# The Dick van Dyke show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348 "2003-04-08T17:22:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/1 "2003-04-08T17:22:24Z")
Any other fans of the show here? I’m too young to have seen it when it came out, but have seen it in repeats. It’s consistantly well written, still funny, and the characters just play off each other so well. So, am I the only one who feels this way? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/2 "2003-04-08T17:46:18Z")
Oh, no. There are a great many male posters in their 40’s and up here who have fond memories of the young Mary Tyler Moore in capri pants… ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/3 "2003-04-08T17:51:57Z")
I was nine when this went off the air, so I remember watching it first-run . . . I _wanted_ to grow up to be Laura Petrie; _feared_ I’d grow up to be Millie Helper, and actually _did_ grow up to be Sally Rogers. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/4 "2003-04-08T18:26:20Z")
I loved it, and remember watching it when it first came out. It’s still my all-time favorite sitcom, and stands up to repeated viewing (unlike, I find, **All in the Family** ). Wittily and intelligently written, the perfect blend of work/home/other situations. Oh, yeah, and I loved Laura Petrie, too, capri pants or no. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/5 "2003-04-08T18:50:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ethilrist \* > \*\*Oh, no. There are a great many male posters in their 40’s and up here who have fond memories of the young Mary Tyler Moore in capri pants… \*\* …or in the bathtub! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/6 "2003-04-08T19:07:46Z")
I loved that show! I watched it in reruns when I was a little boy, even though I was too young to truly appreciate the hotness of Laura Petrie. My favorite characters were always Buddy and Sally. ---
**Author:** ![jeanster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc348/32.png) [@jeanster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeanster)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/7 "2003-04-08T19:31:35Z")
I saw it in syndicated reruns. Loved it. Two episodes that stick in my mind are: [SPOILER]The one where Rob opens the closet door and all these walnuts come spilling out, and Laura slides out on top of the walnuts. The one where Rob was annoyed at Laura for opening his mail. So Buddy and Sally end up helping him write a skit for it, but somehow the name ‘Laura’ stuck in the script. When the Alan Brady show aired, Laura was embarrassed when she saw the skit because she thought they were making fun of her. Millie and (what was her husband’s name?) were hilarious in this episode.[/SPOILER] ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/8 "2003-04-08T20:00:52Z")
I’m a huge fan - one of my top 5 sitcoms of all time. I told one of our neighbors once that I met my wife when she was in the USO, and I paid a guy in her show $50 to pretend he broke his foot so I could dance with her. She believed me. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/9 "2003-04-08T20:04:50Z")
I LOVED that show. Absolutely hilarious. My favorite was the one where he’s a disk jockey trying to break the record for staying awake the longest period of time. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/10 "2003-04-08T20:36:31Z")
I remember it from when I was a wee pup. Definitely one of the few shows with any real intelligence. Great acting and Mary Tyler Moore is a babe. A true classic. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/11 "2003-04-08T20:43:31Z")
Could it be the best sitcom of all time? Yes, could very well be. It was literate and human (and humane) and for all the show business overtones, far more realistic than the 50s sitcoms. Almost all the things we take for granted about sitcoms today come from the show. I’m one of the few who think the show actually got better after Carl Reiner stopped writing (almost) all the shows in the first two years. His plots seem more sitcom-y than those that came later. Bill Persky and Sam Denoff were brilliant writers, with wild imaginations. Even at their weirdest they still made the plots fit into suburban America. (And the Petries lived in a real place, not anytown, USA.) They wrote the dj episode **revtim** mentioned. And they wrote “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” the one in which Laura gives away the secret of Alan Brady’s toupee on national television, the single funniest sitcom episode of all time. And yes, it’s true: By the time it went off the air I was definitely old enough to appreciate Mary Tyler Moore. People forget that she was 12 years younger than Dick Van Dyke and so only in her mid-20s during the show. (They later established she got married to Rob at 17 to explain this.) She never looked lovelier. She had a glow that she never quite managed in her own show. Do I have a book to recommend? Of course, I do. I have books on everything. 🙂 _The Dick Van Dyke Show_, by Ginny Weissman and Coyne Steven Sanders is mostly pictures (including MTM in a low-cut spaghetti-strap gown), but it has an episode guide and a trivia quiz. Much better is _The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book_, by Vince Waldron. Lots of text, background info, and a good episode guide. And they finally have confirmed (sorta) that the long-awaited [reunion show](http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/tv/1849434) definitely, positively, might occur. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/12 "2003-04-08T20:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I was nine when this went off the air, so I remember watching it first-run . . . I wanted to grow up to be Laura Petrie; feared I’d grow up to be Millie Helper, and actually did grow up to be Sally Rogers. Eve, you made the right choice. Hmm… I think even as a youngster I was expecting Sally to blow up at all the co-workers that kept trying to find her just the right man (which was ALL she needed to be happy). By the by, Millie’s husband was award-winning director Jerry Help… uh, Paris. he directed a lot of the episodes, and went on to do everything from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Happy Days to (cringe) Police Academy movies. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/13 "2003-04-08T21:09:01Z")
Loved it but I always wanted to see Pickles (maybe we did & I missed it?) Always thought the FrednEthel were Buddy & Sally & not Jerrry & Millie … It says alot about the show that it framed so many of my references I see Rose Marie & “It’s Sally” Riener & “It’s Allen Brady” a certain type of bald guy has “a Mel Cooley” rather than male pattern baldness. I saw a critic compare it to Kennedy & Camelot re just how they lived & the art on the wall & the furniture &, yes heaven help men who see MTM today rerun, the capri pants. This dovetailed with how I always thought & how **to me** it was an early 60’s show – not a 50’s show that lasted into the 60’s or something like The Monkees or Room 222 that would come later – it was really about its time – there are no color DvDS (right?) & I think that is perfect. “Camelot” was not in color - except the grisley end ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/14 "2003-04-08T21:15:23Z")
Great show. I have my computer set to automatically record it for me every day. I need more hard drive space! ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/15 "2003-04-08T21:21:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Revtim \* > \*\*I LOVED that show. Absolutely hilarious. My favorite was the one where he’s a disk jockey trying to break the record for staying awake the longest period of time. \*\* They used a clip from this show in an episode of _Diagnosis: Murder_. Dr. Mark Sloan is walking through a radio station and passes a large window behind which is a younger version of himself (in black and white!); he does a double-take, shakes his head, and keeps walking. On preview: **jimmmy** , I’m certain we saw Pickles several times. I seem to remember her being at a party at Rob & Laura’s house at least once, and there was an episode partially set at Buddy’s house. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/16 "2003-04-08T21:34:49Z")
On PBS they did a special of the writers for Sid Ceasar’s Your Show of Shows, which is basically the basis for the Dick Van Dyke Show. Some of the stories they used on DvDs were clearly taken from the experiences of the writes on YSoSs. Alan Brady was clearly meant to be Sid Ceasar. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/17 "2003-04-08T22:01:16Z")
Right, and Rob Petrie was meant to be Carl Reiner, Buddy Sorrell is Mel Brooks, and Sally Rogers is Selma Diamond. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/18 "2003-04-08T22:42:24Z")
Pickles “Fiona” Sorrell was played by both Barbara Perry and Joan Shawlee–both times as a great, peroxided doxy. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/19 "2003-04-08T22:55:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*I was nine when this went off the air, so I remember watching it first-run . . . I _wanted_ to grow up to be Laura Petrie; _feared_ I’d grow up to be Millie Helper, and actually _did_ grow up to be Sally Rogers. \*\* Iced tea. All over the keyboard. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348/20 "2003-04-08T23:07:10Z")
Without a doubt the best sitcom ever. It ended just in time to make you wish it had gone on longer. It had a perfectly balanced cast, great writing and talented acting. Here’s my bit of DvD trivia. Anne Morgan Gulbert (Millie) was only supposed to be an occasional character. The writers kept using her, but she wouldn’t sign a contract. She realized she was making more being paid by the episode than she would have as a regular member of the cast. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dick-van-dyke-show/167348.md?page=2)