Detective show not dated
Barry Van Dyke is well aware that 16 years after its long run came to an end, his old detective show Diagnosis Murder is still rolling out the repeats somewhere in the world - the royalty cheques tell him so.
‘‘It’s the show that won’t die,’’ Van Dyke says. ‘‘It keeps popping up all over the place.’’
Surely that means a river of cash flooding into his Los Angeles home. ‘‘I get a stack of cheques,’’ he agrees affably.
He’s also still hearing from fans of the show. For those who were students in late nineties Britain, Diagnosis Murder resided pleasantly in the rotation of repeats that occupied the soporific, post-lunch, post-lunchtime edition of Neighbours sweet spot. The British student cult status isn’t news to Van Dyke - he’s always had a lot of UK fan mail.
‘‘It’s nice the appeal has lasted, that it’s not dated,’’ he says of the news that Diagnosis Murder is
"It's nice the appeal has lasted, that it's not dated." Barry Van Dyke
once again having the resuscitation paddles attached to its corpse. ‘‘It’s kind of like comfort food. It’s not offensive, it’s pretty gentle and there was always humour involved.’’
As well as being convivial lunch-settling entertainment, Diagnosis Murder was perhaps the most nepotistic show in television history - its whole shtick was that a real father and son played a crime-fighting father and son team, but over time it expanded to include fewer than eight Van Dyke family members, many of those after Barry got a shot in the writing-directing chair.
Mark Sloan was a character Dick originally conceived for a show called Jake and the Fat Man, but when the studio wanted him to expand it, he was reluctant. Barry counselled him to take it, and then he too was offered a part as the sensible sidekick son. ’’It showed his versatility as a dramatic actor,’’ he argues. ‘‘We had some good dramatic episodes. We got into situations - I got injured in almost every episode and we came close to losing me a few times; my sister got into dire straits, Mark had to relive some things from his past ... we worked on some real nice dramatic stuff.’’
Barry’s own kids, as it turned out, didn’t become actors. Shane and Carey did some acting, then began writing film scripts for a small independent production house whose credits include the bizarre horror comedy Sharknado. Wes became a successful artist and Taryn became a kindergarten teacher.
It would not be mean to say Diagnosis Murder was a career high point for Barry. Before that, he had guest spots on shows such as The Love Boat and TJ Hooker; Diagnosis Murder, with its spin-off varietals, provided 16 years of work, on and off. Never, however, was it reliable. Now at 64, he says ‘‘he’s not real aggressive’’ about chasing the work. He is, however, trying to co-produce a film with his dad, who is 91 years old, to make two independent low-budget movies.
If he ever wants to remember, he can. The Hallmark channel in the US shows five episodes a day, every day of Diagnosis Murder. ‘‘Sometimes I like to tune in and try guess what year it was [from]. We did close to 180 episodes - some I remember, some I don’t remember at all.’’ Diagnosis Murder, Jones!, Thursdays, 8.35pm.