The other night I attended a Television Academy tribute to Carl Reiner.
Among his many credits across multiple media, Reiner created The Dick Van Dyke Show (and frequently appeared as “Alan Brady’).
Here’s the one I’ll bet you didn’t know.
According to Reiner, the last name of the lead character, “Rob Petrie,” was supposed to be pronounced “Pee-tree.” Reiner took the name from the noted film director, Dan Petrie.
But no one told Dick Van Dyke, who arrived for the first day of rehearsals having learned his script and thinking of himself as “Peh-Tree.”
Reiner decided not to correct him, because he didn’t want Van Dyke to have that split second during which he mentally would be correcting the pronunciation of his character’s name.
The “Walnuts” Episode, Interesting Thing #1
Although it’s commonly believed “It May Look Like A Walnut” was a satire of horror films, at the time Carl Reiner was enamored of The Twilight Zone, and this episode came from his desire to do a Zone-like story.
The “Walnuts” Episode, Interesting Thing #2
At one point in the story, Rob asks a visitor if he’s Danny Thomas (who co-owned the actual show).
Danny Thomas, playing the role of the mysterious visitor, replied disdainfully, “WHAT is a Danny Thomas?”
That’s actually a callback to Rose Marie (“Sally”)’s response when her agent called and said, “They want you to go talk to them about a role on ‘The Dick Van Dkye Show.'”
She repeated the story the other night for the umpteenth time: “I said, ‘What’s a Dick Van Dkye?'”
The “Walnuts” Episode, Bonus Thing
One of the guests — I think it was Bill Persky — reported that a CBS executive objected to one line in the script. I don’t know which line it was, but the executive’s complaint was, “I don’t believe an alien being would say that.”
Enjoy.
