July 4, 2024 • 39 mins
Morgan White Jr. filled in on NightSide:
Who could forget those classic moments when Rob Petrie of The Dick Van Dyke Show would comically trip over the living room ottoman!? Author David Van Deusen, editor and publisher of The Walnut Times, joined Morgan to chat about the history of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
Who could forget those classic moments when Rob Petrie of The Dick Van Dyke Show would comically trip over the living room ottoman!? Author David Van Deusen, editor and publisher of The Walnut Times, joined Morgan to chat about the history of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's Unknown Boston's news radio four FlyEverybody, and this is America's Birthday.
And from ten to midnight, AnthonySan Marco will be my guest. Who
we're going to talk about Fourth ofJuly, historical trivia, historical facts that's
(00:26):
coming up. From ten to midnight. Next hour, John Oliver will be
here. He is from the BlindCitizens Association and there was a convention earlier
this week all of the newer innovationsto assist those help those who have site
(00:47):
issues. He is going to sharethat information that he was able to get
from that convention. But this hour, Dada, that's the best I can
do. That's an approximation of theclassic TV theme to the Dick Van Dyke
(01:07):
Show. And if you've heard mehere in Busy over the decades, you
know that I have a rotating guest, David Van Dusen. And as I'm
about to introduce David, he hasbrought a podcast for Everybody has a perfect
title, tripping over the Ottoman.We saw Rob Petrie do that in the
(01:34):
opening of that show over and overand over again. So David, welcome
back to the WBZ audience. Thankyou very much, margin great to be
with you on this fourth of July. Yes, so both you and I
didn't have plans to go up andwatch fireworks tonight. It would seem I'm
(01:55):
sorry say it again. I saidboth you and I did not have plans
to go view fireworks somewhere. Well, I committed to talk to more hit
White. So those are my plans, buddy, okay. And I want
to let people know that Dan hasbeen off all week. This eight to
(02:15):
eight to twelve four hours belongs toDan Ray night Side. I am here
tonight, I'll be here tomorrow.Dan should be back on Monday. But
the phone numbers if you want tocall any guests on night Side six one,
seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, eight, eight,
eight, nine to nine, tenthirty. Rob Brooks usually produces the
(02:42):
program, but Mike Templeton is heretonight. Rob will be in tomorrow night.
And I think you're all caught upwith all the details. So tell
me about Tripping over the Ottoman.Well, Tripping Over the Ottoman is a
brand new podcast that was started justwithin the past few weeks. It all
(03:04):
started because a young lady who's thenext generation, if you will, I'm
in my sixties, so we'll justsay, she's twenty years or so younger
than me, approached me as asuper fan of the show and said,
I'm thinking that maybe we should doa podcast together. Would you consider it?
(03:27):
And she and I had some discussions, and after we talked quite a
bit about it, we thought,well, let's give it a shot.
So my podcast co host is AbbyWriter and she's also on the line with
this tonight, Morgan to chime inas we have this discussion and you good
evening to you, thanks for havingme. So you noted our title,
(03:52):
which we went back and forth onany number of different titles, but yes,
we thought tripping over the Ottoman wasvery apropos or what we're gonna you
know, what we talk about.And at this point in time, we
have two podcast episodes that are outthere on our YouTube channel, which is
(04:13):
called itself Tripping over the Ottoman.Our first episode was about three weeks ago
and our second one dropped this morning. And so far the reaction from fans
has been very positive and people seemto be quite interested in the whole concept
(04:34):
of us talking about our favorite DickVan Dyke show episodes. Now, I've
got a suggestion right off the bat, Yes, sir, the title could
be could be tripping over the ottomanor not tripping over the ottament because you
know, five years and I thinkfor a couple of seasons he tripped over
(04:58):
the ottoman every single episode. O. But they made fun of themselves when
they had Rob purposely sidestep the ottoman. And and I mean wanted to talk
about the research that you recently didand that that data about tripping over the
ottoman. Yeah, somebody has takenall of the you know, times that
(05:20):
he tripped, the times that hedidn't trip, the times that he you
know, almost trips, but thenside steps, and they've done all of
this, you know, graphs thatshow all these details. And it's just
fascinating how many people are interested inthat kind of trivia like we are.
So it's been it's been fun trivia. I've made my living doing this and
(05:46):
it trivia is attached to me likebeing staple to my forehead. One of
the things if you do trivia fora living, you gotta know, Lucy,
you gotta know stuff. You gotto know the Civil War, you
got to know the geography of theUnited States. But you've got to know
(06:08):
the Dick van Dyke show and whatRosebuds stood for and Buddies, German Shepherd
Larry blah blah blah blah blah.Yeah, we're hoping that this podcast brings
in a lot of people. Wefound out that a lot of Dick vandextual
fans are very into trivia and arevery you know, have a great attention
(06:28):
to detail, and so we're hopingthat our podcast, where we sort of
go into you know, very greatdetail, will be you know, exciting
for everybody who's into that. Well. I know David because I've interviewed David
off and on over the past thirtyyears, right, and in our conversations
it's come up that he has metmost of the cast, if not all,
(06:50):
of the regulars of the cast.I don't know if you ever met
Jamie Firehood a couple of coffee asthe uh deliverer of the Snappy Yes,
Snappy delivery Man. I haven't haven'tmet him in person, but but have
had a very nice zoom call ofhim during the pandemic. Yeah. So
(07:14):
just through the list of people thathe's met, and you formed friendships,
haven't you, David with these people? I mean, oh, very good.
Yeah, it's been quite quite aride for a fan of the show.
Abby, Have you met any ofthe cast members? I have,
although probably in a different context thanDavid. I haven't eaten lunch with anyone,
you know, But I I've metDick Van Dyke out in Los Angeles.
(07:36):
He was, you know, havinga performance, and I met him
afterwards and talked to him for alittle while. And I met Rose Marie
at a book signing. We talkedfor a few minutes, and yeah,
so, and I've also gone tothere was a two stieth anniversary of celebration
where there was a lot of sortof you know, a few of the
guest stars were there, so Ihad, you know, some interactions with
them. But it's been very cool. If you would have told ten year
(07:56):
old Abby she was going to bemeeting all of these people in the year
twenty twenty four, she would nothave believed it. Well, believe it,
it's true. Let me take mybreak, and there are two open
lines anyone who wants to call inand talk about tripping over the Ottum and
the Dick Van Dyke Show with myguests David Danus and Abby. What is
your last name? My last nameis writer R. E. I t
(08:20):
E R he R, because Ilike to refer to people by their full
names. Now that I've done that, let me take my break. This
is Nightside. I'm Morgan White Junior, filling in for Dan Ray, who
will be back on Monday time andtemper here in Nightside eight fifteen seventy five
(08:43):
degrees. Now back to Dan Raylive from the Window World night Side Studios
on WBZ News Radio. I'm Morgan. Normally you've heard me on Saturdays here
on WBZ. I fill in withsome regularity if Dan is going to take
a day or two off, whichis the case, and I do the
(09:07):
best I can to try and befair to the Dan Ray audience, book
guests that would have a reference pointfor the Dan Ray audience yet and still
kind of be true to myself withthe types of people I like to interview.
And I think I've done that withtonight's show. I told you Anthony
(09:31):
San Marco is going to be herefrom ten to midnight talking history of the
United States around the fourth of July, and next hour, I've got John
olivera on. I know a lotof our listeners out there have issues with
their sight, so that there wasa convention in Miami earlier this week that
(09:52):
John Oliver attended, and he'll tellus about that convention. And right now
we're talking about one of the mostpopular city calms ever in the United States.
In the sixties, the Dick VanDyke Show ran for five seasons,
had a rocky start its first season. They weren't sure if it was gonna
(10:13):
make it, but cooler heads prevailedat CBS's executives and they decided, let's
see what happened after the second season, and the show took old and had
a strong five year run. I'vegot my buddy David van Dusen and his
(10:35):
buddy Abby Richter. I must sayEddie Richter. Abby Richter is here,
and we've got a couple of phonecalls. So let's go to Neil in
Watertown to see why Neil wants totalk about tripping over the Ottoman. Hello
Neil, Hello, Hello Morgan.By coincidence, on June sixth and the
(10:58):
Boston Globe, a columnist named JoanWickersham had a column entitled Dick Van Dyke's
Footstool, And then you mentioned it, I think a couple of days later.
So I've been thinking about it thismonth, and she says, I'll
just do brief excerpts. He's finallyon to himself. She says, I
(11:20):
think about it when I am temptedto give unsolicited advice to my adult children,
don't do it. Walk around thefootstool. And conversely, Conversely,
she says, for years, Isaid nothing about a family member's offensive jokes
and remarks. Each time my cravenpoliteness left me feeling queasy. Finally,
(11:43):
I said, that's a horrible thingto say. In this case, For
way too long, my timidity hadbeen the footstool that I kept tripping over.
And she sums up. She says, it's a small but real source
of satisfaction when the pattern begins tofeel familiar enough that I can spot a
footstool I passed and jump aside insteadof tripping over it, always with a
nod to Dick Van Dyke, thatbrilliant pratt Faller and even more brilliant pratfall
(12:09):
Abder. I like it. Ilike it wonderful. And that's I didn't
know you were going to talk aboutthis tonight. So it's a double coincidence.
Well glad the coincidence worked in thefavor of having you call in and
retell what you read about. Right, well, thank you for letting me
relay that, because it's it's ameaningful show to me, it has been
(12:33):
for a long time. Neil,thank you for your call. Oh,
thank you, good night. Happy. I think he was going to finish
saying happy fourth of July six one, two, eight, eight, eight,
nine, nine, ten thirty.And I've got time to take another
call. And after this call,Abby or David remind me that I wanted
(12:58):
to talk about Dick Van Dyke asan actor and other milestones in his career,
birth Mary on the Mary Poppins Show, et cetera. But let's go
to Ohio and talk to Tony.Tony, good evening, Good evening,
Morgan, and good evening to yourguest and Nancy and Gray. Happy fourth
(13:22):
of July to you. I'm sittinghere in my red capris and my red
white and blue T shirt with wheelsand boats and things all over it.
I'm just as red, white andblue as Fourth of July occasion, and
hats off to our veterans. Yes, anyway, the funny thing is my
(13:48):
niece is thirteen and I'm seventy two. And she started talking about and I
didn't know if she was talking aboutthe Dick Van Dyke Show at first,
but she got all hopped up overthem. That one where Laura gets her
foot stuck in the bath faucet,uh, the bathroom, and she and
I talked and she said, oh, that is so funny, that is
(14:11):
so funny. I said, youknow what, I said, that's sixty
over sixty some years old. Isaid, that's before you or your mother,
or your dad or anybody was eventhought of. I said, I
was just a little kid when thatcame out, and she was surprised.
But my favorite episode, may Italk about that? Since I'm not I
don't go into blogging and all thatkind of stuff. Me, I talk
(14:33):
about my favorite episode. Take usin any direction you want. Yeah,
my favorite episode is where Laura bleachedher hair blonde. Yes, that's a
grand and she said, ROB said, I'd look like Harpo Mark. Then
she looks up to a very goodLaura in distress voice. So I do
(15:05):
think we should we should acknowledge thatyou said you're wearing caprice because those were
Laura Petrie's preferred clothing item, hercaprice fants famous. Now they've they've changed
what Caprice are now. Caprice backthen were the they just came to the
ankles, but Caprice now just comebelow your knees. Uh huh. It's
(15:26):
they're a little different this time.But Laura was she I think no,
I think we saw Lucy Riccardo andslacks we regularity never saw, but we
saw Lucy. But anyway, that'sthe subject to Laura's claimed to him.
I think was that as a charactershe made she wore them very tight,
(15:48):
which I think was usually what thediscussion was about, that they were much
higher than maybe something like Lucille Ballwas wearing. But Mary Tyler Moore and
Dick Van Dyke were just magic togetherno matter what they did their specials the
show, and one would have thoughtthat they were really married. People did
(16:08):
think they were really married, isn'tIsn't there a story, David where somebody
ran into you know, Nick Bendegeta store and they said something like,
you know, they saw him onhis new show, and you Dick Conductuary
had a new wife, and theycame up to him in the store and
they said, how could you leavethat? Laura? And they really really
were convinced that they were married.And I think maybe the woman hit him
with the purse or something. Sowell, it's it's amazing that people think
(16:33):
this is real. And you hearthe same thing from the soap stars.
They they think that like that playsa bad scene on it, and they
think they're awesome, like like likein Lost in Space, doctor Smith's or
Jonathan Harris said some kid came upand hit him and he says, I
hate you, Doctor Smith. Imean, people can really take think it's
(16:56):
real. No testment to the writingand acting. You know that they're doing
that good of a job. IsHope Lang, the actress from the Ghost
of Missus. Muir, played DickVan Dyke's wife in the New Dick Van
Dyke Show. And that show wasn'tvery good. That show wasn't very good.
(17:18):
It was on I think three maybefour seasons. But my key is
you did not get the couple feelingof Hope with Dick as you did,
absolutely not Mary Tyler Moore and Dickyou did not get. Well, thank
you very much, and I willtalk to you Saturday if there's anything on
(17:41):
there that you're that I'm interested in. Saturday. One of the things I'll
be talking about pinball Channel four andBusy Radio did a little spotlight on a
woman who was the second highest ratedpinball player in the United States. Wow,
(18:03):
her name is Zoe v Abel.I've had her on once before.
She'll be hut with me on Saturdayin case you can. Okay, I
thank you for your time. Allright, I thank you for your call.
Happy fourth of July. Good evening, good evening. The phone numbers
again. We're going to take abreak commercial, maybe two a hit of
(18:26):
news as well. I am goingto give you two a setup question about
the actor Dick Van Dyke, whohad some standout roles. Every time I
watched the movie called Turkey, Iam on the floor scene after scene after
scene. Is so funny when Iwatched that Columbo episode where he played the
(18:48):
photographer, any other what I wouldcall fingerprint roles that only Dick Van Dyke
can do. The three of usare going to talk about, but first
a little break here in BZ timeand temperature eight thirty seventy five degrees.
You're on night Side with Dan Rayon WBZ, Boston's news radio. It
(19:12):
was sixty years ago that we wereall going to the movie theaters in our
neighborhoods to see this new Walt Disneyfilm called Mary Poppins, because that came
out in nineteen sixty four. AndI did the best I could to sound
(19:33):
like I was from England with alittle Cockney twang in my voice as Bert.
And I know a lot of youout there did the same thing.
Oh it's a jolly holiday, noh Aliday with Mary. And when Mary
holds your hand, you feel sogrand your art no H starts beating like
(19:57):
a big blast band. I meanthat brings back memories to me sixty years
ago. I was ten years oldand the magic of Dick Van Dyke's character
as Bert the Chimney sweep put agreat smile on my face. We had
(20:18):
We are talking about Dick Van Dyke. If you've just tuned in, Tripping
Over the Ottoman is a new podcastby my buddy David van Dusen and his
buddy Abby Writer. Did I pronouncethat correct correctly? Okay, So let's
talk about the entire work of DickVan Dyke away from the TV series,
(20:44):
because the TV series was so iconicand it gets all the attention and so
much of its other work becomes shortshrift and that's not right, Well,
that's true. You know you mentionedMary Poppins though, Morgan, and probably
that's how new generations are probably learningabout Dick, because Mary Poppins some sixty
(21:07):
years later still holds up. Whenyou think of the special effects that they
did back then with no computer graphicsor any CGI or anything else. It's
really astounding and pretty amazing what theywere able to accomplish back then. Mixing
lives, oh my gosh, right, yeah, and the dance with the
(21:30):
penguins, yeah, you know,it's pretty it's just just incredible. And
so yes, I think that's probablyhow younger generations get get to know Dick.
And of course then they see Dickvan Dyke as he is today and
(21:51):
there's probably a little challenge in theirheads trying to put do it do together?
How did this guy get to looklike this guy all of a sudden
For him to meet somebody that's,you know, five or six years old
enjoying Mary Poppins and today, Ican't imagine what that must be like for
him. And I mentioned the movieCold Turkey. I know that was a
(22:11):
Norman Leah project, right, itwas so well written, and they all
go ahead I was gonna say,they all went to It was shot in
Iowa, right out in the middleof the country, and uh, they
the entire production was there as faras I know. And you know,
(22:32):
the premise of course, right isthey're trying to get everybody to stop smoking,
and they get a big prize money. And as soon as soon as
they say you can't smoke, whatdoes everybody want to do? Right?
So a small town of Eagle Rock. Yes, what David, you know
me, you know what I do. But you know what's stole that movie,
(22:56):
Bob Newhart's character, Uh huh,And they think of Dick Van Deck.
I cannot help but incorporate the Colomboepisode he did, right, and
people, many many fans didn't likeit because he was playing the bad guy.
(23:18):
Yes, he was a killer,he killed his wife. He's just
such a likable guy. It's hardto hard a picture him like that.
People were really upset by that,you know, And Dick kills The story
of shooting that with Peter Peter fuckand what a character Peter was. And
you know, Peter had lost aneye and had a glass eye and during
(23:40):
during one scene, uh, Petertook his eye out and I don't know
if he's stopped a napkin or somethingin his in his eye socket and you
couldn't see Peter. But but Dickopened the door and there was Peter looking
at him. No, only youknow, Peter tried to really get Dick
in the bits of shooting the seed. And you know, there's a little
(24:07):
mentioned film that he did where heplayed a Charlie Chaplin like comic of the
early days of Hollywood. Yeah,the comic, the comic Billy Bright was
his name, Charlie Chaplin with thethe letters working that way, And that
(24:27):
was such a strong film because youknow, go ahead, Abby. He
would talk all the time in youknow, older interviews that when he was,
you know, growing up, hewanted to be a silent film star,
like he thought he was born inthe wrong decade and that he had
been born earlier, like that's whathe would have done. And it's funny
(24:48):
because I think actors my age watchedhim watch Dick Pendeck and say, oh,
I would like to do those kindof TV shows or things like,
you know, things like that.So I feel like, you know,
it's it's cool for him to hegot to experience that, you know,
exact kind of scenario he was.He was kind of felt like he was
not getting to be a part ofSo it's very cool. Did either of
you ever speak to him about doingon the Dick Van Dyke Show. There
(25:17):
were many shows that they did,shows within the show, the Alan Brady
Show, variety shows, and itwas the tip of the hat to lauln
Hardy, Zora Sageant Garcia character thatactors Nry Calvin did a Laurel and Hardy
(25:41):
skit. Did either of you everspeak to Dick about that and what his
opinions were about that? Well?Yeah, and you know Dick had met
Stan Laurel, and Laurel watched theepisode and commented in a letter that's out
there in archives that he thought Dickdid the best impression of Laurel. Right,
(26:03):
Stan Laurel. But after the episodeaired, he called Dick to talk
to him about it, and hesaid, you know, you know,
he gave him hints. Oh,you know the way that I stood certain
things was because I cut the heelsoff the bottom of my shoes. And
Dick said, in his mind,why didn't you tell me that before we
did the episode? Right? Youknow, there was there was all these
(26:26):
observations that Stan made that Dick wouldhave loved to have had in advance of
doing the performance, as opposed toafter the performance, because he was trying
to emulate it as closely as hecould. That's how much he, you
know, adored stand as as hisidol. I believe that they he told
the story that he one day justdecided to look him up in the phone
(26:47):
book and called the number, andhe just happened to answer the phone,
and he said he was listed thecelebrity of that status, and he was
listed, and so he and they'reon out. They were friends. I
believe he even maybe did the eulogyat his funeral, if I'm not mistaken,
he did. Ye. Now onceagain, I used to be a
(27:11):
mail clerk for Holton Mifflin a thousandyears ago, and I became friendly with
one of the editors, and shesaid, if you ever want to write
a book or anything, only usefour words in your title. You can
use one, two, or three, but no more than four, and
(27:34):
tripping over the Ottoman perfect. Fourwords tell people who are just tuning in
what they can expect if they goto that website one to go ahead.
Yeah, so what you can expectis two you know, super fans experts
(27:55):
of the show from different generations comingtogether and just chatting. You know,
it's basically two friends that love theDick Vandyke Show chatting about everything from you
know, the writing, to thedirecting, to the actors to you know,
the minute show trivia that's in theshow and the music, just every
aspect of the show in very minutedetail and just in a fun, casual
(28:18):
kind of kind of way. Andwhat I was going to say and what
we tried to do Morgan, isbecause I have such archives about the Dick
Vandyke Show. Many times we havean early draft of a script and then
we'll discuss what was originally in thescript and how it changed and evolved by
the time and actually made it toair. Right Will, We'll highlight some
(28:40):
of the guest stars or character actorsthat were in there and other Dick van
Dyke episodes that they appeared in andother sitcoms of the day, and be
getting David's first hand experience. Youknow, he's going to have so many
stories, you know, to toto tell us about his time, you
know, meeting them and getting toknow all the stars and finding out things
(29:00):
about the show. So it's justa really really fun thing to see from
behind the scenes type of stuff.And I have archives of interviews that I've
done, and we usually sprinkle insome remembrances of cast members or guest stars.
However, coming up in our fourthepisode, we're going to be joined
(29:21):
by the only other remaining living castmember from the show, and that's Larry
Matthews, who was Richie. AndLarry's going to join us to discuss a
bird in the Head Hurts episode whereyou know, Larry was the unfortunate kid
who would go outside and would bepicked on the head by a woodpecker.
(29:42):
So we're very looking forward, verymuch looking forward to having Larry join us
to share his recollections of what itwas like back then to shoot that episode
and his memories about how that alltranspired. And it's just going to be
a lot of fun. I wasabout to say, Robert Oscar, Samuel
Edward, if it's a boy atUena, fitzgirl, Benjamin Ulysses, David,
(30:04):
there you go again. He isthe man from Juria. Tell you
what, let me take my lastbreak of this hour. Give the phone
numbers if we want to uh Wedo want to get more of you to
call in and chat with these two, David and Abbey about tripping over the
Ottumn six one, seven, two, five, fourteen, thirty eight,
(30:25):
eight, eight nine to nineteen thirty. This is Nightside. Dan Ray is
off, He'll be back on Monday. I'm here tonight and I'll also be
here tomorrow time and temperature here onnight Side seventy five degrees eight forty five.
Now back to Dan Ray line fromthe Window World night Side Studios on
(30:47):
w b Z News Radio. Again. This is Nightside. I am Morgan,
Morgan White Junior, been a partof BESY Broadcasting since nineteen ninety five
or six somewhere in there. Andwe are talking about Dick Van Dyke,
his fingerprint on the American pop culturescene. It's undeniable what he has meant
(31:12):
to people over these decades, andhe's still with us. Yeah, So
let me just throw something there.There's a couple of things that happened recently
which I think are noteworthy, andthat is Dick Van Dyke recently won an
Emmy Award for Guest Performer and adaytime drama series on Days of Our Lives.
(31:34):
He had done a guest role,and at age ninety eight, he's
now the oldest actor to receive adaytime Emmy win. He was the oldest
nominee, but he actually won,so that that was quite an accolade for
Dick to get his sixth Emmy awardin his career and character, no,
(31:56):
it was a character. He wason three or four episodes over the course
of a few days, all right. And and more more recently, Dick
and his wife started a foundation inthe Malibu school system where he lives.
And so the endowment is really tohelp promote the arts, which Dick is
(32:19):
a big, big proponent of.And in an acknowledgment of that, the
school has dedicated their theater to theVan Dykes and it's now called the Van
Dyke Auditorium there at the school.So yeah, so even at ninety eight
and a half, he's still outthere and pretty pretty vital in the community
(32:40):
and in our industry. So letme let me see if I get one
more call him before I have towave goodbody too. Let's care hi and
speak to Duke. I second callfrom Ohio this hour, Good evening due
I folks. Hey. One ofthe things that Alwa was fascinated me on
that series was watching the exchanges betweenthe Moury Amsterdam and Richard Deacon characters.
(33:05):
And I've often wondered if there wereany stories, or even better booper reels
of some of the times when thosetwo guys cracked each other up. There
are some bloop of reels that thatare out there and around. In real
life. Richard Deacon and Moury Amsterdamwere very good friends, but they they
(33:27):
portrayed those characters and and the hisadversaries, and the banter that went between
them, many times was Carl Reiner'swriting, but many times was things that
jokes that evolved over the course ofthe putting the script on its feet.
And and Maury was so quick wittedthat you know, he often came up
(33:50):
with much of the barbs that wentback and forth between he and Deacon.
So, Morgan, do you rememberit? Say that again? I said,
I remember there being a story whereMaury would sit in the hallway of
radio stations and you know, sellhis jokes for you know, a dollar
(34:13):
a joke kind of and he wouldsit out in the hallway and they come
out, we need a joke forthis next for this next act. And
then he would he would put itin so just very very quick guy yep,
And I thought, so, Idon't know if it was David or
if it was Duke one. Ifhe said Morgan, do you remember,
Yeah, that was me. AndI was gonna ask uh through four years
(34:36):
ago you had on the uh theactor that played Don west On lost in
Space Mark. He yeah, hepassed away by a year or so ago.
Right, Well, I cold andasked him the exact same question about
you know, any any time hisexchanges would with the Doctor Smith character.
(35:01):
Again, they were kind of adversariesand if they ever got if they ever
got into giggling fits and lost it. And I don't know if you remember,
but he said, oh, yeah, that that used to happen quite
a bit. And then he impliedthat maybe there was some colorful language that
came out of it. I canwell imagine. And I'll say this about
(35:21):
Maury Amsterdam. And this came upin a conversation I was involved in recently.
He Maury Amsterdam was a favorite ofal Capone, and al Capone just
thought Maury Amsterdam was the greatest thingsand Slice read so having that person be
(35:44):
like a Dutch uncle to you,and Capone was the same for Rosemary.
Really. Capone really took care ofrose Marie as a young child star and
coordinated the bookings that she performed aroundthe country, and the Mob facilitated those
appearances quite nicely for her. I'vegot a question, and Duke, if
(36:08):
you have another question, I'll letyou ask that. No, I'm good,
go ahead, Morgan, Okay,here's my question. You've got your
two bosses, Kyl Reiner and DannyThomas, who was the executive producer,
and you get to do scenes withthem. Was that extra pressure and Dick
(36:34):
Van Deck? I mean the Twiloepisode with Danny Thomas. He nailed that.
He Danny Thomas and the many sceneshe had to do with Cayl Reiner.
Was that extra pressure for Dick?You know, I don't think so.
I think that the collaborative nature thatwas established by Reiner on the set
(36:55):
was such that everybody felt comfortable tochime in. They really appreciated Danny's involvement.
They wanted a very strong character forthat Twilo character, right, and
when Danny said he would do it, it was great. Yeah. He
actually did not get the credit.There was no credit for him in that
episode. Interestingly, right now,early to mid sixties, everybody in America
(37:20):
knew Danny Thomas by sighting correct correct, yes, but but you know other
guest stars appeared and they seemed toget a credit Danny. I don't think
Danny wanted the credit. I think, like you say, Morgan, he
was known, right, he wasjust well known. So do you have
another question or is that it?Nope, that's it. Thanks very much.
I do thank you for your call, Bye bye, and I want
(37:44):
you to to once again promote TrippingOver the Autumn and tell people where they
can find it. Now do theyhave to sign up for it? Or
is it available just by going toa website If they go to go ahead,
Hey yeah, I just go toYouTube and type and Tripping Over the
Ottoman and you can watch our firsttwo episodes there. Don't believe we have
(38:06):
to have an account, although youcan't can have one with YouTube, but
it's free. So it's a freepodcast. Just looking to like connect with
our fans and you know, withfans of the show, our fellow fans,
and just connecting with others that wantto talk about the show. And
we encourage folks to listen to itand leave comments there, provide us their
perspectives, their input, and we'llincorporate some of that feedback as we do
(38:30):
future episodes. Now, David,we didn't mention the Walnut Times. The
news letter that you used to putout, used to put it right is
of the back copies. Back issues. Black issues are still available, still
available at the Walmut Times dot com. For twenty years, I published a
(38:52):
newsletter about the Dick Van Dyke Show, interviewed the cast members, guest stars.
We used to offer merchandise, photographs, all sorts of things. Actually
I met David Was. I foundhim online and I asked him, can
I buy every back issue of thisletter? It's worth it? Yeah,
(39:12):
pretty penny sure, despite that,she still has her sense of humor and
her thumbs Morgan okay, and lovedWalnuts. But on top of that,
yeah, wave goodbye to the twoof you. David, Thank you,
keep me, thank you. Iam hoping this venture becomes a success for
you. Zoe. We appreciate beingon tonight. Thanks thanks for calling us
(39:37):
in and sharing Fourth of July withyou. We appreciate it. David,
thank you very much. All Right, everybody, Next hour, John Oliver
will be here and later on AnthonySan Marco here on night's side. Time
and temperature eight fifty eight seventy fivedegrees
It's Unknown Boston's news radio four FlyEverybody, and this is America's Birthday.
And from ten to midnight, AnthonySan Marco will be my guest. Who
we're going to talk about Fourth ofJuly, historical trivia, historical facts that's
(00:26):
coming up. From ten to midnight. Next hour, John Oliver will be
here. He is from the BlindCitizens Association and there was a convention earlier
this week all of the newer innovationsto assist those help those who have site
(00:47):
issues. He is going to sharethat information that he was able to get
from that convention. But this hour, Dada, that's the best I can
do. That's an approximation of theclassic TV theme to the Dick Van Dyke
(01:07):
Show. And if you've heard mehere in Busy over the decades, you
know that I have a rotating guest, David Van Dusen. And as I'm
about to introduce David, he hasbrought a podcast for Everybody has a perfect
title, tripping over the Ottoman.We saw Rob Petrie do that in the
(01:34):
opening of that show over and overand over again. So David, welcome
back to the WBZ audience. Thankyou very much, margin great to be
with you on this fourth of July. Yes, so both you and I
didn't have plans to go up andwatch fireworks tonight. It would seem I'm
(01:55):
sorry say it again. I saidboth you and I did not have plans
to go view fireworks somewhere. Well, I committed to talk to more hit
White. So those are my plans, buddy, okay. And I want
to let people know that Dan hasbeen off all week. This eight to
(02:15):
eight to twelve four hours belongs toDan Ray night Side. I am here
tonight, I'll be here tomorrow.Dan should be back on Monday. But
the phone numbers if you want tocall any guests on night Side six one,
seven, two, five, four, ten thirty, eight, eight,
eight, nine to nine, tenthirty. Rob Brooks usually produces the
(02:42):
program, but Mike Templeton is heretonight. Rob will be in tomorrow night.
And I think you're all caught upwith all the details. So tell
me about Tripping over the Ottoman.Well, Tripping Over the Ottoman is a
brand new podcast that was started justwithin the past few weeks. It all
(03:04):
started because a young lady who's thenext generation, if you will, I'm
in my sixties, so we'll justsay, she's twenty years or so younger
than me, approached me as asuper fan of the show and said,
I'm thinking that maybe we should doa podcast together. Would you consider it?
(03:27):
And she and I had some discussions, and after we talked quite a
bit about it, we thought,well, let's give it a shot.
So my podcast co host is AbbyWriter and she's also on the line with
this tonight, Morgan to chime inas we have this discussion and you good
evening to you, thanks for havingme. So you noted our title,
(03:52):
which we went back and forth onany number of different titles, but yes,
we thought tripping over the Ottoman wasvery apropos or what we're gonna you
know, what we talk about.And at this point in time, we
have two podcast episodes that are outthere on our YouTube channel, which is
(04:13):
called itself Tripping over the Ottoman.Our first episode was about three weeks ago
and our second one dropped this morning. And so far the reaction from fans
has been very positive and people seemto be quite interested in the whole concept
(04:34):
of us talking about our favorite DickVan Dyke show episodes. Now, I've
got a suggestion right off the bat, Yes, sir, the title could
be could be tripping over the ottomanor not tripping over the ottament because you
know, five years and I thinkfor a couple of seasons he tripped over
(04:58):
the ottoman every single episode. O. But they made fun of themselves when
they had Rob purposely sidestep the ottoman. And and I mean wanted to talk
about the research that you recently didand that that data about tripping over the
ottoman. Yeah, somebody has takenall of the you know, times that
(05:20):
he tripped, the times that hedidn't trip, the times that he you
know, almost trips, but thenside steps, and they've done all of
this, you know, graphs thatshow all these details. And it's just
fascinating how many people are interested inthat kind of trivia like we are.
So it's been it's been fun trivia. I've made my living doing this and
(05:46):
it trivia is attached to me likebeing staple to my forehead. One of
the things if you do trivia fora living, you gotta know, Lucy,
you gotta know stuff. You gotto know the Civil War, you
got to know the geography of theUnited States. But you've got to know
(06:08):
the Dick van Dyke show and whatRosebuds stood for and Buddies, German Shepherd
Larry blah blah blah blah blah.Yeah, we're hoping that this podcast brings
in a lot of people. Wefound out that a lot of Dick vandextual
fans are very into trivia and arevery you know, have a great attention
(06:28):
to detail, and so we're hopingthat our podcast, where we sort of
go into you know, very greatdetail, will be you know, exciting
for everybody who's into that. Well. I know David because I've interviewed David
off and on over the past thirtyyears, right, and in our conversations
it's come up that he has metmost of the cast, if not all,
(06:50):
of the regulars of the cast.I don't know if you ever met
Jamie Firehood a couple of coffee asthe uh deliverer of the Snappy Yes,
Snappy delivery Man. I haven't haven'tmet him in person, but but have
had a very nice zoom call ofhim during the pandemic. Yeah. So
(07:14):
just through the list of people thathe's met, and you formed friendships,
haven't you, David with these people? I mean, oh, very good.
Yeah, it's been quite quite aride for a fan of the show.
Abby, Have you met any ofthe cast members? I have,
although probably in a different context thanDavid. I haven't eaten lunch with anyone,
you know, But I I've metDick Van Dyke out in Los Angeles.
(07:36):
He was, you know, havinga performance, and I met him
afterwards and talked to him for alittle while. And I met Rose Marie
at a book signing. We talkedfor a few minutes, and yeah,
so, and I've also gone tothere was a two stieth anniversary of celebration
where there was a lot of sortof you know, a few of the
guest stars were there, so Ihad, you know, some interactions with
them. But it's been very cool. If you would have told ten year
(07:56):
old Abby she was going to bemeeting all of these people in the year
twenty twenty four, she would nothave believed it. Well, believe it,
it's true. Let me take mybreak, and there are two open
lines anyone who wants to call inand talk about tripping over the Ottum and
the Dick Van Dyke Show with myguests David Danus and Abby. What is
your last name? My last nameis writer R. E. I t
(08:20):
E R he R, because Ilike to refer to people by their full
names. Now that I've done that, let me take my break. This
is Nightside. I'm Morgan White Junior, filling in for Dan Ray, who
will be back on Monday time andtemper here in Nightside eight fifteen seventy five
(08:43):
degrees. Now back to Dan Raylive from the Window World night Side Studios
on WBZ News Radio. I'm Morgan. Normally you've heard me on Saturdays here
on WBZ. I fill in withsome regularity if Dan is going to take
a day or two off, whichis the case, and I do the
(09:07):
best I can to try and befair to the Dan Ray audience, book
guests that would have a reference pointfor the Dan Ray audience yet and still
kind of be true to myself withthe types of people I like to interview.
And I think I've done that withtonight's show. I told you Anthony
(09:31):
San Marco is going to be herefrom ten to midnight talking history of the
United States around the fourth of July, and next hour, I've got John
olivera on. I know a lotof our listeners out there have issues with
their sight, so that there wasa convention in Miami earlier this week that
(09:52):
John Oliver attended, and he'll tellus about that convention. And right now
we're talking about one of the mostpopular city calms ever in the United States.
In the sixties, the Dick VanDyke Show ran for five seasons,
had a rocky start its first season. They weren't sure if it was gonna
(10:13):
make it, but cooler heads prevailedat CBS's executives and they decided, let's
see what happened after the second season, and the show took old and had
a strong five year run. I'vegot my buddy David van Dusen and his
(10:35):
buddy Abby Richter. I must sayEddie Richter. Abby Richter is here,
and we've got a couple of phonecalls. So let's go to Neil in
Watertown to see why Neil wants totalk about tripping over the Ottoman. Hello
Neil, Hello, Hello Morgan.By coincidence, on June sixth and the
(10:58):
Boston Globe, a columnist named JoanWickersham had a column entitled Dick Van Dyke's
Footstool, And then you mentioned it, I think a couple of days later.
So I've been thinking about it thismonth, and she says, I'll
just do brief excerpts. He's finallyon to himself. She says, I
(11:20):
think about it when I am temptedto give unsolicited advice to my adult children,
don't do it. Walk around thefootstool. And conversely, Conversely,
she says, for years, Isaid nothing about a family member's offensive jokes
and remarks. Each time my cravenpoliteness left me feeling queasy. Finally,
(11:43):
I said, that's a horrible thingto say. In this case, For
way too long, my timidity hadbeen the footstool that I kept tripping over.
And she sums up. She says, it's a small but real source
of satisfaction when the pattern begins tofeel familiar enough that I can spot a
footstool I passed and jump aside insteadof tripping over it, always with a
nod to Dick Van Dyke, thatbrilliant pratt Faller and even more brilliant pratfall
(12:09):
Abder. I like it. Ilike it wonderful. And that's I didn't
know you were going to talk aboutthis tonight. So it's a double coincidence.
Well glad the coincidence worked in thefavor of having you call in and
retell what you read about. Right, well, thank you for letting me
relay that, because it's it's ameaningful show to me, it has been
(12:33):
for a long time. Neil,thank you for your call. Oh,
thank you, good night. Happy. I think he was going to finish
saying happy fourth of July six one, two, eight, eight, eight,
nine, nine, ten thirty.And I've got time to take another
call. And after this call,Abby or David remind me that I wanted
(12:58):
to talk about Dick Van Dyke asan actor and other milestones in his career,
birth Mary on the Mary Poppins Show, et cetera. But let's go
to Ohio and talk to Tony.Tony, good evening, Good evening,
Morgan, and good evening to yourguest and Nancy and Gray. Happy fourth
(13:22):
of July to you. I'm sittinghere in my red capris and my red
white and blue T shirt with wheelsand boats and things all over it.
I'm just as red, white andblue as Fourth of July occasion, and
hats off to our veterans. Yes, anyway, the funny thing is my
(13:48):
niece is thirteen and I'm seventy two. And she started talking about and I
didn't know if she was talking aboutthe Dick Van Dyke Show at first,
but she got all hopped up overthem. That one where Laura gets her
foot stuck in the bath faucet,uh, the bathroom, and she and
I talked and she said, oh, that is so funny, that is
(14:11):
so funny. I said, youknow what, I said, that's sixty
over sixty some years old. Isaid, that's before you or your mother,
or your dad or anybody was eventhought of. I said, I
was just a little kid when thatcame out, and she was surprised.
But my favorite episode, may Italk about that? Since I'm not I
don't go into blogging and all thatkind of stuff. Me, I talk
(14:33):
about my favorite episode. Take usin any direction you want. Yeah,
my favorite episode is where Laura bleachedher hair blonde. Yes, that's a
grand and she said, ROB said, I'd look like Harpo Mark. Then
she looks up to a very goodLaura in distress voice. So I do
(15:05):
think we should we should acknowledge thatyou said you're wearing caprice because those were
Laura Petrie's preferred clothing item, hercaprice fants famous. Now they've they've changed
what Caprice are now. Caprice backthen were the they just came to the
ankles, but Caprice now just comebelow your knees. Uh huh. It's
(15:26):
they're a little different this time.But Laura was she I think no,
I think we saw Lucy Riccardo andslacks we regularity never saw, but we
saw Lucy. But anyway, that'sthe subject to Laura's claimed to him.
I think was that as a charactershe made she wore them very tight,
(15:48):
which I think was usually what thediscussion was about, that they were much
higher than maybe something like Lucille Ballwas wearing. But Mary Tyler Moore and
Dick Van Dyke were just magic togetherno matter what they did their specials the
show, and one would have thoughtthat they were really married. People did
(16:08):
think they were really married, isn'tIsn't there a story, David where somebody
ran into you know, Nick Bendegeta store and they said something like,
you know, they saw him onhis new show, and you Dick Conductuary
had a new wife, and theycame up to him in the store and
they said, how could you leavethat? Laura? And they really really
were convinced that they were married.And I think maybe the woman hit him
with the purse or something. Sowell, it's it's amazing that people think
(16:33):
this is real. And you hearthe same thing from the soap stars.
They they think that like that playsa bad scene on it, and they
think they're awesome, like like likein Lost in Space, doctor Smith's or
Jonathan Harris said some kid came upand hit him and he says, I
hate you, Doctor Smith. Imean, people can really take think it's
(16:56):
real. No testment to the writingand acting. You know that they're doing
that good of a job. IsHope Lang, the actress from the Ghost
of Missus. Muir, played DickVan Dyke's wife in the New Dick Van
Dyke Show. And that show wasn'tvery good. That show wasn't very good.
(17:18):
It was on I think three maybefour seasons. But my key is
you did not get the couple feelingof Hope with Dick as you did,
absolutely not Mary Tyler Moore and Dickyou did not get. Well, thank
you very much, and I willtalk to you Saturday if there's anything on
(17:41):
there that you're that I'm interested in. Saturday. One of the things I'll
be talking about pinball Channel four andBusy Radio did a little spotlight on a
woman who was the second highest ratedpinball player in the United States. Wow,
(18:03):
her name is Zoe v Abel.I've had her on once before.
She'll be hut with me on Saturdayin case you can. Okay, I
thank you for your time. Allright, I thank you for your call.
Happy fourth of July. Good evening, good evening. The phone numbers
again. We're going to take abreak commercial, maybe two a hit of
(18:26):
news as well. I am goingto give you two a setup question about
the actor Dick Van Dyke, whohad some standout roles. Every time I
watched the movie called Turkey, Iam on the floor scene after scene after
scene. Is so funny when Iwatched that Columbo episode where he played the
(18:48):
photographer, any other what I wouldcall fingerprint roles that only Dick Van Dyke
can do. The three of usare going to talk about, but first
a little break here in BZ timeand temperature eight thirty seventy five degrees.
You're on night Side with Dan Rayon WBZ, Boston's news radio. It
(19:12):
was sixty years ago that we wereall going to the movie theaters in our
neighborhoods to see this new Walt Disneyfilm called Mary Poppins, because that came
out in nineteen sixty four. AndI did the best I could to sound
(19:33):
like I was from England with alittle Cockney twang in my voice as Bert.
And I know a lot of youout there did the same thing.
Oh it's a jolly holiday, noh Aliday with Mary. And when Mary
holds your hand, you feel sogrand your art no H starts beating like
(19:57):
a big blast band. I meanthat brings back memories to me sixty years
ago. I was ten years oldand the magic of Dick Van Dyke's character
as Bert the Chimney sweep put agreat smile on my face. We had
(20:18):
We are talking about Dick Van Dyke. If you've just tuned in, Tripping
Over the Ottoman is a new podcastby my buddy David van Dusen and his
buddy Abby Writer. Did I pronouncethat correct correctly? Okay, So let's
talk about the entire work of DickVan Dyke away from the TV series,
(20:44):
because the TV series was so iconicand it gets all the attention and so
much of its other work becomes shortshrift and that's not right, Well,
that's true. You know you mentionedMary Poppins though, Morgan, and probably
that's how new generations are probably learningabout Dick, because Mary Poppins some sixty
(21:07):
years later still holds up. Whenyou think of the special effects that they
did back then with no computer graphicsor any CGI or anything else. It's
really astounding and pretty amazing what theywere able to accomplish back then. Mixing
lives, oh my gosh, right, yeah, and the dance with the
(21:30):
penguins, yeah, you know,it's pretty it's just just incredible. And
so yes, I think that's probablyhow younger generations get get to know Dick.
And of course then they see Dickvan Dyke as he is today and
(21:51):
there's probably a little challenge in theirheads trying to put do it do together?
How did this guy get to looklike this guy all of a sudden
For him to meet somebody that's,you know, five or six years old
enjoying Mary Poppins and today, Ican't imagine what that must be like for
him. And I mentioned the movieCold Turkey. I know that was a
(22:11):
Norman Leah project, right, itwas so well written, and they all
go ahead I was gonna say,they all went to It was shot in
Iowa, right out in the middleof the country, and uh, they
the entire production was there as faras I know. And you know,
(22:32):
the premise of course, right isthey're trying to get everybody to stop smoking,
and they get a big prize money. And as soon as soon as
they say you can't smoke, whatdoes everybody want to do? Right?
So a small town of Eagle Rock. Yes, what David, you know
me, you know what I do. But you know what's stole that movie,
(22:56):
Bob Newhart's character, Uh huh,And they think of Dick Van Deck.
I cannot help but incorporate the Colomboepisode he did, right, and
people, many many fans didn't likeit because he was playing the bad guy.
(23:18):
Yes, he was a killer,he killed his wife. He's just
such a likable guy. It's hardto hard a picture him like that.
People were really upset by that,you know, And Dick kills The story
of shooting that with Peter Peter fuckand what a character Peter was. And
you know, Peter had lost aneye and had a glass eye and during
(23:40):
during one scene, uh, Petertook his eye out and I don't know
if he's stopped a napkin or somethingin his in his eye socket and you
couldn't see Peter. But but Dickopened the door and there was Peter looking
at him. No, only youknow, Peter tried to really get Dick
in the bits of shooting the seed. And you know, there's a little
(24:07):
mentioned film that he did where heplayed a Charlie Chaplin like comic of the
early days of Hollywood. Yeah,the comic, the comic Billy Bright was
his name, Charlie Chaplin with thethe letters working that way, And that
(24:27):
was such a strong film because youknow, go ahead, Abby. He
would talk all the time in youknow, older interviews that when he was,
you know, growing up, hewanted to be a silent film star,
like he thought he was born inthe wrong decade and that he had
been born earlier, like that's whathe would have done. And it's funny
(24:48):
because I think actors my age watchedhim watch Dick Pendeck and say, oh,
I would like to do those kindof TV shows or things like,
you know, things like that.So I feel like, you know,
it's it's cool for him to hegot to experience that, you know,
exact kind of scenario he was.He was kind of felt like he was
not getting to be a part ofSo it's very cool. Did either of
you ever speak to him about doingon the Dick Van Dyke Show. There
(25:17):
were many shows that they did,shows within the show, the Alan Brady
Show, variety shows, and itwas the tip of the hat to lauln
Hardy, Zora Sageant Garcia character thatactors Nry Calvin did a Laurel and Hardy
(25:41):
skit. Did either of you everspeak to Dick about that and what his
opinions were about that? Well?Yeah, and you know Dick had met
Stan Laurel, and Laurel watched theepisode and commented in a letter that's out
there in archives that he thought Dickdid the best impression of Laurel. Right,
(26:03):
Stan Laurel. But after the episodeaired, he called Dick to talk
to him about it, and hesaid, you know, you know,
he gave him hints. Oh,you know the way that I stood certain
things was because I cut the heelsoff the bottom of my shoes. And
Dick said, in his mind,why didn't you tell me that before we
did the episode? Right? Youknow, there was there was all these
(26:26):
observations that Stan made that Dick wouldhave loved to have had in advance of
doing the performance, as opposed toafter the performance, because he was trying
to emulate it as closely as hecould. That's how much he, you
know, adored stand as as hisidol. I believe that they he told
the story that he one day justdecided to look him up in the phone
(26:47):
book and called the number, andhe just happened to answer the phone,
and he said he was listed thecelebrity of that status, and he was
listed, and so he and they'reon out. They were friends. I
believe he even maybe did the eulogyat his funeral, if I'm not mistaken,
he did. Ye. Now onceagain, I used to be a
(27:11):
mail clerk for Holton Mifflin a thousandyears ago, and I became friendly with
one of the editors, and shesaid, if you ever want to write
a book or anything, only usefour words in your title. You can
use one, two, or three, but no more than four, and
(27:34):
tripping over the Ottoman perfect. Fourwords tell people who are just tuning in
what they can expect if they goto that website one to go ahead.
Yeah, so what you can expectis two you know, super fans experts
(27:55):
of the show from different generations comingtogether and just chatting. You know,
it's basically two friends that love theDick Vandyke Show chatting about everything from you
know, the writing, to thedirecting, to the actors to you know,
the minute show trivia that's in theshow and the music, just every
aspect of the show in very minutedetail and just in a fun, casual
(28:18):
kind of kind of way. Andwhat I was going to say and what
we tried to do Morgan, isbecause I have such archives about the Dick
Vandyke Show. Many times we havean early draft of a script and then
we'll discuss what was originally in thescript and how it changed and evolved by
the time and actually made it toair. Right Will, We'll highlight some
(28:40):
of the guest stars or character actorsthat were in there and other Dick van
Dyke episodes that they appeared in andother sitcoms of the day, and be
getting David's first hand experience. Youknow, he's going to have so many
stories, you know, to toto tell us about his time, you
know, meeting them and getting toknow all the stars and finding out things
(29:00):
about the show. So it's justa really really fun thing to see from
behind the scenes type of stuff.And I have archives of interviews that I've
done, and we usually sprinkle insome remembrances of cast members or guest stars.
However, coming up in our fourthepisode, we're going to be joined
(29:21):
by the only other remaining living castmember from the show, and that's Larry
Matthews, who was Richie. AndLarry's going to join us to discuss a
bird in the Head Hurts episode whereyou know, Larry was the unfortunate kid
who would go outside and would bepicked on the head by a woodpecker.
(29:42):
So we're very looking forward, verymuch looking forward to having Larry join us
to share his recollections of what itwas like back then to shoot that episode
and his memories about how that alltranspired. And it's just going to be
a lot of fun. I wasabout to say, Robert Oscar, Samuel
Edward, if it's a boy atUena, fitzgirl, Benjamin Ulysses, David,
(30:04):
there you go again. He isthe man from Juria. Tell you
what, let me take my lastbreak of this hour. Give the phone
numbers if we want to uh Wedo want to get more of you to
call in and chat with these two, David and Abbey about tripping over the
Ottumn six one, seven, two, five, fourteen, thirty eight,
(30:25):
eight, eight nine to nineteen thirty. This is Nightside. Dan Ray is
off, He'll be back on Monday. I'm here tonight and I'll also be
here tomorrow time and temperature here onnight Side seventy five degrees eight forty five.
Now back to Dan Ray line fromthe Window World night Side Studios on
(30:47):
w b Z News Radio. Again. This is Nightside. I am Morgan,
Morgan White Junior, been a partof BESY Broadcasting since nineteen ninety five
or six somewhere in there. Andwe are talking about Dick Van Dyke,
his fingerprint on the American pop culturescene. It's undeniable what he has meant
(31:12):
to people over these decades, andhe's still with us. Yeah, So
let me just throw something there.There's a couple of things that happened recently
which I think are noteworthy, andthat is Dick Van Dyke recently won an
Emmy Award for Guest Performer and adaytime drama series on Days of Our Lives.
(31:34):
He had done a guest role,and at age ninety eight, he's
now the oldest actor to receive adaytime Emmy win. He was the oldest
nominee, but he actually won,so that that was quite an accolade for
Dick to get his sixth Emmy awardin his career and character, no,
(31:56):
it was a character. He wason three or four episodes over the course
of a few days, all right. And and more more recently, Dick
and his wife started a foundation inthe Malibu school system where he lives.
And so the endowment is really tohelp promote the arts, which Dick is
(32:19):
a big, big proponent of.And in an acknowledgment of that, the
school has dedicated their theater to theVan Dykes and it's now called the Van
Dyke Auditorium there at the school.So yeah, so even at ninety eight
and a half, he's still outthere and pretty pretty vital in the community
(32:40):
and in our industry. So letme let me see if I get one
more call him before I have towave goodbody too. Let's care hi and
speak to Duke. I second callfrom Ohio this hour, Good evening due
I folks. Hey. One ofthe things that Alwa was fascinated me on
that series was watching the exchanges betweenthe Moury Amsterdam and Richard Deacon characters.
(33:05):
And I've often wondered if there wereany stories, or even better booper reels
of some of the times when thosetwo guys cracked each other up. There
are some bloop of reels that thatare out there and around. In real
life. Richard Deacon and Moury Amsterdamwere very good friends, but they they
(33:27):
portrayed those characters and and the hisadversaries, and the banter that went between
them, many times was Carl Reiner'swriting, but many times was things that
jokes that evolved over the course ofthe putting the script on its feet.
And and Maury was so quick wittedthat you know, he often came up
(33:50):
with much of the barbs that wentback and forth between he and Deacon.
So, Morgan, do you rememberit? Say that again? I said,
I remember there being a story whereMaury would sit in the hallway of
radio stations and you know, sellhis jokes for you know, a dollar
(34:13):
a joke kind of and he wouldsit out in the hallway and they come
out, we need a joke forthis next for this next act. And
then he would he would put itin so just very very quick guy yep,
And I thought, so, Idon't know if it was David or
if it was Duke one. Ifhe said Morgan, do you remember,
Yeah, that was me. AndI was gonna ask uh through four years
(34:36):
ago you had on the uh theactor that played Don west On lost in
Space Mark. He yeah, hepassed away by a year or so ago.
Right, Well, I cold andasked him the exact same question about
you know, any any time hisexchanges would with the Doctor Smith character.
(35:01):
Again, they were kind of adversariesand if they ever got if they ever
got into giggling fits and lost it. And I don't know if you remember,
but he said, oh, yeah, that that used to happen quite
a bit. And then he impliedthat maybe there was some colorful language that
came out of it. I canwell imagine. And I'll say this about
(35:21):
Maury Amsterdam. And this came upin a conversation I was involved in recently.
He Maury Amsterdam was a favorite ofal Capone, and al Capone just
thought Maury Amsterdam was the greatest thingsand Slice read so having that person be
(35:44):
like a Dutch uncle to you,and Capone was the same for Rosemary.
Really. Capone really took care ofrose Marie as a young child star and
coordinated the bookings that she performed aroundthe country, and the Mob facilitated those
appearances quite nicely for her. I'vegot a question, and Duke, if
(36:08):
you have another question, I'll letyou ask that. No, I'm good,
go ahead, Morgan, Okay,here's my question. You've got your
two bosses, Kyl Reiner and DannyThomas, who was the executive producer,
and you get to do scenes withthem. Was that extra pressure and Dick
(36:34):
Van Deck? I mean the Twiloepisode with Danny Thomas. He nailed that.
He Danny Thomas and the many sceneshe had to do with Cayl Reiner.
Was that extra pressure for Dick?You know, I don't think so.
I think that the collaborative nature thatwas established by Reiner on the set
(36:55):
was such that everybody felt comfortable tochime in. They really appreciated Danny's involvement.
They wanted a very strong character forthat Twilo character, right, and
when Danny said he would do it, it was great. Yeah. He
actually did not get the credit.There was no credit for him in that
episode. Interestingly, right now,early to mid sixties, everybody in America
(37:20):
knew Danny Thomas by sighting correct correct, yes, but but you know other
guest stars appeared and they seemed toget a credit Danny. I don't think
Danny wanted the credit. I think, like you say, Morgan, he
was known, right, he wasjust well known. So do you have
another question or is that it?Nope, that's it. Thanks very much.
I do thank you for your call, Bye bye, and I want
(37:44):
you to to once again promote TrippingOver the Autumn and tell people where they
can find it. Now do theyhave to sign up for it? Or
is it available just by going toa website If they go to go ahead,
Hey yeah, I just go toYouTube and type and Tripping Over the
Ottoman and you can watch our firsttwo episodes there. Don't believe we have
(38:06):
to have an account, although youcan't can have one with YouTube, but
it's free. So it's a freepodcast. Just looking to like connect with
our fans and you know, withfans of the show, our fellow fans,
and just connecting with others that wantto talk about the show. And
we encourage folks to listen to itand leave comments there, provide us their
perspectives, their input, and we'llincorporate some of that feedback as we do
(38:30):
future episodes. Now, David,we didn't mention the Walnut Times. The
news letter that you used to putout, used to put it right is
of the back copies. Back issues. Black issues are still available, still
available at the Walmut Times dot com. For twenty years, I published a
(38:52):
newsletter about the Dick Van Dyke Show, interviewed the cast members, guest stars.
We used to offer merchandise, photographs, all sorts of things. Actually
I met David Was. I foundhim online and I asked him, can
I buy every back issue of thisletter? It's worth it? Yeah,
(39:12):
pretty penny sure, despite that,she still has her sense of humor and
her thumbs Morgan okay, and lovedWalnuts. But on top of that,
yeah, wave goodbye to the twoof you. David, Thank you,
keep me, thank you. Iam hoping this venture becomes a success for
you. Zoe. We appreciate beingon tonight. Thanks thanks for calling us
(39:37):
in and sharing Fourth of July withyou. We appreciate it. David,
thank you very much. All Right, everybody, Next hour, John Oliver
will be here and later on AnthonySan Marco here on night's side. Time
and temperature eight fifty eight seventy fivedegrees
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