DICK VAN DYKE AT 99

 Today marks Dick Van Dyke's 99th birthday. He's led an amazing life, and here is an amazing video he just made with Coldplay. It's a tearjerker so have a tissue ready...

AN HONOR FOR CAROL BURNETT

"I remember, I was 10 or 11 years old, and I would put my handprints on Betty Grable's hands, and now they have mine 80 years later," Burnett told our blog.

Carol Burnett is returning to her roots.

On Thursday, June 20, Burnett got her hand and footprints cemented at the famous TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood — and it felt like a blast from the past, she told us. The actress, 91, says she grew up right down the street, and frequented the area often with her grandmother as a child.

“When I was a little girl, I was raised here, just on Yucca and Wilcox, Hollywood Boulevard was my street,” she recalls. “I remember, I was 10 or 11 years old, and I would put my handprints on Betty Grable's hands, and now they have mine 80 years later. Who knew?”

The Annie alum says being there for her own ceremony felt surreal, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was a kid again.

“When I put my hands down there today, I went back to Betty Grable, when I did it with them,” she explains. “All of a sudden I was a little girl again, putting my hands on Betty Grable's prints.”

“This is my roots,” noting that after living in the heart of Hollywood for 21 years, it is “quite a trip” to be in the position she admired so much.

“This [handprint] and then the Star on Hollywood Boulevard is in front of a theater where I worked as an usher,” she reveals. “So I’ve come full circle.”

In her speech, Burnett let out a little secret she had about the TCL theater — one she and her grandmother kept between them. She revealed that after they would splurge to see a Betty Grable movie, they'd get their money's worth from the experience.

"Before we'd leave, my grandmother said, 'Well, let's hit the ladies' room,'" she said before revealing: "So we would go in there and steal all the toilet paper. And she said, 'Well, we'll be set for another month.'"

Burnett was supported by her costars Laura Dern (Palm Royale) and Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul) at the event, along with Dick Van Dyke, who appeared on The Carol Burnett show, which ran from 1967 to 1978. Jimmy Kimmel also spoke in her honor...

DICK VAN DYKE AT 97

When other 97 year olds are in nursing homes or relaxing in their final years, Dick Van Dyke is still working! This week Dick made an appearance on TV's The Masked Singer. Dressed as a gnome, he made a huge splash on The Masked Singer stage.

The wild disguised celebrity singing show returned for its 9th season on Fox Wednesday night, and the first elimination of the evening was touted for weeks as the "the most legendary, decorated and beloved unmasking in history," and they weren't wrong. After performing Billie Holiday's "When You're Smiling," Gnome was the first to get axed.

After taking off the mask, Gnome was revealed to be Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winner Dick Van Dyke, which sent the audience and panelists Robin Thicke, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong, and Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg into quite a tizzy. Scherzinger in particular started to audibly sob in the presence of the beloved Mary Poppins and Dick Van Dyke Show star...

SPECIAL GIVEAWAY - HOLIDAY DVD AND CD

2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, so now more than ever we need some good hearted family entertainment. Director and composer Tim Janis has defintely supplied us with some great entertainment that is suitable for the whole family.

Firstly he directed Buttons: A Christmas Tale in 2018, which starred such legendary actors Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. Also Mr. Janis has put out a CD, titled "All Is Bright". If this does not get you into the Christmas spirit then you are a scrooge. 

You can buy the DVD of Buttons: A Christmas Tale HERE.

You can buy the CD "All Is Bright" HERE.

However, Tim Janis himself has been kind enough to donate a few copies of each, and I would love to give them away to readers of my blog. All you need to do is email me at davidlobosco@yahoo.com and share with me your favorite Christmas memory. I will pick winners on December 7, 2020 and also use your memories in a future blog story.

Again, we need to share great heart warming memories more than ever! Also please support the work of Tim Janis. He is a brilliant entertainer that deserves our support. You can learn more about Tim Janis HERE

Happy Holidays and get your entries in!

RIP: CARL REINER

Carl Reiner, the writer, producer, director and actor who was part of Sid Caesar’s legendary team and went on to create “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and direct several hit films, has died. He was 98.

He died of natural causes on Monday night at his home in Beverly Hills, his assistant Judy Nagy confirmed to Variety.

Reiner, the father of filmmaker and activist Rob Reiner, was the winner of nine Emmy awards, including five for “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” His most popular films as a director included “Oh God,” starring George Burns, in 1977; “The Jerk,” with Steve Martin, in 1979; and “All of Me,” with Martin and Lily Tomlin, in 1984.

In his later years, Reiner was an elder statesman of comedy, revered and respected for his versatility as a performer and multi-hyphenate. He was also adept at social media. He maintained a lively presence on Twitter up until the last day of his life.

Reiner remained in the public eye well into his 80s and 90s with roles in the popular “Ocean’s Eleven” trio of films and on TV with recurring roles on sitcoms “Two and a Half Men” and “Hot in Cleveland.” He also did voice work for shows including “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” “King of the Hill,” and “Bob’s Burgers.”

In 2017, Carl Reiner, his longtime friend and frequent comedy partner Mel Brooks, Norman Lear, Kirk Douglas and other nonagenarian Hollywood legends were featured in the HBO documentary “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” examining the secrets to longevity in a fickle industry.

Reiner first came to prominence as a regular cast member of Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,” for which he won two Emmys in 1956 and 1957 in the supporting category. He met Brooks during his time with Caesar. The two went on to have a long-running friendship and comedy partnership through the recurring “2000 Year Old Man” sketches.

Before creating CBS hit “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” on which he sometimes appeared, Reiner and “Show of Shows” writer Mel Brooks worked up an elongated skit in which Reiner played straight man-interviewer to Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man”; a 1961 recording of the skit was an immediate hit and spawned several sequels, the last of which, 1998’s “The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000,” won the pair a Grammy.

In 1961 Reiner drew on his experiences with Caesar to create and produced “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” a ratings cornerstone for CBS for the next five years. Reiner made guest appearances as the irascible variety show host Alan Brady. The show won Emmys for writing its first three years and for producing its last two. In 1967, Reiner picked up another Emmy for his writing in a reunion variety show with Caesar, Coca and Morris.

Though the “Enter Laughing” movie was modestly received, Reiner continued to direct steadily over the next few decades. “Where’s Poppa?,” an offbeat comedy he directed in 1970, became a cult favorite. Similarly, two other Martin vehicles, the gumshoe spoof “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” and “The Man With Two Brains,” found bigger audiences after their release in theaters.

While the last film he directed was the 1997 romantic comedy “That Old Feeling,” starring Bette Midler and Dennis Farina, Reiner was an active presence in guest roles on television and in supporting roles in films during the 1990s and 2000s, even as he neared and then surpassed his 90th birthday.

He guested on “Frasier” in 1993; reprised the role of Alan Brady on an episode of “Mad About You” in 1995 and won an Emmy for it; and guested on “Ally McBeal,” “Boston Legal” and “House.”

Big screen appearances included 1990’s “The Spirit of ’76,” directed by his son Lucas; “Slums of Beverly Hills” (1998); and all three films in the “Ocean’s Eleven” series...

COMING SOON: BUTTONS - A CHRISTMAS TALE

It is amazing and terrific that well into their 90s that entertainment icons Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury are still make great movies - and a new musical at that! The two legends play guardian angels.

Buttons is a Christmas Tale is the magical, musical story that shows believing can be the greatest gift of all. Follow the heartwarming journey of two orphan girls whose only wish is to find a home for Christmas. With a little help from their guardian angels (screen legends Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury), they discover that miracles really can happen when you find the power to believe. From director Tim Janis, this inspiring holiday film for the whole family features an all-star cast including Jane Seymour, Roma Downey and Abigail Spencer, and is narrated by Kate Winslet and Robert Redford.

The release date of the DVD is December 3, 2019, but you may pre-order at https://paramnt.us/Get.Buttons now! Digital copies of the film will be available, starting November 19, 2019. The digital copy may also be purchased at the same link.

RIP: JERRY VAN DYKE

Jerry Van Dyke, who after decades in show business finally emerged from the shadow of his older brother, Dick, with an Emmy-nominated role in the long-running ABC sitcom “Coach,” died on Friday at his ranch in Arkansas. He was 86.

Jerry’s wife, Shirley Ann Jones, who confirmed the death, said his health had deteriorated since a traffic accident in 2015.

From the beginning, Mr. Van Dyke’s television career was intertwined with his brother’s. One of his earliest TV appearances was in 1962 in a two-part episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” as Stacey Petrie, the would-be comedian brother of Dick’s character, Rob Petrie.

A boisterous performer who supported himself with a banjo-and-comedy stage act when television or film roles were scant, Mr. Van Dyke was a ham to his brother’s more dignified persona. But while Dick had runaway success early on, with the Broadway show and film “Bye Bye Birdie,” the Disney musical “Mary Poppins” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” his brother’s career was long defined by a string of short-lived projects, like “The Judy Garland Show” and the game show “Picture This.”

The worst of his projects was the sitcom “My Mother the Car,” which ran for one notorious season on NBC beginning in September 1965. He played a man who buys a car that contains the spirit of his deceased mother, voiced by Ann Sothern. The premise seems far-fetched, if not bizarre, but fantastical sitcoms like “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Bewitched” became popular around the same time. “My Mother the Car” never caught on and was savaged by critics.

“When people talk about bad television, ‘My Mother the Car’ is the show that pops to mind,” Mr. Van Dyke told The A.P. in 1990.

He went on to have prominent roles in other series that did not last long, like “Accidental Family,” “Headmaster” and “13 Queens Boulevard,” and largely supported himself with his stage show. His brother, meanwhile, enjoyed more success, including a lead role in the 1968 Disney film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a musical about a flying car.

But in 1989 Jerry Van Dyke landed the role of Luther Van Dam, the assistant coach to Craig T. Nelson’s head football coach, Hayden Fox, on “Coach.” They worked together to lead the fictional Minnesota State University Screaming Eagles, often with guest appearances by professional football figures like Troy Aikman, Dick Butkus and Jerry Jones, as well as actors like Lucy Liu, Drew Carey and Mary Hart.

Van Dam, a bumbling, subservient second banana who had occasional moments of pathos, was a reliable source of laughs on the show, which ran until 1997.

Jerry McCord Van Dyke was born on July 27, 1931, in Danville, Ill., to Loren Van Dyke, a traveling salesman, and the former Hazel McCord, a homemaker. He was a little more than five years younger than Dick, and like his brother started a comedy act as a teenager, honing his skills at nightclubs and strip clubs.

“I couldn’t do anything else,” he joked to USA Today in 1990. “I decided to be a comedian at 8 years old and didn’t tend to my studies in school. Had I known how to do anything else, I would have quit. Many times.”

He performed at bases around the world during a stint in the Air Force in the mid-1950s. He appeared as a guest on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” had walk-on roles on “Perry Mason” and “The Andy Griffith Show” and appeared in the John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara Western McLintock! (1963), one of a handful of movies that he acted in.

Mr. Van Dyke married Carol Johnson in the mid-1950s; they divorced in the mid-1970s. Besides his wife, Ms. Jones, and his brother, survivors include a daughter, Jerri Lynne, and a son, Ronald, both from his first marriage; and two grandchildren. Another daughter, Kelly Jean Van Dyke-Nance, died in 1991.

After “Coach,” he appeared in sitcoms like “My Name Is Earl” and “Raising Hope.” The Van Dyke brothers kept playing siblings together into old age, including on the ABC sitcom “The Middle” in 2015...

RIP: ROSE MARIE

Rose Marie, as she was known, had quite a career as an entertainer — it spanned nine decades. On Thursday she died in Van Nuys, Calif. She was 94.

Shortly after winning a talent contest at the age of 3, Rose Marie Mazzetta was on her way to becoming a child star. She began her professional career as Baby Rose Marie and performed under that name until she was a teenager.In 1929, the five-year-old singer made a Vitaphone sound short titled Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder. Between 1930 and 1938, she made 17 recordings, three of which were unissued. Her first issued record, recorded on March 10, 1932, featured accompaniment by Fletcher Henderson's band, one of the leading African African jazz orchestras of the day. According to Hendersonia, the bio-discography by Walter C. Allen, Henderson and the band were in the Victor studios recording the four songs they were intending to produce that day and were asked to accompany Baby Rose Marie, reading from a stock arrangement.

Her recording of "Say That You Were Teasing Me" (backed with "Take a Picture of the Moon", Victor 22960) also featured Henderson's orchestra and was a national hit in 1932. According to Joel Whitburn, Rose Marie was the last surviving entertainer to have charted a hit before World War II.

She may be best remembered for playing writer Sally Rogers on the 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show and she was nominated for three Emmy Awards. The show was nominated for 25 and won 15.

There's a good chance even younger generations have heard of Rose Marie. That's because she never stopped working.

Last month, the documentary Wait For Your Laugh was released. It chronicled her long career.

She was a child radio star and singer, appeared on Broadway in the Phil Silvers musical Top Banana and subsequent 1954 film, was a nightclub entertainer and acted in many television shows.

After five seasons (1961–66) as Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Rose Marie co-starred in two seasons (1969–71) of CBS's The Doris Day Show as Doris Martin's friend and coworker, Myrna Gibbons. She also appeared in two episodes of the NBC series The Monkees in the mid-1960s.

Rose Marie's memoir called Hold the Roses was published in 2003.

Her black hair bow became a signature look on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and when making public appearances, she always wore it.

Mazzatta was so recognized for that look that the bow ended up at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2008.

She has never publicly revealed why the bow was so important to her — even when asked by Smithsonian.com: "It's a very private personal reason," she says. "I said I would only give up (the bow) if the Smithsonian wants it."

RIP: MARY TYLER MOORE

TV icon Mary Tyler Moore died on Wednesday after being hospitalized in Connecticut, her rep confirmed to The Huffington Post. She was 80.

“Today, beloved icon, Mary Tyler Moore, passed away at the age of 80 in the company of friends and her loving husband of over 33 years, Dr. S. Robert Levine. A groundbreaking actress, producer, and passionate advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Mary will be remembered as a fearless visionary who turned the world on with her smile,” her rep Mara Buxbaum told The Huffington Post in a statement.

Moore, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1936 and grew up in Los Angeles, rose to international fame starring on the 1960s sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” She later starred on the beloved 1970s sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which is one of the first shows to feature a never-married, working woman as its central character. Moore played single, 30-year-old TV news producer Mary Richards.

The show, which featured Moore’s character asking for equal pay to her male co-worker and going on the pill, became a paradigm of the women’s liberation movement and is credited with inspiring women to break the mold confining them as wives and homemakers.

The real-life Mary commanded just as much respect. Her namesake show came to fruition in 1970, when she and her former husband Grant Tinker co-founded production company MTM Enterprises and successfully pitched the show to CBS. In its seven-season run, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” held the record for most Emmys won ― 29 ― until “Frasier” broke it in 2002.

“First and foremost Mary was a businesswoman and she ran her series beautifully,” friend and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” director Alan Rafkin recalled in his autobiography. “She was the boss, and although you weren’t always wedded to doing things exactly her way, you never forgot for a second that she was in charge.”

After the show, Moore continued her acting career and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal of a mother grieving the loss of her son in 1980’s “Ordinary People.” She most recently appeared in “Hot In Cleveland,” alongside her “Mary Tyler Moore Show” co-star Valerie Harper in 2013.

Moore, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 33 and suffered near blindness resulting from the disease in recent years, has also been a longtime advocate for researching cures for diabetes and served as the international chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She published a memoir on the subject, Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes, in 2009.

She was preceded in death by her son, Richard, in 1980 and is survived by her husband, Robert Levine...

RIP: GARRY MARSHALL

Garry Marshall knew how to tug at moviegoers' heartstrings, whether with unlikely love in "Pretty Woman" or sentimental loss in "Beaches."

But it was goofy, crowd-pleasing comedy that endeared the writer and director to generations of TV viewers in hit sitcoms including "Happy Days", "Laverne & Shirley" and "Mork & Mindy." Marshall, who died Tuesday at 81, said in a 1980s interview that humor was his necessary path in life.

"In the neighborhood where we grew up in, the Bronx, you only had a few choices. You were either an athlete or a gangster, or you were funny," the New York native said.

Marshall also had a memorable on-screen presence, using his hometown accent and gruff delivery in colorful supporting roles that included a practical-minded casino boss untouched by Albert Brooks' disastrous luck in "Lost in America" and a crass network executive in "Soapdish."

He died at a hospital in Burbank, California, of complications from pneumonia following a stroke, his publicist Michelle Bega said in a statement. An outpouring of respect and affection quickly followed.

Ron Howard, who starred as all-American teen Richie Cunningham on "Happy Days" before going on to become one of Hollywood's top directors, wrote on Twitter that Marshall went by a simple mantra, "Life is more important than show business."

"He was a world class boss & mentor whose creativity and leadership meant a ton to me," Howard added.

Richard Gere, who starred opposite Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman," said in a statement that "everyone loved Garry. He was a mentor and a cheerleader and one of the funniest men who ever lived. He had a heart of the purest gold and a soul full of mischief. He was Garry."

Henry Winkler, who starred as Fonzie on "Happy Days," saluted Marshall in a tweet as "larger than life, funnier than most, wise and the definition of friend."

"A great, great guy and the best casino boss in the history of film," actor-filmmaker Brooks posted on Twitter.

He rejected retirement, serving as a consultant on CBS' 2015 reboot of "The Odd Couple," starring Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon, and appearing in an episode this year as Oscar's father, Walter. Among his final credits was "Mother's Day," a film released last April starring Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson and Roberts.

Marshall, the brother of actress-director Penny Marshall, earned a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and worked at the New York Daily News. But he found he was better at writing punchlines.

He began his entertainment career in the 1960s selling jokes to comedians, then moved to writing sketches for "The Tonight Show" with Jack Paar in New York. He caught the eye of comic Joey Bishop, who brought him to Los Angeles to write for "The Joey Bishop Show."

Sitcoms quickly proved to be Marshall's forte. He and then-writing partner Jerry Belson turned out scripts for the most popular comedies of the '60s, including "The Lucy Show," ''The Danny Thomas Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

In 1970, they turned Neil Simon's Broadway hit, "The Odd Couple," into a sitcom starring Jack Klugman and Tony Randall and produced by Marshall. It ran for five seasons and proved the beginning of a TV sitcom empire that lives on in unending 21st-century reruns.

In January 1979, Marshall had three of the top five comedies on the air with "Happy Days," which ran from 1974-84; "Laverne & Shirley" (1976-83), which starred Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, and "Mork & Mindy" (1978-82) with newcomer Robin Williams.

After cranking out what Marshall once estimated to be 1,000 sitcom episodes, he switched his focus to the big screen with 1984's "The Flamingo Kid," a coming-of-age story starring Matt Dillon, which Marshall wrote and directed.

He concentrated on directing with his later films, including 1986's "Nothing in Common," with Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason; "Overboard" (1987) starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell; "Beaches" (1988) with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey; "Pretty Woman" (1990) and "Dear God" (1996) with Greg Kinnear and Laurie Metcalf.

The Gere-Roberts pairing that helped make "Pretty Woman" a smash hit did the same for "Runaway Bride," which reunited them in 1999. "The Princess Diaries" in 2001 was another winner, although Marshall suffered a flop with "Georgia Rule" (2007), starring Jane Fonda and Lindsay Lohan.

Marshall is survived by his wife, Barbara, and the couple's three children, Lori, Kathleen and Scott...

MICKEY ROONEY AND HIS LAST ROLE

Mickey Rooney was 93 when he shot his final scene as the diminutive night security guard Gus in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.

The former child star, who was the greatest box office draw of the 1930s and '40s, was far from his vibrant prime on the Vancouver set earlier this year.

"Yes, he was in a wheelchair, and yes, sometimes I had to cue a line for him," says director Shawn Levy. "But Mickey was so energetic and so pleased to be there. He was just happy to be invited to the party."

Six weeks later, on April 6, Rooney died.

Levy says Rooney never counted on his showbiz pedigree to earn the Gus role for the original Night at the Museum in 2006. He auditioned for the part.

"This is in an industry now where, if someone has a two-episode arc on a CW show, they don't want to ever audition," Levy says. "So the fact that this legend came in and actually showed what he could do to get the part, that's kind of remarkable and awesome. And it speaks to a love of the work. Mickey really wanted to be in this."

Rooney triumphed, and the part was written around him co-starring with fellow night guards played by Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs. The trio also shot scenes for the franchise's second film, 2009's Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, but that footage was cut.

Levy wanted to bring the three back for the final installment.

"When we told Mickey about the role in the third film, his face just lit up like it was Christmas morning," says his daughter-in-law Charlene Rooney. "He was so excited he immediately wanted to work on his lines."

It became clear on the Vancouver set, however, that Rooney was not going to be able to stand effectively for his part. Levy called for a wheelchair.

"Mickey was a proud guy. He was aware of his legendary status," Levy says. "But he was still a 93-year-old man for whom standing up and walking was really challenging. I wanted to make that part easy so he could focus on his performance. He was great as a result."

Levy assured Rooney the chair would make the scene even funnier, since he confronts lead actor Ben Stiller while still being vibrant and pugnacious
.
"Mickey was all of those things, but sitting in a wheelchair," Cobbs says. Rooney, he adds with a laugh, was the "sweetest man in the world," who could be "a real curmudgeon, there's no question about that."

But, at the end of his filming stint, Rooney called for silence on the set to poignantly thank everyone, from the director to the crew.

"From that wheelchair, he made this expression of appreciation to everyone there. It was like he wanted everyone to know how hard they all worked," Cobbs says. "It was very touching. Was that his goodbye? I think you could read that into that. If it was his final statement, it was a great final statement."

DICK VAN DYKE REMARRIES!

Dick Van Dyke has just become a newlywed after getting hitched to his makeup artist, Arlene Silver.

The 86-year-old Mary Poppins star tells RumorFix.com that he and his 40-year-old significant other tied the knot on Feb. 29. "Kinda on the spur of the moment, we just decided Leap Day would be the best time to do it," says Van Dyke.

The veteran actor met Silver six years ago at the SAG Awards, where, according to Van Dyke, he was "bowled over by her beauty." He hired her as his personal makeup artist and the two became friends. But within the last couple of years, they "fell in love."

This is the second go-around for the song-and-dance man. Van Dyke was previously married to the mother of his four children, Margie Willett, but they eventually divorced. He then lived with Michelle Triola for more than 30 years until her death in 2009.

"I'm not a loner. I have to have a life partner," insists Van Dyke. "I found the perfect one."

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