretty heavy.
📍 So if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe. Leave us a review and pass it along to someone who thinks Dick Fan Dyke is just that old guy from a movie their parents made them watch, we'd like to think we've shared just enough information to make you either a little more in enlight or at least slightly more sophisticated around your fellow humans.
Well, sorta So. Until next time, stay curious and stay charming.
And
get drunk.
No sober. Sober life.
