MovieChat Forums > The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) Discussion > Best moment in the entire series

Best moment in the entire series


There's a lot of good ones-- Laura sliding out on the river of walnuts, Allen Brady complaining to his toupee heads, Pickles blubbering...I think the best quick take in the whole show is in "The Impractical Joke", where Rob starts getting the idea he's being played and it cuts back to Phil Franklin on the other end, smiling like "Yep! You are!"

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How about when Laura faints, (off camera) and is carried back into the bedroom by the totally bald Rob? I loved the "Rob!", "Buddy!", "Sally!", "Mel!" exchanges of those four in the office, as well as when Sally would giggle at Buddy's put-downs of Mel.

Almost anytime Rob encountered the police. One of my favorite lines was when he asked on the phone, "Can you tell me where your prowl cars are?"

I got one more: When Rob and Jerry bought the boat and after a disastrous day, reviewed their arguments for Laura and Millie. I think the best line there might have been when Jerry explained, "I wouldn't have run the boat onto a sand bar if you hadn't said, "Oh, let's go over there and see the brown water."

Far too many great moments for me to pick one or two.

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Forget the episode, but the three writers were trying to think of a way out of a jam. Buddy suggested something that was off the wall, and both Rob and Sally are giving him irritated stares. Buddy simply says "...or...".

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It was the one where Rob was in trouble w/Laura because he, Sally and Buddy wrote a script for the Allen Brady Show containing a "scatter brained" character named Laura. The character was, in fact, based on Laura and when she found out, she was obviously upset @ Rob. As Rob is explaining all this to Sally and Buddy (the day after the broadcast of the Allen Brady Show), Buddy suddenly gets the idea for next week's Allen Brady Show: A TV writer who writes a script about a "scatter brained" wife based on the writer's "real life" wife. As Buddy's explaining all of this to Sally and Rob, Rob slowly gives Buddy a very angry look @ which point Buddy says "...or.."

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Aside from all the fabulous moments from the main cast which are too plentiful to mention, one of the lesser mentioned moments was Sally's boyfriend reading the poem "Keep a goin." It's in the Twizzle episode. It just cracks me up "Don't just sit and whine when a fish ain't on your line..." Hahahaha . He was a great walk on character. He should've been Sally's unsteady boyfriend throughout the series instead of the actor who played Herman Glimpshire .

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Laura: "There must be some needy bald people!" Alan then plays one of the mannequin heads like a bongo while repeating the 'needy bald people' line. Too funny!

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Laura's all time best line ever. I love it.

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Actually, wasn't it the episode where they were afraid of being fired?

Also, the boyfriend was played by Henry GIbson who would go on to be the "poet laureate" of Laugh In, and who actually sang Keep A Going as a CW song in Nashville.

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Actually, wasn't it the episode where they were afraid of being fired?

Also, the boyfriend was played by Henry GIbson who would go on to be the "poet laureate" of Laugh In, and who actually sang Keep A Going as a CW song in Nashville.


You very well might be right about the episode it actually appeared in. As for the actor's continued success to follow, I'm very happy to hear that! I always thought it was a tremendously under appreciated bit. Perhaps I was wrong!

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There are SO many but in the episode where Rob thinks they brought the wrong baby home, the look on Rob's face when he opens the door to the other parents is priceless! I still laugh at that entire episode.

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My favorite is the two renditions of "scream like a chicken!" in the prctical joke episode.

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when it comes to priceless moments you would find it hard to
beat the cat burglar episode where there are too many hilarious
to list here. Perhaps the best is when Rob and Laura hide a
bullet for his shotgun in her musical jewelry box and when
they think someone is breaking in, Rob opens the box and
the music starts playing loudly. That would be good enough
but a few moments later he sneaks over to the closed bedroom
door and as he slowly opens it, the music from the jewelry
box starts playing again and Laura is horrified..
this is taking a classic scene to the next step, something
you will never see today.
Absolutely brilliant writing by Carl Reiner.

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Perhaps the best is when Rob and Laura hide a
bullet for his shotgun in her musical jewelry box and when
they think someone is breaking in, Rob opens the box and
the music starts playing loudly. That would be good enough
but a few moments later he sneaks over to the closed bedroom
door and as he slowly opens it, the music from the jewelry
box starts playing again and Laura is horrified..

I laugh at this every single time... and I have seen every episode dozens of times.

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"Rob opens the box and the music starts playing loudly. That would be good enough but a few moments later he sneaks over to the closed bedroom door and as he slowly opens it, the music from the jewelry box starts playing again and Laura is horrified"

What's really funny here is that Rob momentarily thinks the music is coming from the bedroom door, so he quickly shuts it. Definitely one of my favorite moments of the series.

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In addition to all the others mentioned already, one of my favorites is the episode about Joe Coogan. It's priceless when Sally bursts into the house for her date and discovers her date is a priest.

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Oh that's mine, too. In fact that might be my favorite episode. Biggest laugh I ever heard from the audience was when Sally says "OK... where's that great big handsome... [sees his collar] PRIEST you wanted me to meet???!!!" Classic.

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In the "That's My Boy?" episode, when Rob says "The only Dick and Betty Carter I know is Phil and Edna Greenbaum!"

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^^ THIS. And the other father was played by Mission: Impossible's Greg Morris!

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The funniest to me was when poor Rob believed they brought home the wrong baby. "we are running
a series of tests" then Greg Morris shows up. Classic television, nothing nowadays compare to this talent.

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There are so many and this message board has brought up some true classics.
One that jumps to my mind is the reveal of the meaning of Rosebud.
----I had no clue what Rosebud referred to and later in life when I finally saw the movie, I finally understood the effort put into that episode
----Whenever I hear the name Edward I can hear Dick Van Dyke spelling e-d-w-a-r-d

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For me, nothing beats the episode where Rob gets hypnotized and gets roaring drunk when he hears a bell. The scene in the office where he answers the phone and ends up believing some poor girl is trapped in his jacket and cuts it open, then slaps the phone as if he has just delivered a baby. Priceless!!!

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Laura blabbing that Alan Brady has no hair in "Coast to Coast Big Mouth". Or Alan telling the toupee heads, "Look, fells. There's the little lady who put you out of business." Come to think of it the entire episode makes me howl.

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Um, yeah!

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Another classic! Showcases DVD's talent for physical comedy!

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My favorite episode is the surprise morning birthday party -- everything about it is well-written and never fails to surprise me, even though I've seen it so many times.

My other favorites are The Twizzle (despite many thinking this was the worst episode, I think that song is so catchy and I love the dancing) and I'm No Henry Walden ("I don't own a television machine...")

And let's not forget the one with Laura's nude portrait -- so funny how much they got away with using subtlety and innuendo.!)

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The episode that Rob, Laura, Sally and Buddy spend breaking into Allen's office, desk, and house is one of my all time favorite packed with funny moments and lines. Rob keeps risking life and limb to break into these things only to have someone find the key just as he is about to let them in. When they realize Allen is asleep in his chair, the horrified looks they give Rob are priceless. Allen starts mumbling in his sleep asking for a kiss from some woman and Laura, Sally and Buddy silently (and hilariously!) urge him to give Allen a kiss. Rob bends over to kiss him on his head....DVD's face was soooo funny!
My second fave was Laura giving her first dinner party to her in-laws after taking an overdose of some kind of opiate, OMG, MTM was so funny in this ep! "Parrots and keys!", lol

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