Want to Meet Larry Mathews From ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’? Now’s Your Chance!
When it comes to child stars, Larry Mathews, who played little Ritchie Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, is one of the nicest in the industry. And if you’ve always wanted to experience that first hand, you’re in luck — Larry is heading to his former TV home of New Rochelle, New York, to be a part of a special “Afternoon of Nostalgia With Larry Mathews” event titled “Welcome Home, Ritchie Petrie!”
Admission to the “Welcome Home, Ritchie Petrie!” event is free to the public, but you do need to register as soon as possible. David Van Deusen, who is the recognized expert on The Dick Van Dyke Show, as well as the editor/publisher of The Walnut Times fan club newsletter, will serve as moderator of the event.
When Is the Larry Mathews’ Meet-and-Greet Event?
The event will take place on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, from 12pm to 4pm at the New Rochelle Public Library’s Ossie Davis Theatre, located at 1 Library Green in New Rochelle.
In addition to Larry sharing his personal memories of working with Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie (who he shares a birthday with) and Morey Amsterdam, they will be showing a full screening of the “Never Name a Duck” episode, with live commentary from Larry.
And Larry’s got plenty of memories to share around this endearing episode. We actually chatted with him about the “Never Name a Duck” episode earlier this year.
“I think it was the best performance I ever gave on the show in terms of an actual acting performance,” he tells us. “And there’s a lot of things that contributed to that. The thing is the ducks really weren’t left out to play with. So when we used them, we used them, and there was an animal person who took them away and put ’em back in the cage. I didn’t really have a chance to play with ’em. Unlike when we would have dogs on the show.”
Everett Collection
Mathews is a huge dog and animal fan in general, so he was disappointed he didn’t get a similar chance to play with the ducks, but that was the least of his problems leading up to the pivotal scene in the episode.
It was the scene where Rob comes into Ritchie’s bedroom and Richie is packing to run away. “It was a very dramatic scene,” he shares. “Ritchie was very sad, and the script had called for Ritchie to be in tears and cry because he was getting his pets taken away. I remember I went to my mother and I said, ‘How do I do this?’”
His mother advised him to express his concerns with the show’s executive producer Sheldon Leonard, which he did.
“We were literally behind the set of the door where Rob comes into Ritchie’s bedroom and he knelt down in front of me, took me by the arms, and proceeded to tell me this horribly, horribly tragic story of his dog, who was his favorite thing in the world, and how the dog got killed by a car.
“It was horrible. In two minutes, I was bawling. And then basically they said, ‘OK, go onstage.’ And I went onstage and we did that scene. I think later I found out that he didn’t have a dog, but whatever. It worked.”
Larry’s got plenty more of those stories to share, as well as never-before-seen color home movies from behind the scenes, personal photos of the show, rare memorabilia, props and more. Attendees will be able to participate in an audience Q&A, as well as have the opportunity to purchase autographed photos ($40) or selfies with Larry for $20 (cash only for those purchases).
For more details and to register for the free event, go to the Walnut Times page and follow the respective links.
Remind 
100 Years of Dick Van Dyke
April 2025
Dick Van Dyke is a trailblazer like no other and one of the greatest of the golden age of television.
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