"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" BLOOPERS

Finally, here are some blooper reels from the show which have no place in Earth Prime-Time, but perhaps can have a home in some alternate Toobworld......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: SOPHIA LOREN (& CARLO PONTI)

SOPHIA LOREN

(with CARLO PONTI)

AS SEEN IN:
'SCTV'

AS PLAYED BY:
Andrea Martin

TV DIMENSION:
Skitlandia
(But could also be Earth Prime-Time/Doofus - where famous people as well as the ordinary citizens of the planet are low IQ idiots. Other shows in this world - 'That's My Bush!' and 'The Secret Files Of Desmond Pfeiffer'.)

In the "Like A Sister" episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', Sophia Loren was supposed to have been the guest star on 'The Alan Brady Show'. But because of a previous commitment, she had to drop out and was replaced by singing sensation Ric Vallone.

BCnU!

OCTOBER 2, 2011: THE 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF "THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW"

Last Monday was the 50th anniversary for 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' (which you should have known by now if you're a regular reader of this blog!) Today's collection of videos for Video Saturday are all connected to that classic sitcom.

On the night before, a celebration was held in Los Angeles at which many of the people originally involved with the show attended. They showed three and a half episodes (an odd selection hand-picked by Carl Reiner) and an allegedly poorly executed Q&A session open to the audience.

Thanks to comic book writer and cartoon director Mark Evanier who originally found them and displayed them at his blog, I've got here a couple of videos from that event which have surfaced on YouTube:

First up, Carl Reiner discusses how the show began....

And here are the Vantastix singing the word (by Morey Amsterdam) to the music (by Earl Hagen) of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' theme....

BCnU!

CYNOPTIC FLOP

This is something that I could have saved for next August, when we celebrate the TV Western here at Toobworld Central, but it's just bothering me to keep seeing it infecting my "Mail To Be Sent" folder....


One of my friends from the Idiot's Delight Digest, Cousin Steve, sent me a trivia question about a month ago from the website Cynopsis Media:

Today's Trivia Question: What actor portrayed the same character on NBC in 1957, ABC in 1979, and on CBS in 1981?
 The only answer that came to me was James Garner as Bret Maverick, but what didn't jibe was the proper alignment of the networks.

Garner originated the character on 'Maverick' beginning in September of 1957, so they got that right. But it was part of the ABC stable of TV Westerns, not NBC.

In 1979, he did indeed play the role again, as a guest star, in the spin-off series "Young Maverick" (after joining in on the pilot movie, "The New Maverick". But it wasn't on ABC - that show was a CBS entry.

Finally, Garner came back to the role full-time for one season of 'Bret Maverick'. And that was on NBC, not CBS as that Cynopsis writer claimed.

With the answer posted the following day, there was never a mention of the error, only of who came up with the correct answer. But because the parameters of the question were wrong, then the answer of Garner as Maverick has to be considered wrong as well.

Pretty shoddy work on that one, folks....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: STEVE JOBS

STEVE JOBS

AS SEEN IN:
'SuperNews!'

AS VOICED BY:
Josh Faure-Brac

From The Los Angeles Times:
Steven P. Jobs, the charismatic technology pioneer who co-founded Apple Inc. and transformed one industry after another, from computers and smartphones to music and movies, has died. He was 56.

Apple announced the death of Jobs — whose legacy included the Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," Apple said. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

Jobs spoke of his desire to make "a dent in the universe," bringing a messianic intensity to his message that technology was a tool to improve human life and unleash creativity.

- David Sarno and Christopher Goffard
October 5, 2011

We looked at another portrayal of Steve Jobs in 2010 to celebrate his birthday....

 BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" BLOGATHON CENTRAL POST FROM INNER TOOB

On October 3rd, I participated in the blogathon celebrating the 50th anniversary of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' by publishing at least one blog post every hour about the show. It was hosted by my blogging buddy Ivan over at his blog "Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear" and the other participants really brought their A game to the project because of their similar love for the show (or - in the case of Brent's contribution - for the love of Laura Petrie's ass.....)

Ivan bemoaned however that I didn't provide a simple way for future visitors to the blogathon central posts to be able to locate all of my typically Toobworld theories and conjectures about the show. It was only my second time participating in a blogathon (the first beng the Lucy 100th birthday salute a month or so before), and I wasn't sure on the details about how to make it all work.  So I'm hoping this post provides that easy research tool.

The following is a list of links to all of my posts about 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' from that day. (There'll be plenty more in the future; it's the type of show, like 'Doctor Who', which can provide plenty of material to work with.) The only two that can be considered in order are the intro post and the one that closed it all down. In between, I've arranged the posts by their topics - beginning with the ones that interested me the most and ending up with the ones that basically were just filler when I was trying to beat the clock.

So if this is your first time in exploring these topics I hope you enjoy and welcome back if you have already read them and just wanted to revisit a few faves (hopefully). And don't forget to click on that banner at the bottom, which will take you back to the collection of TDOY links to all the other participants in this blogathon.

Kicking It All Off

A Tribute To Lennie Weinrib & His Three Roles
This was my favorite of all the posts - a salute to a talented man who made an indelible impression in a role he was cast in only five hours before he filmed it!

Allan Melvin's Many Roles On The Show
Allan Melvin is one of the all-time legends of TV character actors and although his many roles on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' seem to contradict each other and cause Zonks, he could in fact be the link to 'The Brady Bunch' and to 'Sgt. Bilko'....

Dabbs Greer as the minister
Another of my Top Ten favorite character actors and he can link the series to 'The Brady Bunch' as well, but also to 'Picket Fences'!

Linkin' Goodheart One
Here's what might have been had the series come back for a six season. There's no need to fear.....

Linkin' Goodheart Two
What if Wall Cox's "mom" also appeared in the show?

Linkin' Goodheart Three
This is just an out-there theory of relateeveety linking the show to a current hit sitcom.

Rob's Dad - Intro
Three different actors played Rob's father, and we had to figure out a way to make it all work.

Rob's Dad Part One
A look at Tom Tully's portrayal of Rob's Dad - the last to be introduced but the actual man who raised him.
 
Rob's Dad Part Two
Will Wright - Rob's true Dad as well - at least, the biological one....

Rob's Dad Part Three
J. Pat O'Malley - We cross over into the Twilight - not the Twilo! - Zone to splain him away.....

The Two Pickles
Pickles may have been married twice, but Buddy only had the one wife, yet two actresses played her.....

A Touch Of Graciella
How Sallie Janes' sweet but sad one-shot guest appearance could link to another classic sitcom.

Mrs. Mel Cooley
They always talked about Mel's wife on the show, but did you know she actually showed up in an episode?

Who Played Kolac?
Danny Thomas? What is a Danny Thomas? Certainly not the actor who played the Twiloite leader.....

Buena Sera, Mr. & Mrs. Campbell
A post that combines a lot of characters played by Johnny Silver into one, with the added bonus of Kathleen Freeman's two roles on the show.

As Seen On TV: 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'
The daily feature of Inner Toob, applied to the show in general

Super Six List Of Characters Based On Real People
Another regular feature of the blog as it applied to a topic from the show.

My Top Ten List Of Favorite Episodes
This was an easy list to whip up in order to keep me ahead of the deadlines.....

The Van Dyke Zonks
Many of the discrepancies splained away....

MST3K Quotes About The Show

The Evil Universe Rob Petrie
Probably the nadir of my inspirations.....

Rob Petrie, The Rifleman
More like "The Trifle Man"

Questions About The Jewish Faith
So far, I'm still waiting for answers.....

The Theme Song Lyrics
Another one to keep me ahead of the game as I worked on those harder ones above.....

When Things Were "Rotten"
I'll bet once you read this, the word will just jump out at you from every episode you watch.

An eBay Error
Beating the deadline once again.

Channeling My Inner Buddy
This post is practically from memory. I've been preaching this for years.

The Last Post
TA-DA!

 From the home office of Toobworld Central....

BCnU!

Toby O'B

AS SEEN ON TV: BRITT EKLAND

On this date in 1942, the loverly Britt Ekland was born in Sweden.....

BRITT EKLAND

AS SEEN IN:
"The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers"

AS PLAYED BY:
Charlize Theron

BCnU!

AVAST! A SEA-WORTHY LINK

Thanks to one of the artifacts in 'Warehouse 13', we can add an historical connection between that series and 'Doctor Who' to the Toobworld Dynamic.

In the season finale "The Stand", Warehouse agents Myka Bering and H.G. Wells found themselves trussed up in the rigging ropes from the Mary Celeste. This was the ship whose crew mysteriously vanished in 1872.

In the episode "The Chase", the First Doctor and his Companions were being hounded by the Daleks through Time and Space. At one point, they found themselves on board the Mary Celeste, but they got away before the Daleks arrived.

Seeing the metal clad alien tanks, the crew and the Captain's wife and baby jumped overboard in such panic and fear that the raw emotions imbued the rope with enough psychic trauma to turn it into an artifact - a rope that could bind its victims under its own volition.

It could have been any one of the coils of rope in those scenes aboard the Mary Celeste.  But I think the most likely suspect for the rope which ended up in the Warehouse would be the coil that hung above the door to the quarters below as seen here:

Most of the actions which could have triggered the transformation of the rope into an artifact occurred just below that coil.  Barbara was ambushed by the First Mate Mr. Richardson, and he was then conked on the head by Vicki (played by "cousin Maureen O'Brien - ahem....).  Later, after the rest of the crew had abandoned ship, the ship's cabin boy came up from the galley and stood underneath that rope transfixed by fear upon seeing the Daleks.  He then bolted over the side as well 

It may not have been an act of aggression on the part of the rope when it lassoed Myka and HG Wells; it could have been the desire from those long-dead victims to reach those ropes and hold fast until rescue - a desire that would never come to be.

One historical note - most people today know the ship as the Marie Celeste, and that's how the computer read-out for the rigging ropes list it in 'Warehouse 13'. But as we can see from the plaque on board in 'Doctor Who', it was the Mary Celeste.

Technically, they're both right.

It was christened as the Mary Celeste. But when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the literary agent for Dr. Watson and those stories he wrote about his friend Sherlock Holmes, wrote about the ship's mystery as historical fiction, he made the error of typing it up as the Marie Celeste. And it was never caught by his publisher's proof-readers. Later journalists used his story as the basis for any articles they would then write about the ship and continue the error until it became part of the world's consciousness. Which is why whoever documented the rope into the collection typed it up as the Marie Celeste.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: A LITTLE FINE TOONING

On this date in 1902, Larry Fine (who has become my favorite of the Stooges) was born. He died in 1975.

LARRY FINE

AS SEEN IN:
"Three Robonic Stooges"

AS VOICED BY:
Joe Baker

TV DIMENSION:
The Tooniverse

BCnU!

PARTY OF A COMPLETE BREAKFAST

So here's my post for the day.


I caught the pilot for 'Suburgatory' (Great show, lousy title) online two days before it aired. I really liked it, but I hope I wasn't too spoiled by having it delivered to me in such a fashion that ruins the rest of the series run for me. The test will be on Thursday morning when I get home from work to watch it.

In the meantime, 'Suburgatory' made a sweet entry into the tele-mosaic that his Earth Prime-Time thanks to the cereal choice made by Tessa.....

Nuts & More cereal has also been featured in such shows as 'Chuck', 'Grey's Anatomy', 'In Plain Sight', and 'Brothers & Sisters'. Only 'Brothers & Sisters' is situated in an alternate TV dimension.

Welcome aboard, Tessa!

BCnU!

A PROGRAMMING NOTE

After the marathon of postings yesterday (29 posts in all!) which served as my contribution to the "Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear" blogathon for the 50th anniversary of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' - Whew! Say that ten times fast! - I just want to relax.

I've got most of my fellow bloggers with their observations on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' still to read. And my DVR is getting stuffed from all the neglect - and here it is the early weeks of the new TV season!

So I'm just going to ease back into the Toobworld Dynamic gradually. The daily "As Seen On TV" showcase, of course, will still be published. But otherwise, I'm going to cut back to one post a day containing some kind of televisiological value.

I should have my head back in the game soon.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: NICK ADAMS

The ABC Western 'The Rebel' premiered on this date in 1959......

NICK ADAMS

AS SEEN IN:
"James Dean: Race With Destiny"

AS PLAYED BY:
Unknown

From Wikipedia:
'The Rebel' is an American Western television series that ran originally on the ABC network from 1959 to 1961. The program was produced by Goodson-Todman Productions, marking one of their few non-game show ventures.

The series is about the adventures of young Confederate Army veteran Johnny Yuma (played by Nick Adams). Haunted by his memories of the war, Yuma roams the American West (specifically the plains and hill country of central and west Texas) in search of inner peace. Yuma keeps a journal of his adventures and fights injustice where he finds it with the help of a double-barreled shotgun having a sawed-off stock and barrel.

Nick Adams was the star and sole regular actor of this series. He was also involved in the show's design, inception, and writing, along with producer Andrew J. Fenady.

The first episode, "Johnny Yuma", is set in early 1867. It shows Johnny Yuma returning to his hometown, the fictional Mason City, Texas, two years after the war ended. His father Ned Yuma was the town sheriff. The town editor, Elmer Dodson, encourages Johnny to keep up his journal as he travels.

The episode "Yellowhair" has Yuma captured by the historical Kiowa chief Satanta, whose fictional adopted white daughter is played by Carol Nugent, the wife of actor Nick Adams.

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: THE END OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

[And yes, I'm not ashamed to have also used that heading!]

So there you have it - my day long marathon salute to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' on it's 50th anniversary. Now it's time for me to collapse!



When I come out of my coma, I'm going to dive right back into blogging about 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'. But this time, I'll be sitting back and relaxing as I read all of the other entries from so many bloggers who took part in the blogathon hosted by Ivan at "Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear". I'm sure it was a big success, one that would put other blogathons to shame.

And just remember, folks....

It is better to ride one block in a Cadillac than it is to walk five miles......

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: ROB'S DAD #3 - J. PAT O'MALLEY

J. Pat O'Malley
as "Sam Petrie"

This is the third installment of our look at the three actors who played Rob Petrie's Dad.

With Tom Tully and Will Wright, at least both characters had different first names - Sam and Edward respectively - so that I had something to begin with when splainin away how Rob could call both of them Dad, and how Clara Petrie, played by Isabel Randolph, could be so accepting of both of them in her presence when she could only be married to one.

But what are we to make of the third man to call himself Rob's Dad, played by great character actor J. Pat O'Malley? He says his name is Sam, and in the episode "What's In A Middle Name?", he just can't shut up about the name.

And yet his physiognomy is so different from that of Tom Tully's that we can't use the splainin of plastic surgery. He doesn't look like a candidate to be a quantum leaper from the future, and there's no evidence of magical activity.

But we could go the way of science fiction for an answer......

In 'The Twilight Zone' episode "The Fugitive", J. Pat O'Malley played Old Ben, a shape-shifting alien from another planet which he fled after serving 1,000 years of a 5,000 reign as their monarch. Like the Time Lord known as the Doctor, he was bored and wanted to go off in search of adventure.


He was hding in plain sight as an old man, in a small town in the Mid-west. And there he befriended a little girl named Jenny when agents of his planet's Council arrived to bring him back to serve out his reign.

"The Fugitive" aired in March of 1962, while his first appearance on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was set back in early 1955. (That's when all the in-laws gathered to lobby Rob and Laura with their personal choices for the unborn baby's name.) But 'The Twilight Zone' can defy Toobworld convention when it comes to the stories taking place around the same time in which they're broadcast. Many of them were set in the far future, and a few in the distant past. Some crossed over from one to the other!

Just because "The Fugitive" was broadcast in 1962, that doesn't mean it had to take place at that time. It could be set several decades in the future after Old Ben's impersonation of Sam Petrie. That would splain the aging difference between the two characters, Old Ben being exactly that - old.

But Old Ben - or whatever His Majesty's name really was - had the power to "morph" into anything else - a fly, a weird alien monster, or even into a clone of Jenny herself. So maybe the whitened hair and the mustache were just alterations to his general Earth-bound disguise.

(Whatever glamour device he was using to disguise himself, it didn't operate along the same lines as that seen in 'Quantum Leap'. With that show, the audience viewing back in the Trueniverse could always see Sam Beckett, no matter which life he was living out. They'd only see the glamour if Sam looked in the mirror. In this case, Old Ben was using a glamour on top of a glamour, but we could only see the one disguising his true form - that of a young humanoid king. Everybody else within the reality of Toobworld would have seen Tom Tully's version of Sam Petrie while he was so disguised.)

So why was he impersonating Sam Petrie? Beats me. Maybe Old Ben needed a place to hide out, so he left Sam Petrie unconscious in the car while he took his place in the family's discussion. When the coast was clear, he would have revived Sam, maybe downloaded the appropriate memories in his mind, and then - as he would say, - he skedaddled.

And why would he have returned again, making a big stink about burial plots? (As seen in "The Plots Thicken".)

We know Old Ben had a lot of strange alien devices at his disposal. We saw him use one to heal Jenny. Maybe he stashed them all in that burial plot near his favorite hole on the golf course and wanted to make sure at least somebody knew where to find them in case something happened to him.

Who knows what kind of reasoning goes through the mind of an alien?

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: ROB'S DAD #2 - WILL WRIGHT

Will Wright
as Edward Petrie

Here is part two of our look at the three actors who played Rob Petrie's Dad.....


Will Wright was the first one to play Mr. Petrie and the only one not to get a flashback episode.

I could see him being Rob's biological father, as they're both long and lanky and long in the face. And if he was the man who raised Rob up, I could see Rob's sense of humor developing a defense against his father's stern nature.

But Will Wright did not play the man who raised Rob. He was, however, his father. His biological father.

First off, let's clear up an error to be found in the IMDb.com and many other sources of information about the show. Will Wright was NOT Sam Petrie. Clara clearly addresses him as "Edward" when he goes overboard acting out the story of Tommy Turkey for Ritchie.

And it's never said that they are visiting Rob and Laura on Bonney Meadow Road as husband and wife. When either of them talks about the other, it's "your mother says" or "your father thinks", something along those lines.

Edward Petrie is the cousin of Sam Petrie, Clara's husband. I would have made the familial connection closer, as brothers, but the differences in their facial features are too severe to suggest that they're siblings.

It's the Toobworld theory that when Sam realized he couldn't father a child with Clara, he decided that he would seek outside assistance in getting her pregnant. And since he wanted his child to be of the Petrie bloodline, then he would ask another male in the family to help them out.

Once Clara agreed to this proposal, Sam turned to his cousin Edward for help.

Edward must have had only two conditions to the plan - he had to be allowed to share in the experience of raising the child, and that when the child was old enough, they should be told the truth of his parentage.

So eventually, Rob learned that his second cousin "Uncle" Edward was actually his biological father. And as he was asked by Edward that he should call him "Dad" as well.

And that's what Rob does in the episode.

This may have been an outcome unforeseen by Sam Petrie, and it caused a rift between him and his cousin. It must have come to pass that if Sam was going to visit with his son, Edward couldn't be there as well. Conversely, if Edward expressed an interest in seeing Rob, then Sam decided he would stay at home in Illinois.

No matter who went to visit Rob, Clara made sure that she would make the trip as well, because she loved her son and didn't want to miss out on any chance to see her grandson Ritchie. (As for Laura? Meh.)

So that's my theory to splain away that Rob could call both men Dad, and why neither one is seen when the other is around.

Still... we have to splain what the hell J. Pat O'Malley was doing there.....

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: ROB'S DAD #1 - TOM TULLY

Tom Tully
Rob's adopted father

This is part one of our look at Rob Petrie's dad, and the three actors who played him.....

Tom Tully may have been the last to be seen on our TV screens as Rob Petrie's father, but in the "Petrie Chronologie" (which I am compiling), he was actually first. He and his wife, Clara, arrived in Missouri from Illinois to visit Rob and Laura one month after they were married in 1951.

His Sam Petrie is the man who raised Rob Petrie as his son. He's the father who put Rob through school, saw him off to the depot when he joined the Army, and despite everyone trying to convince him that he was NOT funny, this Sam Petrie was the man who imbued a sense of humor into his son.

But he is NOT the man who fathered Rob.  He did, however, adopt him....

Dunh dunh dun DUNH!!!

Here's the Toobworld theory:

For years, Sam and Clara Petrie were unable to have children, and medical examinations determined that the problem must lie with Sam and not Clara.

Since he knew how much his wife wanted to have children, Sam suggested that they try alternate means to get her pregnant rather than turning to adoption.  The plan he came up with was to ask someone they both knew and trusted and liked to... carry out the task for them.

And so they chose Sam's cousin, Edward Petrie, to be the biological father of their child.

As it would turn out several years later, Sam was able to get his wife with child and Clara would give birth to Stacey Petrie.

This would make Rob and Stacey Petrie half brothers, whereas in the real world they are played by full brothers Dick and Jerry Van Dyke.

To be continued....

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: "MY THREE DADS"

I mentioned earlier in the day that there was one more recastaway discrepancy that had to be addressed on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' - that of the three actors who played Rob's father.

Here are the three actors and the episodes in which they appeared, in chronological order:

Will Wright
"Empress Carlotta's Necklace" (1961) … "Sam" Petrie
[The quotation marks are mine. This entry from the IMDb.com is in error.]

J. Pat O'Malley
"What's in a Middle Name?" (1962) … Sam Petrie

"The Plots Thicken" (1964) … Sam Petrie

Tom Tully
"Pink Pills and Purple Parents" (1964) … Sam Petrie

"The Curse of the Petrie People" (1966) … Sam Petrie

Now, that is the order in which the episodes were broadcast. If we follow the timeline for the show's inner reality, it would look more like this:

Tom Tully
"Pink Pills and Purple Parents" (1964) … Sam Petrie

J. Pat O'Malley
"What's in a Middle Name?" (1962) … Sam Petrie

Will Wright
"Empress Carlotta's Necklace" (1961) … "Sam" Petrie

J. Pat O'Malley
"The Plots Thicken" (1964) … Sam Petrie

Tom Tully
"The Curse of the Petrie People" (1966) … Sam Petrie

"Pink Pills And Purple Parents" takes place about a month after Rob and Laura were married, while he was still stationed at Camp Crowder in Missouri. According to my timeline, that would have been 1951. "What's In A Middle Name?" happens after the in-laws learn of Laura's pregnancy with Ritchie. So I make that to be sometime late in 1954. (Like Larry Mathews, Ritchie was born in August of 1955.)

This triple recast of Petrie Senior can't be splained away with plastic surgery. Quantum leaping is really too far out there (even if I do use "guardian angels" to splain away all of Frank Adamo's roles on the show.) However, one of my splainins for one of these actors will have a sci-fi basis from another TV series of that time......

Maybe you can guess which Pere Petrie and which TV show?

We'll continue in a "moment" with the first splainin for "My Three Dads"......

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50 - BAM! POW! ZOOM! TO THE MOON, LAURA!

If we take these frame grabs from "Pink Pills And Purple Parents" out of context, we could mak a pretty good argument that this version of Rob Petrie must be from the Evil Mirror Universe!

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: THE RIFLEMAN

Once again, I'm in a bit of a delay getting the posts done in time for each hour. To hold you over, here's a Toobworld trifle.... with a rifle.

We know Rob Petrie exists in other TV dimensions. He's been seen in the Tooniverse, thanks to the animated 'Alan Brady Show' (and seen as a TV show in several episodes of 'Family Guy'), and with Mary Tyler Moore's TV special from 1969, we learned that in Skitlandia, the sketch comedy dimension, their son Ritchie grew up to be gay.

But how about the infamous Evil Mirror Universe?

If only we had such a pose of Dick Van Dyke as he looks today, we could have claimed that the photo was from the Zombie world as seen in 'The Walking Dead'.....

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50 - MAKE ROOM FOR KOLAC

Getting down to the wire, so I thought I'd write up a story about my favorite episode from 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' - "It May Look Like A Walnut!"......

There's a very good reason why Rob Petrie thought that the main character in the sci-fi horror movie "Invasion Of The Twiloites"* looked like Danny Thomas.

And, no. It's not because he was played by Danny Thomas. Well, yeah, he was as far as the real world is concerned, but I'm talking within the inner reality of Toobworld.

No, it's because the character was being played by an actor who looked like Danny Thomas.

With 20/20/20/20 hindsight, I think the main actor in the movie was Danny Williams, a night club comedian who would occasionally make forays into the magic world of the movies.

"Invasion Of The Twiloites" (for want of a better title, and quite frankly, I like it!) sounds like it was a cheaply produced movie that hit the movie theaters soon after "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" grabbed the public's attention. And the producers (probably located at Mammoth Studios as seen in 'The Beverly Hillbillies') thought that Danny Williams would help them with marquee value.

Or - more likely - he was the best they could get for what they were willing to pay.

Even if you don't think this theoretical connection to 'Make Room For Daddy' is viable, in the long run it doesn't really matter. The connection is already there between the two sitcoms, thanks to a crossover appearance by Buddy Sorrell:

October 21, 1963
BUDDY SORRELL WRITES FOR KATHY WILLIAMS
Kathy Williams appears on a talk show to tell insult jokes about her husband, night club comic Danny Williams. She hires Buddy Sorrell to write her jokes.
('Make Room For Daddy' - "The Woman Behind The Jokes")**

BCnU!

* Oh, why not? After all, the plot sounds like "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers".....

** That's an excerpt from "The Petrie Chronologie" which I wasn't able to complete before today's deadline came up.

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50 - A TOUCH OF GRACIELLA

In 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' episode "Who And Where Was Antonio Stradivarius, Rob was conked over the head with a real violin instead of the breakaway prop. He suffered a concussion and eventually fell under the delusion that he was Sgt. Antonio Stradivarius. He wound up in Red Hook, New Jersey, at a party where he met a flighty young loverly named Graciella.

For Graciella, it was love at first sight. She fell hard for "Tony" and when he disappeared from the party, she tracked him down to Bonney Meadow Road in New Rochelle. There she had her heart broken when she learned that her Antonio Stradivarius was really Rob Petrie and that he was already married to Laura.

As all of her friends found out about her humiliation, Graciella was too embarrassed to remain in Red Hook. She was too embarrassed to stay in the same sitcom! Her kinfolk told her "Move away from there!" So she loaded up her car and moved to Beverly... Hills, that is.

Graciella wasn't her real first name, you see. I think she was a free spirit, one of the last of the Beat Generation. It's my belief that she changed her name to Graciella to suit her personality, and that her real first name had been Grace.

And as for her last name? I'm going to claim it was Swenson.

Grace Swenson had family in California - her uncle Larry Chapman ran Mammoth Pictures which ended up being purchased by Mr. Drysdale for his bank's largest depositor, Jed Clampett. When she got to Hollywood, she visited Uncle Larry and he hired her on the spot to be his personal secretary. (Chapman always hired relatives - four of his nephews were producers.)

Since her last name was never mentioned in 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' episode, and her first name was never mentioned in the three episodes of 'The Beverly Hillbillies', Toobworld Central is combining the two characters to be Grace "Graciella" Swenson.

If you get a chance, watch the episode "Who And Where Was Antonio Stradivarius?" Sallie Janes, the young lady who played Graciella is so sweet and beguiling, and with such a great vocal delivery. It's a shame that the only other credits in her IMDb listing are 'Top Cat', 'Surfside 6', and a Bert Convy variety show.....

'The Dick Van Dyke Show' - "Who And Where Was Antonio Stradivarius?"

'The Beverly Hillbillies' - "Jed Becomes A Movie Mogul"

'The Beverly Hillbillies' - "Clampett City"

'The Beverly Hillbillies' - "Clampett City General Store"

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: FROM THE CHOIR INVISIBLE

ROB PETRIE:

"Where can we find somebody nastier to Mel than Buddy?"

SALLY ROGERS:

"How about Mel's wife?"

["Buddy, Can You Spare A Job?"]

I don't know when it actually began as a television trope, but a lot of sitcoms have characters that are never seen:

Carlton the Doorman ('Rhoda') - And gorilla masks don't count!

Dr. Lars Lindstrom ('The Mary Tyler Moore Show')

Vera Peterson ('Cheers')

Maris Crane ('Frasier')

Sam ('Richard Diamond')

Wilson of 'Home Improvement' straddled both worlds by only being partially seen in the show.

Maybe Mrs. Bloom of 'The Goldbergs' and Mr. Donaghy from Jackie Gleason's "Joe The Bartender" sketches were the first. And how come we never saw Mr. McMann of the McMann & Tate advertising agency in 'Bewitched'? (My guess? He was already dead, wearing the chains he had forged in life.)

'The Dick Van Dyke Show' also had its own invisible characters. For a while, Alan Brady topped the list but only for a season or so. (Anybody who's seen "Coast To Coast Big Mouth" knows that.) But he did start out as an unseen presence at the office, then he was heard on the TV and intercoms, and finally made his first appearance - J. Beresford Tipton style - in the episode "The Sleeping Brother".

Another invisible character on the show, and part of an honored tradition at that, is Marge. She was the receptionist for the floor on which the writers' room was located. Marge, like Sarah down in Mayberry, North Carolina, and Richard Diamond's secretary Sam, was never seen, always on the other side of the phone line. (But we do know that she was blonde.)

But the invisible character on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' I'm going to discuss is Mrs. Mel Cooley.....

JACKIE BREWSTER:

"So how did he get such an important job?"

SALLY ROGERS:

"Easy. He married the boss' sister."

JACKIE BREWSTER:

"Ohhhh, he's a brudder-in-law....."

["Buddy, Can You Spare A Job?"]

According to Buddy, that's how Mel Cooley got the job as the producer of 'The Alan Brady Show' - by marrying Alan's sister.

Mrs. Cooley was mentioned frequently on the show, mostly due to that accusation of nepotism. But she was never seen in a single episode.

But - as some of you may have suspected by now - this televisiologist begs to differ.

I say we saw her in the episode "The Twizzle".

(You many want to avert your eyes, Ivan.....)

Sally Rogers dragged Rob and Laura as well as Buddy and Mel up to a Stamford, Ct. bowling alley to see her discovery of a young singing sensation and the latest dance craze he inspired. She gave them all little time to prepare, which is why Mel and Buddy arrived there stag. (Apparently Ritchie was already staying overnight next door at the Helpers' home.)

But at the end of the episode, they were all back at the bowling alley, dancing the Twizzle. This time, they must have planned the date in advance, so Buddy and Mel had time to bring their wives along as well.

Although it looked like Buddy was once again flying solo because his wife Pickles was nowhere to be seen, I prefer to think that the former showgirl was in the ladies' room, "powdering her nose".

And Mrs. Cooley?

She can be seen to the right of the screen, just behind Rob, in the striped shirt as she dances the Twizzle with her husband Mel.

Like I said, Mel must have had plenty of notice to take his wife out for the night. And he wasn't there to scout talent - Randy "Twizzle" Eisenbower already made his appearance on 'The Alan Brady Show'.

And she looked older than the kids in Randy's age group.

However, I'm sticking by my theory that she's Mrs. Mel Cooley nee Brady.

Every character in Toobworld who is mentioned but never seen must have a physical presence in that world. Isn't nice one of them finally defied the script?

BCnU!