What an annoying, whiney, loud, kid he was. Geez. He literally whines and yells in every scene that he's in. What about when he had to give up the duck or chick or whatever? Man, he cried and whined. Man, just shut up already!!

I watched this on You Tube, but there was an episode of a variety show (might have been Carol Burnett when Dick was on there) where Mary Tyler Moore was on and they did an update on the DVD show with the same living room, but it was them in the current day, and Rob was out of work and Alan Brady died (who came back to life in the 1990's retrospective show).

The subject of Richie came up as an offhanded thing, and in this story, he joined a punk rock band and they were touring and out of the house and that was the end of him.

I remember that sketch; at the end they had Richie moving in with someone named Harold.

No question he's the weakest link in the cast.

The whole idea that Carl Reiner had for the Ritchie character is that he wanted him to be a real kid. So Ritchie whined , cried, and complained just like a real kid. So Larry Matteo (billed as Matthews) played the character exactly the way he was asked to and deserves more credit for his performance than the rest of you are giving him. I love thw way Ritchie would run into the room every time Rob arrived home and ask "Did you bring me anything?" In interviews Carl Reiner said this was based on his own two oldest children Rob And Annie who did the same thing to him!

Marvo, I just didnt like him. Its not endearing or cute or anything. Its freakin' annoying. I mean I know a kid can cry and whine, I know that. But it grates on you and cry and whine when its necessary, not because Rob was 10 mins. late getting home.

He was given a potential star-making role on a popular and successful sitcom, but he never really did much of anything after the Dick Van Dyke Show. Could be a testament to his lack of appeal and/or talent.

I watched this on You Tube, but there was an episode of a variety show (might have been Carol Burnett when Dick was on there) where Mary Tyler Moore was on and they did an update on the DVD show with the same living room, but it was them in the current day, and Rob was out of work and Alan Brady died (who came back to life in the 1990's retrospective show).

The subject of Richie came up as an offhanded thing, and in this story, he joined a punk rock band and they were touring and out of the house and that was the end of him.

That skit was for Mary's short-lived The Mary Tyler Moore Hour in 1979.

What an annoying, whiney, loud, kid he was. Geez. He literally whines and yells in every scene that he's in. What about when he had to give up the duck or chick or whatever? Man, he cried and whined. Man, just shut up already!!

I've never understood why some people feel that way about the Richie character. He seemed like a real kid to me, and I've never found him annoying at all. In fact, quite the opposite.

He was given a potential star-making role on a popular and successful sitcom, but he never really did much of anything after the Dick Van Dyke Show. Could be a testament to his lack of appeal and/or talent.

It's very rare that a child actor has much success after their initial fame. There are maybe a small handful of child actors from TV series (e.g., Ron Howard) who continued to have success after the show that made them famous. You're also assuming that Larry Mathews wanted to continue acting after this show ended. His imdb page shows absolutely no credits following TDVDS, until he was an adult when he did a couple small TDVDS-related projects. My guess, as soon as the show ended, just like Jerry Mathers he simply wanted to disappear from public view and be a regular kid for awhile.

No kidding what a horrible character he was. Ruined any scene he was in.

Not one of my favorite child actors!

The thing that bothered me most about Larry Mathews was that he looked like he was trying to hide a smile every time he said a line.

What an annoying, whiney, loud, kid he was. Geez. He literally whines and yells in every scene that he's in. What about when he had to give up the duck or chick or whatever? Man, he cried and whined. Man, just shut up already!!

If you’re this upset about a kid on a TV show from 50-60 years ago, it may be you that has the problem.

Rob & Laura almost always sent Richie to his room no matter what the situation so it was hard to get too tired of him.

Poor kid must have had an awful syndrome from being imprisoned in his (offstage) room indefinitely while his parents eternally bickered over some minor misunderstanding. Did they even have a set for his room?

Rob & Laura almost always sent Richie to his room no matter what the situation so it was hard to get too tired of him.

Poor kid must have had an awful syndrome from being imprisoned in his (offstage) room indefinitely while his parents eternally bickered over some minor misunderstanding. Did they even have a set for his room?

I think they used his room when the G-Man was there spying on a neighbor. IIRC it was a pretty generic set.

As far as the subject of this thread goes, the older he gets the less whiny he is, therefore less annoying. This show is another one where the kid is incidental--the show is about Rob and the other main cast adults, with a few scripts about Ritchie thrown in here and there. His shining moment, on MeTV the other night, was in The Alan Brady Show Presents. He did well on the song, but the photography was brilliant.