In my twenties (during the 80's) I lived with a great group of guys in Tempe. One of the benefits of living in Arizona was we had the local channel that played DVD at 11:30am and then we could switch to WGN at noon for a second round of DVD.

One day my roommate told me he had a rotten day. When he turned to WGN at noon they were showing the same episode as he had seen at 11;30am. Rough day.

A couple of my roommates began betting on whether Rob would trip over the ottoman during the intro. It would get very spirited.

At the time, I had a video recorder and in an effort to get the upper hand on them I purposely taped the version where Rob trips over the ottoman immediately after the version where he skips besides the ottoman.

I was looking for an edge - shadowing, perhaps how far the door swung open, the number of steps taken, placement of objects around the room. After careful and exhaustive study I can tell you that it is one of the most incredible re-takes in history. Everything is EXACTLY the same up until the trip. There is no edge to be had.

I did not continue my study to include the third (rarely seen) version of the intro. Perhaps some of you incredibly knowlegdable Dick Van Dyke fans would like to review the versions for yourself and add a comment.

I haven't seen DVD since it went off TV Land, but is the opening one continuous take? If not, they probably reused as much footage as they could.

Is the "rarely seen" third intro the original show opening with the photos? Or is there another opening that I can't remember?

On one DVD trips over the ottoman. On another he sidesteps the ottoman. I believe there is a third where he sidesteps the ottoman and then trips and falls.