I can't believe that I saw an new opening to TDVDS this week. I had never seen anything other than the two usual trip and non-trip openers.

Are you talking about the opening in which they show a lot of still pictures of the cast, and play different theme music? That's the only other opening I'm familiar with, not sure if there were any others, besides the "trip" and "non-trip".

Season one has the still photo opening. Seasons 2-5 have the ottoman openings.

Lolac
:wave:

There's a FOURTH opening. It's used only two or three times, I think (one of these times being "All About Eavesdropping", which was the first ep. aired during Season 3). .....

This "alternate" opening features Rob sidestepping the ottoman, but then, a moment later, tripping (slightly), but not falling. Rob then starts to trip/fall AGAIN at the very end of this alternate opening.

Surely, you Van Dyke Show experts are familiar with this 4th opening sequence. :)

Yes, this opening is part of the "ottoman series" of openings. Carl Reiner did this on purpose to keep viewers guessing as to which opening would appear each week. There is the one where he trips over the ottoman, the one where he sidesteps the ottoman and the one where he misses the ottoman, but trips slightly on the rug. Carl discusses this on one of the DVDs in one of the special features sections. I don't remember which season it is on. Vince Waldron also discusses the openings in his TDVDS book.

Lolac
:wave:

Yes, that's one I'm talking about, where Rob sidesteps the ottoman and trips slightly on the rug. Everyone is in different clotthes and places. I only saw it three or four times in a row last week and then it disappeared.