The small screen career of this blond, blandly handsome actor (whose looks favor his mother) is closely tied to that of his father. Van Dyke first appeared before the camera at age nine in a brief moment on an episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show". He can also be seen in a 1962 episode as a would-be neighborhood performer auditioning for the TV show written by Rob Petrie. He went on to make occasional appearances and served as a production assistant on "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" (CBS, 1971-74) and was a series regular on the short-lived variety series "Van Dyke & Company" (NBC, 1976). He began to move away from working with his famous father with a regular role as the boyfriend of Christine Lahti on the limited run sitcom "The Harvey Korman Show" (ABC, 1978) and as a lieutenant enlisted to prepare earth for the upcoming battle of the planets in "Battlestar Gallactica" (ABC, 1980). Van Dyke had the role of gambler Russell Donovan in the Western spoof "Gun Shy" (CBS, 1983), inspired by the Disney Apple Dumpling Gang features. On the short-lived "The Redd Foxx Show" (ABC, 1986), he played a local policeman hanging out in the diner run by Foxx. In 1987, Van Dyke joined "Airwolf" when it moved from CBS to the USA Network, portraying St. John Hawke, the long-lost brother of Jan-Michael Vincent.
Van Dyke first played his father's son for the cameras in 1988 on the short-lived sitcom "The Van Dyke Show" (CBS). But it was as police detective Steve Sloan that he got the opportunity to act alongside his father for a long duration. He first played the role in the TV-movie "Diagnosis of Murder" (CBS, 1992) and in two subsequent sequels before CBS added the series to its schedule in 1993.