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The Dick Van Dyke Show [1962]

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Length:150 minutes
(2 hours 30 minutes)
MPAA Rating:UR
Sorting Category:TV Show
IMDB Rating:8.4/10
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Classifications:
  • Comedy
  • Family
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Synopsis: The misadventures of a TV writer both at work and at home.


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Select Guest Cast
Frank Adamo => Veterinarian's Assistant (Never Name a Duck)
Geraldine Wall => Miss Glasset (Never Name a Duck)
Jane Dulo => Miss Singleton (Never Name a Duck)
Jerry Hausner => Mr. Fletcher (Never Name a Duck)
Phil Leeds => Blackie Sorrell (Hustling the Hustler)
Vito Scotti => Vito Giotto (Give Me Your Walls)
Hal Cooper => Director
Jerry Paris => Director / Jerry Helper
John Rich => Director
Carl Reiner => Writer
Harvey Bullock => Writer
John Whedon => Writer
R.S. Allen => Writer
Ann Morgan Guilbert => Millie Helper
Dick Van Dyke => Rob Petrie
Larry Mathews => Ritchie Petrie (credit only)
Mary Tyler Moore => Laura Petrie
Morey Amsterdam => Buddy Sorrell
Richard Deacon => Mel Cooley
Rose Marie => Sally Rogers

Random Trivia For This Title:

  • Hustling the Hustler: The trick shot by Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) was actually made in one take. They had planned for a pool expert to make the shot after cutting away from showing Laura hitting the cue ball. But to everyone's surprise, she actually made the shot. Both Mary and Dick stayed in character and finished the take, thus the genuine look of surprise on their faces.
  • Carl Reiner would often ask cast and crew members about funny things that had happened to them, then he would write whole episodes about these occurrences. As a result, a majority of the episodes over the course of the show's five season run were based on actual events, that really occurred.
  • According to Dick Van Dyke, viewers used to make bets (during the opening credits of seasons 2, 3, 4 & 5) on whether or not Rob Petrie would stumble over the Ottoman, when walking into the door of his house.
  • [The Dick Van Dyke Show] (1961) was the last show to have its entire run filmed in black and white. The show was due to be shot in color after the fifth season, but never happened because of the cast and producers' decision to end the show after five seasons.
  • Carl Reiner and the other writers were very careful not to use any 1960s slang in the show's scripts. In fact, references to any time period or current events are very few and far between.
  • Dick Van Dyke originally objected to having Mary Tyler Moore on the series, because he felt that she was too young to convincingly play his wife. He changed his mind once their remarkable onscreen chemistry became apparent, especially after [The Dick Van Dyke Show]: {Oh, How We Met on the Night That We Danced} (1961), successfully filmed and with extreme humor.
  • Laura usually wore Capri pants on the show. The network was against this at first, and said that she had to be in a skirt for a certain number of scenes per episode. To fight this, they filmed a scene where Laura walked into the kitchen in Capri pants and came out a second later in a skirt. The network finally relented.
  • For the first three seasons of the show, Alan Brady's face was never seen but his voice was occasionally heard, because Carl Reiner wanted to get a big star to play Alan. Reiner eventually decided to take on the role himself as the newest on-screen star.
  • Morey Amsterdam and Richard Deacon were actually close friends. According to Deacon, many of the best insults Buddy hurled at Mel were worked out while the two went out for a drink after work, or a screen filming time out.
  • Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore played a married couple so convincingly on the show that many viewers actually thought they were married in real life. They did in fact become very close - "like siblings", as Dick Van Dyke said - and both admit they had crushes on each other while the show was in production. They have remained close friends ever since.
  • The series originally was to focus on Rob at the office with Sally Rogers as the lead female character and Laura as a minor one. The character of Laura became so popular that Mary Tyler Moore became the lead female character and more of the focus of the show shifted to the relationship between Rob and Laura. Many times situations at the office were still focused on Rob and Laura. This put a strain on the relationship between Rose Marie and Mary Tyler Moore, and while the two ladies got along well, they never became close friends.
  • Six episodes from season 2 are in the public domain.
  • Voted #13 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
  • Johnny Carson was a runner-up for the role of Rob Petrie.
  • Both Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam had the exact same response when they were told about [The Dick Van Dyke Show]. They both reportedly said, "What's a Dick Van Dyke?"
  • Bill Cosby was asked to perform for the cast and crew based on the recommendation of Carl Reiner's young son, Rob Reiner. Sheldon Leonard was so impressed that he cast Cosby in [I Spy (1965)].
  • Maurice "Buddy" Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) was the first Jewish character on television. He was the first male character that was a regular part of a cast that was Jewish. Rhoda Morganstern (The Mary Tyler Moore show, played by Valerie Harper) was the female Jewish character.
  • Rose Marie has said in interviews she did not really get along with Mary Tyler Moore.