Was it True that Carl Reiner Was Originally Cast As The Lead on 'Dick Van Dyke Show'

[Brian Damage]

July 19th, 1960 - The pilot episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" aired.


It's been 50 years on this date that the original Dick Van Dyke show pilot aired on CBS. It apparently was a flop and recastings took place.

[old grouch]

Yes, it's true. The unsold pilot was called 'Head of the Family'.

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

July 19th, 1960 - The pilot episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" aired.


It's been 50 years on this date that the original Dick Van Dyke show pilot aired on CBS. It apparently was a flop and recastings took place.

Yes in the original pilot (which was called "Head of the Family") Carl Reiner played Robert Petrie. Barbara Britton played Laura, Gary Morgan played Ritchie, and Sylvia Miles and Morty Gunty played Sally and Buddy. Unfortunately this version of the show failed to attract any sponsors and was therefore not picked up. Carl Reiner's agent Harry Kalcheim refused to give up on the series and called on one of his other clients, Sheldon Leonard, to take a look at it. Sheldon recognized that Carl Reiner was the wrong actor to play Rob Petrie.(despite the fact that Rob Petrie was a fictionalized version of Reiner himself) He also recognized that Carl Reiner wrote like a producer including camera angles, lighting cues etc. right in the script. It was his suggestion that Carl Reiner should produce the series and that characters be recast. And the rest as they say is history.

[Larry Surrell]

"Head of the Family" is included as bonus material in season 1 of
"The Dick Van Dyke Show" DVDs.

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by Larry Surrell

"Head of the Family" is included as bonus material in season 1 of
"The Dick Van Dyke Show" DVDs.

Yes it is. It really interesting to watch the "Head of the Family" pilot and realize that this is the show that evolved into "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

[PGood97041]

It WAS interesting to watch the pilot, which was re-tooled into The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was hardly the worst thing I've ever seen, but it was kind of flat. And I think Sheldon obviously made the right call.

To me, Carl just looked a little bit too tightly wound for that part. He seemed perpetually ticked off and any smile was forced, which isn't the ideal for a sitcom dad. Interestingly, that same countenance was PERFECT for Alan Brady in TDVDS, a part Carl was great in.

I don't know much about Carl before TDVDS, but everyone says he was a nice guy on the Van Dyke set, working with the actors. And in the DVD extras when he sits down and talks about the show he's as pleasant and relaxed as can be.
So IMHO he was just wrong for that particular part - but when they made him producer of TDVDS and Dick the star, the magic truly began!

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by PGood97041

It WAS interesting to watch the pilot, which was re-tooled into The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was hardly the worst thing I've ever seen, but it was kind of flat. And I think Sheldon obviously made the right call.

To me, Carl just looked a little bit too tightly wound for that part. He seemed perpetually ticked off and any smile was forced, which isn't the ideal for a sitcom dad. Interestingly, that same countenance was PERFECT for Alan Brady in TDVDS, a part Carl was great in.

I don't know much about Carl before TDVDS, but everyone says he was a nice guy on the Van Dyke set, working with the actors. And in the DVD extras when he sits down and talks about the show he's as pleasant and relaxed as can be.
So IMHO he was just wrong for that particular part - but when they made him producer of TDVDS and Dick the star, the magic truly began!

Prior to TDVDS Carl Reiner co-starred with Sid Caesar on "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" two sketch comedy/variety shows. In an interview Carl Reiner mentioned that he loved to sneak into the writers room while working on these shows and participate in their discussions although he received no actual writing credit. In fact it was these experiences that inspired him to write the scripts that would eventually become "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

[treky]

in "HEAD OF THE FAMILY" (which Nick at Nite showed once, "back in the day") the familys name was PEEtrie and Alan Brady was "Alan Sturdy" (it was changed to Alan Brady when Morey Amsterdam pointed out that Alan Sturdy sounds like "Alan's dirty"). Also the sets and theme were different, and there was no Mel Cooley.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

* it was filmed in New York, without a live audience (a laugh track was used) and "one camera".
* Peter Lawford (with financial consultation from his father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy) provided partial financing of the pilot.
* the pilot originally aired on Red Skelton's summer replacement, an anthology of unsold comedy pilots from current and previous seasons, "THE COMEDY SPOT". The version of the pilot that's available is the original unaired version of the pilot film, minus announcer Art Gilmore's opening and closing remarks from the "COMEDY SPOT" presentation.
* Jack Wakefield, a popular "Borcht Belt" comedian, played "Alan Sturdy", whose face was never seen on camera [however, it was viewed in a distorted image through a goldfish bowl during one scene].
* Carl wrote 13 proposed scripts for the series before the pilot was filmed. Most of them (if not all) were rewritten for "THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW".

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

* Peter Lawford (with financial consultation from his father-in-law, Joseph P. Kennedy) provided partial financing of the pilot.

Peter Lawford also had a hand (or at least $) in producing The Patty Duke Show and a few other series from the 60s & 70s under the name of Chrislaw Productions, named for his son Christopher Lawford.

[Larry Surrell]

Originally Posted by PGood97041

To me, Carl just looked a little bit too tightly wound for that part. He seemed perpetually ticked off and any smile was forced, which isn't the ideal for a sitcom dad. Interestingly, that same countenance was PERFECT for Alan Brady in TDVDS, a part Carl was great in.

I agree, PGood. Dick Van Dyke seems to be a naturally smiley kind of person and was the perfect fit for the role of Rob Petrie.

I've often wondered if Carl Reiner based his Alan Brady character on Sid Caesar. I have heard that Sid Caesar was not nice to his writers on "Your Show of Shows."

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...Carl partially based "Alan Brady" on his co-star and friend Sid Caesar (who better to know how much ego a TV variety host could have, by directly working with such a person?), and several other "beloved icons" of early TV variety, including Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason and Red Skelton (the latter two barely communicated with their writers at all)- and Red often credited himself as part of his writing staff when he himself contributed very little to his own scripts. What he did was actually "embellish" his writers' ideas by "riffing" on their scripts while on the air, often putting in his own two cents about how funny the material supposedly was or wasn't {it wouldn't have been unusual for Skelton to stop in the midst of a sketch and observe, "Oh, well, I guess I'll need a new writer in the morning", or "That's funny, this bit didn't get one single laugh in rehearsal- either I'm a genius, or my writers are facing unemployment"}. That's how I see it, Larry.

[Larry Surrell]

Thanks, TV Knowledge Fan. When I was a little kid we would watch The Red Skelton Show every week and I do remember him being that way.

I love coming to this board and reading through the posts about my favorite sitcoms. I've learned so much here!

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

Jack Wakefield, a popular "Borcht Belt" comedian, played "Alan Sturdy", whose face was never seen on camera [however, it was viewed in a distorted image through a goldfish bowl during one scene].

Jack Wakefield died on July 2nd, 2010

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

Jack Wakefield died on July 2nd, 2010

Jack Wakefield