The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited

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.

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.

'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. A comedy show that was actually *about* comedy, this series brilliantly combined slapstick, low banter, high wit and sophisticated cultural references. Three episodes addressed the changing nature of race relations in America during the early 1960s.

Oddly and regrettably, while many other (vastly inferior) sitcoms of later vintage engendered 'reunion' episodes, for many years Dick Van Dyke refused all offers to take one more trip across the ottoman as Rob Petrie of New Rochelle. It was not until several members of the supporting cast had died that Van Dyke finally agreed to do this reunion special.

The good news is: it was worth the wait! 'The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited' does full justice to the original classic series. Annoyingly, the special is introduced by Ray Romano, an actor I don't care about who stars in a series I don't watch. But I recognise the realities of modern television; the producers of this special were eager to bring in a current 'name' actor as insurance for all these old-time names. (Anybody whose stardom peaked more than five years ago is a has-been for today's amnesiac audience.)

The show opens in that familiar New Rochelle living room ... but the person living here now is Richie Petrie, all grown up and still played by the same untalented (former) child actor who was the biggest drawback to the original series. After this painful opening scene, we cut to Rob and Laura Petrie, who must be the only couple who moved *to* Manhattan to retire. Rob is now dabbling in computer animation. (In real life, Van Dyke is a talented caricaturist: here, we see a pointless piece of animation in which a badly-animated cartoon Dick Van Dyke dances alongside a video clip of the real one. The impressive dancing of the real Van Dyke - still supple at nearly 80 - merely emphasises the crudeness of the animation.)

Rob's wife Laura teaches ballet classes in their Manhattan home, but yearns to open her own dance studio. We briefly see several little girls in leotards and tights, one of whom addresses Laura as 'grandma' even though Richie Petrie looks like he never had sex with anybody. Along comes a voice from the past: Rob's old boss Alan Brady, who wants to pay him and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) a lot of money to write his eulogy so that Brady can hear it while he's still alive.

The dialogue cleverly establishes that Buddy Sorrell, Mel Cooley and the Petries' neighbour Jerry Helper are all dead (the actors who played them are now deceased). Laura is still friends with her former neighbour Millie Helper, who is now dating Rob's somnambulist brother Stacy. (Dick Van Dyke's real brother Jerry played Rob's brother Stacy in a few episodes of the original series, but here he seems to be reprising his annoying character Luther from 'Coach'.) The perennial spinster Sally Rogers is now in a dull boring marriage with Herman Glimcher, the mama's boy she dated back in the early 1960s (and played by the same boring actor, minus his hair). Sadly, no mention whatever is made of Buddy Sorrell's wife Pickles.

The real delight of this reunion special is the barrage of clips from the original show, although I wish the clips had been selected with more emphasis on comedy rather than music. It's a shame that there isn't even a brief clip of Van Dyke and Henry Calvin doing their Laurel & Hardy routine in the episode 'The Sam Pomerantz Scandals'. One clip included here may baffle viewers unfamiliar with the original show. In that classic series, Rob's boss Alan Brady was played by Carl Reiner, but he made his arrival gradually. Brady was only an offstage presence in the early episodes, making his first few appearances with his back to the camera and his face concealed. During the transition period before Alan Brady's face was shown, Reiner occasionally guest-starred in other roles in this series. This reunion special includes a long clip from the episode 'October Eve', featuring Reiner as eccentric portrait artist Serge Carpetna. Reiner is very funny in this role, but -- since Reiner as Carpetna looks exactly like Reiner as Brady -- modern viewers may wonder why Alan Brady is speaking with a European accent. (By the way, I savoured Reiner's guest appearance as Alan Brady on an episode of 'Mad About You'.)

'The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited' should have been done ten years sooner, but it's a pleasure to be reunited with these beloved characters one more time. Mary Tyler Moore is still trim, and clearly delighted to show off her lithe figure in dance clothes. Despite a few minor flaws and some odd production decisions, I'll rate this delightful special 10 points out of 10.

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.