The Dick Van Dyke Show

Elsa M. 27. Main blog is paceypeternathanslawyer. Quotes from the amazing and groundbreaking Emmy Award winning TV Series "The Dick Van Dyke Show" Created by Carl Reiner. Starring Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Larry Mathews, Richard Deacon, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Jerry Paris, and Carl Reiner

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LOL Everyone in this scene is a comedic genius!! 😂😂

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Jerry and Millie crumbs in The Dick Van Dyke Show

1x02: My Blonde Haired Brunette

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Rob and Laura in The Dick Van Dyke Show

1x01: The Sick Boy And The Sitter

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The Dick Van Dyke Show

1x01: The Sick Boy And The Sitter

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Rob, Sally, and Buddy in The Dick Van Dyke Show

1x01: The Sick Boy And The Sitter

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I watch The Danny Thomas Show every Saturday with my parents and every time I watch it... I can only seem to compare it to The Dick Van Dyke Show in my mind. Pretty much the same production team made both. Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas both produced TDVDS and TDTS. The big difference between the two was that Carl Reiner was the creator of TDVDS and I believe that Danny Thomas created TDTS and that clearly made all the difference in the world.

Today I was watching Season 11 Episode Episode 16 of The Danny Thomas Show called "Kathy, The Secretary" which aired on January 20, 1964 and I was comparing it to Season 3 Episode 22 of The Dick Van Dyke Show called "My Part Time Wife" which aired February 26, 1964. As you can see these two episodes aired within just a little over a month of each other. But the difference in these two episodes are light years away. In some ways they are very similar. Both have to do with the respective protagonist's wives going back to work for a little bit.

The Danny Thomas Show did not deal with this plotline at all well. It starts with the typical old plotline of a wife spending too much money on clothes and hats and whatever she wants and their joint account being overdrawn because the wife can't budget money and only cares about what she can get for herself. This is such an old plotline that was done in I Love Lucy and a billion times after. It's old and it's very much depicted in a sexist nature. After a fight between them she almost on a dare decides to go back into the work force as a secretary for Danny's talent agent. The rest is a typically sexist series of events where the joke is that Kathy is a ditz and bad at her job. At the end of the episode she stops working to continue to be a housewife. I have nothing against housewives, I come from a long of them. My mom was one for a long while. My sister is currently one and honestly if I had kids and my husband had a well paying job where I didn't need to work I would definitely consider being one myself. But back in the days these plotlines were depicted on TV in a very sexist nature in so many ways that I can only begin to describe. For one, women were unappreciated for the work that they did at home. And again women were always depicted as not having the ability to even do that well. Like women were always making their husbands crazy and putting them in the poor house. And raising children was shown to practically be a breeze when they were even shown raising their children.

You compare that to the Dick Van Dyke Show and the difference is huge. Firstly the reason that Laura went back to work was different. Sally was working temporarily on another show and as usual the guys in the office were lost without her. Which was actually a pretty ahead of it's time concept. Sally was a career woman and an integral part of her job. She did everything well. She was an amazing TV writer and typist. She could do everything the men could do and then some. Either way Sally was off and Laura offered to help out at least with the typing while Rob and Buddy were writing the show. Where TDVDS really sets itself apart from TDTS was unlike Kathy, Laura ended up being amazing at the job. Not just in typing but she was also coming up with hilarious jokes for the show. Laura came into her husband's job and arguably did it better. Certainly that week she was doing it better. And that was the source of the conflict was that Rob was being a bit insecure about his wife coming into his job and getting bigger laughs than him. Don't let this synopsis fool you though, as insecure as Rob could be he was never as insecure as Danny was. And Rob always appreciated Laura and appreciated what she did. Also there were episodes where Rob helped out with housework like cleaning the dishes and stuff like that. That may sound small and insignificant now but at the time that stuff was considered "women's work." Men brought home the bacon and took the garbage out but women did the housework. So to depict a man who secure enough to help his wife out and to do the housework even when he was teased by his guy friends was really ahead of it's time. Rob and Laura were depicted as a team. It was them against the world and that was so incredibly ahead of its time on TV. But getting back to the main point. Laura was always depicted as being so good at her job and also so good at being a housewife. But it also wasn't shown as being super easy. Back in the day women were shown as never really having emotional breakdowns but Laura was allowed to be messy, sometimes both emotionally and physically. Like there were times when things got difficult. Laura wasn't shown as being emotionally immature but she was also allowed to be vulnerable and messy sometimes... and that's just life.

I really respect how TDVDS strove to push the envelope. How they strove to depict women, black people, and marriages differently and better than it had been in TV. It seems like every show was just trying to be like every other show that had succeeded in the past 10 years just trying to be another I Love Lucy. But even I Love Lucy pushed the envelope in some ways. So they weren't really trying for the spirit of I Love Lucy they just made a bunch of generic watered down versions of I Love Lucy. Carl Reiner went into TDVDS wanting to make something different, wanting to depict marriage in a more realistic way. To depict everything in a more realistic way but also to push the envelope of what was acceptable in some ways. I'm not saying that TDVDS always did things perfectly but I love how they strove for it. How they depicted a married couple (Jerry and Millie) going to couples counseling/therapy. How they depicted the main couple as being sexually attracted to each and depicted them as a team. It really blows my mind that a show like TDVDS existed in the year 1964.

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You know how I love to point out ways that The Dick Van Dyke was so iconic and ahead of it's time.

And i've been thinking lately... I'm pretty sure that the first time that anyone went to marriage counseling was on TDVDS. Jerry and Millie went to counseling and I don't think that had been talked about on TV up to that point. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I feel like this is true. And it was the 60s so they had a long way to go. It was depicted as something with a stigma around it but that was realistic because that was the way it was back then but by the end of the episode they put a really good spin on marriage counseling and Jerry and Millie's friends (Rob and Laura) did NOT treat it like it was something they should be ashamed of.

The circumstances under which Jerry and Millie went to counseling was so cool I think. It was just two passionate people who loved each other but because they were two passionate individuals they had marital issues and butted heads a lot. It wasn't any insane trauma that led them to a shrink's (as they were called in the day) couch. They didn't have any disorders like split personality or the like. They just had marital issues that they wanted to work through. I think it's such a modern mindset. The Dick Van Dyke Show astounds me in all the ways they broke TV ground.

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THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW (1964)         — 3.16 “The Lady and the Tiger and the Lawyer”

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#So Darn Cute

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—The Dick Van Dyke Show, “The Twizzle”

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Watching Carl Reiner/Alan Brady videos!! There was no one like him…. he was a comic genius!! 

“There must be some needy bald people” - Laura Petrie 😂😂😂

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LMAO Carl Reiner deserved every Emmy he ever won!!!!! 💖

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Words can’t come close to describing what an amazing man Carl Reiner was… but i’ll try my best. Carl was an icon, a kind and generous man, a loving husband, an amazing father, an activist, wise, empathetic, hilarious, legendary. There’s a reason that The Dick Van Dyke Show was such a peaceful and fun loving set. There’s a reason that the cast of TDVDS was like one big happy family. It was because Carl was a calming, kind, and loving person that radiated everything good. 

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This may give you an idea of how much we owe Carl for all our favorite modern shows. Not only did Carl’s show The Dick Van Dyke Show pave the way in so many ways. Carl and his shows also inspired so many of our favorite comedians and actors!!!! 

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Annie Reiner flanked by Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks the day before yesterday.

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RIP Carl Reiner. Carl was an amazing man to the end!!! Thank you for giving the world The Dick Van Dyke Show. It broke ground in comedy in so many ways both racially and how women were depicted on television!! Thank you for changing my life for the better. The world lost an amazing man yesterday. RIP to my hero!! 💖😢

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I’m not a martyr, darling. I’m a mother. Oh, Rob, I’m flattered that you want to show me off, but I can’t go. Darling, I’m a woman. What I mean is, if I leave the house tonight feeling the way I do, I just know something’s gonna happen. It always does when I feel this way. Call it women’s intuition. Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966)

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To Tell Or Not To Tell (Season 1 Episode 11) 

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To Tell Or Not To Tell (Season 1 Episode 11)