Search - The Dick Van Dyke Show on DVD

DON"T BUY THIS IF---

M. Lafferman | Chico, CA, USA | 02/01/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Don't buy this dvd set if you already have the first Dick Van Dyke Show DVD, as this set has the EXACT 6 same shows on it--"The Night The Roof Fell In", "Never Name A Duck", "Show Me Your Walls", "A Man's Teeth Are Not His Own", "Hustling The Hustler", and "Bank Book". They mislead you by saying there are 10 episodes, but only 6 are The Dick Van Dyke Show. The other 4 are The Lucy Show-- "Lucy Meets John Wayne", "Lucy The Fight Manager", "Lucy Meets Tennessee Ernie Ford", and "Lucy Gets Caught In The Draft". I already had ALL these SAME episodes!!"

Nothing New

M. Lafferman | 01/31/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is NOT more Dick Van Dyke. It's the same as the previously offered DVD, but plus a second disc with the Lucy Show."

Classic Kennedy-Era Sitcom Shows How Ageless Great Comedy Ca

Ed Uyeshima | San Francisco, CA USA | 01/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't think it's a coincidence that Rob and Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) bore a fleeting resemblance to the then-reigning couple of Camelot, President John F. Kennedy and his fashion-forward wife Jackie, when the classic sitcom debuted in 1961. The youthful appeal of the Petries broke the mold established by previous depictions of married couples simply because they looked like they were actually having sex. It also helped that the show was created by Carl Reiner, a veteran comedy writer of Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows alongside Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. This experience was the inspiration for the setting of Van Dyke's show, which in turn was populated by one of TV's best casts.

The premise was simple - Rob Petrie was the head comedy writer for "The Alan Brady Show", a popular comedy-variety series based in Manhattan. Rob worked with two other writers, Borscht Belt comic Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and man-hungry Sally Rogers (Rose Marie), under the constant glare of producer Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), who happens to be the reviled brother-in-law of the show's star. At home in suburban New Rochelle is Rob's pretty wife Laura, a former USO dancer, and their son Richie (Larry Mathews), along with their next-door neighbors, dentist Jerry Helper (Jerry Paris) and his wife Millie (Ann Morgan Guilbert). Unlike previous shows that focused on either the workplace or home life, The Dick Van Dyke Show gave equal attention to both aspects of Petrie's world and often creatively synthesized both. Reiner occasionally played Brady, who was initially just heard and shown from the back.

A total of 158 episodes were produced over five seasons, and all are available individually for download on Amazon Unbox Video Downloads. Several are memorable, but I have two particular favorites that I downloaded to great satisfaction. Written by Sheldon Keller and Howard Merrill, the first is "All About Eavesdropping" (Season Two, Episode 33) in which Rob and Laura overhear some catty comments Jerry and Millie make about them. The complication is that the Petries hear the remarks over Richie's toy intercom unbeknownst to the Helpers. The Petries' seething anger is played to coordinated perfection by Van Dyke and Moore, who showcase their passive-aggressiveness in a hysterical game of charades ("Malicious accusory!").

Written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, the second is the classic "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" (Season Five, Episode One), in which Laura blurts out on a nationally televised game show that Alan Brady is bald, a revelation that could cost Rob his job. Moore never had a better showcase for her unique talent of simultaneously crying and talking under duress. She and Reiner are hilarious in the scene where she tries to apologize to Brady in front of a line of styrofoam heads each with one of Brady's cast-off toupees. As Brady angrily asks Laura what he should do with the toupees, her response is classic - "There must be some needy bald people?". If you're like me, a baby boomer who has seen every episode at least a dozen times, the flexibility to download favorite episodes is a great breakthrough. This is indeed classic television, and the quality of the video downloads is first-rate on my PC."