The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited

I saw this show recently on TV land . It was very bad. Whoever wrote it had no idea how to realistically bring the characters of Laura Petrie, Rob Petrie, Alan Brady, Sally Rogers, Ritchie Petrie and Millie Helper back together again. It all plays out very badly. First, Alan Brady calls Rob Petrie out of the blue at his old home from that they had in the 1960's to ask him to wrote a eulogies for him when he dies. How realistic would it be for Alan Brady to call a comedy writer to do his eulogy and how realistic is it for him to ask a man who he has not spoken to for 30 to 40 years to write his eulogy , never mind the comedy writer part? Usually, eulogies are written by close friends and after someone is dead, duh. And who calls people and asks for their eulogy in advance anyway? I know the character of Alan Brady is vain but come on. So, he calls the house and somehow Ritchie picks up the phone. So, apparently Ritchie is living in the same house the Petries had in 1960. How unrealistic. He informs Alan that his parents have moved and then not long after the scene cuts to a boring self indulgent scene of mugging and hamming it up from Laura and Rob who both do a dance sequence even though they both elderly. Alan calls them. They met with Alan. Rob and Laura have none of their old spark. In fact, in whoever wrote this seems to have Laura fawning over Alan Brady saying "Oh Alan!" instead of "Oh Rob!" and then they are series of comments from the surviving male members of the cast telling Laura how "fantastic" she looks for a old woman. Most of the clips of her and the guy who played Alan. They even dare to show one scene where the guy played was on the show not playing Alan but guest starring as a painter who painted Laura nude even though she was wearing clothes and showed Laura's nails on chalk board squeaky hyper reaction to it all. I guess they did this because Carl Reiner did not make many appearances on the show and they needed more footage of him. This reunion seemed to be a homage to the two of them. I wondered where are all the funny clips of Buddy and Sally and Mel and Rob. They really made the show. The premise for reuniting them wasn't funny at all. By the end of the episode the issue is not even resolved. Rob does not decide if he is not going to write eulogy or not. After the series of clips runs, Rob and Laura step out of character and return to their 1960's living room and say to each other, "Gee, it was funny being Rob Petrie again." "Gee, it was nice being Laura Petrie again." Gag. Well, I'm glad they had fun because their entire reunion show was a train wreck.

I finally watched it with mixed feelings. The only parts I found funny were the "clips" from the classic show. The laughter from the "present" felt forced and after a while the applause got a little annoying. It was really nice to see the cast-why was Ray Romano there?-but the storyline could've been done so much better! It lacked the spark and genius that made the show so successful from 1961-1966.

I hate reunion shows of old TV shows. They always stink, but at least this one has a lot less stink than most of the others. It's not a bad film and it does reunite SOME of the original cast around a reasonably believable plot (the dead ones, thankfully, were not brought back). It also isn't so maudlin like many reunion shows. But, it also isn't all that wonderful and if you don't see it you aren't missing much. I loved the original show (except, of course, for episodes where they put on musical variety shows), but felt pretty tepid about this--the film isn't really necessary nor is it offensive. Now, believe it or not, this is a VERY positive review, because compared to other reunion shows I have seen, this is Hamlet-quality. For a nauseatingly bad reunion show, try the Beverly Hillbilly reunion. Or for a rotten time, but not quite as traumatic, try the Leave it to Beaver or Andy Griffith Show reunions. Now they ARE truly bad.

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.