Can you think of another series which had more flashback episodes than the Dick Van Dyke Show? I mean I wonder what the percentage of episodes with flashbacks was? there were the baby flashbacks, the army flashbacks, the house flashback. I'll bet more than 10% of all the episodes were flashback episodes. Just kind of interesting to me.

But most of them weren't clips from earlier episodes. I think there was an actual flashback in one of the shows where Rob is being "volunteered" to coordinate that annual neighborhood variety show, or whatever it was. It showed how he had been tricked into doing it the first time by that annoying older lady (Mrs. Gibbons? or was that Richie's teacher?).

And there was another when Lyle Delp (Don Rickles) was in prison, the Petries and Buddy &Sally were there to entertain the inmates, and there was a flashback which showed how he met Rob & Laura.

But with a few exceptions, the flashbacks were newly created in order to give context and background. Sometimes the flashbacks were the story, with the only lead in being something like, "Well, Richie, you were just born", and ending with "...and that's how your middle name became ROSEBUD". So there weren't so many real flashbacks, at least not in the way they're generally used today.

yeah I know they were newly created and I don't mind them, I just think no other show used flashbacks as much or as effectively as DVD. It was a great device to help the audience find out more about the characters.

DVD practically invented flashback episodes. The only other show, that I can think of, that does a flashback every season is 'Everybody Loves Raymond'. It's tradition for them to have the finale be a flashback.

I love the flashback episodes! BTW, the parent's council lady was Mrs. Billings. (Oh, Mr. Petrie, it's so easy for you!) Mrs. Gibbon was Richie's first grade teacher who asked Rob to be Father of the Week (another one of my favorite episodes!) Lolac :wave: