Saluting 65 years of The Dick Van Dyke Show with David Van Deusen

Send us Fan Mail It was 65 years ago this fall that The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered on CBS. The half hour sitcom was not an instant hit, struggled in the ratings hammocked between Marshal Dillon and Bachelor Father and was canceled at the end of its first season. Executive producer Sheldon Leonard refused to give up on the series, created by Carl Reiner, and went to New York to shop for another sponsor. He found a cigarette company that absorbed the cost of half the series and made a second ...