Dick Van Dyke & Company

Emmy Award Winner Is A Winner On DVD
Van Dyke And Company was the brainchild of Allan Blye and Bob Einstein (Super Dave) for a new NBC comedy/variety show. In the 1970's, comedy/variety shows were very popular with such shows as The Carol Burnett Show, Sonny and Cher, Joey (Heatherton) and Dad and Redd Foxx. Einstein and Blye felt Dick Van Dyke was a perfect fit for a comedy/variety show to highlight his many talents and those of the many guest stars that would be showcased.

A one hour pilot was made and televised on September 20th, 1976, Monday night on NBC. The show included regulars Andy Kaufman, Pat Proft, Marilyn Sokol and the Los Angeles Mime Company to star with Dick Van Dyke in the many humorous sketches. The first guests on this pilot were Chevy Chase and Flip Wilson.

The show won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy/Variety Series and a Peoples Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer In A New TV Program for Van Dyke. The show was a big hit, but unbelievably canceled after only 3 months...

12 Episodes plus Bonuses by the Great Comedy By the Legendary Dick Van Dyke and guests plus '70s music!
This series of 12 hour-long comedy-music-variety series (which includes the pilot special with guests Mary Tyler Moore, Carl Reiner and Ike & Tina Turner) brought out the many talents of the wonderful Dick Van Dyke.

There are comedy sketches with Dick, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball and other greats plus musical numbers by John Denver, KC & The Sunshine Band and many more favorites. One of the shows is a Christmas program, which is an extra treat.

It's terrific to see these rare shows appear after being buried for over 35 years and a nice "sequel" to repeated viewings of
the classic "Dick Van Dyke Show" sitcom from the '60s.

Funny, charming, though with a few clunkers
Like any variety series, this show has it's share of clunker moments. Usually it's the filler dance sequences. One especially head-scratching bit features Dick and Freddie Prinze as disco-dancing magicians? But again, you get clunker segments in any variety series - SNL, Carol Burnett, whatever. You can always fast forward.

Overall the show is very entertaining, charming and funny. The Christmas episode is good enough to be re-run as an annual special.

And if you're an Andy Kaufman fan, then this is pretty much a "must-have" as he gets several opportunities to shine, do his best bits.

It's a shame the series didn't get at least full season's run. As others have pointed out, it won the Emmy for best Comedy-Variety series that year.

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