The best TV sitcom ever to grace the small screen is The Dick Van Dyke show.  Created by Carl Reiner, it starred a cast of brilliant comedians including Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, and Carl Reiner himself.  Garry Marshall (of Happy Days fame) was a writer for the show.

If you aren’t familiar with the show: it’s about a TV writer who uses his experiences at home with his wife and son to inspire the comedy scripts he writes for the show.  Dick Van Dyke stars as the writer, Rob Petrie, with Mary Tyler Moore as his wife, Laura.  This show is important to me for two reasons — it’s partly to blame for my desire to write for TV/Film.  It looks like so much fun.  The other reason — Laura was my first crush.  Those capri pants and that 60′s hair… wow.

A few weeks ago, Josh and I had the pleasure of attending the 50th Anniversary of the show held at The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.  Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, and Garry Marshall spoke for about an hour and they showed 3 classic episodes on the big screen.  (That was a rare treat.)

As we waited for the show to begin, a woman was wheeled into the auditorium and an applause errupted.  It took Josh and myself just a few seconds to realize who the woman was.  Rose Marie.  This woman is a living legend.  She’s been performing since she was Baby Rose Marie when she was three years old.  She always had a trademark bow in her hair, always on one side.

There were also a ton of guest stars and relatives of the cast and crew.  One of the most prolific directors of the show and cast member Jerry Paris’ sons were in attendance and sat a few feet from us.

The entire night was just another reminder that these shows and films we love aren’t made by the superhuman – they’re made by people.  And Josh and I are people.  There’s no reason why we couldn’t do what they do.

We recorded the hour long discussion and I’ve uploaded it for you all to listen to.  There’s a rare treat about 15 minutes in when Dick Van Dyke performs the theme song to the show with his a cappella group, The Vantastix.

Check it out.

And to show you how star struck we were, here’s a terrible picture of Carl Reiner leaving the men’s bathroom after the show.

One side note — my parents introduced us to this show when Nick at Nite ran a marathon of the entire show in the early 90s.  My family was camping that week — we had set the timer on our VCR to record the shows.  But the tapes always ran out with 2 hours left each night.  So, we’d pack the family up and drive all the way back to our home, pop in a fresh tape, and drive back to the camp site.  Every night.  At the time, we thought our parents were a little strange.  But after watching those tapes till they wore out, we now know why this was so important.  Thank God for DVDs.