"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: LINKIN' GOODHEART THE SECOND

It's his style of writing, as seen in that episode of 'The Odd Couple', that makes me think Lincoln Goodheart (AKA Mr. Fegivney) could have been related to another character from a different episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'......

Cheerio Meredith (Isn't that a loverly name?) played Miss Prinder in Laura & Millie's writing class, as seen in the episode "Teacher's Petrie"*. Miss Prinder also had a way with blood-soaked, "Spillanish" prose, just like "Mr. Fegivney".

I'm thinking this could have been a case of "Like Mother, Like Son" and that Lincoln was heavily influenced in his writing style by dear old mother.

Of course, there could be a stumbling block to this theory of relateeveety missing link - her character was named "Miss Prinder".....

Well, 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' had tackled thorny social issues in the past - race relations ("A Show Of Hands"), religious differences ("Buddy Sorrell, Man And Boy"), sex education ("Go Tell The Birds And The Bees"), drug overdoses ("Pink Pills For Purple Patients), and even domestic abuse ("The Lady And The Tiger And The Laywer).....

Maybe Miss Prinder had been an unwed mother back around 1924, when she would have been about 35 years old. And when she confided to Millie that her strike-breaking grandfather had been a dirty old man, maybe this theory of relateeveety is even darker....

"My daughter, my grand-daughter; my daughter, my grand-daughter....."

Forget it, Jerry. It's New Rochelle..........

BCnU!