Line #29 YMMV/TheDickVanDykeShow


1	* FairForItsDay:
2	** 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 (and in fact the African-American boy gets better grades than Richie) -- a somewhat risky line at a time when integrated schools were still controversial.
3	** It was also confirmed that Ritchie attended an integrated school in the episodes "Father of the Week" and "Happy Birthday and Too Many More" which briefly feature his black classmates. In "Bupkis", Greg Morris reappears as Rob's old army buddy Sticks Mandalay with whom Rob cowrote a hit song without realizing it (as another old friend stole the lyrics from Rob and the melody from Sticks.) In "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS5E27TheManFromMyUncle The Man from My Uncle]]", Godfrey Cambridge guest-stars as an FBI agent. In "Show of Hands" when Rob and Laura [[ItMakesSenseInContext accidentally dye their hands black]] on the day Rob is set to accept an award for ''The Alan Brady Show'' given by the Committee for Interracial Understanding, Rob says that trying to pass it off as intentional blackface humor would be "in the ''worst'' taste." When the members of the CIU turn out to be sympathetic to their predicament, he's thankful and expresses his hope that one day interracial understanding will become so common that they won't have to give awards for it.
4	** In the episode "Romance, Roses and Rye Bread", Sally finds herself dealing with the unwanted affections of Bert, who works at the deli where the gang regularly gets lunch. While several moments would be a bit more uncomfortable in today's world (such as when Burt shows up at her house uninvited), they were a bit more socially acceptable at the time, and the resolution of the story resonates today: no matter how much of a DoggedNiceGuy Bert was, and even if she was actively seeking non-Bert suitors, Bert was wrong to pursue her to such lengths, and Sally did not owe Bert anything more than a "not happening".
5	* HarsherInHindsight:
6	** In "My Husband Is Not a Drunk", Rob becomes a HypnoFool, with a bell making him act like a falling-down drunk. In 1974, Dick Van Dyke publicly admitted to having had a serious drinking problem for the preceding 25 years.
7	** In "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS2E24TheSamPomerantzScandals The Sam Pomerantz Scandals]]", a comedian friend of Rob's does an impression of Jimmy Cagney as John F. Kennedy including the line: "You dirty rat! You're the guy that gave it to my brother, Bobby!" This, of course, was long before Bobby Kennedy was shot for real.
8	* HilariousInHindsight:
9	** 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.]]
10	** Rob is writing a children's story whose main characters are animals and asks Buddy and Sally for advice. Buddy suggests he make the book into a sexy magazine centerfold. "You mean a giraffe in black mesh stockings?" Sally asks. "What's the matter with that? It could be a whole series: Animal of the Month! 'Hey, Charlie, did you see the zebra this month? No stripes!'" Then the '60s audience laughs because this would be completely absurd. And right before this, Buddy had suggested the book have "furry pages."
11	** In another episode, Rob is attending the reading of his great Uncle Hezekiah's will where he learns the old man's estate is worth more than a million dollars. His half-brother adds bitterly: "It could have been ten million if he had died a year earlier. I told him not to invest in 3D movies. One of us is going to get stuck with ten million pairs of cardboard eyeglasses."
12	** Unbeknownst to the rest of the characters, Mel, played by Richard Deacon, spends nearly the entirety of the episode "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS4E2GhostOfAChantz The Ghost of A. Chantz]]" [[UsefulNotes/HomoSexual hiding in the closet]] of a log cabin.
13	-->''[[https://www.oocities.org/melvincooley@ymail.com/interview.html "Do you think within the industry it's known you're gay?" Deacon shrugged minimally. "No idea."]]''
14	* NightmareFuel: The final shot of Rob's nightmare in "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS2E20ItMayLookLikeAWalnut It May Look Like a Walnut]]", with him being cornered by Kolak and the crazed-eyed Laura, Mel, Buddy, and Sally (who possibly are actually aliens[=/=]transformed), is surprisingly freaky.
15	* NotSoCrazyAnymore: In the episode "The Plots Thicken", Rob is flabbergasted while talking to a funeral home on the phone. After he gets off, he tells Laura, "How do you like that?! They have a layaway plan. You pay now, and go later." Nowadays, many people prepay for their "final expenses" without a second thought.
16	* OldShame: Creator/DickVanDyke regrets having made the episode "The Bad Old Days" because of its sexist UnfortunateImplications about gender roles and its out-of-character portrayal of Rob in his DreamSequence being abusive to Laura and Richie. Even though it was meant to teach AnAesop that the YeGoodeOldeDays weren't so great, the ValuesDissonance cringe factor is just too high.
17	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: As mentioned under RuleAbidingRebel and FairForItsDay, it's hard to believe this show was pushing any envelopes for its day. Similarly, this was one of the first shows to do a CouchGag - it's hard to believe how big a deal this is after ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
18	* RetroactiveRecognition:
19	** Bill Persky and Sam Denoff wrote 30 episodes. Both are best known as creators and executive producers of ''Series/ThatGirl''.
20	** Creator/GarryMarshall co-wrote 18 episodes.
21	** Dale [=McRaven=] co-wrote nine episodes. [=McRaven=] is best known as creator, executive producer, and executive consultant of ''Series/PerfectStrangers'' and as co-creator, producer, and supervising producer of ''Series/MorkAndMindy''.
22	** Norm Liebmann and Ed Haas wrote two episodes. Both are best known for developing ''Series/TheMunsters''.
23	** Howard Morris directed five episodes and guest starred in "The Masterpiece". The same year, he began his recurring guest role on ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' as rockthrowing hick Ernest T. Bass (and lent his voice to many cartoon characters).
24	** James Komack directed 2 episodes. Komack is best known as creator and executive producer of ''Series/ChicoAndTheMan'' and for playing Norman Tinker on ''Series/TheCourtshipOfEddiesFather''.
25	** Theodore J. Flicker also directed 2 episodes. Flicker is best known for co-creating ''Series/BarneyMiller''.
26	* RuleAbidingRebel:
27	** 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''. Amusingly, Creator/LucilleBall, who along with her then-husband, Desi Arnaz, owned the studio facilities where ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' was filmed, had previously worn capris on her own show, ''Series/ILoveLucy''.
28	** The level of sexual tension between Rob and Laura was also pretty daring at the time, though ironically the image has now been completely eclipsed by their separate beds.
29	* TheScrappy: Richie isn't very well liked, either by fans or by the writers, considering they rarely used him in the plot of an episode. (You can watch a number of episodes, especially in later seasons, without realizing Rob and Laura even ''have'' a kid.) It's actually puzzling how a funny, talented, and sexy couple like Rob and Laura gave birth to such a whiny drip of a kid. It gets even more puzzling when you remember that the show was based off Carl Reiner's life. Carl Reiner's son is Creator/RobReiner, [[Series/AllInTheFamily who made a name for himself in comedy]] [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap when he became an adult]]. You have funny parents, why not a funny kid too?
30	* SeriesContinuityError: Mel is consistently described as Alan Brady's brother-in-law; however, sometimes he's said to be married to Alan's sister, and other times Alan is said to be married to Mel's sister. (Of course, [[DoubleInLawMarriage both could be true]], though that strange scenario wouldn't be our first assumption, and the question would become why it's never brought up.)
31	* TearJerker:
32	** In "[[Recap/TheDickVanDykeShowS1E3SallyAndTheLabTechnician Sally and the Lab Technician]]", Sally starts crying the day after a date where again her aggressive sense of humor and BrutalHonesty scared off her date.
33	** In the episode "Where You Been, Fassbinder?", Sally is humiliated when the old high school flame she thinks is there for a dinner date turns out to only be there to sell insurance. Although later in the episode, things get sorted out and he ''was'' hoping for a date, but he overheard Sally talking about a made up boyfriend.
34	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Late in season 5 Rob is convinced to run for the city council of New Rochelle by some local political operatives. It's an interesting, multi-episode story that has new insights into Rob's character. (For instance, he considers dropping out of the race when he realizes his opponent knows far more about the issues facing the town than he does. His backers, however, tell him that his opponent's knowledge is meaningless if he can't persuade people of his point of view, and that Rob will be more successful because he is well-liked, so Rob decides to keep going.) Rob ultimately wins the race, potentially setting up a third, political storyline to go along with the work and family stories, but his involvement with the city council is never mentioned again.
35	* ValuesDissonance:
36	** One episode had the Petries set Sally and Laura's cousin up with the same guy, and consequently Rob and Laura get frustrated when he doesn't commit to either of them. Then, in a conversation with the man over coffee, he reveals that he's been married three times before, two of those times with the same woman -- this utterly stuns them. Although the man doesn't seem to think it's a big deal, he goes on to admit that he divorced those women (and tends not to date in general) because he has a bad temper [[DomesticAbuse and tends to, specifically, "hit people he loves" when angry.]] Not only is the fact that he's been married before treated as almost equally bad as his tendency to hit his wives, but the show has the man come off as an oddball for not thinking it strange. Laura and Rob then joke about him after he leaves (although specifically joking about his phrasing, that he "hits people he loves".)
37	** Shame over previous marriages also forms the basis of the fairly serious episode "Divorce" where Buddy believes Pickles is cheating on him because she's too ashamed to tell him that the man she's sending money to is a former husband, who's blackmailing her with the threat of revealing their past marriage (albeit part of her shame also came from the fact that said former husband was a "jailbird.")
38	** The many episodes where it's presented as a perfectly normal idea that every woman should be a HouseWife can sit a little oddly to present-day sensibilities.
39	** Though the show as a whole ZigZagged the sexist StayInTheKitchen trope, some episodes especially in early seasons played it perfectly straight (such as "Washington and the Bunny," "To Tell or not to Tell," and "The Bad Old Days"). While the cast realized "Bad Old Days" went over the line even at the time, "stay in the kitchen" was still very much an ideal for much of America and the women's revolution was only just gaining traction.
40	** The episode where Sally is set up with a guy, and Rob complains about the society rule that men are intimidated by funny women, is at the same time dated and relevant to this day, as a commentary on male competitiveness.
41	** There's an episode where Ritchie has been getting beat up on by a girl at school, but won't fight back because she's a girl. While this particular bit of values dissonance really depends on the person (some people still hold to it to this day and some don't), the reveal that she's punching him (in the throat on one occasion) because he refuses to kiss her when she demands it likely wouldn't be treated like the cute little misunderstanding that it was back then in the show.

Context YMMV / TheDickVanDykeShow