THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

September of 1961 brought us the Petrie family. Rob (Dick Van Dyke) devoted husband and writer for a variety show called The Alan Brady Show, Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) wife, mom and voice of reason for Rob…and of course their son Ritchie played by Larry Matthews.
This show was created by Carl Reiner and was based on his experience as a comedy writer on “Your Show Of Shows”. Dick Van Dyke’s character of Rob was based on Reiner himself while Reiner’s character of Alan Brady was based on his old boss, Sid Ceasar.

COOL TRIVIA ALERT: Wikipedia says that Johnny Carson almost got the role of Rob Petrie but Producer Sheldon Leonard suggested Van Dyke.

Rose Marie played the role of Sally, one of the comedy writers along with the rapid fire “human joke machine” Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam). Morey’s character was loosly based on Mel Brooks when he was a writer for “Your Show Of Shows”.

The show was NOT cancelled but ended on its own when Carl Reiner said he never intended for the show to run more than 5 seasons. It is one of the few popular TV series that actually went out “on top”. Its run ended in June of 1966 but continues in syndication to this day.