For a couple of years in the sixties, beginning while new episodes were still being run in the evenings, CBS ran reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show every morning, Monday through Friday. When I was not in school, I rarely missed them. They were the best thing about being home sick.
Back then, it was not uncommon to move a long-running show into syndicated or daytime reruns while the series was still on in prime time and usually, they'd change the name of it. Gunsmoke reruns ran under the title, Marshall Dillon. Dragnet reruns became Badge 714. You Bet Your Life became The Best of Groucho. And I'm not sure but I don't believe the Sgt. Bilko program was ever called Sgt. Bilko in prime time. It started as You'll Never Get Rich and later changed to The Phil Silvers Show. I think it was only when CBS sold the reruns for daytime airing to NBC that it became Sgt. Bilko…in TV Guide if not on the screen. My recollection is that they called it Sgt. Bilko in the listings and it could have any of its three names when you saw it on the air, depending on which prints they had handy.
The Dick Van Dyke Show became The Dick Van Dyke Daytime Show…a minor change. The episodes were cut by a minute or so and they had different end credits. In the original airings, the credits displayed a picture of the sponsor's product — usually, Kent Cigarettes. The plug was replaced, as you'll see, by a portrait of Mr. Van Dyke which I believe is on most prints these days. Here, thanks to the good offices of Shokus Video, is a peek at The Dick Van Dyke Daytime Show…
