Lately, I've been making my way through the Blu-ray set of The Dick Van Dyke Show, watching almost every episode in sequence. I've skipped over a few like the Walnut episode because I've just seen 'em too many times. And I've skipped over 3-4 per season because I just thought those were misfires. I might go back later and watch the weaker ones individually. I feel like I might enjoy them more when they're not viewed in the middle of a string of great episodes.
I continue to be impressed with how good the good ones are…and how many of them were good ones. The writing is strong. The cast is great. Just watching Mr. Van Dyke move and react, even in scenes where he is not the focal point, is a joy. I can't think of another TV performer who can match him for always knowing exactly what he was doing and doing it in an interesting but still natural manner.
You may be wondering which episodes I don't like and which are my favorites. Generally, I never bought the premise that the Rob-Laura marriage was so precarious that it was threatened by a chorus girl kissing Rob…or Laura seeing an old beau. So most of the ones about jealousy don't do it for me. I find most of the "Sally can't find a fella" ones unsatisfying since they all pretty much have to end with Sally still not having a fella. And I can't explain why but the ones where Rob gets conned into directing the school play don't interest me.
My favorites are most of the others. Out of 158 episodes, there are maybe 15-20 that are shy of snuff to me. That's a very good batting average. I don't think any of the other classic sitcoms I like — Bilko, Car 54, Bob Newhart, a few others — scored so well. There's a complete set of Sgt. Bilko on the horizon and I'm sure I'll get it and I'm sure I'll watch every one and I'm sure Phil Silvers will be terrific in every one…
…but I don't think I'll come away as satisfied. For all its wonders, Bilko episodes basically had two endings: (1) Bilko's scheme doesn't work to make him rich and (2) Bilko's scheme does work to help someone in need of help. The Dick Van Dyke Show was about a lot of different things.
One thing I like about it is how a lot of the problems were resolved. At the time The Dick Van Dyke Show went on, the standard sitcom resolved its problem with a trick or a scheme. Lucy gets Ricky to demand a raise and that gets him fired so to get him unfired, Lucy and Fred and Ethel dress up in various costumes, go to the nightclub where Ricky worked and then walked out when they learned Ricky Ricardo was no longer playing there. (The plots of a lot of episodes of I Love Lucy hinge on the premise that when Lucy puts on a wig, no one — not even her husband — can recognize her.)
On the Van Dyke program, the problems were usually solved by someone deciding to stop being a jerk. Jerry the Neighbor realizes he was wrong to insult Rob's work on The Alan Brady Show. Alan Brady decides to stop being furious about Laura going on national TV and blabbing about his toupee. Rob decides he was wrong to be worried about Laura wanting to have a career.
I don't know about your life but in mine, problems are more often resolved by someone realizing they were wrong than by someone disguising themselves. (The Dick Van Dyke Show even did the "raise" storyline. Buddy and Sally were quitting because they didn't get a raise. Rob finally got them one not with a charade but by convincing Alan's Business Manager that he was wrong not to give them one.)
As I wrote here, my life changed a lot — and only for the better — when I attended the filming of an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was the episode entitled "Your Home Sweet Home is My Home Sweet Home" — the one about Rob and Laura thinking about buying a home with a big rock in the basement. It wasn't one of the best ones but that didn't matter. It did the trick. I'd already decided I wanted to be a writer. After that evening, I had a better idea of what kind of writer I wanted to be and what it meant to be one.
I watched that episode the other evening. I think I can hear myself laughing in the audience but maybe not. I remember being mesmerized by those people on stage…including Carl Reiner, who wasn't in the episode but did do the audience warm-up and hosting duties. On my TV now, it all looks so effortless and apart from a few screw-ups and filming halts, it did that evening at the studio, too.
In the episode, a realtor hands Rob a business card. Later, there's a scene where Laura is in the kitchen of the house they're trying to move out of and she opens a closet and brooms and mops fall out. The brooms and mops didn't fall properly on the first take so the director yelled "Cut!" and they stopped and there was a wait of maybe five minutes while the crew re-rigged the closet for another take.
Mr. Reiner and Mr. Van Dyke both began talking to us in the audience, trying to keep our mood up so our energy (i.e., laughing ability) wouldn't dissipate during the downtime. Dick had that business card and he began doing magic with it, palming it and making it appear and disappear.
I was real impressed by a lot of things I saw that night that were beyond my ability…but I thought I could probably learn how to do that. The next day, I went to the library, checked out a magic book and taught myself the card trick. I got to be pretty good at it…and of course, every friend and family member I had had to watch me do it again and again and again. I could never act like Dick Van Dyke and I could never sing like him or dance like him (or anyone) or even fall down like him…but I was just as good — if not better — at making a business card appear and disappear. At least I was until I got older and my hands got bigger. Now the only thing I have on him is that I do an even worse British accent.
I have two more discs of the Blu-ray set to watch…two-thirds of the last season. I think I'll take my time on those instead of watching them all back-to-back in a day or two. I'll savor them…and then I'll go back and watch the ones I skipped. It really was a great series.