The Dick Van Dyke Show Thread (Don't Trip Over The Ottoman)

No, this episode was one where Rob unintentionally plagiarized a kids' show, and the camera isn't frozen behind Brady bcz he moves around, but the camera angles keep his face obscured.

Right

Wondering if this was this for the obvious reason that Carl Reiner’s face would have been familiar from Your Show of Shows and he didn’t want to distract from everybody else or for esthetic artistic reasons: big scary boss even scarier if you can’t see his face.

Q: About "The Dick Van Dyke Show" - the story is that Alan Brady was based on Sid Caesar.

A: It was never Sid Caesar, because he was a very dear friend. We ate lunch together for years. We went on vacations together. No, it was based on - first of all, Milton Berle was notorious for yelling at his crew and ordering people around. It was an amalgam of him, several other characters and Jackie Gleason, who really was mean to his writers. I assiduously keep telling people it wasn't Sid.

https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/2-000-Year-Old-Man-still-kicking-on-new-DVD-3280712.php

We have been watching Season 1, me for the first time
I enjoy Dick and Mary immensely, and Rose Marie is fabulously funny (Buddy too!)
I hate their kid Richie (“I FORGOT!” ugh)
But my god the sooner their hideous neighbors Jerry and Millie walk into oncoming traffic the better
We just finished the prank episode and i wanted to throw my tv in the trash omg i hate jerry so much

They...don't go away.

they are the worst

Decades just showed one from the third season where Rob & Jerry buy a boat; it has a great one of those scenes this show was so good wherein they're describing this wildass thing that happened off camera.

Tonight Decades ran "Three Letters From One Wife", the first episode where Carl Reiner 'properly' played Alan Brady, and an all-timer that also makes good use of Millie.

Cool.

Maybe I should have posted the piece of information I put on this other thread here instead, especially while I had that screenname.

Also thread has progressed past the zing usefulness of link.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/dick-van-dyke-kennedy-center-honors/2021/05/13/61c264e0-ac5c-11eb-b476-c3b287e52a01_story.html

Has a Gen X wife, wow

I saw video on Facebook not too long ago of DVD sitting in with a Jazz band (filmed in the before times, obvs.), singing one of those old Fats Waller reefer songs-"You's A Viper" maybe-and giving off strong 'figured out how to live' vibes.

Every year CBS colorizes a pair of episodes and runs them in prime time. Tonight they're airing two classic Alan Brady-centric eps: "Baby Fat", wherein Alan tries to get Rob to clandestinely re-write a play he's starring in; and "The Bottom of Mel Cooley's Heart", which involves Alan finally firing Mel.

Can't believe I didn't remember to post on this thread with my Mel Cooley screenname.

Wait, they're doing "Never Bathe On Saturday" (Laura gets her toe stuck in the faucet) instead.

“Has a Gen X wife, wow”

One of my longtime friends is immediate family to his wife. LA seems a magical place of unusual happenings!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Leonard#Career

It was Leonard who recognized that a sitcom pilot, Head of the Family, was structurally sound but miscast. He felt that actor–writer Carl Reiner was too overbearing as the lead, and insisted that the script be refilmed with up-and-coming comic Dick Van Dyke.

Mentioned this upthread...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5e9-V_GSgk

It ain’t playing for me right now

Okay now it works. Is he imitating Carol Channing?

Don’t think this thread has the fact that in later years Jerry Paris directed nearly every episode ever of Happy Days.