VAN DYKE & COMPANY

December 9, 1976

(S1;E9) 

Directed by John Moffitt

Written by George Burditt, Garry Ferrier, Ken Finkelman, Mitch Markovitz, Don Novello, Pat Proft, Leonard Ripps, Mickey Rose, Aubrey Tadman, Paul Wayne, Dick Van Dyke

Dick
Van Dyke
(Himself, Host / Various Characters) was
born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, in 1925.
Although he’d had small roles beforehand, Van Dyke was launched to
stardom in the 1960 Broadway musical Bye
Bye Birdie,
for which he won a Tony Award. He reprised his role in the 1963 film.
He has starred in a number of other films throughout the years
including Mary
Poppins
(1964) and Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang
(1968).
From 1961 to 1966 he played TV writer Rob Petrie in “The Dick Van
Dyke Show.”  He also starred in “The New Dick Van Dyke Show”
(1971-74), “Van Dyke & Company” (1976), and “Diagnosis
Murder” (1993-2001).    

Lucille
Ball (Herself,
Various Characters) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New
York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood
as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’
movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled
“My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I
Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred
with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program
was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was
once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960
(in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so
did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu
financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The
Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a
similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life
children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined
the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death
in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With
Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled
after just 13 episodes.

The
Lockers
was a male lock dance troupe first known as the Campbell Lockers
formed
by Toni
Basil
and
Don
Campbell
in
1971. They were pioneers of street dance.
They
appeared on “The Tonight Show,” “Saturday Night Live,” and
“What’s Happening!!”  This is their final TV appearance.

Andy
Kaufman
(Andy) was a performance artist and comedian. He is best
known for playing Latka Gravas on the TV sitcom “Taxi.”  Andy
appeared in movies, on Broadway, did a one man show at Carnegie Hall,
enjoyed a brief professional wrestling career, and performed in
concerts nationwide.
He died in 1984 of lung cancer.

Kaufman is not
credited in the opening title sequence nor in the closing voice over
credits. This was likely to lend veracity to his continual habit of ‘crashing’ the show and interrupting Van Dyke’s guests.

L.A.
Mime Company

John
Wheeler (Mr.
Haley, Network Executive) was in the New York stage productions of
Wonderful
Town
(also on TV in 1958) and Sweet
Charity
(also
the film 1969). He was seen opposite
Lucille Ball as Judge Breghoff in the movie Mame.
He appeared on one episode of “Here’s Lucy” (S6;E16) in 1974.
Coincidentally, he played Fred Mertz in the TV film “Lucy and Desi:
Before the Laughter” in 1991.

Barry
Van Dyke (Honey
#2 / Helen’s Paramour) was Dick Van Dyke’s son born in July 1951,
just two weeks after Lucie Arnaz. Like Lucie, he made his screen
debut on his parent’s TV show in 1962 and went on to larger roles in
subsequent series’. Probably his most famous of those roles was as Steve
Sloan in “Diagnosis Murder” (1993-2001).

It
is a bit odd that Van Dyke’s real son is playing (who is inferred to be)
his male lover in the “Honey, I’m Home” sketch.

Judy
Von Wormer
had played one of the singers in “Lucy, The Co-Ed” (HL S3;E6) in
1970.  

Brian
Bruno and Barney, The Paul Family

Stu
Nahan (Announcer)

---

“Van
Dyke & Company” was
a short-lived variety show that aired on NBC from September 20, 1976
to December 30, 1976. A pilot episode was shot in October 1975, but
the series did not debut for another 11 months.

In
a 1965 appearance on “Art Linkletter’s House Party” Lucille Ball
said that “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was her favorite television
program. The series was shot at Desilu Studios. It took 11 years for Van Dyke and Ball to collaborate.
This is the first time Ball and Van Dyke have acted opposite each
other, although the two had appeared as guests on “Salute to Stan
Laurel” in 1965.  

A week before her appearance on “Van Dyke &
Company,” Dick Van Dyke appeared on “CBS Salutes Lucy: The First
25 Years” paying tribute to Lucy’s skill at pantomime (something both were
adept at and demonstrate here) from the set of his show. In 2001, Van
Dyke co-hosted “I Love Lucy’s 50th Anniversary Special.”   

Genealogists claim that Lucy and
Van Dyke are distant relatives. They are 10th cousins, once removed.

This
episode of “Van Dyke & Company” was aired by MeTV on August
6, 2017 (Lucy’s birthday). The entire series is available on DVD
from MPI Video. Bonus features include audio from Van Dyke as a
guest on “Let’s Talk to Lucy,” Ball’s 1964-65 radio show. For
this episode, only Andy Kaufman’s Elvis impersonation has been
omitted, likely due to royalty restrictions.

On
December 15, 1976, less than a week after this episode of “Van Dyke
& Company” aired, Lucille Ball was on the dais for “The Dean
Martin Celebrity Roast” of Danny Thomas.  

---

A
cold open (pre-credits) has Dick paying a visit to the grand opening
of “The
New You Shop” staffed
by Lucy, in a wordless physical comedy sketch. The premise has Lucy
selling new ‘body parts’ (invisible and pantomimed with the help of
sound effects) such as legs, chests, hands, faces, and feet.   

Trying
on the parts inside ‘The New You Machine’, something goes horribly
wrong. Dick emerges with arms that scrape the ground and a hand on
the end of his foot!  

In
Dick’s monologue he demonstrates the differences in the family hour
format as opposed to later time slots using a fictional show called
“Honey,
I’m Home.” The
Family Viewing Hour was a policy established by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) in 1975. Under the policy, each
television network had the responsibility to air “family-friendly”
programming during the first hour of the prime time lineup (8 to 9 pm
Eastern Time).
“Van Dyke & Company” occupied the ‘Family Hour’ time slot.

• “Honey,
  I’m Home” 8pm to 9pm (‘Family Hour’) – Dick comes home to
  find his wife waiting patiently on the sofa.
• “Honey,
  I’m Home” 9pm to 10pm – Dick comes home to find his wife kissing
  another man.
• “Honey,
  I’m Home” 10pm to 11pm – Dick comes home to find the same couple
  looking at a road map, but the ‘honey’ he’s come home to is the man,
  not the woman!  
• He
  attempts to show the audience “Honey, I’m Home” after midnight,
  but quickly opens and shuts the door, horrified at what he’s seen
  (and we don’t).  

A
network executive (John Wheeler) appoints Richard (Dick) to Vice
President of Programming in order to get him to tell fading star
Marion
Lane
(Lucy) that her show has been canceled. Lucy receives a big ovation
from the studio audience, which indicates this may be the first
segment shot, with the cold open pre-taped without a studio audience.

Marion
seems to know what he’s come for and quickly takes a liberal amount
of tablets.

Richard:
“Marion,
what’s that you’re taking?”
Marion:
“Sleeping
pills.”
Richard:
“Wouldn’t you call that a kind of a heavy dose?”
Marion:
“I’d
call it an overdose.”

Turns
out they were just breath mints. Still fearing the worst, Marion
momentarily straddles an open window. When he finally delivers the
bad news, she slaps him hard across the face, sending him careening
over the divan. The sketch has a surprise twist ending with Richard
being Marion’s husband!  

Dick
is discovered chiseling a sculpture and telling the audience that
he’s always wanted Rudolf Nureyev as a guest. He finally got a call
from the dancer to tell him that he will be appearing – on “The
Gong Show.”  “The Gong Show” was a low-budget amateur talent
show that had only premiered on TV a few months earlier. This set-up
is by way of introducing what Dick calls “the
most fabulous dancers around”
– The
Lockers.

After they perform their main act, Dick joins in, even wearing one of
their costumes.

Dick
and Lucy play Helen
and Edgar,
a couple celebrating their 40th anniversary. Edgar is 115 years old,
and Helen is 75. She only married him thinking she would soon be a
rich widow. Van Dyke’s characterization of Edgar is reminiscent of
when he played the elderly banker Mr. Dawes Sr. in Mary
Poppins
(1964). Helen tries everything she can think of to hasten her
inheritance.

She
cracks a champagne bottle on his head. Nothing.   

She
tries to guillotine him while blowing out the candles on their
anniversary cake. It misses.  

She
gives him a big anniversary kiss with an electrified wire. He is energized by it.  

She
offers him some fresh air out on the balcony (which they don’t have)
and pushes his wheelchair headlong out the terrace doors. Helen
thinks she’s finally succeeded in offing him, but he comes rolling
through the opposite door a few moments later, his wheelchair now a
mash-up of a trash can and mobility device.

Helen
finally slips Edgar a mickey that does the trick – but first he
calls up the newspaper to place his own obituary. The sketch has a
twist ending with the entrance of Helen’s paramour (Barry Van Dyke),
who may be trying to do the same thing to her!  

Dick
and Lucy are having some banter as themselves when Andy
Kaufman
arrives with his tape player wanting to be on the show. Although Dick
says that Andy should just go away, Lucy says that she’s seen Andy on
the show before, and that he always interrupts guests, and they’ve
all been very good sports about it. Lucy says that she just doesn’t
happen to be one and swiftly exits. Dick says Andy has previously
insulted Carl Reiner (S1;E4), Hal Linden (S1;E5), John Denver
(S1;E3), and now Lucy. Dick exits to find a security guard.  

Alone
with the audience, Kaufman starts with an imitation of “Sanford and
Son” saying (in his inimitable way, with clipped diction and
seemingly incapable of imitating Redd Fox) 

“Elizabeth.
I am coming to join you.”

He then tackles ‘the Fonzie’ from “Happy Days”: 

“Eh.
Eh. Sit on it you stupid nerd.” 

Again without a trace of intonation or nuance. Finally he does a sped
up Elvis Presley imitation. [This song has been omitted from the DVD
release, probably due to song royalty fees. It is apparent that it
has been edited out because the sketch on video quickly fades out and
Kaufman had not yet used the tape recorder he brought onstage at the
start.]

In
another silent pantomimed sketch (the second of the show), Lucy and
Dick play tourists taking photographs in a Tropical
Forest. 

To get the perfect photo, Lucy and Dick virtually destroy the forest,
breaking off twigs, pulling up flowers, and cutting down trees.
Luckily, their picnic hamper comes equipped with a hacksaw and
dynamite! 

In a final act of desecration, Lucy bulldozes the entire
area clear, turning the lush setting… 

…into a parking lot!

Dick
plays a long-haired Maestro
(in sneakers) but instead of an orchestra, he conducts dancers. When
the dancers go from classical to modern, the Maestro nearly gives up
trying to control them, but when the music turns to a Broadway sound,
even he joins in.

In
the closing, Dick sings “You
Make It So Easy”
to Lucy. The two do some simple, yet funny, dance steps as well.

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This
Date in Lucy History – December 9

“Lucy
and the Military Academy”
(TLS S2;E10) – December 9, 1963

“Guess
Who Owes Lucy $23.50”
(HL S1;E11) – December 9, 1968

“An
All-Star Party for Lucille Ball” – December 9, 1984