- Larry Matthews, The Dick Van Dyke Show, TV, 1961-1966. Anatomy of a TV classic… After the cumbersomely titled pilot, The Comedy Spot: Head of the Family. 1960 the creator (and star) Carl Reiner sat on it for a year, then showed it to producer Sheldon Leonard. ”Has potential,” he opined. “Needs better actors – including your part.” So a total reboot, all five main characters were re-cast. (One or two was the norm, but five – that was a first for US TV!). Reiner became the boss, Alan Brady. Barbara Britton’s Laura Petrie became, “ya know, da girl with three names” – Mary Tyler Moore. Dick Van Dyke, Broadway’s latest smash (in Bye Bye Birdie), became Rob Petrie, new head of both familes. At home. And at the the office… derived from the writers’ bullpen at Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, TV, 1950-1954, with Buddy and Brady based on Mel Brooks and Sid Caesar. And wherein the writers. Sylvia Miles (remember her 1968 Midnight Cowboyhooker?) and Morty Gunty. were replaced by Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam. The Petrie’s son, Ritchie, was switched from Gary Morgan to Larry Matthews The biggest star of them all proved to be… da girl with three names! Paving the way for two more: Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
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