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“My retirement plans are the butt of jokes,”

A Conversation with Dick Van Dyke

Even though he announced his retirement from show business at the end of the eight year run of the mystery series “Diagnosis Murder,” Dick Van Dyke has remained very active.  In the last four years, he has returned as Dr. Mark Sloane in two “Diagnosis Murder” movies and has starred opposite Mary Tyler Moore in the ratings hit “The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited” and the PBS production of the prizewinning play “The Gin Game.”  His voice will be heard along with those of Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore in the highly anticipated “Curious George” feature film.  That’s in addition to performing with his barbershop quartette, making personal appearances, doing pro bono work with his favorite charities and working on computer animation.

Now the television icon returns to sleuthing as criminology professor Dr. Jonathan Maxwell in the two-hour Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie, “Murder 101.”  This new entry into the Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie franchise reunites him with his “Diagnosis Murder” co-star and son Barry Van Dyke, as well as with the series executive producer Dean Hargrove, who created “Murder 101.”  The movie, which also stars Tracey Needham (“JAG”), premieres on the Hallmark Channel Saturday, January 7 (9/8 c).  The network also will be airing “Diagnosis Murder,” beginning Tuesday, January 3 (Noon ET/PT).  

Van Dyke shared his thoughts about “Murder 101” and the joy of working with his son in a recent interview.

You’ve been pretty busy since announcing your retirement.

My retirement plans have become the butt of a joke with my friends.  I like to keep busy.

What interested you about doing “Murder 101?”

I got interested because it was a Hallmark Channel project.  It is one of the few networks that do shows you can watch with your family.  And it gave me a chance to work with my son.  Barry and I have an awful lot of fun together.

How did you become involved?

I worked with Dean Hargrove on “Diagnosis Murder.”  We got together one day and he told me about the projects he was doing with the Hallmark Channel.   I believe it was my wife who asked him if he thought the network might be interested in doing something with Barry and me.  He set up a meeting and pitched us his concept.  Then we worked together on the outline.

What is the relationship between your character and Barry’s in “Murder 101?”

The relationship is pretty much the same as it was in “Diagnosis Murder.”  We’re not father and son this time but he’s the son of my best friend and I have been his mentor and surrogate father since his father’s death.  The relationship is as close.

Barry says he sometimes caught himself calling you Dad during rehearsals. Did you have any “Diagnosis Murder” flashbacks during the filming?

Sure.  It’s been four years since we last did “Diagnosis Murder” together, but as we got ready to walk on to the set, Barry turned to me and said, ‘Do you get the feeling that no time has passed at all?’

You are also working again with director Chris Nyby, who directed a lot of the “Diagnosis Murder” episodes.  How was it working with him again?

Barry and I like working with Chris because he has a good feel for the lightness and humor in a scene.  For example, my character lives with a Persian cat.  Chris had me completely missing the bowl when I fed him so I’m pouring his food on the floor.  It’s the little moments like that -- which aren’t in the script -- that Chris keeps finding.

Is your new character, Dr. Jonathan Maxwell, very different from Dr. Mark Sloan, whom you played on “Diagnosis Murder?”

Well, Maxwell doesn’t have much sense of style.  In fact, he’s a little sloppy.  There is nothing cool about him.  And he’s a little bit more round the bend.  He doesn’t function too well outside of the criminology arena.  He’s very forgetful.  He always locks himself out of the house.  And he’s a bit of a klutz.

Barry says that Dr. Jonathan Maxwell’s absent-mindedness and eccentricity makes him a bit more like you than Dr. Mark Sloane was.  Do you agree?

I think he may be right.  There was one scene where Barry and I were sitting on the campus at USC eating takeout Chinese food.  The set-up for the scene was that Barry was using his chopsticks with great expertise while I am dropping food on myself.  At one point my glasses started slipping down my nose.  I reached up to push them back up but I used the hand that was holding the carton and dumped the noodles into my lap.  It wasn’t in the script and it wasn’t intentional.  I told Chris I hoped we could use it in the movie even though it was more me than it was Maxwell.

Are there any other similarities between you and your character?

Like me, Maxwell has quite a computer set up in his house.  He uses it for criminology while I do animation.  It’s an addiction with me.  It takes a lot of time just to keep up — the technology moves so fast. 

Do you miss doing a weekly series?

What I miss is what we did for “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” three cameras in front of an audience.  It’s the most fun, especially for comedy.  You rehearse all week and then you put on your little play.  I feel I never completely got the hang of movies.

What else have you been up to recently?

I have been working on my animation.  I have been performing with my quartette, the Vantastix, although we haven’t done any gigs for money yet.  I just did a voice role for Ron Howard’s “Curious George.”  I am participating in the Disney Christmas radio show and they asked me to emcee the Christmas Parade on Main Street, which I last did 40 years ago.  I did a Christmas book, Mr. Finnegan’s Giving Chest. It’s a short story.  It includes a CD.  I read the story to the kids and the illustrations are computer caricatures of me.

-- HALLMARK CHANNEL --