Carl Reiner on "Dick Van Dyke" Early Fears
8/24/14
by THR Staff


It's hard to imagine now, but before creating "The Dick Van Dyke Show", Carl Reiner had no desire to try another TV show after his previous one failed.

"I don't want to fail twice with the same material," says Reiner, referring to an aborted series that used the same scripts that eventually found success with "The Dick Van Dyke Show".





Reiner appeared alongside fellow producers Norman Lear and Allan Burns at the THR's Emmy Producer's photoshoot.

"I was offered situation comedies that weren't very good, so my wife said to me 'Why don't you write one.' I did 13 scripts called 'Head of the Family' and taped it with a girl named Barbara Britton.

Then I forgot about it and started doing movies. My agent became upset that I had these 13 scripts just lying around. He then gave them to Sheldon Leonard and said that we'd like to do this show and I said 'I don't want to fail twice with the same material,'.

They casted Dick Van Dyke and 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was born."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/legendary-producers-behind-mary-tyler-727207

Sheldon Leonard made the discovery that Carl Reiner was actually more of a producer than an actor and decided that Carl should be the writer/producer of the show and another actor should play Rob Petrie. That actor turned out to be Dick Van Dyke!