History Series / TheDickVanDykeShow

Created and produced by Carl Reiner, the series centers around TV comedy writer Rob Petrie (Creator/DickVanDyke), who works in New York City and lives in [[{{Suburbia}} suburban]] New Rochelle with his attractive wife Laura (Creator/MaryTylerMoore), their cute son Richie (Larry Matthews), and brash next-door neighbors Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert). Coinciding with the Kennedy "Camelot" era, which heralded a new age of youthfulness, ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' reflected a break from the old-fashioned sensibility of previous television families.

* MakeoverFail: In "My Blonde Haired Brunette", Laura's friend Millie suggests that bleaching her hair would bring a spark back to her and Rob's relationship. Laura accedes to it, but doesn't like the result, though Millie thinks she looks good. Just then, Rob calls home from work and Laura, suspecting that he's on to something, asks him what he would think if she bleached her hair. He responds negatively. Rob insists on coming home early, having gotten the idea to take Laura out to dinner in order to make up for paying less attention to her. Laura and Millie then scramble to dye Laura's hair back; when Rob comes home, he finds Laura [[spoiler: with her hair [[AcceptableBreaksFrom Reality half brown, half blonde]].]]

* MakeoverFail: In "My Blonde Haired Brunette", Laura's friend Millie suggests that bleaching her hair would bring a spark back to her and Rob's relationship. Laura accedes to it, but doesn't like the result, though Millie thinks she looks good. Just then, Rob calls home from work and Laura, suspecting that he's on to something, asks him what he would think if she bleached her hair. He responds negatively. Rob insists on coming home early, having gotten the idea to take Laura out to dinner in order to make up for paying less attention to her. Laura and Millie then scramble to dye Laura's hair back; when Rob comes home, he finds Laura with her hair half brown, half blonde.

-->'''Laura:''' "Oh, Rob!" (drops her spoon) "Oh, Laura!"

-->'''Laura:''' "For all I know, he could be lying in a dark alley calling my name!"

-->'''Rob:''' "Honey, the door [to the bedroom] is jammed!"
-->'''Laura:''' (on the other side) "It's not jammed, it's locked."
-->'''Rob:''' [[OhCrap "Oh, boy..."]]

-->'''Rob:''' "I tell you, I fooled her! She was ''entranced''! You know what she thought? She thought she was flirting...with a complete stranger..."

-->'''Rob:''' "Laura, you know what C.I.U. stands for?"
-->'''Laura:''' "Of course; the Committee for Interracial Understanding..."

-->'''Alan:''' "Hi there! Remember me?"

-->'''Rob:''' "Hi, Alan...Alan, they wouldn't do that!"

-->'''Sally:''' "Every time I think of those words, I want to cry."
-->'''Buddy:''' "How come?"
-->'''Sally:''' "Because I think my Aunt Agnes is a nut."

-->'''Milly:''' "Rob, what can I do?"
-->'''Rob:''' ''(laughing hysterically)'' "Take advantage of my temporary insanity and get out of here!"

*** '''Mel:''' "It's my sister's house, and I'm welcome any time that Alan's not home!"

-->'''Rob:''' "Laura, when a man is out on the town, he doesn't shout out the fact that he's married...''[[ThatCameOutWrong forget what I said!]]''"

-->'''Mel:''' "Well, you can learn from that; avoid the pitfalls. After all you're all adult, intelligent..."

-->'''Mel:''' "I'll cancel the interview."

-->'''Rob:''' (nervously) "Seven and eleven: those are lucky numbers."
-->'''Alan:''' "Heheh, not for you!"

-->'''Rob:''' "It's all over now."
-->'''Laura:''' "No, it's not; I'm still breathing."

* DelayedReaction: During "Gesundheit Darling", Ritchie and his friend Freddy are taking care of a stray cat they found. When they can't keep it at the Petrie's house anymore after Rob turns out to be allergic to cats, Ritchie asks his parents if they can have a bald cat since it's only the fur that Rob is allergic to. Rob promises that if Ritchie finds a hairless cat, they can keep it. Ritchie cheers and runs out of the house with an old electric razor, shouting, "Hey Freddy! My daddy said it was okay!". Rob and Laura return to what they were doing, but over the course of ten seconds, they realize the boys planning on shaving the stray cat so they can keep it and run out of the house to stop them.

* DelayedReaction: During "Gesundheit Darling", Ritchie and his friend Freddy are taking care of a stray cat they found. When they can't keep it at the Petrie's after Rob turns out to be allergic to cats, Ritchie asks his parents if they can have a bald cat since it's only the fur that Rob is allergic to. Rob promises that if Ritchie finds a hairless cat, they can keep it. Ritchie cheers and runs out of the house with an old electric razor, shouting, "Hey Freddy! My daddy said it was okay!". The two boys are clearly planning on shaving the stray cat. Rob and Laura return to what they were doing, but ten seconds later they realize what Ritchie and Freddy are planning to do and run out of the house to stop them.

* DelayedReaction: During "Gesundheit Darling", Ritchie and his friend Freddy are taking care of a stray cat they found. When they can't keep it after Rob turns out to be allergic to cats, Ritchie asks his parents if they can have a bald cat since it's only the fur that Rob is allergic to. Rob promises that if Ritchie finds a hairless cat, they can keep it. Ritchie cheers and runs out of the house with an old electric razor, shouting, "Hey Freddy! My daddy said it was okay!". The two boys are clearly planning on shaving the stray cat. It takes ten seconds for Rob and Laura to realize this and run out of the house to stop them.

** In an ironic twist, the original painting that they cleaned off to reveal the American Gothic was done by Frank Sinatra, signed as "Artanis". So they ruined a fairly valuable celebrity painting to reveal a worthless forgery.

Created and produced by Charl Reiner, the series centers around TV comedy writer Rob Petrie (Creator/DickVanDyke), who works in New York City and lives in [[{{Suburbia}} suburban]] New Rochelle with his attractive wife Laura (Creator/MaryTylerMoore), their cute son Richie (Larry Matthews), and brash next-door neighbors Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert). Coinciding with the Kennedy "Camelot" era, which heralded a new age of youthfulness, ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' reflected a break from the old-fashioned sensibility of previous television families.

* ShoutOut: Perhaps unintentional, but in the episode "My Blonde-Haired Brunette", Laura bleaches her hair blonde, then tries to dye it back to its original brown. When her husband interrupts her, she comes out half blonde and half brunette. Since the show was filmed in black-and-white, she resembles [[{{Disney/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians}} Cruela De Vil]], who debuted earlier in the same year the episode aired.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Invoked in one episode, when Rob is trying to think of a sketch idea, he compliments Laura on her new outfit, then asks her to put on something messy because "That way I could give my whole attention to the show."

* DeadpanSnarker: Everyone, though Laura stands out for sheer deadpanness.

** Millie Helper had "What are you talking about? What's he talking about? What are you talking about" with no pause in between. She would occasionally insert other activities in place of "talking about"

* ChillyReception: In a flashback episode we find out that Sally and Buddy were initially none too keen on Rob, whom they had never heard of before, being hired as their boss.

* CharacterTics: Laura Petrie had a habit of weeping with a histrionic, incoherent warble ("[[CatchPhrase Ooohhh, Rooooob~!]]") whenever she suffered enough stress. [[WordOfGod In different interviews]], Carl Reiner mentioned that this "crying funny" was something that he taught Mary Tyler Moore when she asked for an example, and the latter has mentioned two episodes featuring it to be some of her favorites. It became something of a minor SignatureMove, as she went on to use it in other shows.

** He is also a magnet for random flying objects, even those aimed at somebody else. In ''When a Bowling Pin Talks, Listen'', Alan Brady gets a pie in the face (not shown) when he appears on the ''Uncle Spunky'' show. In the final scene, he calls Rob, Buddy and Sally into his office with a fully loaded pie sits on Alan's desk. It is understood that Rob, who had suggested that he appear on the show, must get a pie in the face from Alan as reparation. Alan takes the pie and gets ready to throw it... right in Mel's face as Rob backs off just as Mel walks in to deliver some trivial piece of doumentation.

** He is also a magnet for random flying objects, even those aimed at somebody else. In ''When a Bowling Pin Talks, Listen'', Alan Brady gets a pie in the face offstage when he appears on the ''Uncle Spunky'' show. In the final scene, he calls Rob, Buddy and Sally into his office with a fully loaded pie sits on Alan's desk. It is understood that Rob, who had suggested that he appear on the show, must get a pie in the face from Alan as reparation. Alan takes the pie and gets ready to throw it... right in Mel's face as Rob backs off just as Mel walks in to deliver some trivial piece of doumentation.

Created and produced by Carl Reiner, the series centers around TV comedy writer Rob Petrie (Creator/DickVanDyke), who works in New York City and lives in [[{{Suburbia}} suburban]] New Rochelle with his attractive wife Laura (Creator/MaryTylerMoore), their cute son Richie (Larry Matthews), and brash next-door neighbors Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert). Coinciding with the Kennedy "Camelot" era, which heralded a new age of youthfulness, ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' reflected a break from the old-fashioned sensibility of previous television families.

* GameBetweenHeirs: In "The Great Petrie Fortune," Rob inherits a desk from his great uncle Hezekiah, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, and is told the desk contains a great treasure. It's suggested that Hezekiah didn't trust the other heirs to handle this treasure responsibly. Hezekiah gives a clue to the treasure in the form of a filmed performance of "Me and My Shadow." Rob and Laura spend a while looking through the various items in the desk, which all seem to be sentimental but unimportant items from Hezekiah's life, including a photograph of him as a baby, and eventually conclude that the "treasure" merely refers to these items, worth nothing to anyone else but valuable to Hezekiah. But then Rob looks closer at the photograph and realizes it mirrors some elements of "Me and My Shadow." Looking still closer, he and Laura realize that in the background of the picture is UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, and that the photo was taken by Mathew Brady. This would be very valuable, but they know the right thing to do is loan it to a museum, so they do.

** Hilariously used in an episode when a hold-up man, played by Creator/RedButtons, finds himself humiliated and wails "Oh, Rob!"

%%* ReunionShow (please note an example of the trope before de-commenting it)

* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Several, including "That's My Boy??", adding up to a full history of how the main characters met, courted, got married, moved to their current home, and had their son.

* SeductionProofMarriage: Played with in "The Man from Emperor". The titular man, an old colleague of Rob's named Drew Patton who has become a playboy, asks Rob to write a humor column for the magazine. Laura is not at all happy about this as she is afraid her husband will "crumble" under the pressure of being around beautiful girls all day. This only worsens as Rob decides he should get a look at the workplace. However, ultimately Rob turns down the position and his own personal office and secretary and being around beautiful girls all day to remain faithful to Laura. Patton finds this "sick."

** This exchange in the episode "The Attempted Marriage," where we flashback to the events around Rob and Laura's (much delayed) wedding:
-->'''Rob:''' "No, sir, you don't understand, I've got to go, I've ''got'' to get married!"
-->'''Doctor:''' (raises eyebrows) "Oh?"