The newest American Masters documentary, Starring Dick Van Dyke, takes a look back at the nearly eight-decade career of the American stage, TV, and film star. The documentary premieres on PBS one day prior to Dick Van Dyke’s 100th birthday. Starring Dick Van Dyke is a fitting tribute as he hits the century mark.

A lot of performers would settle for just being a Broadway, TV, or film star. But Dick Van Dyke? In nearly eight decades, he’s been so multifaceted that he was able to reinvent his career time and time again. When the comedy offers dried up, he turned to drama. When Diagnosis Murder ended, he turned to character roles every now and then. But to think, none of this happens without starting out as a radio DJ and nightclub performer. But in all honesty, it took one bad Carl Reiner pilot and the rest is history. If Head of the Family had worked out, he’d never have found his way to The Dick Van Dyke Show. The rest is history.

But thanks to those iconic performances in The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, and Chity Chitty Bang Bang, Van Dyke has been able to influence a number of entertainers working today. Not many people can say that they’ve inspired multiple generations but the American icon—let him never perform another Cockney accent—has been doing so for nearly eight decades. Along the way, he’s won 6 Emmys, a Tony, and a Grammy. Only Oscar has eluded him throughout his career as the actor never found the right role that could earn the prestigious award.

It was a hundred years ago on December 13, 1925, that Dick Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Mo. He would grow up in Danville, Ill., participating in both choir and drama club. It was during his time as a radio DJ in Danville that he first formed The Merry Mutes with Phil Erickson. The comedy duo toured nightclubs across America, paving the way for Van Dyke to transition to TV, with a stint co-anchoring The CBS Morning Show with Walter Cronkite. Imagine that, two icons known for very different things and working side by side!

It wasn’t until landing the role of Albert Peterson in Broadway’s Bye Bye Birdie that Van Dyke finally got a breakthrough moment in his career. But he had a family to feed and didn’t think a career on Broadway would be enough. Television soon beckoned and he landed The Dick Van Dyke Show in 1961, acting opposite another comedy legend, Mary Tyler Moore. His Hollywood success wasn’t just limited to TV as he would take part in a number of classic movies and then reinvent himself again as a variety TV star. He replaced Harvey Korman on The Carol Burnett Show, but the show just didn’t suit his talent.

“The one thing about The Dick Van Dyke Show is everyone should know this about show business,” comments Martin Short. “Being in a hit is a fluke. There’s no guarantees. It’s just when the stars line up. That’s why I wish he’d done the show longer.”

Ted Danson is no stranger to comedies. He’s starred on multiple sitcoms, including Cheers, Becker, The Good Place, and most recently, A Man on the Inside. “If you wanna watch a show and watch a performer over and over again in your living room, you’re gonna want someone you want to spend time with,” says Danson. “Funny that they make you laugh. That’s what Dick did. He gave people a laugh. He uplifted people and he did it in such an elegant, funny, extraordinary way.”

He’s not wrong. I think back to the bulk of the pandemic and turning to comfort viewing over the option to watch new things. Why watch something that I don’t know if I’ll connect with when I can just turn to the classics that I know I’ll enjoy watching? Come to think of it, I came close to watching the entire runs of The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show during the pandemic, but didn’t get around to doing so. That being said, I do own all five seasons of the Carl Reiner-created series. Where older fans will appreciate Starring Dick Van Dyke, it’s a nice way of introducing him to new fans.

“I think that if you’re Dick Van Dyke, you can go from Broadway to television to movies and it’s just a different muscle,” comments Short. “So that reinventing yourself if simply surviving in show business. So I think that he no doubt went from great opportunity to great opportunity. And if you have a great deal of talent, then you can do it.”

What Starring Dick Van Dyke shows is that the legendary performer was able to reinvent his career numerous times. He didn’t limit himself to just one thing. Where I first took note of Dick Van Dyke as an actor wasn’t in Mary Poppins, Bye Bye Birdie, or even Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. No, it was through his work on the 1993-2001 CBS mystery medical crime drama Diagnosis Murder. There was no gore or violence, which made it such a friendly series for Van Dyke fans to introduce their children to the legend.

Van Dyke discussed the series in an archival interview featured in Starring Dick Van Dyke:

“There is not another show like it on the air. Sometimes we’re an open murder mystery, sometimes we’re not. Sometimes we’re a comedy, sometimes we’re a dark comedy. So we have almost become the variety show of murder mystery. I am so surprised to be working at my age now. I had no idea that I would be, that anybody would want me to. So it is very satisfying.”

At this time, notes Eric Deggans, centering murder mysteries around a performer who was popular with older audiences. This was the case with Buddy Ebsen and Barnaby Jones, Angela Lansbury and Murder, She Wrote, and Andy Griffith and Matlock. Deggans felt that taking a star of Van Dyke’s caliber was “a no-brainer.”

And to think, Van Dyke was initially hesitant to do the pilot when he was in his 60s. He was 65 at the time and didn’t feel up to doing an hour-long pilot. However, he did it as a favor to Freddie Silverman. And yet, he did the series until he was 75 years old. He would go onto take on smaller roles in a variety of projects, showing up as Ted Danson’s father in Becker.

In Starring Dick Van Dyke, Conan O’Brien shares an anecdote about meeting Van Dyke when he was a guest on his show. O’Brien comments that he had an outer body experience, woven against a clip from the appearance. Van Dyke made three appearances on Conan’s TBS show.

Van Dyke showed no signs of slowing down in his 90s. He tapped danced as Mr. Dawes in Mary Poppins Returns. He became the oldest actor to win a Daytime Emmy Award for a guest role in Days of Our Lives back in 2023. Just last year, he went viral in a Coldplay music video.

“If I had to sum up how Dick will be remembered, it would be that he is the consummate performer,” adds Mary Poppins co-star Julie Andrews.

Steve Martin refers to Van Dyke as “a special niche that you can’t define. He’s had this fabulous television career. He had a fabulous movie career. He has a likeability factor of 10.”

“I think he is remembered and will be remembered as a multi-talented performer whom I, you would like to know,” adds Carol Burnett.

Starring Dick Van Dyke doesn’t really capture new interviews with the legend. Instead, they talk with co-stars and some notable entertainers. It helps to capture not just who he is as a performer but his impact as a performer. I don’t even mind that Van Dyke is limited to archival footage. He’s not a young man anymore! If anything, I wish Starring Dick Van Dyke, which runs nearly two hours, gave a little bit more attention to some of the films that barely got as much of a blip, such as Fitzwilly, which also features one of the earliest John Williams film scores. Still, Starring Dick Van Dyke succeeds in painting a comprehensive portrait of the performer’s legacy.

Starring Dick Van Dyke is a celebration of an extraordinary career and how one man was able to become a star across stage and screen. Thank you for everything and happy 100th birthday, Dick Van Dyke!

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: John Scheinfeld
FEATURING: Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Jim Carrey, Ted Danson, Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, Martin Short, Karen Dotrice, Victoria Rowell, Larry Matthews, Pat Boone, Walter Cronkite, Sheldon Leonard, Bill Persky, John Rich, Rose Marie, Mary Tyler Moore, Carl Reiner

Starring Dick Van Dyke airs December 12, 2025 at 9 PM ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS App. Grade: 5/5

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