The Dick Van Dyke Show

1961 - 1966

Follows the everyday life of Rob Petrie, a head writer for a TV variety show, as he struggles to keep his staff in-line and come up with funny material while keeping a happy home with his wife and young son.

Stars: Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam, Rose Marie, Richard Deacon, Larry Mathews
Created by: Carl Reiner

Where to Watch :

Episode Tropes

Season 1

Bottle Blonde: Episode 2, "My Blonde-Haired Brunette" (1961). Laura fears the romance is dying in her and Rob's marriage, so she bleaches her hair blonde and instantly regrets it.
Door Buster: Episode 2, "My Blonde-Haired Brunette" (1961). While Laura is hiding in the bedroom so Rob can't see her half-bleached hair, Rob threatens to "bust down the door" if she won't come out. As he's running towards the door, Laura opens it, and he ends up running into the room.
Remember Me?: Episode 6, "Harrison B. Harding of Camp Crowder, MO" (1961). A man named Harrison B. Harding visits Rob at work, claiming to be an old army buddy, but Rob doesn't know who he is.
Gruesome Gift: Episode 12, "Empress Carlotta’s Necklace" (1961). Rob buys a garish necklace for Laura, which she hates, but he's so happy with his gift that she doesn't want to tell him.
Toupée or Not Toupée: Episode 14, "Buddy, Can You Spare a Job?" (1961). Mel sports a toupée so Buddy can no longer make fun of him for being bald, and Buddy is too speechless to respond.
Write What You Know: Episode 16, "The Curious Thing About Women" (1962). Rob is annoyed that Laura opens his mail, and he writes a sketch about it for The Alan Brady Show. Laura sees the sketch and is upset because she thinks it makes her look like "a wild-eyed maniac."
The Old Inflatable Raft Gag: Episode 16, "The Curious Thing About Women" (1962). Laura is overcome with curiosity when Rob receives a mysterious package in the mail. She opens it and accidentally inflates a raft in the living room.
Sad Singing Telegram: Episode 17, "Punch They Neighbor" (1962). Jerry won't stop harassing Rob about an episode of The Alan Brady Show that he thought was "rotten." He goes so far as to send a singing telegram to Rob's house to insult him.
The Old Pie in the Face Gag: Episode 17, "Punch They Neighbor" (1965). Rob pretends to trip and "accidentally" throws a pie in Jerry's face as payback for Jerry’s relentlessly teasing him about an episode of The Alan Brady Show he thought was "rotten."
Who Owes Who What?: Episode 18, "Who Owes Who What?" (1962). Rob remembers that he lent Buddy $25, and he thinks Buddy never paid him back, but he's afraid to ask him for it.
Home Sweet Office: Episode 21, "The Boarder Incident" (1962). Pickles is staying with her mother, leaving Buddy alone at home. He feels lonely in his empty house, so he sleeps at the office.
Fish and Visitors Stink in Three Days: Episode 21, "The Boarder Incident" (1962). Buddy stays with the Petries while Pickles is away and drives Rob and Laura crazy.
Wunderkind: Episode 20, "A Word a Day" (1962). Ritchie learns to read a few words, and Rob and Laura want to get his IQ tested because they think he’s gifted.
12 Angry Men: Episode 24, "One Angry Man" (1962). Rob serves jury duty, and he votes innocent while all the other jurors vote guilty.
The Old Snakes in a Can Gag: Episode 25, "Where You Been, Fassbinder?" (1962). Buddy buys a snakes in a can for Sally's birthday as a prank.
Mi Casa Es Su Casa: Episode 26, "I Am My Brother's Keeper" (1962). Rob's brother, Stacey, comes to visit, and Laura insists he stay at their house, even though Rob tells her he would rather stay at a hotel.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: Episode 30, "The Return of Happy Spangler" (1962). Rob discovers that Happy Spangler, a radio writer who gave him his first break, is now working in a tie store. Rob feels badly for him and decides to give him a job on The Alan Brady Show, but it turns out he's not as good as he used to be.

Season 2

Hyp-NO-sis: Episode 6, "My Husband is Not a Drunk" (1962). Rob invites his friend, the hypnotist, to a party, where he demonstrates his skills on the guests. While he's attempting to hypnotize Buddy, he accidentally hypnotizes Rob instead, making him act like he’s drunk whenever he hears a bell ring.
Two Sides of the Story: Episode 9, "The Night the Roof Fell In" (1962). Tensions are high when Rob and Laura both have bad days and Rob comes home late. They blow up at each other, and later recount what happened to their friends, but their stories are completely different.
Allergic to You: Episode 12, "Gesundheit, Darling" (1962). Rob can't stop sneezing whenever he's at home, and he suspects he might be allergic to Laura. It turns out that Ritchie has been secretly keeping a kitten in the garage, and Rob is allergic to cat fur.
Hey, Kids, Let's Put on a Show!: Episode 14, "Somebody Has to Play Cleopatra" (1962). Rob is pressured into directing the neighborhood's annual amateur variety show.
Giving Up the Gun: Episode 15, "The Cat Burglar" (1962). The Petries and Helpers are frightened by a cat burglar in their neighborhood, and Jerry gives Rob a shotgun. When Rob hears a noise one night, he creeps downstairs with the gun and finds himself pointing it at Laura, so he decides to get rid of it.
Big Mouth: Episode 18, "Ray Murdock’s X-Ray" (1963). Rob is interviewed on a talk show and discusses some Alan Brady Show sketches he wrote based on embarrassing things Laura did.
Ski Trip from Hell: Episode 22, "Don’t Trip Over the Mountain" (1963). Rob and Jerry go on a ski trip together, and they both end up in the hospital.
The Old Pie in the Face Gag: Episode 32, "When a Bowling Pin Talks, Listen" (1963). Alan Brady appears on the Uncle Spunky show at Rob's suggestion and ends up with a pie in his face. As revenge, he attempts to throw a pie in Rob's face, but he misses and hits Mel instead.

Season 3

Switched at Birth: Episode 1, "That's My Boy??" (1963). Due to some confusion at the hospital when Ritchie was born, Rob and Laura start to think they brought home the wrong baby. They call the other parents they think have their baby, and when they show up at the door, it immediately becomes clear that Rob and Laura were wrong.
Auction Mishap: Episode 2, "The Masterpiece" (1963). Rob accidentally keeps bidding on a hideous clown painting and accidentally buys it for a tidy sum of $180.
Oops, We’re Not Married: Episode 3, "Laura’s Little Lie" (1963). Laura confesses that she lied about her age and was actually 17 when they got married, meaning their marriage wasn't really legal.
Accidental Eavesdropping: Episode 5, "All About Eavesdropping" (1963). Rob and Laura get a baby monitor, which picks up the Helpers' conversations through their baby monitor next door.
What a Dummy: Episode 6, "Too Many Stars" (1963). Mel auditions for the annual amateur variety show by doing a pathetic ventriloquist act.
Amnesia: Episode 7, "Who and Where Was Antonio Stradivarius?" (1963). A hit on the head gives Rob amnesia, and he starts calling himself Antonio Stradivarius.
Unwelcome House Guest: Episode 8, "Uncle George" (1963). Rob's overwhelming Uncle George comes to visit and demands Rob find him a woman. When Rob tries to introduce him to Mrs. Glimmscher, he instead starts harrassing Sally.
Between Friends: Episode 10, "The Ballad of Betty Lou" (1963). Rob and Jerry decide to buy a boat together, but Rob is totally inept at sailing.
Maid to Order: Episode 11, "Turtles, Ties, and Toreadors" (1963). Rob hires a part-time maid to help Laura around the house, but she doesn't speak English, she has a broken arm, and she thinks she was hired as a full-time, live-in maid. If that's not bad enough, she's also a terrible maid.
Reluctant Witness: Episode 12, "The Sound of the Trumpets of Conscience Falls Deafly on a Brain That Holds Its Ears…" (1963). Rob may have seen two jewel thieves running from the scene of the crime, but he's afraid to call the police and report what he saw.
Requited Love: Episode 14, "The Third One from the Left" (1964). A new, young dancer on the Alan Brady Show has a crush on Rob and constantly flirts with him, so Laura suggests he should flirt back to get her to back off. It works.
Poker Night: Episode 18, "A Nice, Friendly Game of Cards" (1972). The Petries have the Helpers and another couple over to play poker, and Laura accidentally replaces the deck with marked cards from Ritchie's magic set.
15 Minutes of Fame: Episode 21, "The Pen is Mightier Than the Mouth" (1964). Sally makes a big smash on a talk show and is asked to become a regular; her newfound fame makes her neglect her work on The Alan Brady Show.
Worlds Are Colliding: Episode 22, "My Part-Time Wife" (1964). While Sally's away, Laura fills in at Rob's office as a typist and does a "perfect" job, which annoys Rob for some reason.
The Plots Thicken: Episode 25, "The Plots Thicken" (1964). Rob's dad announces that he bought cemetery plots for his whole family, but Laura's parents already bought plots for her and Rob when they got married.
Barenakedlady: Episode 28, "October Eve" (1964). A nude painting of Laura is on display at a gallery, and she reveals to Rob that an artist she hired to paint her fully clothed created it from his imagination.
I Saw You: Episode 30, "My Neighbor’s Husband’s Other Life" (1964). Rob and Laura see Jerry at a restaurant with a strange attractive woman.
Hot for Student: Episode 32, "Teacher's Petrie" (1964). Laura takes a writing class, and the teacher heaps praise upon her mediocre writing. Rob thinks the teacher wants to meet Rob to get his foot in the door of show business, but it turns out the teacher wants Laura.

Season 4

Boo! Haunted House: Episode 2, "The Ghost of A. Chantz" (1964). A supposed mix-up in reservations at a lodge forces Rob, Laura, Buddy, and Sally to spend the weekend in a creepy old cabin that hasn't been used in years because the staff think it's haunted.
Prank War: Episode 16, "The Impractical Joke" (1965). When Buddy and his friend, Phil, prank call Rob, Rob is determined to get his revenge on Buddy by psyching him out and making him think he's planning a reprisal. Unbeknownst to him, Phil plans an epic prank on Buddy instead.
Catfish: Episodes 17-18, "Stacey Petrie" (1965). Stacey has been exchanging letters with a woman named Julie, who thinks she's been writing to a friend of his named James Garner. When Stacey makes plans to finally meet Julie in person, he has to reveal his true identity to her.
We're with the Band: Episode 20, "The Redcoats are Coming" (1965). A hot band is playing the Alan Brady Show, and Rob agrees to let them hide out at his house to avoid the crowds.
See You in Court: Episode 21, "The Case of the Pillow" (1965). Rob sues a pillow salesman for selling Laura pillows stuffed with chicken feathers instead of goose down.

Season 5

Cherish the Cabin: Episode 2, "A Farewell to Writing" (1965). Rob's old friend published a novel and offered to let Rob use his cabin to finish his.
Art Class: Episode 6, "Draw Me a Pear" (1965). Rob and Laura take an art class together, and Rob's paintings are popular with the teacher.
Hot for Student: Episode 6, "Draw Me a Pear" (1965). Laura suspects her and Rob's art teacher is hitting on Rob, but he doesn't believe it. Soon Laura's suspicions are proven right.
Video Will: Episode 7, "The Great Petrie Fortune" (1965). Rob's great uncle dies and leaves a film of himself for Rob that serves as part of his will.
I'm My Own Grandpa: Episode 7, "The Great Petrie Fortune" (1965). Dick Van Dyke plays both Rob Petrie and his deceased uncle, Hezekiah.
Raging Bull&@!: Episode 11, "Body and Sol" (1965). As a boxer in the army, Rob faces off against champion fighter Boom Boom Bailey.
Author, Author: Episode 12, "See Rob Write, Write Rob Write" (1965). Laura wants to write a children's story to go along with some illustrations drawn by the butcher's son. When she asks Rob to proofread it for her, he gets a little carried away.
Election: Episode 16, "I Do Not Choose to Run" (1966). A city council member and local business owner ask Rob to run for city council. He agrees, but struggles with his decision when he sees what's involved in campaigning.
Psycho: Episode 30, "Long Night's Journey Into Day" (1966). Laura gets sick on the weekend of her and Rob's fishing trip with the Helpers, so she stays home alone. As Millie's leaving, she tells Laura not to take a shower. When Laura asks why, Millie replies, "Didn't you see that Alfred Hitchcock picture?"

Character Tropes

Slutty Spinster: Sally Rogers - Played by Rose Marie.
The Magnificent Bickersons: Mel Cooley & Buddy Sorrell - Played by Richard Deacon and Morey Amsterdam.
Black Sheep Brother: Blackie Sorrell - Played by Phil Leeds in season 2, episode 5, "Hustling the Hustler" (1962).
Mama’s Boy: Herman Glimscher - Played by Bill Idelson.
Smother: Mrs. Glimscher - Played by Elvia Allman in season 3, episode 8, "Uncle George" (1963).
Fake Hugh Heffner: Drew Patton - Played by Lee Philips in season 4, episode 5, "The Man from Emporer" (1964).