'Starring Dick Van Dyke' review: Generous, richly embroidered portrait of a legend about to turn 100

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Veteran producer John Scheinfeld ("Dick Cavett's Vietnam," "Dick Cavett's Watergate") has assembled a lot of footage and some big stars — Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Jim Carrey, Ted Danson, Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, Martin Short — for a particularly detailed "American Masters" look at one of the incandescent careers of television history. (Interviews of the subject do however appear to be about 20 years old — but they're still informative.)

MY SAY God and body willing, Dick Van Dyke will turn 100 on Saturday. He's said he'll celebrate quietly at home, watching a "Jeopardy!" marathon. No parties, no parades, no key handed over from whatever mayor in whatever city he's living in at the moment — just Dick and his TV set and Ken Jennings. Presumably that extended, introspective moment to reflect on the meaning of this remarkable life will be left to the rest of us. The 27-minute mark of "Starring Dick Van Dyke" is the perfect place to start.

Here's the setup: In 1960,  Van Dyke is a struggling 35-year-old entertainer who has pretty much flopped at everything he's tried after ending the long-running nightclub act, "Eric and Van — the Merry Mutes" (Phil Erickson was his comedy partner.) Broadway director Gower Champion decides to cast him opposite Chita Rivera in "Bye Bye Birdie" at the Martin Beck (now Al Hirschfeld Theatre), then hand him a song originally intended for Rivera. It's at this point in the film that the figurative sun breaks through the figurative clouds. "Put on a Happy Face" (lyrics by Lee Adams, music by Charles Strouse of "Annie") entered the Great American Song Book, while Van Dyke got a Tony. But of course, he (and the rest of us) got so much more.

As "Starring Dick Van Dyke" makes clear, the job of Dick Van Dyke has always been to make people happy. Few have done this better because when you stop to consider, so few have actually tried. Difficult to quantify, harder to define, "happiness" means something different to anyone you ask. But in that monoculture three-network world of the 1960s, Van Dyke had found the common denominator.

A little over a third of this film is devoted to "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-66), which consumed just five years of an 80-year career. That's because, alongside Mary Tyler Moore, these two alchemized a feeling millions of Americans wanted, then desperately needed after Nov. 22, 1963.

While he had two other triumphs — "Mary Poppins" (1964) and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968) — the glory days were essentially over by decade's end. The '70s were in no mood for Van Dyke's kind of happiness. The world has turned sour, dyspeptic, post-modern. Happiness wasn't cool and neither was Dick.

For this generous, richly embroidered portrait of a true legend — and on the occasion of that 100th birthday — maybe it's time to sample this brand of joy once again. "Starring Dick Van Dyke" just might make you happy you did.

BOTTOM LINE A 100th birthday gift to the rest of us.