History YMMV / TheDickVanDykeShow

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: We see a two-part story about Rob's brother, Stacey (played by Jerry Van Dyke). He is a shy, timid fellow with a serious sleepwalking problem that turns him into the life of the party. Rob decides to record Stacey in somnambulance and play it back when he wakes up. Later, Rob throws a party for his coworkers (including Alan Brady), and Stacey does a brilliant comedy bit. Rob talks to him in the kitchen and discovers that Stacey was awake the whole time. He had listened to himself on the tape recorder and learned to channel the comedic energy while wide awake.
** Any time Dick Van Dyke and/or Mary Tyler Moore start dancing the show turns from a sitcom into a spectacular.
** The ending of "Obnoxious, Offensive," when Mel saves the day by actually getting the better of Alan for once.

* HilariousInHindsight: In the episode "Brother, Can You Spare $2500?", a pawn shop owner suggests to Rob that a show about a pawn shop owner would be a hit. [[Series/PawnStars How right he would be.]]

** In the episode "Go Tell the Birds and the Bees," Richie asks Rob whether a fox and a rabbit could fall in love. Rob says no, but come 2016 [[Disney/{{Zootopia}} and low and behold...]]

* FairForItsDay: There were no main cast members of color on the show, but, particularly in later seasons, there were several African-American guest actors, in roles that were treated with total respect. "That's My Boy?" not only presents an affluent middle-class black couple, but ends by revealing that Richie goes to school with the couple's kid -- a somewhat risky line at a time when integrated schools were still controversial.

* ValuesDissonance: One episode had the Petries set Sally and one of Laura's friends up with the same guy, and both of them get frustrated when he doesn't make a commitment to either of them. When asked, he reveals that he takes it slow with dating because he's been married twice before- [[DomesticAbuse but they left because he used to hit them]]. He is portrayed as if this were just some little flaw. Rob and Laura dont react much to this news, and the end of the episode ends with them playfully hitting each other.

* FairForItsDay: "That's My Boy?" not only presents an affluent middle-class black couple, but ends by revealing that Richie goes to school with the couple's kid -- a somewhat risky line at a time when integrated schools were still controversial.

* RuleAbidingRebel: Laura seems like a fairly normal housewife now, but at the time it was apparently a big deal that she was regularly shown wearing ''pants''. Ironically, Lucille Ball, who along with her then-husband, Desi Arnaz, owned the studio facilities where ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' was taped, had previously worn capris on her own show, ''ILoveLucy''.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: NickAtNite and TVLand even had a promo pointing this out as part of "Our Television Heritage".

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: NickAtNite and TVLand even had a promo pointing this out as part of "Our Television Heritage".

* TearJerker: In the fourth episode Sally starts crying the day after a date where again her aggressive sense of humor and brutal honest scared off her date.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: TheReveal at the end of "That's My Boy??", as well as Laura tumbling out of the closet [[spoiler:on a bed of walnuts]], and the inflatable boat.

* RetroactiveRecognition - Richard Dawson, Gavin [=MacLeod=] and Jamie Farr all appeared well before they were stars.
* RuleAbidingRebel: Laura seems like a fairly normal housewife now, but at the time it was apparently a big deal that she was regularly shown wearing ''pants''.
** Ironically, Lucille Ball, who along with her then-husband, Desi Arnaz, owned the studio facilities where ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' was taped, had previously worn capris on her own show, ''ILoveLucy''.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible
** NickAtNite and TVLand even had a promo pointing this out as part of "Our Television Heritage".

* FetishFuel: When Laura rolls out of the closet on the cascade of walnuts, puts her chin in her hand, and gives Rob a smoky look...

* Tearjerker: In the fourth episode Sally starts crying the day after a date where again her aggressive sense of humor and brutal honest scared off her date.

* RetroactiveRecognition - Richard Dawson, Gavin MacLeod and Jamie Farr all appeared well before they were stars.

** Nick@Nite/TVLand even had a promo pointing this out as part of "Our Television Heritage".

* CrowningMomentOfFunny -- TheReveal at the end of "That's My Boy??", as well as Laura tumbling out of the closet [[spoiler:on a bed of walnuts]], and the inflatable boat.
* FetishFuel -- When Laura rolls out of the closet on the cascade of walnuts, puts her chin in her hand, and gives Rob a smoky look...

* HeyItsThatGuy: ''HogansHeroes'' stars Bob Crane and Richard Dawson appeared in separate episodes. Likewise ''MissionImpossible'' stars Greg Morris and Barbara Bain, also in different episodes.