I was the class clown, you know, that kind of thing, and I gathered around me a group of guys who also were silly. I was in all the plays and everything. But I don't know, at that time show businesses looked like the moon, you know, it was so far away. I wanted to be a radio announcer.
— Dick Van Dyke
I've had a lot of writers, in particular, who said they got into writing because of the 'Van Dyke Show.' They said it looked like fun.
I was a 'Laurel and Hardy' nut. I got to know Laurel at the end of his life, and it was a great thrill for me. He left me his bow tie and derby and told me that if they ever made a movie about him, he'd want me to play him.
As wonderful as they were, my parents didn't teach me anything about self-discipline, concentration, patience, or focus. If I hadn't had a family myself, I probably never would've done anything. Marriage taught me responsibility.
I did a 'Golden Girls' once, which shot in front of an audience, and that went well. I had a good time. But I need an audience, for comedy at least.
When I was a kid, I had ambitions for being a television announcer, which was before television took off, you know, in the late '40s. And just through necessity, going out looking for work, I was starting to sing, and dance, and act, and I never expected to do that, nor to have any success at it at least.
Stan said he used to keep Hardy late, make him miss his golf game, and really get him mad.
So as my kids will tell you, they had a pretty normal life.
Oh, I had an idea for a pilot of my own at the time, and then Carl sent me about eight scripts and simply I threw my idea out the window because the writing was just so good.
My son Barry, of course, has been on from the beginning. And his son Shane is playing now a med student regularly on the show. And at one point or another, I've had all four of his kids on the show.
I was always in show business but in many ways was not really of show business. I didn't move in show business circles, particularly, still don't do it.
I think the saddest moment in my life just happened two months ago. My old nightclub partner passed away, Phil Erickson down in Atlanta. He - I owe him everything. He put me in the business and taught me about everything I know.
I never made a good movie.
I grew up in Danville, Illinois, right in the middle of the state.
I cannot tell you what it means when children recognize. This is about the third generation for me. And when kids that small recognize me, it really pleases me, very gratifying.
Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American, and like Twain, we'll likely not see another like him.
Today, if you're not an alcoholic, you're nobody.
I played a killer twice. Once on 'Matlock,' on Andy Griffith's show, I got to play the killer.
Once you get the kids raised and the mortgage paid off and accomplish what you wanted to do in life, there's a great feeling of: 'Hey, I'm free as a bird.'
In my seventies, I exercised to stay ambulatory. In my eighties, I exercise to avoid assisted living.
My brother and I laughed a lot as kids. We came up in the middle of the Depression, and neither one of us knew we were poor. We had nothing, but we didn't know it.
I like 'The Office.' I particularly like the British version with Ricky Gervais. Of course, I liked the 'Seinfeld' show a lot. I thought that was an awfully good show.
You know, I'm almost out of the habit of watching episodic television now.
So I think we're kind of an alternate choice for people who have had it with sex and violence.
Probably one of the happiest moments, outside the birth of all of my kids, was the first time we won an Emmy, that the show won an Emmy. That was a big night.
No, no, it was the relationships. That was that group. People believed that Rob and Laura were really married in real life. You know, a lot of people believed that.
My kids are so much better parent than I was.
I wanted to be a radio announcer.
I think most people will tell you that. They can go along and, while they're denying that they are addicted, say it's stress this, it's this, it's that. But I - it's - I think - I really believe there is a gene. Some people become addicted and others don't.
I loved to fall down.
I don't think we've got much of a chance to tell you the truth. But our main problem is our audience skews a little older than most shows, and I don't think our people can stay up that late. I certainly can't.
But once we got on the air, everybody except Morey Amsterdam pretty much stuck to the script.
A lot of violence, a lot of gore in it, and I just didn't want to do that kind of thing.
Women will never be as successful as men because they have no wives to advise them.
Somebody asked what I wanted on my gravestone. I'm just going to put: 'Glad I Could Help.'
I asked Fred Astaire once when he was about my age if he still danced, and he said 'Yes, but it hurts now.' That's exactly it. I can still dance, too, but it hurts now!
When I started having kids, I thought, 'I don't want to do anything they can't watch.'
I have four kids, seven grandkids, and four great-grandkids. Maybe I can become a great-great-grandfather if I hang on!
I can't work with my brother without laughing.
We had all week to rehearse. An audience would come in at the end of the week and we'd our little show. Most of the ad- libbing happened during the week on the show.
So at 16 I got a job at the local radio station. And I was working after school and weekends. I did the news; I did everything. I did - played records.
Oh, well, my first love is comedy or singing and dancing.
No, I did night clubs right here in Los Angeles. My partner, Phil Erickson, put me in the business, a guy from my home town, a dear friend who we just lost a couple of months ago.
I've retired so many times now it's getting to be a habit.
I turned down some movies that were quite good. mainly on the basis of taste.
I think it's being thrown at the wolves, we call it in our business.
I have four children and I have seven grandkids.
I don't have any children; I have four middle-aged people.
But I wish they would make a musical of some kind. I miss musicals so much. You don't see them anymore.
I learned everything that I know about comedy and about show business and a lot about life from Carl.
