CBS To Air Colorized Version Of Two Classic ‘Dick Van Dyke Show’ Episodes

For the holidays this year, CBS will air two colorized episodes of the 60s Emmy-winning sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show.

CBS TO AIR COLORIZED VERSION OF THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW

The episodes chosen were the iconic “That’s My Boy??” and “Coast to Coast Big Mouth.” The colorization process was overseen by original creator and co-star Carl Reiner to ensure accuracy. Earlier this month, CBS aired a colorized version of the I Love Lucy Christmas special, which was a hit, attracting 6.6 million viewers.

Recently, Van Dyke, 90, gave an interview with ET about the classic show. “We got canceled at the end of the first year and we thought it was over,” he revealed. “Thank God, I think it was the summer reruns where people saw it.”

The show debuted on Oct. 3, 1961 and went for five seasons before ending on June 1, 1966, earning 15 Emmy Awards in the process.

Van Dyke explained that “That’s My Boy??” almost wasn’t aired because of racial undertones. The episode is about a possible mixup with two babies at the hospital, and the Van Dykes worry that they brought home the Peters’ baby by accident. When the Peters show up to the house, it’s revealed that they are African-American.

“It was the longest laugh I have ever heard in my life,” Van Dyke recalls. “We had to cut the cameras.”

“We were always looking to get African-Americans into the show, because it was such a white neighborhood, and I was very aware of those social problems that existed in our country,” said Reiner. “Once, we had Godfrey Cambridge, a black man, playing an FBI agent coming into the house, using the house as a set-up point, and I remember them calling and saying, ‘Are there FBI agents that are black?’ And I said, ‘There are now.'”