The Dick Van Dyke Show - 4 Classic Episodes - Never Name A Duck / Bank Book 6565696 / Hustling The Hustler / The Night The Roof Fell In (DVD)

The Dick Van Dyke Show was a classic of its kind. Every week people would hurry home to see what shenanigans Dick Van Dyke (Rob Petrie) his wife Laura and their brat sorry! Cute little tyke Ritchie would get up to. It started in 1961 and ran until 1966.

Rob was a writer for a comedy TV show and he shared an office with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). They worker under the watchful eye of ...
...favourite character was Mel Cooley. The slightly daffy neighbours Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert) also add to the madness.

The series came out before colour television really caught on (even in the USA) so the entire series was filmed in black and white.

At the start of each episode Rob walks in to his front room And manages to do a crashing trip and fall over a poufee. Well, usually, because ... more

The Dick Van Dyke Show was a classic of its kind. Every week people would hurry home to see what shenanigans Dick Van Dyke (Rob Petrie) his wife Laura and their brat sorry! Cute little tyke Ritchie would get up to. It started in 1961 and ran until 1966.

Rob was a writer for a comedy TV show and he shared an office with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). They worker under the watchful eye of sarcastic programme producer Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon) For some reason as a child my favourite character was Mel Cooley. The slightly daffy neighbours Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert) also add to the madness.

The series came out before colour television really caught on (even in the USA) so the entire series was filmed in black and white.

At the start of each episode Rob walks in to his front room And manages to do a crashing trip and fall over a poufee. Well, usually, because sometimes the gag is that he manages to avoid it, instead!

There are four episodes on this DVD, and the total running time is 100 minutes. The first episode is called Never Name a Duck. In this episode the family obtains two ducks. (Sort of ducky extras in one episode of the programme they wrote for.) One dies and the other falls ill. There is an amusing scene in the vets with the various nutty pet owners who are waiting to take their pets in to see the vet.

The duck, it seems, is feeling off colour because he really needs a large pond and lots of other ducks to be with, rather than the kitchen sink. Typical of the time the episode also carries an important message for young Ritchie.

Bank Book 6565696. In this episode Rob becomes hurt and angry because he finds out that his wife has a savings account at the local bank.

Times, it seems, must have changed a great deal since the mid-1960s, if such a ridiculous hoo-hah could be made over the fact that a wife could even think to dare to open a savings account. In her own name. The little minx! It leads to all sorts of complications and problems until it is resolved. Apparently she was saving up to buy him a sports car.

The third episode is Hustling the Hustler. Buddy hates his brother. He is a no good pool shark. And it looks as if Rob has fallen into his clutches? Can Buddy save Rob from being stripped of everything he owns? Will he need to?

The fourth episode is The Night the Roof Fell In. Rob and Laura have a blazing row and Rob walks out. The episode is interesting because you, a member of the TV audience, have seen the real argument between the two of them. So how come when they each retell the sequence of events that led up to the argument that they are so totally different from each other? And from what we saw?

There are funnier episodes that I can recall (such as when Rob thinks there is a UFO outside the office, but as I only paid £1.00 for this DVD in Poundland (please see my Poundland review) I really have nothing to grumble over.
 

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