Dick Van Dyke Previews His DAYS OF OUR LIVES Run!
As reported back in April, Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke added “soap opera guest star” to his decades-long resume of acting roles when he taped an arc on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. Since the Peacock series tapes so far in advance, months have passed since Van Dyke worked on the soap — but finally, beginning Friday, September 1, the Emmy, Tony, and Grammy winner will finally make his daytime debut!
To promote his guest star gig, Van Dyke sat down with DAYS star Eric Martsolf (Brady) for an interview on the set of the Brady Pub and shared some insight on what brings him to Salem… specifically, to Salem University Hospital! “They find this old man roaming around the hospital,” Van Dyke explained. “He can’t remember who he is or where he’s been, anything about himself.”
As the mysterious senior citizen is clearly agitated, Marlena, Kayla, and others attempt to assist in figuring out his identity. “The whole hospital is trying to help me remember who I am,” Van Dyke added. “Little by little, he remembers.”
So… who is he? Well, Van Dyke knew better than to spill that tea! “He does find out who he is at the end,” the showbiz icon teased, “which is a big surprise.”
Van Dyke also admitted to Martsolf that while he’s performed on stage, in films, and on primetime television, tackling a soap opera role wasn’t exactly on his wish list of acting jobs. “Comedy has a pace,” he confessed, acknowledging that while DAYS’ roster of actors gets the work done fast, he’s too impatient to watch soap operas. “There must be a sense of timing to drama, but I don’t get it. Comedy, I get it right away. But I don’t know when the beat’s coming [with daytime].”
Wrapping up the interview session, Martsolf said that getting some one-on-one time with the star was “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” — a play, of course, on the song Van Dyke sang with Julie Andrews in the 1964 film Mary Poppins. “Have me back any time,” Van Dyke concluded.
