A Surprise Surprise Is a Surprise 

Rob drives himself beyond distraction trying to figure out whether Laura is going to throw him a surprise party for his birthday and, if she IS going to throw a surprise party, when and where it's going to happen.

Director:

Jerry Paris

Writers:

Carl Reiner, Carl Reiner (created by)

Stars:

Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Dick Van Dyke	...	Rob Petrie
Rose Marie	...	Sally Rogers
Morey Amsterdam	...	Buddy Sorrell
Larry Mathews	...	Ritchie Petrie
Mary Tyler Moore	...	Laura Petrie
Richard Deacon	...	Mel Cooley
Jerry Paris	...	Jerry Helper
Ann Morgan Guilbert	...	Millie Helper

Storyline

Rob overhears Laura talking to Millie about pulling some sort of deception on him which Millie will help keep secret. It sounds like Laura is planning on having an affair, but based on another conversation he overhears between the two, Rob learns that the secret is a surprise birthday party for him. When Rob gets it out of Laura that she is planning "something" for his birthday, Laura makes a change of plans. So Rob knows that Laura is planning a surprise party for him, but what Rob doesn't know is that Laura knows that he knows, or so Laura thinks. Rob is pretty certain she is trying the old double reverse on him. Is she really? Only a party (or none) on Saturday night will tell the real story of who managed to outfox whom.

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Plot Keywords:

birthday | surprise party | secret | deception | crying | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Family

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Certificate:

TV-G

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) teases Rob about his amateur sleuthing to learn whether he's going to have a surprise party by referring to him as "Sebastian", an almost incomprehensible reference to most viewers today. She is referring to the then-recent television series Checkmate (1960) that ran from 1960-1962, in which 'Sebastian Cabot' played a British criminologist who assisted the partners of a San Francisco detective agency.

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Goofs

Laura says that Joe and Sadie can't come to Rob's birthday dinner party because they have a bar mitzvah that evening. Bar mitzvah ceremonies are held in the morning, not at night.

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Quotes

Buddy Sorrell: My mother-in-law is spending the month with us for a couple days.

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Connections

References Checkmate (1960)

User Reviews

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 April 1963 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Cahuenga Studios, 846 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Calvada Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1