History Series / TheDickVanDykeShow

* AffectionateParody: ''TheTwilightZone'' ("It May Look Like a Walnut") and [[TheBeatles Beatlemania]] ("The Redcoats Are Coming!").

** Headache inducingly this and other crossovers between various shows connected with ''Mad'' lead to The Dick Van Dyke show taking place in the same universe as a multitude of diverse shows, ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'', ''TheXFiles'', ''Cheers'', ''MASH'' and ''St. Elsewhere'' among them as explained by this [[http://www.poobala.com/dannyanddick.html page.]]

** TVLand used this in a promo demonstrating the RuleOfThree.

* CowboyEpisode: Rob gets knocked out for a dental procedure while worried about a sketch Alan Brady wants for the show. He dreams he's a wild west sheriff and Alan is "Big Bad Brady," a local outlaw who calls him out for a ShowdownAtHighNoon. After he wakes up he realizes it's perfect for the sketch, and asks his dentist to put him out for Just Five More Minutes so he can remember what he dreamt.

* BowlingEpisode: "When a Bowling Pin Talks...Don't Listen!"

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Buddy
** Some writers have in fact observed that the Petries themselves were the only unambiguous gentiles in an otherwise all-ambiguously-Jewish cast. [http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/rob.htm]
** Is Buddy's Jewishness really ambiguous? There's an episode where he studies with a rabbi and celebrates a late-in-life Bar Mitzvah.

* ButtMonkey: Mel Cooley.

** [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Harry Mudd]] heads up Alan's Payroll Department in the episode "It Wouldn't Hurt Them To Give Us a Raise".

* HotMom
* HypnoFool

''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' was the first sitcom to focus as much, if not more, on the main character's work life as his home life, influencing later {{Work Com}}s such as ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'', ''Creator/TheBobNewhartShow'' and ''Creator/NewsRadio''. Sally Rogers was an unusual character for the pre-women's lib period, in that she was both a working professional (not a teacher or nurse) and single (although she was portrayed as manhungry and desperate to end her spinsterhood).

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MV5BMTU5MDAyNjI2Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwOTMzOTE2__V1__SX304_SY400__3499.jpg The show ({{CBS}}, October 3, 1961 - September 7, 1966), created and produced by Carl Reiner, centers around the life of a New York comedy writer who lives in [[{{Suburbia}} suburban]] New Rochelle with his attractive wife, Laura, their cute son and a pair of brash next-door neighbors. Coinciding with the Kennedy era (a.k.a. Camelot) which heralded a new age of youthfulness, ''TheDickVanDykeShow'' reflected a break from the old-fashioned sensibility of previous television families.

''TheDickVanDykeShow'' was the first sitcom to focus as much, if not more, on the main character's work life as his home life, influencing later {{Work Com}}s such as ''TheMaryTylerMooreShow, TheBobNewhartShow'' and ''NewsRadio''. Sally Rogers was an unusual character for the pre-women's lib period, in that she was both a working professional (not a teacher or nurse) and single (although she was portrayed as manhungry and desperate to end her spinsterhood).

* UnCancelled: {{CBS}} officially cancelled the show after its first season, and the cast had even had a farewell party before Sheldon Leonard used his influence to get the network to change their mind.

Though the show stayed away from JiveTurkey territory as much as possible, Kennedy era reflections abound, including Laura as a Jackie O. surrogate; the Mafia, via the imposing Big Max Calvada (executive producer Sheldon Leonard); TheBritishInvasion ("The Redcoats are Coming"); a self-indulgent [[{{Playboy}} Hugh Hefner]] surrogate; Carl Reiner as a Jackson Pollack-like abstract painter; or Rob and Laura's praise for baby guru Dr. Spock.

* CowboyEpisode: Rob gets knocked out for a dental procedure while worried about a sketch Alan Brady wants for the show. He dreams he's a wild west sheriff and Alan is "Big Bad Brady," a local outlaw who calls him out for a ShowdownAtHighNoon. After he wakes up he realizes it's perfect for the sketch, and asks his dentist to put him out for Just Five More Minutes so he can remember what he dreamt.

** The whole cast - including Reiner - consider this a rare case of ''Good'' executive meddling.
* ExiledToTheCouch: Played with in "Give Me Your Walls". Rob and Laura are annoyed by a painter who has been working on their living room for a long time. Rob swears that he will tell him to get out of their house soon, and if he doesn't, he vows to sleep on the couch. Laura hopes that won't happen (though, oddly, Rob and Laura are always in [[SleepingSingle separate beds]].)

* ExtraEyes: In "It May Look Like A Walnut", an AllJustADream where everyone lives on walnuts and water ("getting a drink of fresh air") and grows eyes in the back of their heads.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Buddy Sorrell was initially based on Carl Reiner's fellow ''Your Show of Shows'' writer MelBrooks while Sally Rogers was largely based on Selma Diamond. Rob was also named after Carl's son RobReiner (who he obviously wasn't a celebrity yet).

* SitcomArchNemesis: Buddy Sorell made every attempt to insult producer/ bald brother-in-law of the star Mel Cooley.

* WeakWilled: A HypnoFool example, Rob was hypnotized into acting drunk when he heard a bell; but the subject of the hypnosis was Buddy, not Rob, and he wasn't even in the room when the hypnosis happened.

** [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Harry Mudd]] heads up Alan's Payroll Department in the episode "It Wouldn't Hurt Them To Give Us a Raise".

** In fact, there exists a pilot of Carl in the role of Rob Petrie called "Head of the Family". It actually aired in the summer of 1960.

* MayDecemberRomance, for some definitions of "December" at least. In the back story, the Petries got married when Rob was in his late twenties and Laura was ''seventeen''. Dick Van Dyke really was about 11 years older than Mary Tyler Moore.

*** Not to mention the premises of '''30Rock''', '''Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip''', and '''TheLarrySandersShow''', among others.