Pants! She's wearing pants!
Procter & Gamble executives were so upset that Mary Tyler Moore's character wore capri pants on the Dick Van Dyke Show that P&G pulled its advertising from the CBS sitcom and nearly got the show canceled after one season.
Why couldn't housewife Laura Petrie (Moore) wear dresses like June Cleaver and Donna Reed?
Before CBS celebrates Dick Van Dyke's 98th birthday Thursday (9-10 p.m., Channel 12, Paramount+), let me remind you that Procter & Gamble almost killed the sitcom in 1962, after its first season. Fortunately, P&G didn't prevail and the show went on to win 15 Emmy Awards, including best comedy in 1966, its final season.
Creator Carl Reiner — who also played TV boss Alan Brady on the workplace comedy — told me in 1999 that there was always tension with P&G executives. The Cincinnati-based consumer products giant sponsored the first season of the show about TV comedy show writer Rob Petrie (Van Dyke), his home life with Laura and son Ritchie (Larry Mathews), and fellow writers (Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam) for the TV-show-within-a-show.
"Always, always" there were P&G suits in his Dick Van Dyke Show office complaining about the capri pants worn by Moore, Reiner told me.
As I wrote back then: Tight slacks weren't 99 and 44/100 percent pure to the folks from Ivorydale. P&G wanted Laura Petrie in what all TV housewives wore in the early '60s — a pressed, full-skirted dress and a string of pearls.
"They came to my office and said, 'Capri pants are not what people wear.' And I said, 'That's what she wears all the time!' And they said, 'Well, you have to have her in a dress at least one scene every show.' "
Despite their differences, P&G initially agreed to sponsor a second season, according to Reiner, a TV Hall of Fame member who died in 2020 at age 98.
"I remember the guy at P&G gave me one of these" — he connected his forefinger and thumb, making an "OK" sign — "when it went off the air for hiatus. He guaranteed it would be back on. But they chickened out," Mr. Reiner said.
Why? Ratings for Dick Van Dyke were not very good. It ranked No. 80 in the ratings at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday against Perry Como's variety show (No. 25). And CBS had other plans for the time slot for fall of '62.
"CBS owned a show called Howie, and they were going to put Howie in our spot and cancel us," Reiner said.
Executive producer Sheldon Leonard quickly flew to Cincinnati to plead with P&G executives and Lee Rich, the advertising agency vice president who placed P&G commercials. P&G folks still weren't totally convinced. P&G agreed to sponsor half of the show, which left Leonard searching for another sponsor to keep Dick Van Dyke on the air.
According to Reiner, Leonard flew to New York and literally barged into a board meeting of P. Lorillard Tobacco Co.
"Sheldon did a pitch and, thank God, sold the other 15 minutes to Kent Cigarettes," Reiner said.
Reiner also credits the show's successful five-year run to the revolutionary decision to air summer repeats on CBS in 1962. They accepted a paltry $6,000 per show for summer reruns, inventing the strategy that later saved Cheers, Seinfeld, Drew Carey and Everybody Loves Raymond.
"That was one of the most creative things I ever did," said Mr. Reiner, a writer and performer for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows (1950-54). He also directed Oh, God!, won a Grammy with Mel Brooks for their 2000-Year-Old Man comedy album and earned eight Emmys for The Dick Van Dyke Show.
"Repeats back then were not a big thing. But I said, 'The people who have seen Perry Como will have a chance to sample us.' And it worked!"
Four weeks into the 1962 fall season, Dick Van Dyke cracked the Top 10. It finished the year No. 9. The next season it was No. 3, behind The Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza, and stayed in the Top 20 until it went off the air Sept. 7, 1966.
Van Dyke parlayed his TV success into movies (Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and starring in CBS' Diagnosis Murder drama in the 1990s. Moore premiered her iconic Mary Tyler Moore Show sitcom in 1970.
The Dick Van Dyke Show also is remembered for Rob and Laura Petrie sleeping in twin beds all five seasons. I had to ask: Was that also a puritanical influence from conservative Cincinnati?
"No, that was television," Reiner said. "That was just television back then."
CBS celebrates Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic on Channel 12 and Paramount+ 9-10 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21 with Julie Andrews, Jason Alexander, Judd Apatow, David Archuleta, Skylar Astin, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Beth Behrs, Jim Carrey, Cedric the Entertainer, Stephen Colbert, David Copperfield, Darren Criss, Ted Danson, Roma Downey, Brad Garrett, Mark Hamill, Tony Hawk, Derek Hough, Ken Jeong, Amanda Kloots, Zachary Levi, John Lithgow, Jenny McCarthy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Penn & Teller, Rob Reiner, Craig Robinson, Jane Seymour, William Shatner, Martin Short, Jojo Siwa, Harry Shum Jr., Mary Steenburgen, Stanley Tucci, Rufus Wainwright and Weird Al Yankovic.
Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers will have access to stream live via the live feed of their local CBS affiliate on the service, as well as on demand. Paramount+ Essential subscribers will have access to on-demand on Friday.
