The Dick Van Dyke Show 60's original sponsor tags

A bit off topic, but by request, an original cast commercial with sponsor closing for The Dick Van Dyke Show. The product is Joy dishwashing liquid from Procter and Gamble.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Dick
• Van
• Dyke
• Show
• sponsor
• credits
• Joy
• diswashing
• liquid
• P&G
• Procter
• and
• Gamble
• retro
• TV
• 1960's
• Mary
• Tyler
• Moore

[muybridge54]

I noticed in these commercials that there is laughter in the BG. Was the show filmed in front of a live studio audience or did Sheldon Leonard used the tried-and-true "canned laughter"?

Also, when the shows made their way into syndication were the closing titles re-filmed to obscure the original sponsor plugs (like the bottle of "Joy" detergent in the lower left-hand corner of this clip?)

[saynotoursoap]

@muybridge54 The Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed before a live audience using the 3 camera setup begun by Lucy & Desi. However, the integrated cast commercials were filmed separately and used a laugh track rather than an audience. BTW, there are a few DVD episodes that weren't done in front of an audience, a notable one being the episode shot the week of JFK's assassination. This one was without an audience because it was felt no one would be in the mood to laugh.

[scifiradioguy]

It was P and G that saved the Van Dyke Show from cancellation in 1961, and Sheldon Leonard needed a sponsor, badly.

[saynotoursoap]

Thanks, scifiradioguy. I didn't know P&G saved DVD from the axe. Did P&G continue to sponsor after the first season?

[Freeflyur]

The little bottle of Joy in the credits is sure cute. I'm surprised the P&G soaps didn't have a little logo in their credits.

[saynotoursoap]

Freeflyur, it is probably because daytime soaps had more commercial breaks than nighttime series, and they were often sponsored by more than one product. Instead of having a fixed product logo with credits, they had overlays of the product in their mid-breaks and before credit crawls.

[fromthesidelines]

Procter & Gamble sustained the series during its entire run. When CBS' chief programmer James Aubrey {"The Smiling Cobra"} intended to cancel the show after season one, Sheldon Leonard personally went to P&G's headquarters in Cincinnati to convince them to keep the show on the air. "If you can find an 'alternate sponsor', we'll continue our sponsorship", they told him. He did [Lorillard's "Kent" cigarettes], and P&G in turn told Aubrey that either "their" series remain on Wednesday nights....

[fromthesidelines]

...or they'd pull all of their advertising (AND their daytime soap operas) off CBS and move them to other networks. Since P&G was the network's #1 advertiser, Aubrey HAD to keep Dick's show on the schedule. These credits are from "The Ballad Of the Betty Lou" [November 27, 1963]. "Rob" and "Laura" often appeared in "integrated commercials" for P&G products at the end of their sponsored episodes, and the custom was for the sponsor to insert their product(s) in a corner of the closing credits...

[fromthesidelines]

Yes, the closing credits were refilmed to eliminate the sponsor's products in the corner (either Procter & Gamble's products or Lorillard's Kent cigarette pack- both co-sponsored the show from '62 through '66) when the series was repeated on CBS daytime and syndication {a drawing of Dick's profile, from a 1961 publicity photo, was used to fill the space, 'muybridge'}.

[texasghost]

@muybridge54

Well...considering the show was filmed at Desilu studios (the home of "I Love Lucy")...where the Lucy show was filmed in front of a live audience....Dick Van Dyke show however was not.

[texasghost]

@tomservo56954

I'm aware of that...but it was the 60's where the trend of product placement became the norm.

[tomservo56954]

Over the years I've collected innumerable TV commercials, for all kinds of sources...but I don't have a DICK VAN DYKE spot for a P&G product. I have several cast commercials for Kent cigarettes, but I first saw the Joy ad in a retrospective about the show, and YouTube has a Crest toothpaste spot (with Richie).

[tomservo56954]

@fromthesidelines Interesting...this aired five days after JFK's death--and two days after they filmed the episode about Richie's birthday party, with NO audience (who wanted to laugh then) and the chuckles dubbed in later.

[tomservo56954]

@texasghost Product placements in the credits predate DICK VAN DYKE

[fromthesidelines]

Yes, 'muybridge', the closing credits were refilmed for network and syndicated repeats, with Dick's grinning profile (from a 1961 publicity photo) in the space where the sponsor's product was displayed. Even though the series was filmed before a live studio audience, the "integrated commercials" were NOT filmed with a live audience in attendance {canned laughter was used in those cases}.

[TimelordR]

I think dish soap makes a better sponsor than cigarettes, don't you think? Thanks for the rare clip!