The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited (2004)

A reunion of the surviving cast members from the original 1961-1966 TV series finds Alan Brady wanting Rob and Sally to collaborate on a eulogy for him before he dies.

Director:

Ken Whittingham

Writer:

Carl Reiner (creator)

Stars:

Ray Romano, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ray Romano	...	Himself - Host
Dick Van Dyke	...	Robert 'Rob' Petrie
Mary Tyler Moore	...	Laura Petrie
Larry Mathews	...	Ritchie Petrie
Ann Morgan Guilbert	...	Millie Helper
Jerry Paris	...	Jerry Helper (archive footage)
Morey Amsterdam	...	Buddy Sorrell (archive footage)
Rose Marie	...	Sally Rogers Glimscher
Jerry Van Dyke	...	Stacey Petrie
Carl Reiner	...	Alan Brady
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jeanne Allen
Richard Deacon	...	Melvin 'Mel' Cooley (archive footage)
Mimi Dillard	...	Mrs. Peters (archive footage)
Bill Idelson	...	Herman Glimscher
Sandy Kenyon

Storyline

40 years after The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), Allan Brady wants to hire Rob and Sally to write his eulogy - in order to win a bet with his wife. Although they don't want to do it, he offers them a huge amount of money. If Rob takes the job, Laura could open her dream dance studio.

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Plot Keywords:

eulogy | actor reprises previous role | clip show | reminiscence | retrospective | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 May 2004 (USA)

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Calvada Productions,Paramount Network Television Productions,TV Land

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Carl Reiner had asked Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie and Larry Mathews if they would agree to do this special while they were on stage at TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV (2003).

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Goofs

Alan Brady calls Rob's old home phone number looking for him, and Richie answers, explaining that he bought the house from the person who had bought it from his parents. There is no way the phone number would have been the same.

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Crazy Credits

The late Richard Deacon is the only major cast member to not receive screen credit during the opening sequence, though he (along with now-deceased producers Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard ) does receive special acknowledgment at the end of the show.

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Connections

Follows The Comedy Spot: Head of the Family (1960)

User Reviews

awful...revisit that should have not have happened

I saw this show recently on TV land . It was very bad. Whoever wrote it had no idea how to realistically bring the characters of Laura Petrie, Rob Petrie, Alan Brady, Sally Rogers, Ritchie Petrie and Millie Helper back together again. It all plays out very badly. First, Alan Brady calls Rob Petrie out of the blue at his old home from that they had in the 1960's to ask him to wrote a eulogies for him when he dies. How realistic would it be for Alan Brady to call a comedy writer to do his eulogy and how realistic is it for him to ask a man who he has not spoken to for 30 to 40 years to write his eulogy , never mind the comedy writer part? Usually, eulogies are written by close friends and after someone is dead, duh. And who calls people and asks for their eulogy in advance anyway? I know the character of Alan Brady is vain but come on. So, he calls the house and somehow Ritchie picks up the phone. So, apparently Ritchie is living in the same house the Petries had in 1960. How unrealistic. He informs Alan that his parents have moved and then not long after the scene cuts to a boring self indulgent scene of mugging and hamming it up from Laura and Rob who both do a dance sequence even though they both elderly. Alan calls them. They met with Alan. Rob and Laura have none of their old spark. In fact, in whoever wrote this seems to have Laura fawning over Alan Brady saying "Oh Alan!" instead of "Oh Rob!" and then they are series of comments from the surviving male members of the cast telling Laura how "fantastic" she looks for a old woman. Most of the clips of her and the guy who played Alan. They even dare to show one scene where the guy played was on the show not playing Alan but guest starring as a painter who painted Laura nude even though she was wearing clothes and showed Laura's nails on chalk board squeaky hyper reaction to it all. I guess they did this because Carl Reiner did not make many appearances on the show and they needed more footage of him. This reunion seemed to be a homage to the two of them. I wondered where are all the funny clips of Buddy and Sally and Mel and Rob. They really made the show. The premise for reuniting them wasn't funny at all. By the end of the episode the issue is not even resolved. Rob does not decide if he is not going to write eulogy or not. After the series of clips runs, Rob and Laura step out of character and return to their 1960's living room and say to each other, "Gee, it was funny being Rob Petrie again." "Gee, it was nice being Laura Petrie again." Gag. Well, I'm glad they had fun because their entire reunion show was a train wreck.