"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: A WORD A DAY (AND THE SECRET WORD IS....)

If there's one thing I've noticed about the dialogue during my marathon viewing of episodes from 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', it's "rotten".

Put away the pitchforks and the torches, you Dairy Maids! I'm talking about the word "rotten". It appears to be the harshest word in their vocabulary and seems to show up in just about every other episode, if not more often. When Buddy fell victim to a practical joke, he must have used it at least five times in one sentence!

"Rotten" probably falls into that category of funny words, like anything beginning with a "K" sound is funny. It's a woody word, not tinny.......

I suppose if we were still able to watch the adventures of the 'Alan Brady Show' writers after 1980, the dialogue would have matured along with the show. I chose 1980 because that's the year when the original Galacticans arrived on Toobworld, in 'Galactica 1980'. It could be that once they became known to the general public who have since gone on to adopt some of their Galactican language (as seen in many TV shows today), eventually we would have heard Alan Brady say to his brother-in-law: "Frak off, Mel!"

BCnU!