'Wandavision' makers credit Dick Van Dyke show for helping them recreate 60s sitcom vibe

Marvel's much-hailed WandaVision has enchanted the audience by combining a wholly novel premise, whose familiarity resided in its blatant homage to the classic shows conjured by the witch Wanda as she embarked on masking her grief following the brutal death of her soulmate, Vision in  Avengers: Infinity War. Becoming Disney+’s first TV series launch, the nine-episode season, having Wanda creating an alternate world steeped in comics, that comforted her as a child was an idea curated by Marvel chief Kevin Feige, and turned into a doable concept by the show’s creator, executive producer, and writer Jac Schaeffer. 

At Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees awards-season event, the series' stars, Emmy nominated, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Kathryn Hahn along with Schaeffer and director/EP Matt Shakman discussed the unusual series and how did it manage to find its inner sitcom laugh track, thanks to Dick Van Dyke, whose self-titled show was a breakthrough effort given a homage in early episodes.

Cast and creators discuss what made the show 'go so well'

In a fun conversation, Shakman spoke about the 'secret sauce' of the show, stating," I asked him for the secret sauce, what made that show work so well, and he said, if it couldn’t happen in real life it couldn’t happen in the show,” Shakman said. “Carl Reiner would gather everyone around the table on the first day of rehearsal each week and say, so what happened this weekend? He would take it all down and put it in the show. That left room to trip over ottomans and be silly but emotionally engaged. Everyone believed in that relationship between Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke as a couple. That’s what we needed too.”. 

Taking the suggestions into consideration, Shakman and Schaeffer shot the first episode before a live audience. Shackman added," “They did it in front of a live studio audience but they didn’t go back like we do today on modern sitcoms…back then they did it like a play. They rehearsed it. Curtain up, and the laughter you hear was the laughter in the audience. And they were done. It had a real lightning-in-a-bottle feel. We did that for our first show. You are holding hands and jumping off a cliff.”. 

Bettany on Feige and Schaeffer's idea 

Bettany also spoke about the difficulties of performing in front of a live audience, saying that he was happy to throw in with Feige’s initial idea and Schaeffer’s execution of it. "When Matt said we’re going to do it in front of a live audience, I thought, no we’re not,” Bettany said. “But he was right. It gave us a project quality that feels very similar to that era, which I don’t think I was clever enough to achieve, to be somebody who works for an audience.”. 

Lastly, talking about his retiring role and end in the  Marvel superhero movies that began with his stint in Iron Man, Bettany said the WandaVision was one of the most creative experiences of his life, joyful and free, the perfect way to culminate his work with Olsen. 

(Source- Deadline)

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