The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited

It was good to see the gang again. The writing was sprightly and stylish, but the premise was all wrong. Who cares about a eulogy for Alan Brady? That angle fell completely flat. I would much rather have spent more time with Rob and Laura in their old living room where we had last seen them; and in color!

As far as I'm concerned, the whole show should have centered around Rob and Laura selling their home in New Rochelle and moving into that Manhattan apartment. It would have been a more fitting way to bring us from the 60s and into the 21st Century. It also would have had more of the flavor of the old show as they faced quirky prospective buyers, real estate agents, etc. Alan Brady could have made an offer to buy the house and turn it into a rental property with a shrewd Ritchie stepping up to buy it out from under him.

One last party at the New Rochelle house to celebrate the move would have given the cast a chance to reminisce over archival footage. It would have been far more upbeat than spending an hour talking about death. Who knows? It could have provided Carl Reiner with a great platform for spinning off another reunion show. With critics panning this reunion as they did, they may never do another reunion episode again. I hope that's not the case.

This "new" episode of the old series is an embarrassment to watch. Being an avid fan of the original, I eagerly awaited this reunion. Some memories are better left alone. I own all of the DVD's of "DVD", and that's all I need. It is even worse than the "Mary & Rhoda" TV-movie a few years back. At least in that "reunion," MTM was still playing Mary Richards. In this debacle, she's definitely not Laura Petrie....I have no idea whom she is portraying. Laura in this special appears sedated, with none of the spunk of the 60s version. Granted, it's forty years later, but DVD himself still manages to evoke the character of Rob. CBS deserves criticism for having Ray Romano "host" the show. I realize they consider him their current top comedian, but he can't hold a candle to DVD. The class, acting and writing of "DVD" cannot be found on network TV these days. And, I LOVE Rose Marie, but she doesn't appear well in this reunion. Again, go purchase those "DVD" DVD's - a great investment. I've already introduced many young friends to the series....friends who were equally appalled by this 2004 special.

Did not know this was EVER done, a DVD Show reunion. Saw it 2014. Enjoyed and laughed. I have only ever seen the original show in reruns and didn't understand the show until I was an adult. Something's just did not make sense. First, Sally Rodgers was one of TV's first femmenistsj I would have believed that Sally and Herman were living together. But Married? After the seventies even Sally would have not settled for Herman in marriage. Live together perhaps but not marriage. One would think that Laura would have had her own studio (outside the home) long before, say twenty years. Given that Alan Brady hasn't talked to Rob in thirty years and Rob a successful TV writer would have invested in his wonderful wife's dream years before. Ann Gilbert always a hoot, should have had more banter. With anyone! This reunion could have been done in 1984 and 2004! Perhaps better relationships and timing amongst actors. Everyone loves Raymond? No, we don't. But he's more tolerable than some, Dennis Miller.

This was probably one of the best reunions of a 60s sitcom in the last ten years or so. Instead of having an hour of reminisces, Carl Reiner decided to write a good 45-minute storyline of the Petries in 2004. Some, in fact, a lot of this story-line works: Alan Brady is not dying, but wants Sally and Rob to write his eulogy so he can have the chance to rewrite it. Laura now has a small dance studio at home, and Sally is finally married to the guy she was always going out with.

Yet, there are some parts of the reunion show that doesn't make sense: Why did Rob stop writing? Didn't he write a book? Also Millie and Stacey's little "date" is strange, but funny. Yet, despite these few flaws, The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited still retains some of that old "magic," mostly because Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Ann Morgan Guilbert, and Carl Reiner stepped right back into the shoes of their old characters. Unfortunately, though, Mary Tyler Moore's performance is a bit stale and rushed, almost as if she forgot how to make a comedy show. Larry Matthews' appearance is quick, strange, and we really don't learn what he's doing forty years later.

And why did Ray Ramano host this? What does he have to do with Dick Van Dyke? His scenes are even stranger than some of the weirdest parts of this reunion.

Finally, the clippings of the old show also make this reunion. When the new footage starts going a bit stale, they add in footage of the "good 'ole days" when these people were younger and funnier. Yet, all in all, this was a pretty good reunion, and I recommend it to every fan of The Dick Van Dyke Show to watch.

Over the years, TV show reunions have varied in quality. "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited" actually comes out quite well. In this one, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) are retired and living in Manhattan when Alan Brady (Carl Reiner) summons Rob and Sally (Rose Marie) to write a eulogy for him before he dies. So arises the question: how do you write a eulogy for someone like Alan Brady? The characters themselves haven't changed a bit in the nearly 40 years since the original series. Rob is still tense, Laura is still fiery, and Alan is still a jerk. Sally is now married to Herman Glimscher (Bill Idelson), and neighbor Millie Helper (Ann Morgan Guilbert) is dating Rob's brother Stacy (Jerry Van Dyke). A good thing that the reunion did is not try to replace the deceased cast members (Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon, Jerry Paris); I think that we can agree that no one throws out hilarious insults like Morey Amsterdam.

So, this reunion isn't bad at all. However, couldn't they have found someone other than Ray Romano to host it? Oh well, it's pretty good otherwise. Still, I would have liked to have heard Buddy make just one more comment about Cooley's bald head.