October 3, 1961: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" Premieres

Left to right: Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon,

Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie and Mary Tyler Moore

October 3, 1961: The CBS sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show premieres. Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) is a writer for a New York-based TV variety show hosted by Alan Brady (Carl Reiner). Also writing for it are Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) and Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam). Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon) was Brady's brother-in-law and producer.

Rob lives in nearby New Rochelle, Westchester County, with his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and their son Richie (Larry Matthews). The pilot episode, "The Sick Boy and the Sitter," has the Petries attending a party at Brady's house, but Laura keeps calling the house to check with the sitter about Richie's condition -- not an easy thing to do in the era before portable telephones.

Occasionally, the show brought in the Petrie's neighbors, Jerry Helper (Jerry Paris), a dentist and Rob's best friend; and his wife Millie Helper (Ann Morgan Guilbert), who had starred in USO shows with Laura. Another recurring character was Stacey Petrie, Rob's brother, played by Dick's real-life brother, Jerry Van Dyke.

Before The Dick Van Dyke Show, there had been "house comedies" and "workplace comedies." This was the 1st TV show to go back-and-forth between its subject's home life and work life. The show ran for 5 seasons.

The 1st season's opening showed still photos from the show. The 2nd season showed a new opening, with the gifted physical comic Van Dyke tripping over an ottoman after coming home to find Laura and Richie visited by Sally and Buddy. Sometimes, the opening would show him stopping himself, and stepping around the ottoman, and these 2 openings would vary for the rest of the show's run. Occasionally, the opening would show him stepping around the ottoman, and tripping anyway.

Reiner also created The Dick Van Dyke Show, and wrote for it, based on his own experience having written for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, along with, among others, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and his brother Danny Simon, and Selma Diamond. When Caesar created the later series Caesar's Hour, the same writers came with him, and Larry Gelbart and Woody Allen were added.

So, essentially, Alan Brady was (hopefully, a very exaggerated version of) Sid, Buddy Sorrell was Mel Brooks, Sally Rogers was Selma Diamond, Rob Petrie was Carl, Laura Petrie was Carl's wife Estelle Reiner, and Richie is their son, actor and now director Rob Reiner. Though I don't think anybody ever called Richie, or Larry Matthews, a "meathead."

Earle Hagen wrote the theme song, and also the "Fishin' Hole" theme to The Andy Griffith Show, and "Harlem Nocturne," and the themes to Make Room for Daddy (a.k.a. The Danny Thomas Show), I Spy, That Girl (starring Marlo Thomas, Danny's daughter) and The Mod Squad.

When The Mary Tyler Moore Show began in 1970, the original idea was to have Mary Richards be divorced, but CBS executives refused: They thought TV viewers would think Laura Petrie had walked out on Rob.

CBS aired The New Dick Van Dyke Show in color from 1971 to 1974, created by Carl Reiner, and starring lots of people who had already starred on hit TV shows (Hope Lange, Fannie Flagg, Richard Dawson, Marty Brill, Barbara Rush) or would go on to (Nancy Dussault, David Doyle, Dick Van Patten, Barry Gordon, Henry Darrow -- and also Broadway legend Chita Rivera).

From 1993 to 2001, Dick starred in Diagnosis: Murder, in which he played a crime-solving doctor. His real-life son, Barry Van Dyke, played the character's son, a Los Angeles police detective. It was specifically stated that his character had served in a M*A*S*H unit during the Korean War, and, among the many guest stars on the show were, at least once, pretty much each member of the cast of M*A*S*H.

Jerry Paris directed a few episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and ended up directing most episode of the sitcom Happy Days, which was created by Garry Marshall. He also directed several episode of The Odd Couple, which Garry also created, and in which he cast his sister, Penny Marshall. Garry also created Laverne & Shirley, a spinoff of Happy Days, with Jerry as a frequent director and Penny as one of the show's 2 main stars. From 1971 to 1981, Penny Marshall was married to Rob Reiner, son of Carl.

Richard Deacon died in 1984, Jerry Paris in 1986, Morey Amsterdam in 1996, Ann Morgan Guilbert in 2016, Mary Tyler Moore and Rose Marie in 2017, Jerry Van Dyke in 2018, and Carl Reiner in 2020, at the age of 98. As of October 3, 2022, Dick Van Dyke (nearly 97) and Larry Matthews are still alive.

UPDATE: Dick Van Dyke turned 100 on December 13, 2025. The very next day, Rob Reiner, 78, and his 2nd wife, Michele Singer, were both stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home.

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October 3, 1961 was a Tuesday. Baseball was between the end of the regular season and the World Series, which the New York Yankees would win over the Cincinnati Reds. Football was in midweek. And it was too soon for the basketball and hockey seasons. So there were no scores on this historic day.