History Series / TheDickVanDykeShow

* AppealToFamilialWisdom: Sally will come up with old phrases "like my Aunt Gladys always says..." which are seldom helpful. Usually Lampshaded.

Created and co-produced by Creator/CarlReiner, the series centers around television 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 [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy 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.

** Drew Patton, a swinging bachelor magazine publisher who lives in a mansion surrounded by beautiful models, is an obvious ringer for Hugh Hefner.

** Alan Brady was reportedly an amalgam of Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason. Buddy Sorrell was initially based on Carl Reiner's fellow ''Your Show of Shows'' writer Creator/MelBrooks, while Sally Rogers was largely based on Selma Diamond. Rob was named after Carl's son Creator/RobReiner (who obviously wasn't a celebrity yet).

-->'''Laura:''' If Miss Leighton feels she must attempt a flirtation with you, I'm not going to act like a hysterical wife. I'm just going to go up to her and quietly kill her."

* TranquilFury: Laura in an episode where a girl Rob knew in high school shows up:
-->'''Laura:''' "If Miss Leighton feels she must attempt a flirtation with you, I'm not going to act like a hysterical wife. I'm just going to go up to her and quietly kill her."

-->'''Rob:''' (nervously) Seven and eleven: that's, ah, lucky.
-->'''Alan:''' Heheh, not for you!

* SurpriseParty: In "A Surprise is a Surprise is a Surprise," Laura outwits Rob by pretending that she was planning a surprise birthday party for him (which she does every year and he always finds out in advance) but her plans fall through - but then it turns out that that was a fib, and the surprise party happens at like 6 in the morning.

** In-universe, too, it's stated that they're doing something different from a normal episode of Brady's show... which nicely explains why the head writer, his wife, and their friends (i.e., ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'''s main characters) are getting more screen time than Brady himself.

* DreamSequence: "It May Look Like a Walnut", "The Gunslinger", "Washington vs. the Bunny", "The Bad Old Days", "I'd Rather Be Bald Than Have No Head At All"

This 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'', ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'' and ''Series/NewsRadio''. As head writer for the fictional comedy/variety series ''The Alan Brady Show'', Rob spent much of his time in the office bantering with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). Sally was an unusual female character for the era, in that she was both a working professional (who was something other than a teacher or nurse) and single (although she was portrayed as man-hungry and desperate to end her spinsterhood). Rounding out the ensemble was Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), the bespectacled, bald-pated, uptight show producer and sycophantic brother-in-law to Alan Brady. The egotistical Brady, played by Carl Reiner himself, was rarely seen and actually served as TheFaceless and/or TheVoice in the show's early seasons.

Created and co-produced by Creator/CarlReiner, 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 [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy 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.

Created and co-produced by Creator/CarlReiner, 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.

This 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'', ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'' and ''Series/NewsRadio''. As head writer for the fictional variety series ''The Alan Brady Show'', Rob spent much of his time in the office bantering with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). Sally was an unusual female character for the era, in that she was both a working professional (who was something other than a teacher or nurse) and single (although she was portrayed as man-hungry and desperate to end her spinsterhood). Rounding out the ensemble was Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), the bespectacled, bald-pated, uptight show producer and sycophantic brother-in-law to Alan Brady. The egotistical Brady, played by Carl Reiner himself, was rarely seen and actually served as TheFaceless and/or TheVoice in the show's early seasons.

* SleepDeprivation: In a flashback episode, Rob is shown working as a radio DJ doing a promotional stunt trying to break the record for the most hours broadcasting continuously without sleep... immediately after which, it turns out, he has his important job interview to be a writer on the Alan Brady Show. Needless to say, he is so sleep deprived that he bombs the interview completely, being a weepy, rambling, incoherent sloppy mess. Fortunately the producers recognize the situation and give him a second opportunity.

This 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'', ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'' and ''Series/NewsRadio''. As head writer for the fictional variety series ''The Alan Brady Show'', Rob spent much of his time in the office bantering with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). Sally was an unusual female character for the era, in that she was both a working professional (not a teacher or nurse) and single (although she was portrayed as man-hungry and desperate to end her spinsterhood). Rounding out the ensemble was Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), the bespectacled, bald-pated, uptight show producer and sycophantic brother-in-law to Alan Brady. The egotistical Brady, played by Carl Reiner himself, was rarely seen and actually served as TheFaceless and/or TheVoice in the show's early seasons.

* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: In "The Man From My Uncle," Rob and Laura are visited by a government agent who asks to use their house to watch one of their neighbors, who is suspected of harboring his criminal nephew. The agent who actually performs the surveillance is named Harry [[Film/JamesBond Bond]]. First Rob, and then later Laura, ask him something like, "Oh, you mean like --", but he cuts them off, presumably because he's heard it a million times before.
** Although it's one of the show's infrequent references to 60s fads, the joke remained current 50 years later.

** Leslie Merkle in "You Ought To Be In Pictures" seems to be a bit of an Creator/AndyWarhol riff. He directs movies that mostly have no plots, just long, uninterrupted shots of feet or something. When he first shows up he's wearing sunglasses indoors.

* SitCom: One of the all-time greats and {{Trope Codifier}}s. Damn near every sitcom of the late 60s through to the mid-80s owes something to ''TDVDS'', and even later shows can still draw a line of inspiration back to it.

-->(Cut to Rob dancing with a slinky blonde)

-->'''Rob:''' "Honey! What makes you think that a short, bare-fisted punch delivered by an enraged husband at point-blank range to a naked eye would hurt?"

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

** Laura does this in "Show of Hands" after she and Rob accidentally [[ItMakesSenseInContext dye their hands black]] right before going to a dinner being given by the C.I.U.

* 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.

** Sol (Marty Ingles), a buddy of Rob's from the army, appeared in a pair of season one episodes. The season also introduced Harrison B. Harding (Allan Melvin), another man from the army whom Rob couldn't remember the identity of, until it was revealed he worked the spotlight at the USO shows. In every army flashback episode since, Melvin's character replaced Ingles as Rob's go-to army friend and soon became named Sol, essentially usurping Ingles' character.

** 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 sitting on Alan's desk. It is clear that the pie is intended for Rob, who had suggested that he appear on the show, 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.

* ProWrestlingEpisode: "The Twizzle," featuring southern California-based Wrestling/FreddieBlassie AsHimself.

* QuittingToGetMarried: In the backstory, Laura had quit a promising career as a song-and-dance girl to become Mrs. Robert Petrie, wife and mother. In one episode she goes back to work temporarily on ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Alan Brady Show]]'' when another dancer gets injured. Rob is worried she'll want to continue full-time.

This 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'', ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'' and ''Series/NewsRadio''. As head writer for the fictional variety series ''The Alan Brady Show'', Rob spent much of his time in the office bantering with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). Sally was an unusual female character for the era, in that she was both a working professional (not a teacher or nurse) and single (although she was portrayed as man-hungry and desperate to end her spinsterhood). Rounding out the ensemble was Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), the bespectacled, bald-pated, uptight show producer and sycophantic brother-in-law to Alan Brady. The egotistical Brady, played by Carl Reiner himself, was rarely seen and actually served as TheFaceless in the show's early seasons.

Created and co-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.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Invoked in ''When a Bowling Pin Talks, Listen'', 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."

** Three decades after ''DVDS''[='=] heyday, Carl Reiner reprised his Alan Brady character in an episode of ''Series/MadAboutYou''
*** These two minor crossovers throw ''DVDS'' into one hell of a bizarre shared continuity; see SharedUniverse and Wild Mass Guess sub-page.

** Three decades after DVDS' heyday Carl Reiner appeared as his character Alan Brady on ''Series/MadAboutYou''.
** Buddy appeared in one episode of ''The Danny Thomas Show'' moonlighting as a joke writer for Thomas's character, Danny Williams. These two minor crossovers throw ''DVDS'' into one hell of a bizarre shared continuity; see SharedUniverse and Wild Mass Guess sub-page.

** Buddy appeared in one episode of ''The Danny Thomas Show'' moonlighting as a joke writer for the main character, Danny Williams. These two minor crossovers throw DVDS into one hell of a bizarre shared continuity, see SharedUniverse and Wild Mass Guess sub-page.
*** And since at least two episodes mention Danny Thomas (the episode where the writers get laid off for the summer, and ''It May Look Like A Walnut''), both Danny Thomas AND Danny Williams exist in that Universe.