"The Dick Van Dyke Show Season 5" -- A Personal Review - Page 4

Another DvDS oddity (although not officially a major "gaffe") ...........

In Season One's "Harrison B. Harding" episode -- When Rob asks Harrison "You know Laura?", Harrison responds with "Indeed I do...you don't forget a girl like Laura, do you?".

This comment makes it fairly obvious that Harrison and Laura had met while at Camp Crowder, Missouri.

OK.....So, then, what do you think the odds are that Rob and Laura would both be completely in the dark as to who Mr. Harding is? It seems likely that at least one of the two would recall meeting Harrison.

A Van Dyke Show episode entitled "Harrison B. Harding Meets Sam Pomerantz" would have been rather interesting, huh? This ep. would feature Allan Melvin meeting himself, since Allan played both parts. They'd have to do that split-screen thing that Bewitched always did when Samantha and Serena were supposedly in the same room together. A trick also employed on every episode of "The Patty Duke Show". Not to mention "Jeannie" and her evil sister, both played by the fetching Barbara Eden.

Barbara, by-the-by, we'll get to see swaying her lovely torso in a second-season episode of Andy Griffith (Episode #48, "The Manicurist"). I'm confident that Paramount will issue a S.2 boxed set after S.1 sales go through the roof.

"The Manicurist" episode features some rather racy dialogue (considering the era) from Andrew Taylor, as he addresses manicurist Eden ...........

"Nature's been very good to you. In fact, I can't recall when nature has spent so much time on any one person."

It's funny, huh .... you can watch an episode a hundred times and not notice something -- and then (in viewing #101) something pops out at you. Like that observation about Laura having obviously met Harrison B. Harding.


Another --->

But was it Harrison's "Pre-diet" bloated face? Or his post-Crowder face, which was 57 pounds lighter?

HARRISON -- "I lost 57 pounds since then."
EVELYN -- "All from his face."

As Gavin MacLeod said to Rob in "Empress Carlotta's Necklace" -- "You have good taste sir!"

Here's one for ya ............

In Season Two's "I'm No Henry Walden", Rob makes an odd declaration to Laura: "They don't allow you on Park Avenue in a rented tux".

Huh? You mean to say that if Rob *had* tried to enter the Walden party in a rented tuxedo, the "Tux Police" would have whipped out their badges and escorted Mr. Petrie (Petroff ) off the premises? I somehow doubt that. Of course, there's no possible way anyone could have KNOWN he had on a "rented" tux in the first place.

LOL.

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Also ....... In the same "Henry Walden" episode, Mel comes bursting into the writer's office, brimming over with excitement because Henry Walden is in his office to see Rob.

Now, can you tell me WHY Mel would be THAT excited about having a poet/writer in the office when (obviously) as producer of a popular TV variety show starring Alan Brady, Mel has met dozens of famous movie & TV stars?

This highly-excited reaction by Mel to meeting this poet doesn't quite "fit", IMO.

"Nothing goes over worse at a formal dinner than the smell of sweaty bunny fur."

Hey Van Dyke Show fans ......

There's another "oddity" or "mini-flub" (of sorts) -- in the episode "The Masterpiece". More of a "common sense gaffe" I think.

Can anyone guess what it is? (Near beginning of show just after the auction ends. I had never before thought about this obvious gaffe, until re-watching this ep. today.)

Good luck.

Winner receives two free "ARTANIS" paintings, plus an original "NATHANIEL GOOD" piece of artwork (worth about US$1.99).

Good point, Eric. LOL.

A *possible* explanation is that Dr. Phil Nevins gave Rob a lift. But that would still beg the question, how was Rob transported in such a stiff posture? Was he stuffed through Phil's back-seat windows, with his feet extending out one window and his head out the other? Or: possibly Phil strapped Rob to the roof of his 1961 Ford sedan, as one would transport the family Christmas tree.

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The answer to my "Masterpiece" riddle is actually quite simple (although, as I said, I'd never thought of it till tonight either).

Hint: If this hunk of "common sense" had been employed for this episode, it would have negated the whole rest of the program. So, obviously, this logic could not be implemented here.

Just to keep the "feeling" of TDVDS fresh and ever-present .... Let me toss out another Brain-Busting Van Dyke inquiry:

>> What is the name of the substitute dentist that Rob goes to see when he breaks a tooth on his "soft chicken sandwich" in the episode "A Man's Teeth Are Not His Own"?

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Plus, the ARTANIS still awaits the person answering my "Masterpiece" question from earlier.

LOL! Yeah, I see your point.
I've never seen the word "pestilence" spelled out before me before. Wonder why? You spelled it correctly too. It's just not a word that normally comes up in casual conversation it seems.

I've always kind of wondered about another part of that "Teeth" episode. ... Rob breaks a tooth, and is IMMEDIATELY in agonizing pain. I don't know if this is entirely accurate or realistic. From my experience, it is not. I've broken teeth before, and not once did it hurt so bad I was writhing in agony. In fact, it didn't hurt at all immediately. You've got to let it rot to the nerve to induce Rob's type of agony. (I think.)

Anyway -- the doc's name is "Dr. Barthoffen". (I'm unable to "spell-check" the doctor's name, because he's not listed in any credits, because he never actually appears in the episode in question.)

"More water? Is this a kid or a camel?"

Jeffrey beat me by 1 minute. Good man, Jeff!

I check DVDonDVD.com occasionally, but the site is never updated (past June 2004). So I don't know what the status of the "Ottoman Collection" is as of now. *shrugs*

To continue the "Leave no tiny DvDS gaffe or mini-mistake left unturned" policy ..........

>> In "Father Of The Week", right at the very beginning, Laura comes into the room asking Ritchie "What is this?". Ritchie answers "A dirt bomb" before even looking at what Laura/Mom had in her hand.

>> In "The Ghost Of A. Chantz" the same "scream" by Laura is utilized twice in the same scene. -- Once right after Laura sees the "ghost" in the bedroom mirror; and then again the exact SAME scream is used when the camera cuts to Rob & Buddy in the other room.

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I guess my "Masterpiece" inquiry shall forever remain unanswered. Oh, well. Such is life.

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Bingo, Ryan! Exactly correct!
You recalled the ep. perfectly.

Simple solution really. Simply have Rob go to the other person (who bid as high as $170 before Rob accidentally bid 180 clams) after the auction and sell the "Artanis" to that other bidder. Rob might be out the $10 difference, but that's certainly better than being stuck for $180. And: maybe the other bidder would have been willing to pay the whole $180.

But, quite obviously, if Carl Reiner had done this "logical" thing in this episode, we'd have had only an 8-minute program (approx.). It would have ruined the last two-thirds of the script.

Good job, Ryan. You can name your prize for answering correctly -- as long as it costs me NOTHING!

Now -- Can you tell me what gaffe Jerry Helper makes in the episode "A Nice, Friendly Game Of Cards"? (A lapse in logic I would call it.)

And -- Did we here with the Van Dyke Police already discuss the gaffe in "The Two Faces Of Rob"? -- Because there's a good one in that show that I'll bet virtually nobody has ever caught.

No, that's not what I'm thinking of. It's at the card table, during a poker hand. Jerry does something extremely stupid, that a poker player would never do in a million years.

(I also recently took note of the fact that some of the DVD-On-DVD discs won't allow on-the-fly audio-track switching, to toggle to the occasional commentary track. But some discs will allow this. I doubt it's just *my* Player. Anybody else notice this mini-annoyance?)

Yes. Exactly correct. WHY would anybody playing poker announce to the whole table such a thing? LOL! (Of course, in the episode, it was NEEDED to further the plot. So we'll have to forgive Jerry's obvious brain cramp. )




Hey -- I'd never thought of that before (the "Carson"/"Parsons" connection). And I hadn't realized that the "I rib you not" line was a Paar take-off either.

Interestingly, though, I'd always kinda wondered WHY the audience laughs at just the moment of that line (which isn't really funny; but now that I know it's a "Paar parody", the laughter makes sense).

Steve -- For those two excellent observations, you are definitely now on the DVD-On-DVD "first team".

I have that excellent Waldron book -- but I must've not remembered those specific parts about the "Parsons" thing. I've always wondered why they didn't use the same actor for both of the "Parsons" episodes. (Perhaps the first Parsons, played by Dick Patterson, wasn't available for the "Dear Sally Rogers" episode in Season 5.)

The second Parsons, btw, was Richard Schaal, who went on to guest star on the Mary Tyler Moore Show many times. Schaal played several parts, in fact, on the MTM Show, including a boyfriend of Mary's in Season One, as well as "Chuckles The Clown" (who, of course, was killed by a rogue elephant in one of the funniest MTM eps. ever during Season #6).

Yes, indeedy!

Then Brew-Brew could slip right back into his funny "FBI" routine again ........

"The FBI. That's you! ... Fat, Bald, and Ignorant!"