TONIGHT
E-mail a friendDick Van Dyke
airdate December 17, 2008
One of America's most adored comedians, Dick Van Dyke is also gifted at singing, dancing, acting, writing and illustrating. He's entertained audiences for more than five decades, with credits that include roles on TV, stage and film. He secured his place in TV history with The Dick Van Dyke Show and starred in and exec-produced the hit show, Diagnosis Murder. Van Dyke has won multiple Emmys and a Grammy for his versatile work. He's written two books and narrates the award-winning documentary, The Wonder Kids.
Actor-comedian reflects on his career and explains why acting was not his best gift. (2:12)
Full interview. (10:04)
Dick Van Dyke
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Dick van Dyke back to this program. The iconic TV star helped define modern television with the groundbreaking comedy that, of course, bore his name, "The Dick Van Dyke Show." It ran for five seasons back in the early '60s and earned a slew of Emmy awards. His latest project, though, is a documentary about a wonderful dance studio here in south L.A. that's fostered the careers of a number of notable names in the world of dance. Here now, a scene from "The Wonder Kids."
[Clip]
Tavis: Glad to have you back, sir.
Dick Van Dyke: Thank you so much, Tavis.
Tavis: You been all right?
Van Dyke: Oh, yeah, I'm fine, thank you. I'm so impressed - you've had such valuable people on this show and are so expert at drawing them out, I'm just daunted to be here.
Tavis: Well, believe me, you're kind to come back. Let's see if I can draw something out of you today. (Laughter) I want to start with - I want to come back to "The Wonder Kids" in just a second, but there is a piece in this documentary that most - a quote specifically from Arlene, one of the co-founders of the studio, that spoke mostly so profoundly to me, and she says in the documentary that this isn't about dance, it's about raising human beings. It's not about dance.
Van Dyke: Making whole human beings.
Tavis: Raising whole human beings. I thought about what happened, where we went off-track in this country with valuing art, with valuing culture as a way to raise whole human beings. Where did we go wrong with that? You appreciate the arts. Where did we go wrong?
Van Dyke: Well, I know that a lot of the schools around the Los Angeles district don't have a music department or an art department any longer. That's the first place they make the cuts, which I think is the wrong - that's not too selective. There are schools in this town that don't have an art department or a music department.
And I talked to a young man who runs a music department at a high school who maxed out his own credit card just to buy some music. So I think our emphasis on commercialism has gone way, way over, because that's what makes a human being - a sensitive, feeling human being.
Tavis: Tell me about the role that art and music has played in your life and your career.
Van Dyke: Oh, everything. Music, and I was one of those people who married very, very young and didn't take any training, (laughter) so I thank my kids for giving me the desperation. I had to learn to dance, I had to learn to sing, I had to learn to do that after the fact, but it's been an exciting experience for me. (Laughter) Scary.
Tavis: Tell me about how you got connected to this documentary, then, "The Wonder Kids?"
Van Dyke: I saw the documentary and I said, "Please, let me narrate this." This is something - I was so energized and optimistic and full of hope when I saw it, and of course I wanted to get up and dance. I guarantee if you watch this whole thing you'll go take tap-dance lessons.
The joy that these kids have - that couple, Arlene and Carl, started a little dance studio many years ago with kids from South Central, for nothing. Carl used to get on the bus with his boom box, go to the inner city parks, and if he saw a kid that had something, he would start teaching him and would bring him in.
A lot of parents, they had crack parents or absent parents; he fed them. He went to see their teachers about their grades. He practically raised these kids. He had a short time when he went to New York and choreographed for Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight, but he missed those kids. They came back in this little, teeny studio, have turned out more dancers on Broadway and movies and TV than any studio in the world.
And they have all these little kids called the Wonder Kids, and they've danced in China and all over the world. The best story in this thing is they were walking to the studio one night in South Central; three guys mugged them and held them up for their money. And Carl said, "Is this all you do, just rob people? You got anything else you do? You got any moves?" They said, "Yeah, we got some moves."
And they showed them a couple of things. So Carl laid some moves on them, got them down to the studio, taught them - all three became professional dancers and other gang members started coming in to learn those moves. I don't know how many kids he has saved from a gang life, from a life of crime, just by giving them the joy of dancing.
As you say, making them a whole human being. They were so much more than teachers of those kids; they were parents and guardians and role models.
Tavis: Who knew that dance had the power to do all that?
Van Dyke: They did. They did. There's many, many stories other than the Kennedys that I know about of teaching autistic kids who suddenly became aware of their surroundings after learning to dance. Some cognition came. There's something about the movement.
And of course, Gregory Hines, Donald O'Connor, (unintelligible) all were involved with these people. Carl passed away some years ago and Arlene Kennedy is still running that place. And little - you drive by, you wouldn't even notice it. And she's got me down there, because I never really learned to dance, and Arlene's got me down there shuffling.
Tavis: Oh, come on, you're being modest now - you're being modest.
Van Dyke: I'm a great fake. (Laughter)
Tavis: Sometimes you got to fake it till you make it, as they say. But you've got some moves yourself. How did you get turned on to dance?
Van Dyke: Well, I auditioned for a play, for a musical, "Bye, Bye, Birdie," back in 1960, and I didn't know how to dance, but I was desperate for work. So I got up - Gower Champion was the choreographer. I got up and went, "Once in love with Amy," and did a little soft-shoe, and he said, "I think you can do it." He gave me the part right on the spot. (Laughter)
So I had about three months to learn to dance, and I said, "Where has this been all my life?" There's such - it's like flying. There's such joy in it.
Tavis: How often do you get a chance to do - do you really get a chance to -
Van Dyke: Any time I get on a good, hard floor like this, you'll see me tapping. Waiting for elevators, in the bank. (Laughter)
Tavis: I'm sure folk get a kick out of that, don't they?
Van Dyke: Always.
Tavis: I saw Dick van Dyke in the bank today, tap-dancing in the elevator.
Van Dyke: I'm tapping everywhere.
Tavis: What do you make of this career that you have been able to fashion when you look back on it, with as much - in the rear-view mirror as you have?
Van Dyke: My jaw is still - I'm still like that because I really expected nothing of myself. I had thought maybe I could become a television announcer or something, because I didn't do anything, or think I could. What has happened is just - I'm flabbergasted every morning. I say thank you. I just can't believe what's happened to me.
Tavis: When did you know, though - you made a point a moment ago that when you finally got into the dancing thing you realized this is something that you should have been doing long ago.
Van Dyke: Oh, of course.
Tavis: When did this thing, this acting thing, hit you, and you knew I really enjoy doing this, even though -
Van Dyke: Well, acting's never been my best thing. Some people say, "Do you like acting," and I always say, "I don't know, I've never tried it." (Laughter) I kind of play myself.
Tavis: So that's a funny admission from you. If not acting, what do you think your gift really is, then?
Van Dyke: Well, performing. I love to perform; I love an audience. I love television, as long as there's an audience; I connect with them. Without an audience, I really am not very good. If I'm enjoying myself, I'm good. If I'm not, I stink. That's about it.
Tavis: So tell me how you survived, then, and did such high-quality work those five years on "The Dick Van Dyke Show?"
Van Dyke: Luck. Pure luck.
Tavis: Come on, it's not just luck.
Van Dyke: Well, Carl Reiner's a genius of a writer, and the best cast ever put together that just was such serendipity, that whole experience. And the best five years of my life, of course. I now have a quartet. We sing around town at benefits.
Tavis: The Van Dyke -
Van Dyke: The Vantastix.
Tavis: Vantastix, exactly.
Van Dyke: We sang for the Lakers; we've sang at the City of Hope, and Thanksgiving, we sang down at the Midnight Mission for the kids, and gosh, it was just great. We have a little album; you can find us on Vantastix.com. We sing kid's songs - everything from "Mary Poppins" and Disney and "Sesame Street," but kind of jazz versions. So I'm very busy. All my friends are half my age.
Tavis: Have you always been in love with kids? When one looks at the range of the work that you've done over the years, all throughout there's a love that you seem to have for kids.
Van Dyke: For kids, yeah. That's what struck me about this film. These kids, they start teaching them in diapers, when they're less than two years old. They bring them in there and start them tapping. And I just fell in love with this. I have no involvement in this except I narrated it for the fun of it. I just want people to see it.
I'd love to get it in a film festival or something, because it'll just - it's one of those things that just lifts you when you watch it.
Tavis: I get the sense that you don't want to and have no intentions of slowing down any time soon.
Van Dyke: No, I'm having too much fun. I'm having a ball. We're going to do another version of "Night at the Museum" with Ben Stiller; we're doing a third sequel. And my quartet, we do a lot of dancing and singing. I'm still hoofing, too. It keeps me young.
Tavis: It's amazing. (Laughter) I'm honored to have you on.
Van Dyke: Thank you.
Tavis: This piece is called "The Wonder Kids," and it was - I know that they were delighted and beyond delighted, blessed to have you see this and just want to add your voice to it.
Van Dyke: Just add my voice.
Tavis: That's very kind of you.
Van Dyke: "The Wonder Kids," yeah. Wonderful.
Tavis: Nice to have you on.
Van Dyke: Thank you so much, Tavis.
Tavis: Good to see you again, speaking of wonder kids. Dick van Dyke. He's a wonder, and still a kid. (Laughter)
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