Inside Dick Van Dyke’s CBS special — and how set replicas had him ‘almost in tears’
Dick Van Dyke makes a tear-filled, sentimental return to CBS to celebrate his 98th birthday.
Van Dyke not only revisits his network roots but watches a portion of the star-studded musical gala, “Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic,” from the familiar living room set of his classic sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” so ingrained into the fabric of early 1960s pop culture — and lovingly replicated to within inches of its original form.
It joins a replica of the rooftops and chimneys from “Mary Poppins” and the flying car from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” in recalling Van Dyke’s multi-faceted career in the CBS special, airing Dec. 21 at 9 p.m.
“The star of the show is Dick Van Dyke himself, the legend, but the co-star is the set,” said Craig Plestis, co-executive producer of “Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic.”
Plestis, who developed Fox’s hit series “The Masked Singer,” worked with Van Dyke when he appeared on that show last February (as the Gnome).
“I became friends with Mr. Van Dyke and when it came down to what I could do differently here to make it really special … with my set designer we came up with this idea that when he walks onto the set everything around him would be something from his past, from one of his movies, TV shows … they would all come to life,” Plestis said.
“He was floored and was literally almost in tears when he walked onto the set because it instantly reminded him of everything from ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ to ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ to ‘Mary Poppins.'”
The centerpiece of the stage is the set from “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” The iconic series aired from 1961 to 1966 with co-stars Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, series creator Carl Reiner and Richard Deacon.
“What we did first on the stage itself was re-create an exact replica of ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ living room within an eighth of an inch [of the original],” Plestis said. “We re-created the artwork over the fireplace in the corner that probably no one will ever see, and the knobs on the fireplace. I was joking with the set designer and I said, ‘There are only 42 knobs’ and he said, ‘No, there are 51 — I counted every one of them on the original fireplace.’
“This was a passion project for everyone who loves Dick Van Dyke,” Plestis said. “We searched over every prop house in Hollywood to see if there was anything remaining at all [from the original ‘DVDS’ set] and we couldn’t find anything — except for one item. We found the original lamp that was behind the sofa in a Warner Bros. warehouse and we got it out there to give it a little more authenticity.
“Everything else was handmade and created for the special.”
“The Dick Van Dyke Show” aired in black-and-white — just another challenge for the design team.
“There aren’t a lot of color photographs [of the original set], to be honest,” Plestis said. “We went back and used as many [photos] as they had and did a lot of investigation. The designers looked at plans that were colorized by AI … and we did the best guesstimate what we could from the data we had — and when we went to black-and-white , just to see what it looked like, it matched.
“So I think we did it.”
The living room set can be seen throughout the telecast, even when it’s not center-stage.
“When we have our performances, the ‘Dick Van Dyke Show’ set will separate right down the middle to reveal a gigantic LED stage and screen for our different performances to happen on; you’ll always see the set anchoring the action on the left and right — we never wanted to lose that throughout the show because it was a pivotal point in [Van Dyke’s] career,” Plestis said.
The floor of the stage also includes a big surprise for Van Dyke.
“We found one of the last remaining replicas of the ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ car in America,” Plestis said. “We shipped it from New York and it took a long time to get here and it’s just beautiful.
“We open the show with Mr. Van Dyke in the car and it’s really magical.”
Performers, and stars giving testimonials, include Amber Reilly, Jason Alexander, Beth Behrs, JoJo Siwa, Brad Garrett, Rob Reiner, Ted Danson, Carol Burnett, Julie Andrews and Rita Ora.
“Rita was in London prepping for an O2 concert but she grew up watching ‘Mary Poppins’ and said, ‘I’m flying in and doing this,’ ” Plestis said. “Rufus Wainwright does ‘Hushabye Mountain’ from ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,’ Tony Danza does ‘A Spoonful of Sugar,’ Weird Al does the original lyrics from ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ theme song — written by Morey Amsterdam — and we also have Zach Levi doing ‘Jolly Holiday.’ “
Van Dyke joins in on the fun in his usual enthusiastic way.
“You’ll see him sing in the show and also join in a lot of singalongs with the performers — he can’t hold back,” Plestis said.
“And he does a heartfelt speech at the end that will bring a tear to everyone’s eyes.”
