OK, so Estelle Reiner didnāt really get her big toe stuck in a bathtubš spigot.
But she did inspire her husband, Carl Reiner, to write āNever Bathe on Saturday,ā a memorable episode of āThe Dick Van Dyke Showā in which Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and Rob (Van Dyke) Petrie go away for a romantic second honeymoon. Things go awry when Lauraās big toe gets wedged into a hotel bathtub spigot ā because, as she yells to aš¤Ŗ helpless Rob, she was āplaying with the drip.ā
āWe went to a hotel very much like [in that episode], sort of a weekend honeymoon,šā says Reiner, 96, who created the classic CBS sitcom (1961-66). āMy wife didnāt get stuck [in the spigot] but the water was dripping and she had her toe under it ā and she was playing with the drip.ā
Newly colorized versions of āNever Bathe on Saturdayā and another Reiner-scripted episoąµ²de, āWhere Did I Come From?,ā air Friday from 9-10 p.m. on CBS, preceded (from 8-9 p.m.) by two colorized episodes of āI Lošve Lucyā: āThe Christmas Episodeā and āPioneer Womenā (colorized for the first time).
āBoth of those episodes were things that actually happened in my life, as most of the āVan Dyke Showā episodes did,ā says Reiner. āI wrote about 30 or 40 episodes [actually 54 in total] but always asked the other writers, āWhat happened in your life ļ·½today thatās different from other days?ā ā
The 19š¬65 episode, āWhere Did I Cź§ome From,ā is told mostly in flashbacks as Laura and Rob recount the day their young son Richie (Larry Mathews) was born.
āOne of my kids, Bobby, when he was small, hš e asked the question: āWhere did I come from?ā ā Reiner says of hšis son, filmmaker Rob Reiner. āI remember taking the Dr. Spock [āBaby and Child Careā] book off the shelf. It said, āJust answer simply and donāt give your child any more information than theyāve asked for.ā ā
Initially, Reiner was going to star as Rob Petrie in his own shź¦ow called āHead of the Family.ā When that didnāt work, it morphed into āThe Dick Van Dyke Show,ā co-starring Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam . Danny Thomas was the producer.
āDanny said, āWhoās that girl that came to audition for me when we needed a daughter for āMake Room for Daddyā? She was wonderful, butā her nose went the wrong way,ā ā Reiner says. āI saw 22 girls before I saw Mary. I said to [executive producer] Sheldon Leonard, āI donāt know what Iām looking for,ā and he said, āYouāll know whešn you find her.ā
āThe rest is wonderful history for me.ā
And, Reiner says, tź¦he show could have originally aired in color.
āWhen šwe started, someone suggested that we do [the series] in color, but it was like $6,000 more an episode and that wouldāve taken all tą¹he profit out of it for the partners,ā he says. āSo it was decided to do it in black and white and Iām glad we did. It was of the time, but Iām so happy that itās in color now. Mary was so exquisite, with those flashing black eyes and the shining hair and of course those incredible legs. And Steve Martin said Dick Van Dyke is, hands-down, the finest comedian he ever saw. And I agree 100 percent.
āIām hoping they can colorize all the āVan Dykeā shows,ā he says. āOne reason it doesnāt look like an old show is that I assiduously never wrote any slang of the day and I told the writers working with us, āNo slang and no references to the politics of the day.ā I knew itā would have a life of its own if it didnāt date itself.ā