Under the Radar: Jerry Van Dyke

1931-2018

I've always found him to be funnier than his famous brother, Dick. Now, that's not to say that Jerry's older sibling's success is undeserved, or that he was the lesser of the two. Dick Van Dyke was more the all-around performer, one of the very best, who could sing, dance, and turn in a dramatic performance, as well as do comedy. If Jerry could do the first three of those things, I either wasn't paying attention or, if I was, it didn't leave much of an impression. Maybe he just didn't get the chance, and if he had the chance, he would have wowed us all. Sorry, but try as I might, I can't imagine Jerry singing in a Cockney accent and dancing on a London rooftop with Julie Andrews. That was Dick's forte.  Jerry's range was much narrower, but, I insist, he...was...funnier!

The folks at radio station WTHI in Terre Haute, Indiana (not to far from Danville, Indiana, where the Van Dykes grew up) must have found him funnier. The story goes that in the mid-1950s, the brothers both applied for the same disc jockey job. Jerry got it, and was apparently popular enough to get either a half-hour or hour-long (stories vary) variety show on the sister TV with the same call letters. Note the banjo. I said before he wasn't the all-around talent that his brother was, but I guess, in addition to comedy, he was the better banjo player (if Dick could even play it at all, I either wasn't paying attention, or, if I was, it didn't leave much of an impression, though it would have provided rather novel accompaniment for Dame Julie.) Jerry was a success in the new medium, becoming a local star.

  
 Meanwhile, Dick also found a way to become a success in the new medium (after first finding success on Broadway in Bye, Bye, Birdie) and was now a national star.

I know I'm making it sound like there was a rivalry between the two, and I really shouldn't. By all accounts, including their own, the brothers had a warm relationship. In fact...

...Jerry even showed up on the classic sitcom, playing Rob Petrie's brother Stacy.

You've heard of sleepwalkers? Stacy is a sleepperformer. In this clip, we see him unconscious and otherwise:

 Personally, I found him funnier in the second half of that clip, when he was supposedly "awake", but that really wasn't the point. 

Thanks to the boost he got from his brother's show, Jerry began appearing in movies such as 1963's   McLintock! starring John Wayne, and featuring a young Stephanie Powers:

OK, so Jerry could dance.

I beginning to think he could have sang and danced on that London rooftop with Julie Andrews after all (though he has yet to show up on YouTube with a Cockney accent.)

Jerry got what must have seemed to him and to everyone else at the time as the break of his career when he was added to cast of Judy Garland's TV variety show:

Nice of Judy to show so much concern when she thought Jerry was popping pills. Ironic, too.

Despite being arguably the biggest star in the world in 1963, Judy Garland was perhaps too big for the small screen, as the show, up against Bonanza, got mediocre ratings. A change of format came halfway through the season, and Jerry was let go (as eventually was Judy herself.)

Still, Jerry was getting job offers.

Here's one role he turned down.

Here's one he didn't, but perhaps should have.

That's Ann Southern as the mother. Her voice anyway. I actually found that kind of amusing, if for no other reason that Jerry knows how to do one helluva through-the-roof double-take. But, even in that era of housewife witches and astronauts with their own genies, the premise of a woman reincarnated as a junker was just too weird, and the show was off the air after one season. It's now considered one of the worse sitcoms ever.

Ironically, one half of the creative team behind one of the worse sitcoms ever, Allan Burns, was one-half of the creative team behind one of the best sitcoms ever. I don't know if Burns wanted to make it up to Jerry or what, but the latter appeared in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as a writer for Chuckles the Clown.

Throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s, Jerry appeared sporadically on television, including an  Afternoon Special and Fantasy Island, but basically kept to his standup career. True stardom seemed to pass him by.

Until Coach came along in 1989. It was perhaps more true celebrity than true stardom, but Jerry rarely failed to make me laugh as goofy Luther Van Dam, coaching assistant to Hayden Fox (Craig T. Nelson) on the long-running sitcom.

No laugh track, but I'm sure you'll provide your own.

 And sometimes--actually, often--Jerry could be funny by just being himself.