Dick Van Dyke is best remembered as a television comedian in the 1960s and 1970s, but this performer's career has included everything from Broadway to motion pictures to drama, in which he has excelled portraying likeable and sensible characters. His most successful role was as the star of The Dick Van Dyke Show, an Emmy-award-winning sitcom that appeared on the CBS-TV network from 1961 to 1966; he played the role of Rob Petrie, the head writer for the fictional " Alan Brady Show " who lives with his wife (played by Mary Tyler Moore) and son in suburban New Rochelle, New York. The show was unusual for a sitcom of the period in that it allowed its star to portray a "TV Dad" both at home and at work while offering an insightful, behind-the-scenes glimpse of a television sitcom from the inside out.

Dick Van Dyke...