The Dick Van Dyke Show (TV Series) The Sick Boy and the Sitter (1961) User Reviews

The Sick Boy and the Sitter

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 27 March 2021]

As the first episode of Wandavision parodied The Dick Van Dyke Show. It was useful to seek out the pilot.

Would you believe it, the first episode is Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) and his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) are invited to a party given by Rob's producer boss. Only Laura is worried that son Richie is ill. He is not eating his cupcake.

Wandavision had Wanda and Vision having his boss round the house for a surprise evening dinner party.

Rob is the head writer on The Alan Brady Show along with Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers.

It is here the gags flow and this is the heart of the show.

At the dinner party scene as Laura frets over son Richie who has been left with a babysitter. Rob, Buddy and Sally provide the entertainment with song and dance. Buddy does quickfire jokes, Sally does a Jimmy Durante impression.

Dick Van Dyke displays surefooted dancing and timing.

The weak point is actually Laura being unsure about whether to go to the dinner party and fretting about it. It just went on too long.

A worry wart?

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 November 2023]

When the show begins, Mel asks Rob and the rest of his staff to come to a dinner at Alan Brady's apartment...and apparently Rob thinks this is a great thing. But when he goes home to tell Laurie*, she insists she cannot go because their son MIGHT be sick...maybe. She also tries to guilt Rob into staying home as well...but he is insistent and eventually they just get a baby sitter and go...but not until LONG after Laurie tells the sitter 1001 things...just in case. At the party, Rob, Sally and Buddy are asked to entertain...all the while Laurie seems to be quite perturbed.

This episode well establishes that Laurie is a bit, well, of a kooky lady. It also introduces Dick Van Dyke performing...something they often did on the show.

Overall, while not a great episode, it was a very good start....with a decent number of laughs and some funny repartee between Laurie and Rob.

*In some very early episodes, Mary Tyler Moore is called 'Laurie' instead of 'Laura'. I'm not sure why there was a change.

Weak start to a great show

[jdeamara · 4 July 2022]

The first season of The Dick Van Dyke Show was not its finest hour. It started off slow, more like a typical sitcom of the era, complete with sappy storylines and acting, a lot of which you see here in its first episode. It's the second season when the series really, finally, finds its unique voice and becomes a comedy classic.

For some reason, Dick Van Dyke wears more makeup and mascara in this episode than his female co-stars. Blu ray is not very forgiving.

She's SO obnoxious and annoying...

[ronnybee2112 · 4/10 · 4 July 2023]

What a weak first episode this is. What a sad and weak character Rob Petrie is. What an annoying and silly character Laura Petrie is.

Laura practically has a nervous breakdown over leaving part-time son Richie home with a babysitter,while she and Rob go to a party.

With all of the worrying and fussing Laura makes over son Richie,you might think he's dying of an exotic tropical disease or something. On,and on,and ON Laura goes,making me wonder why Rob didn't simply leave her at home and go to the party himself.

When Rob and Laura do get home from the party,there is a fresh-new commotion over a doctor being at the house. It is first assumed that the doc is there for the sick son Richie,but doc is actually there because the babysitter accidentally hit her head on the freezer. (Who in the world calls a doctor over a bump on the head/bloody scalp? What doctor anywhere would make a housecall for this nonsense,at night,to-boot,even in 1961? Quite ridiculous.) After the babysitter and the doctor leave,Rob claims to be amazed over Laura's supposed 'female intuition' because she 'knew' that 'something bad might happen at home' while they were at the party. (?!) I can't imagine how or why anyone would conflate or confuse Laura's paranoid 'worrying over nothing' with her having some sort of special insight or female intuition. You would think Rob would try to discourage Laura from making a habit of pointless and needless worrying and fussing but instead he rewards and encourages her foolish behavior.

This entire tv series was hit and miss. Some episodes are just plain bad like this one. Some of the later episodes are better than this one. Watch and see what you think.