The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) available for preorder on Amazon (1 Viewer)

Harry-N said:

How sharp and clear is THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW on Blu-ray? Throughout the opening 15 episodes or so, I've been able to detect that the television in Rob, Buddy, and Sally's office, though turned off, was left on channel 2 for the first few episodes, and has now moved to channel 4.


While I cannot read the actual numbers on the dial, I CAN detect the position of the knob, and having worked enough of those type of TVs in my life, I can tell by the positioning!


Harry

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I was watching some season 2 episodes on BD, and I can attest that they are very sharp and clear .Possibly as good as they will look in our lifetimes.

Harry-N said:

How sharp and clear is THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW on Blu-ray? Throughout the opening 15 episodes or so, I've been able to detect that the television in Rob, Buddy, and Sally's office, though turned off, was left on channel 2 for the first few episodes, and has now moved to channel 4.


While I cannot read the actual numbers on the dial, I CAN detect the position of the knob, and having worked enough of those type of TVs in my life, I can tell by the positioning!


Harry

Click to expand...

I noticed for the first time that one of the pillows on the sofa in the Petrie living room in the first few seasons has metallic thread in the pattern. You can catch it glistening under the lights at times.

Yeah, the picture quality is truly outstanding! I don't know how it could possibly look any better. I also got it for an incredibly low price...now if only The Twilight Zone would go on sale for a similar price!

Watching Episode 15 last night, something jumped out at me regarding the opening theme music. It was changed! After 14 episodes of the jazzier theme, the new rendition is the more standard straight-forward approach to the theme. Gone were the drums and quick/flashy stills. Oh, the stills montage is still there, but they're slower and less frenetic.


So that got me to wondering how the theme played for the second half of the first season and there were some surprising things that either I never noticed before, or just forgot. The newer straigh-forward theme continues for the entire rest of Season One, but is occasionally placed later in the episode, after a five-minute-or-so teaser. THAT really took me by surprise. One of the episodes, #19 "Where Did I Come From", begins with Dick Van Dyke announcing that the show is now at a new time.


1-14: jazzy theme, 1st

15-16: new theme, 1st

17-19: new theme, 2nd

20-21: new theme, 1st

22: new theme, 2nd

23-30: new theme, 1st


We know that the series was on shaky ground in its first year. It started on a Tuesday schedule following a MATT DILLON rerun and was moved to Wednesday nights starting in January 1962, following CHECKMATE. My guess is that with the time slot change, the producers decided to give the show a little face-lift by tightening up the open, and experimented with starting the show with a teaser instead of the theme for a few episodes. We also know that in Season Two, the ratings took off when the lead-in show was changed to THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES.


I'm just amazed that I never really caught on to all of this until now, having been a watcher of the show from the beginning.


Meanwhile, I've also finally placed the Blu-ray menu version of the theme. It was newly recorded and used on THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW REVISITED:





Harry

Harry-N said:

Watching Episode 15 last night, something jumped out at me regarding the opening theme music. It was changed! After 14 episodes of the jazzier theme, the new rendition is the more standard straight-forward approach to the theme. Gone were the drums and quick/flashy stills. Oh, the stills montage is still there, but they're slower and less frenetic.


So that got me to wondering how the theme played for the second half of the first season and there were some surprising things that either I never noticed before, or just forgot. The newer straigh-forward theme continues for the entire rest of Season One, but is occasionally placed later in the episode, after a five-minute-or-so teaser. THAT really took me by surprise. One of the episodes, #19 "Where Did I Come From", begins with Dick Van Dyke announcing that the show is now at a new time.

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Thinigs were even more screwed up for Syndication.


My first exposure to the show was the Nick at Nite run in the mid-90s. Back then, episodes 17 and 18 mysteriously had a season 2 opening, with Rob tripping over the Ottoman and the traditional theme song, but no announcer naming the cast.

It is generally very impressive PQ, great detail for the modest bitrate, a skilled transfer IMO, sufficient to easily see the textures of clothes (which still look remarkably stylish, compared to any e.g. '70s show, not that I have any right to comment on style...) and other materials, not soft at all.


The only thing that's bugged me is some very significant lip-sync issues (you will surely notice, since it's often during close-ups) in a few parts of a very few S3 episodes, IIRC on the last BD. It comes and goes, and is thus not really "fixable" even when viewing with e.g. a newer Oppo that allows you to delay video.

I now realize, I will never tire of watching The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I remember watching it in the evenings during its original run. I also watched it in reruns during summer vacation in the mornings on CBS (along with Lucy and Andy).

Doing a fast forward, I watched it on Nick At Night, taping everything I could from when they ran the "Dick Van Dyke Collection".

Now I have the DVDs and the Blus.

For me, this is one of the gold standards from the Golden Age of TV and I appreciate it has been treated as such.

Today February 8, 2016 GET-TV broadcast Dick Van Dyke and The Other Woman, a variety show special which was a TV Reunion between Dick and Mary made in 1969, three years after the Van Dyke show ended. The success of this show lead CBS to offer Mary her own TV show which was of course the start of MTM. This special in color should have been included with the DVD or blu ray set. Most likely music rights prevented it. It has the same distributor Paul Brownstein Productions as the Van Dyke Show. What a treat to see this which is probably the first time it has been broadcast since 1969. Too bad there was no publicity about this being broadcast. I found it when channel surfing. Here is a short clip found on youtube. Being only 3 years after the show ended they still look and sound like Rob and Laura .

I'm almost certain that I've seen what's on that YouTube video on both the original DVD release and the new Blu-Ray collection. Unsure if it was present in its entirety though.

There was a part of this clip used on the recent PBS special Mary Tyler Moore : A Celebration . If it was included in DVD complete series set I never saw it .

One scene from the special appeared on the fifth season set (both DVD and Blu-ray), but the rest of the special has never been released on video, as far as I am aware. How was it?

It was not as good as the DVD show but was miles ahead of "Dick Van Dyke Revisited" There was a great deal of music, mostly original music written for the show. It started with Dick sing a song surrounded by life size cutouts of Mary ending , of course with the real Mary. There was a section called life is like a sitcom which was clever. There was a sketch where they played the bride and groom figures on top of a wedding cake which I guess you could say was a forerunner of Toy Story. The groom even wants to be a cowboy. They did the joke from the DVD show concerning having a chocolate cake with coffee instead of milk. Its a milk cake etc. The show may have been cut for time as there was no solo number for Mary and as the show primarily was a showcase for her you would think she would have her own number.It was written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, who also wrote for the DVD show and created That Girl. Not surprisingly they wrote the episode with the chocolate cake , the Lady and the Babysitter. The most remembered episode they wrote was probably "Coast To Coast Big Mouth" where Laura tells America on national TV that Alan Brady is bald.

Damn! I wish I had heard about the airing before hand. Hopefully, it will air again sometime.

It is scheduled for a repeat, I believe, on Friday in the afternoon. Check your local listings.

On the east coast Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman will repeat on Friday at 2 PM and Sunday at 10 AM. Not sure if GET-TV has a west coast feed or if you have to adjust the start time to your time zone.

Thanks guys!

I wasn't sure if Time Warner cable in my area offered GET-TV, but lo and behold it does, and I now have Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman scheduled to record on its next airing.

I saw it back in the day (was a BIG fan of both stars), and am really looking forward to this revisit.

I watched Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman tonight. Two of the most charming performers to ever grace television. It had some decent wit, some nice songs (including a very enjoyable medley of food songs), and a little nostalgia for their classic sitcom.

A wonderful variety hour.

How I wish this special would get a dvd release similar to "Van Dyke and Company" set which I watch all the time -- magnificent -- how about it MPI?

The bluray set? Pristine, I watch it with a Sony 3D headset viewer, which is like watching it on a 200ft screen and it is like a window to the 60s and television of that era -- my one criticism is that it says the set is All Regions but it is most definitely Region A (this coming from a Region B bluray area, thankfully I have a Region A player)

Also for DVDS completists, I'd bite the bullet and buy "Don't Worry, We'll Think Of A Title", filmed between Season 4 and 5 -- I like to think of this as the DVDS Movie -- only sporadic laughs but Morey, Rose, Richard and Carl (with and without hair) and an all star walk-on cast, you'll get through it.

I finally got around to recording the DICK VAN DYKE AND THE OTHER WOMAN special on its early Sunday run. After editing out the commercials, the time came out to 40:xx, so it has to be about ten minutes short of its original run-time. I wonder what was missing?

Harry