Series · CBS · 1961
Pass it on
The Dick Van Dyke Show
65Worth an evening.
Worth an evening. A marriage and a job, and the marriage is not the punch line.
The review
He writes for a television star. She is his wife, not his straight man, though she can land the line. The neighbors and the writers are a company. What distinguishes the half hour from the other famous rooms of the decade is that the marriage is the prize the plot is not allowed to spend. A lie big enough to threaten the house is treated as a problem. A joke at her expense has to be worth it, and often it is not allowed to be.
It lived near the top of the ratings and earned the seat. I would put it on before most of the other comedies of these years if a house wants one. Watch an episode about the office and an episode about the living room. Ask which one required an apology. The show usually knows. That knowledge is the inheritance, more than the physical comedy, though the physical comedy is why people still stop on it.
Journal
Keep The Dick Van Dyke Show in the record.
No house has filed a sentence for this yet.
Live Historic number 65. Yours can differ.
The glance
Piety and Republic are the thin ones.
Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?
This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.
Consider this
The Andy Griffith Show
73 instead of 65
The Andy Griffith Show is still a comedy show, and it scores 73 instead of 65. What you gain is republic: Mayberry is a commons.
The eight
- 8Industry
The writing room is work: drafts, a star, a deadline, and people who can be fired.
- 9Household
Rob and Laura are a marriage the show likes without making either of them the fool.
- 4Piety
Little overt reverence. The household is treated as something you do not casually spend.
- 5Courage
The risks are social and professional, small and specific, which is the right size.
- 4Republic
An office is a public. They owe the people in it honesty and a finished script.
- 7Temperance
The joke ends before it eats the house. That restraint is the craft.
- 7Truth
When he lies to get out of a scrape, the lie is the problem of the episode, not the charm.
- 8Stewardship
A house can inherit a competent marriage that is allowed to be funny and still a marriage.
Where to watch
Finding the page.
Live Historic · The Dick Van Dyke Show · 65IMDb tt0054533
