{"id":11239,"date":"2011-10-15T00:01:55","date_gmt":"2011-10-15T07:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?p=11239"},"modified":"2011-10-14T20:10:37","modified_gmt":"2011-10-15T03:10:37","slug":"dick-van-dyke-show-carl-reiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/dick-van-dyke-show-carl-reiner\/","title":{"rendered":"AT LEAST ONE THING YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT “THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other night I attended a Television Academy tribute to Carl Reiner.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Among his many credits across multiple media, Reiner created The Dick Van Dyke Show<\/em> (and frequently appeared as “Alan Brady’).<\/p>\n

Here’s the one I’ll bet you didn’t know.<\/p>\n

According to Reiner, the last name of the lead character, “Rob Petrie,” was supposed to be pronounced “Pee-tree.<\/em>” Reiner took the name from the noted film director, Dan Petrie.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n\"They<\/a>\n

The “Walnuts” Episode, Interesting Thing #1<\/h3>\n

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,<\/em> and this episode came from his desire to do a Zone-like story.<\/p>\n

The “Walnuts” Episode, Interesting Thing #2<\/h3>\n

At one point in the story, Rob asks a visitor if he’s Danny Thomas<\/strong><\/span> (who co-owned the actual show).<\/p>\n

Danny Thomas, playing the role of the mysterious visitor, replied disdainfully, “WHAT is a Danny Thomas?”<\/em><\/p>\n

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.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

She repeated the story the other night for the umpteenth time: “I said, ‘What’s a Dick Van Dkye?'”<\/em><\/p>\n

The “Walnuts” Episode, Bonus Thing<\/h3>\n

One of the guests \u2014 I think it was Bill Persky<\/strong><\/span> \u2014 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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Enjoy.<\/p>\n