This Is Why You Never Mention Walnuts Around Dick Van Dyke

“It May Look Like A Walnut” is easily the weirdest episode in the history of The Dick Van Dyke Show, featuring aliens with no thumbs and eyes in the back of their heads, led by a creature who looks suspiciously like comedian Danny Thomas. The aliens subsist on a steady diet of walnuts, a habit that would come to haunt Van Dyke. 

The network hated the script, according to Van Dyke in his new book, 100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life. “Too bizarre,” the bigwigs complained to writer and show creator Carl Reiner. “It’s science fiction, not comedy.” Reiner pushed back, and the episode became a classic. 

(The episode also indirectly led to Robin Williams’ sitcom Mork and Mindy, according to director Jerry Paris in The Dick Van Dyke Show: Anatomy of a Classic. Paris, who went on to direct Happy Days, used the alien creatures from “Walnut” as the inspiration for Mork.)

But the nuts would become a problem. “A ton” of walnuts were delivered to the sitcom set, primarily to fill a closet out of which Laura Petrie would bodysurf. There were more than enough to fill the closet, meaning walnuts were everywhere during the production week. “Naturally,” wrote Van Dyke, “the cast and crew started cracking them open and eating them.”

Fun for a while, but the cast kept eating them and eating them. “First came the stomachaches,” Van Dyke said. “Then the bloating, gas, and constipation. Walnuts, you see, are very high in fiber and fat. And an excess of the two can wreak all sorts of havoc on the digestive system. By the end of the week, we had a mass case of gastric distress.”

The night after taping “It May Look Like A Walnut,” Van Dyke lurched out into the parking lot, doubled over in stomach pain and eager to get home to his private bathroom. One problem: One of the show’s practical jokers had filled Van Dyke’s two-seat Jaguar XKE to the brim with walnuts. Everyone else in the cast and crew drove away as Van Dyke opened his car door to let loose a river of nuts, cursing the pranksters. 

Unfortunately, the nuts were stubborn. “With both doors open, I hadn’t even gotten rid of half of those things!” Van Dyke, still bloated and miserable, shoveled for a while before giving up and finding an alternate ride home. 

He spent the weekend digging walnuts out of his car, still not knowing who had pulled the prank. “Their ‘joke’ kept giving for months to come too,” he said. “I’d open the glovebox and a confetti of white walnut meat would flutter out. I’d put up the top and get a shower of shells. Something would slide under the seat, and when I reached to retrieve it, my knuckles would scrape on you-know-what. My foot would detect a little snag of resistance from the gas pedal or the brake, and I’d curse out loud.”

Reiner proved the executives wrong, since “It May Look Like A Walnut” became an all-time fan favorite. “To this day, though, don’t even show me a walnut!” says the 100-year-old comic. “I will not laugh.”