"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50 - A MATTER OF FAITH

I've written about Buddy's brother Blackie Sorrell before (that he was once a stand-up comic with the stage name "Jackie Silver" back in the 1950's, as seen in an episode of 'Happy Days'), but seeing his episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' entitled "Hustling The Hustler", I may have stumbled upon something new. Blackie may have converted to Catholicism after being raised Jewish.

But I'm not Jewish, so I may be wrong about this.....

We know Buddy's family background was in the Jewish faith. There's an episode about his long-delayed bar mitzvah, for example ("Buddy Sorrell, Man And Boy"). And when Alan Brady referred to Rob as "Mr. Christian", Buddy backed up Rob's mutiny be calling himself "Mr. Jewish".

But near the end of "Hustling The Hustler", Buddy mentions that he hasn't shaken hands with his younger brother Blackie since he was confirmed.

This is where some knowledge of Jewish traditions would come in handy. I suppose the argument could be made that Buddy meant Blackie was confirmed in the Jewish faith with a bar mitzvah - but why would Blackie get one and not Buddy? And I think confirmation is usually used when talking about the Catholic rite of passage.

Becoming a Catholic might have removed one stumbling block many years later when he met his future wife. (Not that she couldn't be Jewish as well down there in South America. I know that well from many of the clients at work who are from Brazil as well as Argentina.)

So am I wrong in thinking Blackie converted to the Catholic faith? Let me know....

BCnU!

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

One thing I always liked about 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' when it came to pop cultural references was that it was probably the most literary of sitcoms. Mentions are made regarding many of the plays by Shakespeare, that most famous of sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, novels by Jack London, Hemingway, and . It's also very cinematic, especially when it comes to the great film classics from the 1940's. And since they're in the New York City area, there are plenty of Broadway mentions to boot.

But when it comes to possible Zonks about other TV shows, there are very few to worry about - mostly to 'Gunsmoke', 'The Defenders', 'The Untouchables', 'The Twilight Zone', and 'What's My Line?'. Easiest of all to de-Zonk would be the mention of Sebastian Cabot, which at the time referred to the series 'Checkmate', but which can be about almost anything now.

It's not so much that these Zonks would then require me to splain them away. What I hate is that they're writing crutches which could date a series so many decades later (as that 'Checkmate' reference shows.)

The reference to 'What's My Line?' (and another one mentioning the show's host, John Daly) is the easiest to splain away. The game shows we watch in the real world exist as well in Toobworld. And as we've seen in the past with shows like 'Jeopardy', 'Password', and 'Wheel Of Fortune', TV characters have appeared in the televersions of those shows.

I thought that the mention of 'The Twilight Zone' in "It May Look Like A Walnut" could be just taken at face value - Rob was having a nightmare about a horror sci-fi movie he saw about aline invaders from the planet Twilo. At one point he wonders if he's in "the Twilo zone". That didn't have to mean Rob knew about the Rod Serling TV show; it could have been just a straight-up reference to the situation in which he found himself.

But then in "Young Man With A Shoehorn", Sally mentions the show by name so there goes that opportunity.

Over the years, 'The Twilight Zone' has been cited in many different TV shows so there's no sense in trying to splain this reference away. We just have to accept that there's a televersion which may or may not feature the same stories at the show did here in the real world.

'Gunsmoke' and 'The Untouchables' can be looked upon as being in the same category - historical recreations. 'The Untouchables' really was based on the crime-fighting team led by Eliot Ness (very loosely, though) while 'Gunsmoke' would be the adaptation of the events in the life of "historical" lawman Matt Dillon. The main reason James Arness would have been hired to play the role is because he looked so much like the "real-life" marshal.

It's 'The Defenders' which might be harder to argue. It's because of a scene from that ground-breaking law drama which was presented in an episode of 'Mad Men' (with mention of EG Marshall by name and image), that I was willing to just toss 'Mad Men' out of Earth Prime-Time and into some alternate TV dimension, no matter how good the series is.

But once again, Sally brought up a real TV show: "This is like watching 'The Defenders' but without a TV set!" she said in one episode; and by calling Rob EG Marshall at one point. And there was no way I was going to toss 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' out in the cold as well.

So after years of trying to come up with ways of de-Zonking the mentions of other TV series by shows that should have been sharing the same dimension, I finally accepted a blanket splainin: while all TV shows from the real world are "real life" within Toobworld, some of them would see their real events adapted for TV within TV.

And that would have been the case for 'The Defenders'. Some enterprising TV producer within Toobworld saw the potential in the cases handled by the Prestons and decided to buy the rights to their story for a TV drama. And since EG Marshall was mentioned in both 'Mad Men' and 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', O'Bviously he was hired to play Lawrence Preston because of his - ahem! - remarkable resemblance to the lawyer.

You know what else would need to be de-Zonked? 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' itself. It's been mentioned in such shows as 'The Nanny', 'The Jackie Thomas Show', 'Pushing Daisies', and even 'The X-Files'.

(One type of show that we don't have to worry about in this case would be cartoon series, like the three times it was spoofed in 'Family Guy'. Shows like that take place in an alternate TV dimension called the Tooniverse and have no connection to the "real world" of Earth Prime-Time. The characters from that world can cross over into ours, however.)

The splainin I came up with is a case of art imitating life. In the last episode of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', "The Last Chapter", the rights to Rob's autobiography are sold to Alan Brady. His plan was to make a sitcom for himself once 'The Alan Brady Show' variety program was canceled. But it's my supposition that - like Carl Reiner before him - Alan Brady crafted a program that mirrored his own life, and the network rejected him for the role of Rob Petrie, even though there was probably nobody out there with more expertise in the back-stage world of entertainment to play the role.

Hoping to save the project, I think Alan Brady would have scrambled to find an actor to replace him in the role of Rob Petrie. And just like in the Trueniverse some five years before, he settled on the choice of Dick Van Dyke to play Petrie. Maybe Mary Tyler Moore was also hired to play Laura, or that could have stayed with Barbara Britton. (Although she was almost a decade older than Van Dyke and that would have altered some of the "true-life" events in the Petrie family - like Laura being only 17 when she married Rob.)

So this only-on-TV version of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', which began over six years after the original one aired in the real world, would be the show mentioned and watched by other TV characters. The faux 'Van Dyke' would be the one watched by 'Friends' Joey and Chandler from their leather comfy chairs, not the real show.

The people on this Toob-only 'Dick Van Dyke Show' and the people who inspired them would become famous, which is why Buddy and Sally would appear in 'Herman's Head' when Herman Brooks' id needed inspiration for witty repartee. And that's why FBI agent Mulder would use the names "Rob and Laura Petrie" as their alias while investigating the supernatural occurrences at a gated community.

When thought-killer Modell first saw FBI Assistant Director Skinner in the episode "Kitsunegari", he exclaimed, "It's Mel Cooley!" It could be that he knew of the actual Mel Cooley - maybe Mel stepped out from the shadows behind his brother-in-law. But it's more likely that he was more familiar with whomever was the actor who played Mel Cooley in the Toobworld version of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.

And it inspired Jerry Harper to become a TV writer and work in sitcoms. (It's just a shame he wound up behind the scenes at the show-within-a-show " 'Jackie Thomas Show'.)

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50 - TRYING TO CATCH UP

As I expected, I'm running behind on my blog posts about 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' on this, the 50th anniversary of the series debut. Our Fearless Leader for this blogathon, Ivan Shreve of the "Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear" blog, may not believe it, but I do indeed sleep. And when I did so from 3 AM to 9:30 AM or so, it cut deeply into the lead time I had for posting my articles about the show's place in the Toobworld Dynamic.

So, in order to get a breather and catch up, take a look at this item being sold on eBay....

That's Ritchie (full name: Richard ROSEBUD Petrie) in the middle there, not Sam Petrie. Sam Petrie was Rob's father, and although Will Wright played Rob's father in one episode, he wasn't even Sam Petrie! He was called "Edward" - not by his wife, but by Rob's mother. (This is where I need Rod Roddy to say "Confused? You won't be once you read the three part post "My Three Dads".)

I suppose it's naive of me to think that a pop culture vendor might have the same love and knowledge of his merchandise as those wishing to buy it......

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: ALLAN MELVIN IN "SAM I AM"

Half a dozen episodes (at least) of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' dealt with Rob's life in the Army, stationed at Camp Crowder, Missouri. Because the show was about Rob's life as a comedy writer and at home, the Army flashbacks played an important role in that life because a good part of them dealt with his courtship and eventual marriage to the USO showgirl, Laura Meehan.

We also got to meet several of Rob's Army buddies - Sol Pomeroy, Sam Pomerantz, ANOTHER Sam Pomerantz, Sam Pomeroy, Sol Pomerantz, and Harrison B. Harding. (Hey, with all those "P" names, how did Harry The Horse get in there?) Throw in Rob Petrie and you might think Camp Crowder had been staffed through a clerical error - only with soldiers whose names began with "P".

Somebody on staff at the show must have really liked those "Pom" names - Pomeroy, Pomerantz... If Camp Crowder had a mascot, it was probably a Pomeranian... named Pompey.

We met Sol Pomeroy (played by Marty Ingels) in the "present" day as well as in a flashback - "Sol And The Sponsor" and "Oh, How We Met On The Night That We Danced", respectively.

And Sam Pomerantz, played by Henry Calvin, was seen in a "present" day episode which rewarded him with the episode title: "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals".

Harrison B. Harding was also seen in the "present" day ("Harrison B. Harding Of Camp Crowder, Mo."), and so that - as with Sol and Sam - verifies his presence in the "real" Toobworld. (Technically, he was also in the episode "Oh, How We Met On The Night That We Danced" - he's basically the camera's P.O.V. during the dance sequence since he was running the spotlight.)

Alan Melvin played Harry the Horse Harding and he played those other three Army buddies - Sam Pomerantz, Sam Pomeroy, and Sol Pomerantz. But all three of the Pom-Poms appeared only in flashback; either Rob narrated a story from his past, or somebody read excerpts from his autobiographical work in progress.

Even as a kid, long before I came up with the Toobworld concept, the idea that there were so many similar-looking characters with similar names bothered me. For me, there could be only one Sam Pomerantz and that was Henry Calvin. Likewise, Marty Ingels was the only one who should be named Sol in the show.

Where was their Continuity Girl? Why couldn't they make up their mind as to whether he was appearing as Sam or Sol? Pomeroy or Pomerantz? One splainin of course is that they had no clue back then, as we've seen with 'I Love Lucy', that there would be a future for the reruns on DVDs and in syndication. And that there would be O'Bsessive fans like me out there, poring over every single detail of the series.

Say....  If there are Trekkies for 'Star Trek', would there be Dykies for 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'? 

"Dykies????"

No, I didn't think so.....

One solution I toyed with at least cleared up the Zonk about him playing Sam and Sol Pomerantz. First off, there was no connection to Henry Calvin's version of Sam - Camp Crowder was a large group of men and at least one name should have repeated among the troops. (Although you might think it would be a John Smith or a Tom Jones.) But one splainin could have been that Sol and Sam Pomerantz were twin brothers, both assigned to Camp Crowder.

But... I don't think that's it.

All but three of Allan Melvin's characters appeared in flashbacks. Harrison B. Harding was seen in the "present" day, and the Gun Drummer of the penultimate episode "The Gunslinger" was seen in Rob's anathesia-influenced dream. As for Guard Jenkins in "The Alan Brady Show Goes To Jail", we're just removing him from this splainin entirely. Something about him - unseen by the audience viewing at home in the Trueniverse - was visible to fellow TV characters that marked him as different from any other Allan Melvin character on the show.

The thing about flashbacks is that they're subjective; what we're seeing is one person's perspective. So when Buddy and Sally were reading the excerpt from Rob's autobiography about his trip back to his hometown to break it off with Dorothy ("Will You Two Be My Wife?"), their idea of what Sam looked like may have been influenced by what they remembered of Harrison B. Harding when they met him over a year before.

But I don't think that's it either. I just wanted to present all of the options.

In his second appearance on the show, Allan Melvin was simply referred to as Sam - no last name given.

A Sam... no last name given? Come on, if you know me as a fanatic about possible TV crossovers, you must have figured out where I'm going with this!

He was Sam the Butcher from 'The Brady Bunch'!

Now, his full name on that show was Sam Franklin, but I think all of his Sams and Sols, his Pomeroys and Pomerantzes (Pomerantzii?) were all Sam Franklin. Unless..... We'll get back to that.

Why was he referred to by those other names then? I think Rob was telling those stories from a faulty memory - all those falls from tripping over the ottoman took their toll. He was getting Sam Franklin confused with his other two Army buddies Sol Pomeroy and Sam Pomerantz.

If the names cropped up in his written stories, they were from first drafts and Rob would clean it all up in rewrite. And here's that "Unless...." - Although we saw Allan Melvin in those episodes, maybe it really was Sol Pomeroy or Sam Pomerantz who was involved in those stories. If Rob could forget such details in his accounts, how many other errors could have been in that autobiography? After all, we know he lied about what Dorothy really looked like - she was more like Toby Pedalbee of 'Dream On' rather than the Cinnamon Carter clone from 'Mission: Impossible' whom we saw. Hopefully - speaking of Toby Pedalbee - Rob would have a good editor there at Whitestone Publishing. That's right, we're making a theoretical link to 'Dream On'! (I may write more on that as this "Long Night's Journey Into Day" continues.....)

Anyhoo, having seen the newly svelte Harrison B. Harding after all those years (and basically for the first time because Harry was always behind the spotlight), eventually Rob thought of Sam Franklin who had a resemblance to Harry The Horse. So maybe that's why he popped up in so many of Rob's flashbacks.

By the way....

It could also be that there really was a third soldier on base who looked like Sam Franklin and Harrison B. Harding. We just never saw him.

At the end of the episode "Honeymoons Are For The Lucky", we found out who stole the bottles of cooking wine at the base - a soldier named Henshaw.

Corporal Steve Henshaw used to be Sgt. Ernie Bilko's right-hand man at Fort Baxter in Kansas, as seen in the series 'You'll Never Get Rich'. As you probably already knew, he was played by Allan Melvin.

Henshaw's first appearance in the Bilko series was in September of 1955. According to the "Petrie Chronologie" which I'm working on, Rob was out of the Army by the end of 1951. So Henshaw may have been transferred out of Camp Crowder and shipped to Fort Baxter. There Bilko would have gotten wind of the wine swipe and saw the potential in having Henshaw by his side....

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: BUENA SERA, MR. & MRS. CAMPBELL

His name was Johnny Silver, and he was an actor whom you've seen in plenty of TV and movie roles, like in 'I Dream Of Jeannie', 'Night Gallery', 'Mannix', 'The FBI'.... He was Ludicrous in 'H.R. Pufnstuf', and he played Dr. Blinkey in that series as well. (He also played a guy named Blinky in 'The Munsters'. Hrmmm... I wonder if I could pull off a splainin for that connection....?)

Silver usually played small-time crooks, ordinary working men, race-track touts, and in the case of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', a lot of waiters. 

Not all of his waiter roles could be included if you wanted to combine them, because they were in TV shows that took place on both coasts. But if I stick close to home, here in NYC, at the very least I can make the case that all of his waiters on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' were the same guy. And I think we can give them all the same name as well - Alfred Campbell.

Alfred and his wife used to live in Missouri, not far from Camp Crowder. There they ran a "B&B" known as Lakeview Lodge. (It was the type of place that would be considered a fancy hotel... in Hooterville, maybe.) It was there that Rob and Laura spent their honeymoon in the episode "Honeymoons Are For The Lucky".

That happened back in 1951, if my timeline for the series holds up. (I'm saving that for my last post of the day.) But at some point they must have sold off the property and then packed up to move to New York City.

There, Mrs. Campbell (played by one of the greatest character actresses of all time, Kathleen Freeman) got a job working as a maid for one of the swankiest hotels in Manhattan. We got to see her on the job in the episode "Never Bathe On Saturday"*, where once again she ran into Rob Petrie.

Over a decade had passed since she last saw Rob there at Lakeview Lodge, so it would be understandable that neither one of them remembered what the other looked like. (We should also take into account that both times we see her, it takes place in a flashback. So the interpretation of the audience for those stories - Buddy & Sally in the first story, Millie in the second one - have to be taken into consideration.)

Plus, Rob was wearing false eyelashes when she saw him back in Missouri; in Manhattan, he was penciling in a false mustache with a laundry pencil to make himself look more like David Niven. (Although I would think seeing him do that might have triggered her recognition of him as the guy with the glued-on false eyelashes, but what do I know?)

As for her husband Alfred, he wasn't so lucky in finding steady work. Taking a variety of jobs as a waiter around town, and even as a counter man and a delivery guy:

"Honeymoons Are for the Lucky" (4 March 1964) - Alfred Campbell

"Big Max Calvada (20 November" 1963) - Waiter

"The Life and Love of Joe Coogan" (22 January 1964) - Waiter

"Happy Birthday and Too Many More" (5 February 1964) - Delivery Man

"My Neighbor's Husband's Other Life" (22 April 1964) - Waiter

"Never Bathe on Saturday" (31 March 1965) - Room Service Waiter

"Br-rooom, Br-rooom" (12 May 1965) - Counter Man

(The episodes are placed in their general order on the Toobworld timeline, which is why "Honeymoons Are For The Lucky" is placed first.)

As you can see, at one point he got to work at the same hotel as his wife.

Other roles played by Johnny Silver on the show, one named Dave and the other Nick, would be different individuals who just happened to bear a similarity in appearance to Alfred Campbell. The photographer he played in two different episodes ("The Cat Burglar" [2 January 1963] and "One Hundred Terrible Hours" [5 May 1965]) should also be considered a different character, or characters. If they were the same photographer, he also made the move to New York City, but from the Danville, Illinois, area rather than from Missouri (as "One Hundred Terrible Hours" was a flashback to early 1953.)

By combining these characters, I'm just trying to keep Toobworld tidy, and it builds up Johnny Silver's combined character into a more prominent member of the Tele-Folks Directory......

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: TWO PICKLES

It will be heresy - blasphemy! - for many to read this, but 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was not perfect. There were a couple of scripts that could be considered clunkers, for example.

Ivan Shreve (who's hosting the 50th anniversary blogathon for this classic sitcom at his blog "The Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear" today) holds "The Twizzle" to be the show's nadir. I don't find much fault with it, though I think it displays Sally Rogers in a bad light, if you stop to think about her life in the context of this episode. (A redeeming value for "The Twizzle" in its Toobworld status today in this Inner Toob marathon.) As for me, I dare anyone to find anything good to say about "The Bad Old Days". It's a miserable mess of misogyny that espouse an argument (even they do eventually refute it) that is as out-dated as the artistic style of Rob's dream in that episode.

Another problem for 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' is in recasting characters. No matter what the show (and especially soap operas, when I used to watch them, and when there were far more opportunities to watch them) this has always been a problem for me, even before I answered the siren call of televisiology. Seeing a new actor playing a role just takes me out of the moment. Trying to resolve these "Darrin Discrepancies" (so named to the recasting of Samantha's mortal husband on 'Bewitched' from Dick York to Dick Sargent) may have been the impetus for my immersion into the Toobworld Dynamic.

But at least Rosie O'Donnell got a good joke of that example early in her career.....

With 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', the situation never affected the main characters. However, it did play hob with three of the major recurring characters - Rob Petrie's Dad, his old Army buddy Sam (or Sol), and Buddy's wife, Fiona Conway Sorrell. (In the neighborhood in which she grew up, any girl named Fiona was automatically called PIckles. She happened to be the only one in her neighborhood.....)

With this post, we're going to take a look at the two faces of Pickles.....

Fiona Conway was a former show-girl who married Buddy back in 1951. (According to Buddy in "The Unwelcome House Guest") Previously she married a con artist named Barton Nelson (AKA Floyd B. Barriscale. This happened in 1944, when she turned 18. (This information was courtesy of the episode "Divorce".  I gauged her age based on the age of Joan Shawlee, the woman more associated with the role, even though she wasn't the first to play it.)

Barbara Perry as Pickles

Barbara Perry originated the role of Buddy's wife. She appeared in the episodes "Sally Is A Girl" and "Where You Been, Fassbinder?" Less than a year later, Pickles returned in "My Husband Is A Check-Grabber", but now she was played by the statuesque Joan Shawlee. She would go on to play the role twice more, getting to perform with the gang in "The Sam Pomerantz Scandals" and then blubbering her way to comic glory in her showcase episode "Divorce".

(It feels as though Pickles appeared in far more episodes than she did because Buddy talked about her all the time.)

The splainin for the difference in her appearance is the most basic one supplied as a Television trope - plastic surgery. Although she had an off-beat beauty that I think made her a perfect match for her husband Buddy, perhaps she was bothered by the overbite.

Or maybe there was a darker reason for her to undergo so much plastic surgery that it would totally alter her appearance.....

Joan Shawlee as Pickles

As I said, Pickles had been married to Barton Nelson, who got sent up the river for forgery. While he was in jail, she divorced him, after which she met Buddy and eventually married him. Plastic surgery may have been an attempt to keep her ex-husband from ever tracking her down.

But apparently it was "frutile"* When Nelson got out of prison, he changed his name to Floyd B. Barriscale and threatened to expose her past connection to him unless Pickles paid him off. It was finding Pickles' cache of cancelled checks to Barriscale that nearly caused Buddy to seek a divorce.

So hopefully that serves as a suitable splaining for Pickles' puss.......

BCnU!

* "Frutile" was a word coined by Roger Andrew McChesney, the Petries' babysitter. I think he meant either "futile" or "fruitless". Both of them applied when it came to his love for Laura.....

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: QUOTH McRAVEN

So there's a Toobworld version of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' which is different from, but covers the same subject material as, the original series from our own world. Sometimes the plot lines are the same, based as they are on events that happened in "real life". And they could have the same dialogue, based on the recollections of those people who were involved.

The spaceship in which the bots Crow, Gypsy and Tom Servo were stranded in space with first Joel and then Mike apparently has every episode of that series stored in its data banks. And its from that resource that Crow and Tom Servo accessed the needed information to toss off their bon mots while watching really bad movies.

Here are some of the references made about 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' by Joel, Mike and the bots......

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Mad Monster (#2.3)" (1989)
- Joel: "Cheese it, it's Alan Brady."

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (#4.21)" (1991)
- As the Martian leader walks into his home, the guys sing the theme from this show

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Beatniks (#5.15)" (1992)
- Crow, Joel, and Tom hum "The Dick Van Dyke Show" theme music.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Attack of the the Eye Creatures (#5.18)" (1992)
- "Rob and Laura are calling"

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Rebel Set (#5.19)" (1992)
- Crow: "Forbidden dance of Laura Petrie"


"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Girl in Lovers' Lane (#6.9)" (1993)
- Joel: "Laura Petrie, no!"

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Brain That Wouldn't Die (#6.13)" (1993)
- Crow: "Hey, what's Millie Helper doing here?"


"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus (#6.21)" (1993)
- Servo: It's Rob and Laura.
"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Skydivers (#7.9)" (1994)
- Mike: The Laura Petrie line of fashion.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Bloodlust! (#7.7)" (1994)
- Servo: It's Rob and Laura's bedroom.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Undead (#9.6)" (1997)
- Mike: (As Mel Cooley) Rob, I'm telling Alan what you're doing.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: I Was a Teenage Werewolf (#9.9)" (1997)
- "This is a really bad episode"

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Projected Man (#10.1)" (1998)
- Crow: "Kind of a combination Buddy Sorrell/Bilbo Baggins"

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Phantom Planet (#10.2)" (1998)
- Servo: Laura Petrie, you are charged with treason.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Hamlet (#11.9)" (1999)
- Ophelia: There's Rose Marie. Servo: And Morey Amsterdam.

A big thanks to the IMDb.com for hosting those quotes!


BCnU!

The title is a play on the poem by Edgar Allen Poe. It's also a pun based on the last night of one of the writers for 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.

Hey, I didn't say it would be funny.

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: THE TOP TEN LIST OF MY FAVES

Might as well post another list in celebration of the 50th anniversary of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', but this time it's not another "Super Six". Taking a cue from David Letterman, this is a Top Ten list.... My favorite ten episodes from 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'......

1] "It May Look Like A Walnut"

2] "The Ghost Of A. Chantz"

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

4] "The Alan Brady Show Presents"

5] "The Gunslinger"

6] "That's My Boy???"

7] "Hustling The Hustler"

8] "A Bird In The Head Hurts"

9] "The Return Of Edwin Carp"

10] "The Great Petrie Fortune"

Just missing the cut on the list is "Coast To Coast Big-Mouth". I know there are plenty who would say it belongs on the list more than some of my other choices, but it's a list of my favorites, not of the funniest or the best. (Although I would argue many of them would be on those lists as well.

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50: THE SUPER SIX LIST

Unlike far too many shows today, 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' didn't have many celebrities appearing on the series as themselves. (It's my opinion that it was Sammy Davis, Jr.'s appearance on 'All In The Family' that really opened the flood-gates, even though there had been many such instances in the past on other shows, especially 'I Love Lucy'.) Off-hand, I can think of only a few - Fred Blassie in "The Twizzle" and Bert Gordon and Arlene Harris in "The Return Of Edwin Carp".

They also didn't try to con us with appearances by actors who were supposedly famous people (unless you want to count Danny Brewster's impressions of then-current celebs like Jack Paar, Robert Stack, Jack E. Leonard, and President Kennedy.) Examples of this in the past on other shows have been "President Bill Clinton" on 'The Nanny', "Martin Scorsese" in the first episode of 'The Sopranos', and "Queen Elizabeth II" in 'Doctor Who'.

But one thing they did do every so often was to introduce a guest character who was clearly a stand-in for somebody else, somebody famous. A roman a toob, if you will. (And even if you won't.....)

So here's an Inner Toob semi-regular feature, the "Super-Six List", in which I've chosen the six best guest characters who were based on real world celebrities....

1] HENRY WALDEN, "I'M NOT HENRY WALDEN!"
The author and historian played by Everett Sloane was meant to suggest Carl Sandburg, the poet and historian.

2] HARPER WORTHINGTON YATES, "BABY FAT"
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Southern playwright may as well have been called "Tennessee" for all that he resembled Tennessee Williams.  There may have been some sub-text to the portrayal by Strother Martin to suggest Williams' lifestyle, but I don't want to read too much into it.  Not that there's anything wrong with that......

3] TRACY RATTIGAN, "RACY TRACY RATTIGAN"
Richard Dawson played a British movie heart-throb (who was also a bounder and a cad) in a way that resembled Welsh-born Richard Burton.

4] DREW PATTON, "THE MAN FROM EMPEROR"
Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine are the archetypes upon which so many men's magazine publishers are based in other TV shows. (Another example? Bo Buffington from 'The Odd Couple'. In fact, it had been so many years since I saw this episode, that I was surprised to find that it wasn't John Astin playing Drew.....

5] STEVIE PARSONS, "THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE MOUTH"
This time, the character is more of a combination of two late-night talk show hosts. Based on the name, Parsons was meant to suggest Steve Allen and Johnny Carson, both of whom hosted the 'Tonight' show.

6] RIC VALLONE, "LIKE A SISTER"
This is one of two instances on the series in which the person who is being fictionalized also played the role. (Chad & Jeremy as Freddie and Ernie, the British moptop duo known as The Redcoats, are the other example.) Vic Damone played Ric Vallone as a sex symbol singer of the old school crooner style, just like Damone at the time.

BCnU!

"THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" @ 50 - LYRICAL ECHOES

Whenever Dick Van Dyke appears on TV talk shows (or even a British radio quiz show) lately, he more than happily sings the lyrics to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' theme - which never made it into any of the episodes:

"So you think that you've got trouble

Well, trouble's a bubble,

so tell ol' Mr. Trouble to get lost.

Why not hold your head up high

and stop crying,

start trying

and don't forget to keep your fingers crossed.

When you find the joy of living

is loving and giving,

you'll be there when the winning dice are tossed.

A smile is just a frown that's turned upside down,

so smile and that frown will defrost.

And don't forget to keep your fingers crossed."

There are other lyrics available as well... just not sanctioned by any of the interested parties connected to 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'....

A word of caution - at the very end of the song, the lyrics suddenly become NS4W, so proceed at your own risk!

RITCHIE PETRIE:

"Is it a naughty word, Daddy?"

ROB PETRIE:

"Well... yes, Rich. It is a naughty word."

"Ohhhhhh, Rob!"

BCnU!