Dick Van Dyke is one of America’s most beloved performers. He is well known for his leading roles in movies and on the CBS TV sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show. It is less well known that in 1976 he had his own hourlong variety show. Called Van Dyke and Company, the program featured a singing, dancing, wisecracking Van Dyke and a whole host of special guests.
Lucille Ball appeared, as did Mary Tyler Moore, Flip Wilson, Chevy Chase and Carol Burnett. Van Dyke worked with a group of nearly a dozen writers on the scripts for the show, including comedian Steve Martin.
Unfortunately, the program was short-lived, lasting only one season. Van Dyke was philosophical about the show’s cancellation, noting that variety shows were falling out of favor in the mid-seventies. Still, critics appreciated the humor and Van Dyke and Company won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Musical Series in 1977.
See the show’s scripts and more in the Dick Van Dyke Papers at UW’s American Heritage Center.