Friends is gone now. Next week's Frasier finale will be another emotional tug. For some, the end of a favourite series is like a loss in the family.
But what if you had a chance to say one last goodbye to your TV friends -- 40 years after their show peaked?
Many Boomers are getting that very chance Tuesday night at 9 p.m. as CBS airs The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited, a sweet and remarkably spry sendoff for Rob & Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) and their surviving friends, including Sally Rogers (Rose Marie), Millie Helper (Ann Morgan Guilbert) and bad boss Alan Brady (series creator Carl Reiner).
Instead of the usual nostalgic clip fest, Reiner took the bold step of writing and producing a 159th episode of the series, 38 years after The Dick Van Dyke Show ended its five-year run in 1966. Despite the fact that Reiner and Rose Marie are in their early 80s and that Van Dyke, at 78, isn't far behind (only Moore is still in her 60s), fans will be delighted to see that the stars look great and haven't lost a step in terms of timing and delivery. They're exactly who you'd want them to be at 80 -- just like they were at 30 or 40.
In a conference call to TV critics last month, Van Dyke confessed he never wanted to be Rob Petrie again. It wasn't for any lack of fondness for the character -- quite the opposite.
"Back in the '60s, I used to go see old Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy who lived out in Santa Monica," Van Dyke said.
The actor literally found Laurel in the phone book, called him up, invited himself over and a lasting friendship was formed. When Laurel passed away at 74 in 1965, Van Dyke delivered the eulogy at his funeral. (Ironically, that's the theme to next week's reunion special: Brady is so impressed with Petrie's eulogies for lost comrades Buddy, Jerry and Mel -- played by the late Morey Amsterdam, Jerry Paris and Richard Deacon -- he hires him to write his own eulogy!)
Van Dyke grew up idolizing Stan Laurel. Back in Danville, Ill., he spent every Saturday afternoon at the local movie palace, soaking up the masters: Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and especially Laurel and Hardy.
When Van Dyke started performing pantomimes at local talent shows, he basically stole Laurel's act. So when he finally met the comedy legend at Laurel's modest Santa Monica apartment, "I couldn't believe I was in his presence," Van Dyke recounted in The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book.
The TV star tried to talk Laurel into coming out of retirement and appearing on his show. (Van Dyke once impersonated Laurel on his series, teaming up with former Zorro stooge Henry Calvin as Oliver Hardy in a memorable episode.) But Laurel always said no. "He wouldn't make an appearance and he wouldn't go out in public, because he said, 'I want the audience to remember us as we were.' "
There was some wisdom in that, Van Dyke figured, "because it does give people a chance to say, 'My God look how they've aged.' "
Tuesday's special, thankfully, gives viewers a chance to say, "Look how gracefully they've all aged."
Van Dyke was asked if any younger comedians had ever approached him in the manner he did with Laurel.
"I have had that experience," he said, singling out a Canadian who grew up watching The Dick Van Dyke Show as a lad back in Hamilton, Ont. -- Martin Short.
Another Canadian, Jim Carrey, has paid homage to Van Dyke as an early comedy influence.
Van Dyke said it was a kick to hear from Short some of the things he said to Laurel all those years ago. It made him "hearken back to that time I spent with Stan and just riddled him with questions -- 'How did you do that, how did you think of this.' He was wonderful."
More Artists
