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"The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

post #1 of 44
6/22/09 at 9:59am
Thread Starter 
http://Dick-Van-Dyke-Show.blogspot.com
Edited by David Von Pein - 1/4/10 at 11:27pm
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post #2 of 44
6/22/09 at 12:03pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

That color pic in the post...

It's so bizarre to see the Dick Van Dyke set in color. In fact, from the looks of the kitchen, the colors were very appropriate for the times... and god awful ugly.

Anyway, I have nothing to add except this show was one of the high points of both sitcoms, and TV on DVD. It's worth the money, whether you get the complete series or season by season.
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post #3 of 44
6/22/09 at 1:03pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

This is a retro review! Thanks for reminding everyone this terrific series is still available...bargain hunters may want to check Sam's Club as I've seen the individual seasons there at low prices.

My personal favorite episode is the SAM POMERANTZ SCANDALS. It's got an affectionate L&H tribute (Stan was still alive when this aired) and each cast member gets to shine. Dick and Mary do a great CAROLINA IN THE MORNING duet, Rose Marie rocks along with "When I was a litty bitty baby..."; and we get a glimpse of Morey's stand-up routine. This episode also has the first appearance of the FINE MUSICIANS song.

Sitcoms never got any better than this in my opinion....these DVDs are well worth having in your collection.
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post #4 of 44
6/22/09 at 1:30pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Thank you David for a stellar review! This collection, and the similarly brilliant work Image did on Twilight Zone, is the standard by which all TVonDVD releases should be measured. They have never been topped IMO, and years from now when we've moved well beyond the DVD medium, these discs will still proudly remain in my library!
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post #5 of 44
6/22/09 at 2:58pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Ditto. VP, for Steve & Gary's posts. I've had the complete set in my library for a while. I'm viewing S3 at present.

One of the best episodes for me was that "baby-swapping" ep with Greg Morris as the guest. Classic moment when "Rob" answered the front door

I agree with Gary about the 2 Image sets. This set & the (orig) Twilight Zone Def Version sets were the top quality TV/DVD sets imo. I rate the Image "Combat!" sets high although the episodes weren't as good video transfer Q as the other 2 sets.
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post #6 of 44
6/22/09 at 4:37pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Thanks I had'nt been aware that it's been available as a megaset. I DL a few DVD episodes from Itunes On sale and ever since been searching for the series at a good price. I'll still keep my eyes out...
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post #7 of 44
6/22/09 at 4:47pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Great review, David. Thanks for this wonderful reminder of this brilliant series on DVD.

But you didn't quote the best (IMO) line from Draw Me a Pear: "That's too big for a pear, but that isn't too big for a mouth??!"

Or from The Lady and the Babysitter: "Will you never learn?? This is a milk cake!"
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post #8 of 44
6/22/09 at 4:56pm
Thread Starter 

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

MELVIN COOLEY -- "You want a drink of water, Alan?"

ALAN LESTER BRADY -- "No, a glass of dust!"

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post #9 of 44
6/22/09 at 5:32pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

LAURA: "Rob, I worry about you. All alone up there with that hat."

**********

LAURA: "Oh no, Maria. Muy attractivamante!!"

**********

ROB: "Oh, that's not the coat that looked so good on me."
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post #10 of 44
6/22/09 at 6:27pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Thanks for the review, David! You are the main reason I went ahead and started buying the sets, because of your reviews and suggestions. As a matter of fact, I just purchased Season 4 yesterday, the only one I was missing because I had been trying to get all 5 seasons for about $20.00 a piece....turns out Amazon has this season now for $16.99! So, with the exception of Season 5 which I paid full retail price for, I made my goal of every season under $20!! WOO-HOO!!

I'm just wondering though, David, did you actually purchase this full set considering you all ready had the individual season sets?
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post #11 of 44
6/22/09 at 7:27pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Sad to say it, but for me The Dick Van Dyke Show does not stand up when I revisit it. I bought the complete series DVD, and I just can't get through it. I liked it as a kid, but not as much now. Maybe I'm looking at it too seriously, I don't know. Despite what most people say, the show is dated; in fact, it was becoming dated by 1966. Everything on the show is glamourized to the n-th degree. The actors, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore especially, are too pretty and young for their roles. The characters are all petty, self-absorbed, insecure people, The plots of the episodes are repetitive; every episode seems to be about jealousy, a petty insult, insecurity, or a misunderstanding. It gets boring. There's no emotional realism, no substance; it's perfect people finding silly things to complain about. It just leaves me cold.
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post #12 of 44
6/22/09 at 7:42pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

The show was based on the life of Carl Reiner. It would have been much more true to that vision if for Rob and Laura Petrie they would have cast slightly older, less pretty people. But American audiences wouldn't accept such realism, so they prettied it up.

As another example, take The Honeymooners. Despite it's drab settings, it too is glamourized, in the casting of Alice Kramden. If for that role they had cast an older, rounder woman, like the first ever Alice, Pert Kelton, it would have made that show's premise a lot more believeable and understandable. Same with The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was always Dick Van Dyke pretending to be a comedy writer. He never truly fit the show's premise.
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post #13 of 44
6/22/09 at 7:55pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

^ That's why it's a TV show and not a documentary.

Other things that are not realistic about TV: People are not as funny or ready with a well timed joke in real life as they are on TV. Real people's lives are not as dramatic as they are on TV. A cop's life is not as exciting as it is on TV and on and on and on.
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post #14 of 44
6/22/09 at 8:00pm
Thread Starter 

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Quote:
I'm just wondering though, David, did you actually purchase this full set considering you [already] had the individual season sets?

Yes, I did purchase it a few years ago. I was curious as to how the thing was packaged. The individual season packages are much nicer (and less cumbersome; easier to handle). The complete-series box jams all the discs next to each other, and they're hard to remove.

The box I received was dented badly. The large slipcase is not too sturdy; certainly less sturdy than the single-season boxes, which I like much better.

So, I returned the set for a refund. But at least I got a good look, first-hand, at the complete-series set.
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post #15 of 44
6/22/09 at 8:22pm
Thread Starter 

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Quote:
The characters are all petty, self-absorbed, insecure people. .... It just leaves me cold.

Try watching "Empress Carlotta's Necklace" and "The Sick Boy And The Sitter" and the last scene of "The Life And Love Of Joe Coogan" and the tail-end of "The Square Triangle" again. Those shows should be able to thaw anyone out.
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post #16 of 44
6/22/09 at 8:53pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

A plug for one of my favorite episodes which has one of the longest titles in the history of TV, "The Sound Of The Trumpets Of Conscience Falls Deafly On A Brain That Holds Its Ears (Or Something Like That)". Watch Rob try to explain the difference between a man's height and his "running height" as he describes what may have been a hold-up man fleeing the scene of the crime.
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post #17 of 44
6/22/09 at 9:30pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Brilliant review David!

Thanks very much for all the work ~ very pleased to pick this set up at the recent DVDPlanet "fire sale" thank to your review, I've bumped this up a few notches on the "to watch" pile.
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post #18 of 44
6/22/09 at 9:59pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdee28
The show was based on the life of Carl Reiner. It would have been much more true to that vision if for Rob and Laura Petrie they would have cast slightly older, less pretty people. But American audiences wouldn't accept such realism, so they prettied it up.

???

Carl Reiner (1922) is only three years older than Dick Van Dyke (1925). Why should the character have been older than Carl's real age? Especially when it was based on his life 5 years prior, when he was writing for Sid Caeser.

And why should a writer's wife be "less pretty"?
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post #19 of 44
6/22/09 at 11:36pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

This has always been my number 1 sitcom of all time. To me, most of the gags and jokes hold up very well. DVD's facial expressions and physical comedy were priceless. Some of my favorite moments:

1. The episode about the birth of Ritchie when Rob perfects his timing on putting on his hat while in bed, and when he drops the phone down his pants.
2. When Laura has to face Alan after telling the whole country that he wears a toupee and Alan sits there talking to his toupees.
3. When Rob and gang are at an art auction and Rob (kidding around) starts making bidding gestures not realizing he's actually bidding on a painting!

I haven't watched these in a while, I think I'll watch a few episodes tonight!
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post #20 of 44
6/23/09 at 12:06am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Now I know why I like watching the show. I enjoy watching pretty people in an upbeat world versus watching ugly people in a down beat world such as in many of today's shows.

And although Audrey Meadows was an attractive woman she wasn't unrealistically pretty for the part she played on the Honeymooners IMO.
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post #21 of 44
6/23/09 at 5:26am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Put me with those who say this never gets old. I watched as a small child in the late 60s, 70s so the nostalgia is gigantic. The talent on this show is stunning and even more appreciated when you view the original pilot with Carl Reiner. Also I have the fortune of sharing the same birthday with the comedy legend Dick Van Dyke. Yes, you may all touch me.

Thorough, accurate review looks like to me. It really is this great. I picked it up when it was $90 and I feel like I cheated somebody. It's a huge, heavy set. Worth every penny you'll pay for it. There is loads of stuff to discover. I put it up there with my favorites, Andy Griffith, Sanford & Son, gilligan's Island, Kung Fu, Little House, Brady Bunch,e tc. Comfort shows I'll watch over and over and over again.
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post #22 of 44
6/23/09 at 5:51am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

I'm in the crowd that thinks this one stands the test of time easily. I watched them all in their initial runs and occasionally in syndication but the DVD journey is a blast.

VP, I agree with the complete set packaging. The way that I get around that is that I'll pull a couple of the discs out of the pkg and leave them on my shelf next to the main pkg until I'm done with those 2, then I pull another couple out, etc. I do the same with that "Get Smart" megaset and the "Danger Man" sets. It works good for me but I'm not a marathon-set viewer so this idea won't be as practical for the fast-trackers thru a series.
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post #23 of 44
6/23/09 at 8:56am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Willis
I'm in the crowd that thinks this one stands the test of time easily. I watched them all in their initial runs and occasionally in syndication but the DVD journey is a blast.

I agree completely, Jeff. This show really holds up well for me and it's easily a my Top 10 favorite of mine. Probably Top 5 if I really think about it.

Gary "I'm very grateful that we have this entire series on dvd - and done so nicely by Image" O.
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post #24 of 44
6/23/09 at 9:10am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

I can't imagine a show from nearly 50 years ago that dates less than The Dick Van Dyke Show, unless its something like "Bewitched" which seldom attempted any then-current reality to begin with. To me, it's just as funny if not funnier now than it was then and what passes for comedy today makes me appreciate it that much more.

Yes, these were young, pretty, sophisticated people living charmed lives working in live network television and living in sparkling suburban homes. It was an idealized world, which all television was in those days. It gave us optimism that the world *could* be a brighter, happier place where people were sophisticated and glamourous. It made me, as a kid, long to catch my parents playing charades with the neighbors over coffee.

To me, The Dick Van Dyke show personifies the optimism found in America during the Kennedy era before his assassination, Vietnam and the social upheavals of the later part of the decade made the 1960s so turbulent. If that makes the show dated, then so be it. But I'm enjoying every episode now more than ever.
***
"You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your enemies. So pick friends with a lot of money." -- Sally Rogers
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post #25 of 44
6/23/09 at 9:18am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Thanks for the excellent review. I was reminded that I have the first season only. I remember saying I would buy the others, but never did. Since I own the first season, I went to Amazon and bought the remainig seasons for a tad under 70.00. I then went and started re-watching the first season. I love it, think it's great, and want a retro house with a cool curvy DVD sofa!!

Jack
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post #26 of 44
6/23/09 at 9:51am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

I also agree that this series holds up extremely well for me. These are characters I can actually relate to. Truth be told, in our professional lives we've all run across people like Buddy, Sally, Mel, and Alan in one way or another. The basic situations and concerns of the characters are all true to life, just a touch of comedic license has been added.

It's been awhile since I've watched these discs....this review has just bumped these up in the "to be re-watched" pile!
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post #27 of 44
6/23/09 at 11:12am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

I already have the entire series on DVD (separate seasons)... watched them all through once as I got them. But this thread makes me want to pull them out again... thanks for the great review!
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post #28 of 44
6/23/09 at 11:55am

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Yep, this show's a real timeless jem to me. The jokes are always funny to me, after 50+ years. The connection between Buddy & Sally on the show is classic....and those "Buddy" jokes at "Mel" Remember Mel using that "clicker" noisemaker to release his tension after a "Buddy" dig?

That's a good post about the show reminding us of "pre-Kennedy/Dallas / Vietnam", etc, years as well. As one that was around then, it definitely caught the culture of the era.
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post #29 of 44
6/23/09 at 12:58pm

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

I always loved hearing Buddy talk about Mrs. Sorrell, aka "Pickles."

Another great line from Very Old Shoes, Very Old Rice:

MR. PARKER (the great Burt Mustin): "He straightened me out"

(And if you don't remember that line, you should watch the great 2-parter
Laura's Little Lie and Very Old Shoes, Very Old Rice from Season Three.)
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post #30 of 44
6/23/09 at 1:19pm
Thread Starter 

Re: "The Dick Van Dyke Show: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

Reminder -- Don't forget to check out the blooper reel that I've embedded in the thread-starter.

Creator/Producer Carl Reiner apparently said at one time (prior to the series coming out on DVD in 2003) that he didn't want any of the bloopers and outtakes put on the DVD sets because he didn't want anybody to see Rob & Laura (and Co.) "out of character".

That's really a shame too, because there are 24 minutes of great bloopers to be seen in my 3-part YouTube series.
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