"Baby Fat" HAS to be one of the top 5 Best Dick van Dyke episodes, brilliantly, deftly written, impeccably, expertly timed and delivered by the cast, beautifully directed and paced...it's a "Practically Perfect" show in every way. Van Dyke and especially Carl Reiner are amazing in their continuous, zippy banter, and Dickie Erdman has a brief but hilarious walk-on as a fey costume designer. Then there's Strother Martin's sly, subtle tribute to Tennessee Williams. It's all priceless.
The fact that a routine, labored, UN-funny episode like "Ghost of A Chantz" (go ahead and hit the "Not helpful" button; I don't care) rates a 9.1 on IMDB while a truly outstanding show like "Baby Fat" gets only a 7.6 is really unfortunate; I thought the Van Dyke audience was much better attuned to and appreciative of first-rate comedy such as this...EXACTLY the sort of explosively witty, fast-paced, high energy show that the series was expected to do better than any other.
"Baby Fat", oddly enough, seemed to have gotten lost in the shuffle and was barely remembered by the cast and production crew; but thank goodness it's been rescued and can be enjoyed as the truly excellent comic gem that it is. LR.