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The Dick Van Dyke Show: Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
[[File:MV5BMTU5MDAyNjI2Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwOTMzOTE2__V1__SX304_SY400__3499.jpg|frame]] The show ([[CBS (company)|CBS]], October 3, 1961 - September 7, 1966), created and produced by Carl Reiner, centers around the life of a New York comedy writer who lives in [[Suburbia|suburban]] New Rochelle with his attractive wife, Laura, their cute son and a pair of brash next-door neighbors. Coinciding with the Kennedy era (a.k.a. Camelot) which heralded a new age of youthfulness, ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' reflected a break from the old-fashioned sensibility of previous television families.
''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' was the first sitcom to focus as much, if not more, on the main character's work life as his home life, influencing later [[Work Com|Work Coms]] such as ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]], [[The Bob Newhart Show]]'' and ''[[News Radio]]''. Sally Rogers was an unusual character for the pre-women's lib period, in that she was both a working professional (not a teacher or nurse) and single (although she was portrayed as
Also, this show was one of the mainstream shows to first use, even in a bit role, middle-class African-Americans in a non-criminal or servile role. In the episode
Though the show stayed away from [[Jive Turkey]] territory as much as possible, Kennedy era reflections abound, including Laura as a Jackie O. surrogate; the Mafia, via the imposing Big Max Calvada (executive producer Sheldon Leonard); [[The British Invasion]] ("The Redcoats are Coming"); a self-indulgent [[Playboy|Hugh Hefner]] surrogate; Carl Reiner as a Jackson Pollack-like abstract painter; or Rob and Laura's praise for baby guru Dr. Spock.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Accidental Bid]]
* [[Affectionate Parody]]: ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' ("It May Look Like a Walnut") and [[The Beatles (band)|Beatlemania]] ("The Redcoats Are Coming!").
* [[All Jews Are Cheapskates]]: Buddy always had "a guy" to get anything at a good deal.
** However, subverted on a wider level. Buddy is emphatically shown many times to be a very generous guy.
* [[All Just a Dream]]: "It May Look Like a Walnut", their ''[[Twilight Zone]]'' [[Affectionate Parody|spoof]].
* [[Ambiguously Jewish]]: Buddy.
** Some writers have in fact observed that the Petries themselves were the only unambiguous gentiles in an otherwise all-ambiguously-Jewish cast. [http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/rob.htm]
** Is Buddy's Jewishness really ambiguous? There's an episode where he studies with a rabbi and celebrates a late-in-life Bar Mitzvah.
* [[American Gothic Couple]]: In the episode "The Masterpiece", Rob and Laura bought a painting from an auction. The painting revealed a different version of "American Gothic", in which the couple were shown smiling.
* [[An Aesop]]: Occasionally, such as the pet duck episode where Rob teaches Richie that, basically, if you love something, let it go.
* [[Animated Adaptation]]: The [[TV Land]] computer animated <s>pilot</s>/special ''[[The Alan Brady Show]]''.
* [[Anti-Love Song]]: one of Stacey Petrie's sleepwalking rock 'n roll songs:
{{quote|My heart told me that I should get a wife
My heart told me I was in a rut
My heart told me I should get a wife
I wish my heart would keep it's big mouth shut!
* [[Author Avatar]]: Rob Petrie is based on Carl Reiner, who actually played the part himself in the unaired pilot. Much of Rob's background -- his army experience, his courtship of his wife, and his life in the suburbs -- is taken directly from Reiner's life.
* [[Borscht Belt]]: Buddy is from this school of comedy.
* [[Brick Joke]]: The Peters' entrance in "That's My Boy??"
* [[Bridge]]
* [[The British Invasion]]: "The Redcoats are Coming".
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Mel Cooley.
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Everybody. Starting with the pilot, the show gave the cast members many opportunities to show off their singing, dancing and stand-up skills.
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* [[The Couch]]
* [[Couch Gag]]: You never knew whether Rob would tumble over the ottoman or not.
* [[Cowboy Episode]]: Rob gets knocked out for a dental procedure while worried about a sketch Alan Brady wants for the show. He dreams he's a wild west sheriff and Alan is "Big Bad Brady
* [[Crossover]]: Three decades after DVDS' heyday Carl Reiner appeared as his character Alan Brady on ''[[Mad About You]]''.
** Also, Buddy appeared in one episode of ''The Danny Thomas Show'' moonlighting as a joke writer for the main character. These two minor crossovers throw DVDS into one hell of a bizarre shared continuity, see [[Shared Universe]].
* [[Dream Sequence]]: "It May Look Like a Walnut", "The Gunslinger", "Washington vs. the Bunny", "The Bad Old Days", "I'd Rather Be Bald Than Have No Head
* [[Dumb Blonde]]: The woman on trial where Rob was a juror in "One Angry Man".
* [[Elevator Failure]]: One of the many flashback episodes has Rob and a pregnant Laura trapped in an elevator with an inept hold-up man played by [[Don Rickles]].
* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Richie {{spoiler|"Rosebud"}} Petrie.
** Which actually stands for
* [[The Eponymous Show]]
* [[Exiled to the Couch]]: Played with in "Give Me Your Walls". Rob and Laura are annoyed by a painter who has been working on their living room for a long time. Rob swears that he will tell him to get out of their house soon, and if he doesn't, he vows to sleep on the couch. Laura hopes that won't happen (though, oddly, Rob and Laura are always in [[Sleeping Single|separate beds]]
* [[Exploding Closet]]: with walnuts!
* [[Extra Eyes]]: In "It May Look Like
* [[Eyes Do Not Belong There]]: see [[Extra Eyes]] above.
* [[The Faceless]]: Alan Brady, for the first couple of seasons.
* [[The Family for the Whole Family]]: In "Big Max Calvada
* [[Fan Service]]: A surprisingly large amount for an early sixties sitcom. Hardly an episode would go by without featuring Mary Tyler Moore in either a nightgown or evening wear, and there were plenty of gorgeous guest stars over the run of the show.
* [[Fidelity Test]]: Rob talks to Laura her over the phone in a different voice as a gag, but the deed transforms to this trope when he believes she believed she was flirting with a complete stranger. But she knows she wasn't.
* [[Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics]]: "So you think that you've got troubles? / Well, trouble's a bubble / So tell old Mr. Trouble to 'Get lost!'"
* [[Formally-Named Pet]]: Sally's rarely seen cat is named Mr. Henderson.
* [[Game Show Appearance]]: "Coast to Coast Bigmouth".
* [[George Jetson Job Security]]: Many episodes revolve around the idea that Rob's job is in jeopardy if he angers Alan or denies him any request.
** Mel's job is secure as long as he stays married to Alan's Sister.
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* [[Jive Turkey]]: Averted - Carl Reiner always removed anything he considered to be too-current trends, fads or slang from scripts in order to prevent future reruns from becoming dated. Ironically, one of the only things that does seem slightly dated in modern viewings is the concept of a weekly prime time network [[Variety Show]] itself.
** ''[[Saturday Night Live|SNL]]'', ''[[Mad TV]]'', ''[[All That]]''??
*** None of which can hold a candle to [[The Ed Sullivan Show|Ed Sullivan]], [[The Carol Burnett Show|Carol Burnett]], The Smothers Brothers, Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar,
*** Not to mention the premises of ''
* [[Jury Duty]]: "One Angry Man".
* [[Just Fine Without You]]
* [[Kiss Diss]]: In the intro.
* [[The Klutz]]
* [[Long Title]]: "The Sound of the Trumpets of Conscience Falls Deafly on a Brain That Holds Its Ears... or Something Like That!"
* [[May-December Romance]]
* [[Mean Boss]]: Alan Brady. He avoids being an out-and-out [[Bad Boss]] only because he has a sense of humor and occasionally [[Hidden Depths|does something good]].
* [[Mickey Mousing]]
* [[Missing the Good Stuff]]
* [[Mistaken for Cheating]]: Several times with several different couples. In one episode, Rob thinks Buddy is having an affair with Sally, only to find that she and Buddy are actually sneaking off to [[The Cast Showoff|perform a club act together]].
* [[My Beloved Smother]]: Herman Glimpshire and his mom.
* [[Never Say "Die"]]: "The rabbit died".
* [[Never Trust a Hair Tonic]]: In a dream sequence, Rob's hair turns into lettuce, because he was given a baldness preventative that was mostly oil and vinegar - aka salad dressing.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Buddy Sorrell was initially based on Carl Reiner's fellow ''Your Show of Shows'' writer [[Mel Brooks]] while Sally Rogers was largely based on Selma Diamond. Rob was also named after Carl's son [[Rob Reiner]] (who he obviously wasn't a celebrity yet).
* [[No Sympathy]]: Laura displays this in spades in "The Attempted Marriage
* [[Not Important to This Episode Camp]]: After the first season, Richie rarely appears unless he's essential to the plot of the episode. A Nick at Nite promo once described him as "Richie Petrie: Low-Maintenance boy
* [[One Born Every Minute]]: The pool hustler.
* [[Panicky Expectant Father]]: A hilarious example.
* [[Paranoia Gambit]]: "The Impractical Joke
* [[Pie in the Face]]
* [[Police Lineup]]
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* [[Pretty in Mink]]
* [[Pseudo Crisis]]: [[The Teaser]] (usually placed right after the [[Title Sequence]], not before) often ends with a character hinting that something big is going to happen this week. When the scene starts again after the first commercial, the crisis usually turns out to be much more trivial than the teaser made it seem. In one episode, the teaser ends with Alan Brady saying "Rob, I need you to save my life!" After the commercial, it turns out Alan just needs Rob to rewrite a play he's starring in.
* [[The Rashomon]]: "The Night the Roof Fell In".
* [[Really Seventeen Years Old]]: When Laura married Petrie, she said that she was nineteen. She was really seventeen and hence too young to get married.
* [[Replacement Flat Character]]: The writers avoided making Laura a typical ditzy sitcom housewife by letting her best friend, Millie, be the ditzy one who comes up with most of the [[Zany Scheme|Zany Schemes]].
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* [[Scunthorpe Problem]]: Yes, there are places where his name will be rendered as "**** Van ****".
* [[Shared Universe]]: With ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'' and ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' by way of ''The Danny Thomas Show'' which spun off the former and crossed over with the latter. The show is also connected with ''[[Mad About You]]''.
** Headache inducingly this and other crossovers between various shows connected with ''Mad'' lead to The Dick Van Dyke show taking place in the same universe as a multitude of diverse shows, ''[[Homicide: Life
* [[Show Within a Show]]: The fictional ''Alan Brady Show'' where Rob works as the head writer.
* [[Sitcom]]
* [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]]: Buddy Sorell made every attempt to insult producer/ bald brother-in-law of the star Mel Cooley.
* [[Sleeping Single]]: Which, despite the times, was rather odd due to the main couple actually having sexual chemistry between them.
* [[Something Completely Different]]: The show's [[Christmas Episode]] is mostly presented as an episode of ''The Alan Brady Show'' itself.
* [[Stay in the Kitchen]]: Played completely straight, to the point of [[Values Dissonance]], in at least two episodes where Rob doesn't want Laura getting a job.
* [[Switched At Birth]]: The episode "That's My Boy??" (
* [[Syndication Title]]: In the late '60s, CBS aired daily afternoon reruns of the series as ''The Dick Van Dyke Daytime Show''.
* [[The Talk]]: Rob gives this to Richie ([[Getting Crap Past the Radar|offscreen]]) after Richie starts telling false stories about where babies come from. Richie accepts the truth of Rob's talk but decides to continue making up stories about "baby supermarkets
* [[Talking in Bed]]
* [[Technically a Smile]]: "Honey, your teeth are showing, but your lips are tense."
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* [[Unwanted Gift Plot]]
* [[The Von Trope Family]]
* [[Weak-Willed]]: A [[Hypno Fool]] example, Rob was hypnotized into acting drunk when he heard a bell; but the subject of the hypnosis was Buddy, not Rob, and he wasn't even in the room when the hypnosis happened.
* [[We Want Our Jerk Back]]
* [[Whole-Episode Flashback]]: Several, including "That's My Boy??", adding up to a full history of how the main characters met, courted, got married, moved to their current home, and had their son.
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{{reflist}}
{{TV Guide's 50 Greatest}}
[[Category:Comedy Series]]
[[Category:Work Com]]
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[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:Dom Com]]
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