Seven and a Half Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About "The Dick Van Dyke Show"

It's been over 50 years since "The Dick Van Dyke Show" ended its run, but the show has really never left the airwaves -- its blend of sophisticated and slapstick humor set a sitcom standard that has rarely been matched. What else is there to say? We attempt a few things, including which cast member almost left the show, which actress was almost cast as Laura Petrie and what episode caused the most controversy for creator Carl Reiner.

Sources:

The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book, by Vince Waldron

My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Buisness: A Memoir, by Dick Van Dyke

"Dick Van Dyke: 'Supernormal' Comedian," Richard Gehman, TV Guide, December 8, 1962

" 'The Dick Van Dyke Show': They've Got No Kick Coming," TV Guide, March 27, 1965

"Rehearsing a 'Dick Van Dyke Show,' " Leslie Raddatz, TV Guide, February 26, 1966

"The Andy Griffith Show" and How It Grew

“The Andy Griffith Show” is Griffith’s best work — certainly his most personal. It was never out of TV’s Top 10 programs for its entire eight-season run, and it inspired a spinoff series, a TV movies and several reunion specials. Fifty years after it left the air, the reruns continue. Griffith never won an Emmy Award, but he was the guiding creative force behind the show, building it into a situation comedy with heart as well as humor — and shaping the relationship between himself and Don Knotts, as deputy Barney Fife, to reflect the relationship between two friends in one of his favorite radio shows, the comic serial “Lum and Abner.”

Sources:

"Andy Griffith: Cornball with the Steel-Trap Mind," Lee Edson, TV Guide, January 28 and February 4, 1961

" 'The Andy Griffith Show' Has H.A.Q. (High Acceptability Quotient)," TV Guide, May 11, 1963

"The Wondrous Andy Griffith TV Machine," Richard Warren Lewis, TV Guide, July 13 and July 20, 1968

The Andy Griffith Show, by Richard Kelly

The Andy Griffith Show Book, by Ken Beck and Jim Clark

"Richard Linke, Andy Griffith's Talent Manager, Dies at 98," Sam Roberts, The New York Times, June 20, 2016