Sunday, January 7, 2018

Jerry Van Dyke (1931-2018)

A year ago, Dick Van Dyke lost his most famous leading lady, Mary Tyler Moore. On Friday, his brother, Jerry, passed away at 86.

Jerry Van Dyke was one of those performers who seemed to work best as a supporting player rather than as a lead, much like, for example, Tim Conway. After a few appearances on brother Dick's show, Jerry was brought in as part of Judy Garland's repertory company for her variety show, but left the series before its lone season ended. In 1965, he landed his first lead role in a sitcom, in the infamous My Mother The Car for NBC. That, as we all know, lasted just 1 season. So did Accidental Family (1967), also for NBC.

Van Dyke then went back to doing stand-up comedy, and appeared on the usual variety shows (i.e. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show). Then, in 1979, he was given one more chance at his own hit show, but 13 Queens Boulevard, a spring replacement for ABC, was another non-starter. Van Dyke was the only male regular in a female dominated cast, led by Eileen Brennan.

However, fate finally smiled on Van Dyke when he was cast as assistant coach Luther Van Dam on Coach, co-starring with Craig T. Nelson and Shelley Fabares. Coach was a huge hit for ABC. In later years, Van Dyke would resurface on Yes, Dear (CBS) and, most recently, The Middle, in which brother Dick made a guest appearance, returning the favor for the times Jerry had appeared on his show back in the 60's.

Rather than pull something from The Dick Van Dyke Show, Coach, or any of the others, we're going back to 1965, not for My Mother The Car, but the 5th season finale of The Andy Griffith Show. This was the last black & white episode of the series, and the second of two set at the Mayberry carnival. Van Dyke's character is out of a job, but Andy's looking for a new deputy, now that Barney Fife (Don Knotts) has left Mayberry (which happened 2 episodes earlier)......

Edit, 9/29/21: Unfortunately, Dailymotion deleted the video for copyright reasons. In its place is another series Jerry Van Dyke starred in, albeit briefly, 1979's 13 Queens Boulevard:



Rest in peace, Jerry.

4 comments:

magicdog said...

For a long time Jerry always seemed to be the butt of jokes - as if he were the less talented brother with a penchant for picking bad projects.

True, he was better suited for being a 2nd banana, but he was good at it! Half the fun was watching his antics on his brother's show when Rob's brother, "Stacy" would visit and he would "sleepwalk". Funny stuff there - Burford!!

I've never seen "My Mother The Car", but according to Rowdy C's review on his TV Trash channel, the show wasn't bad for the era. The comedy bits were about on par with many other sitcoms then, it's just audiences didn't like the idea of their mom being reincarnated into a soulless object like a car. Quite frankly I'm not crazy about it either.

He did end up choosing that show over being Gilligan in "Gilligan's Island" though.

RIP Jerry, and may you be reunited with your late, troubled daughter.

hobbyfan said...

I have My Mother the Car archived here at the Land of Whatever, along with Accidental Family and 13 Queens Boulevard. A Coach review will be up soon.

magicdog said...

I watched the episode with Jerry being selected as Andy's deputy replacement (following Don Knott's departure) and I really think he would have been great had he stayed in the role! While he may never have the chemistry Knotts had with Griffith, he had the same naturally comical vibe.

hobbyfan said...

If they kept him around, there's no "My Mother The Car" or "Accidental Family". Instead, Jack Burns was brought in later on, and he wasn't around too long.