Posts Your thoughts on Reunion Here

[Charlie Chan]

Well, I have mixed feelings. The acting was great, but this special tried to be 3 shows in one causing a strong start to finish weakly.

The first part (actual new episode) started off with promise but then got sidetracked with the second part (clips and remembrances). The third part (Dick and Mary out of character) was a throwaway.

I wish the entire show had been the new episode. I would have been interested in finding out what Rob did after leaving Alan in the mid 60s, etc.

Nothing too terribly offensive, but the line about the Rhinos was lame and seemed out of place.

I give the first half hour a 9 but the second half hour only gets a 5.

Any other thoughts????

[Lolac]

I agree with you. They could have left out the "hell and damn" scene. It seemed like they were trying too hard to be hip. I found it mild and inoffensive, however. The hippo thing was stupid. Otherwise, I liked it. I liked the remembrances of Jerry and Mel. I LOVED the clips they showed. I can't wait to get season 5 so I can see my all-me favorite episode, "Coast-to-coast Big Mouth!" I wasn't surprised that Alan Brady had several ex-wives! I liked Millie and Stacy together. I thought they were cute. I thought Dick and Mary looked great. I taped it so I can watch it again tonight and really get a good look at it. I missed the first few minutes because my 5 year old wouldn't go to bed, so I want to go back and watch that part. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else thought. All in all, I liked it.

Lolac

[Kristen]

Yeah, I agree. As much as I love Carl, I have to say I really expected better. They should have either done fewer flashbacks, or done it in 2 hours. I wanted to see more of Rob and Laura today. I already know what they were like in the 60's. Just my 2 cents.

Kristen

[algebra74]

I would have preferred for there to have been no clips and although the acting was great, I do not think the story line was up to par. I, as posted before, would also have like all new show. We only got maybe 20 minutes of new story line and I would have preferred the entire hour to have been the story line.

[Larry Surrell]

It wasn't bad, but seeing the cast old and decrepit was kind of sad. I guess you really can't go back. It just wasn't the same without Buddy, either. And they shouldn't have used canned laughter and applause. I thought they were filming this in front of a live audience!? The best line was when Laura was on the phone with Alan and said "Rob still has his hair...every strand".

It was great to see Herman Glimpshire (SP?) again; he still looks the same. I was disappointed that Ritchie didn't have a bigger part. Millie played a great part and was funny as ever. Finally, watching Mary's performance seemed more to me like Mary Richards than Laura Petrie!

All in all it was fun seeing the cast together again. They should have done this 20 years ago.

[algebra74]

This doesn't really rlate to the story line, but does anyone else think that Mary Tyler Moore looked too good for her age? I mean, it really did not seem that she fit in with everyone else there. Millie and Laura were best friends, yet it was obvious that they were very far apart in age, eventhough only about seven years in real life. It just seemed to me that she did not really fit in relating to age with everyone else.

Another thing, if this special were as successful as predicted, and everyone were offered another weekly series, do you think they should accept? I, personally, think that a new series would degrade the original.

[Jorgy]

sorry...i posted my thoughts on an entirely new thread cuz when i first got on...no one else had posted anything yet... and when i finished...BLAM! lol so if you want to see what i thought...just go to my thread "wow"...that should give you a bit of a hint! lol

[Samme]

Well, I expected to reluctantly
roast to show, but, I thought it
was sweet. I smiled throughout the
show. They did it for us. The fans.
It was gentle and nice. They were
all at slightly different levels
of being back in character. Ann
Gilbert looked, of course, older
but was right in character and
and funny and sharp. She was very
much still Millie. Rose was sharp
too. I was surprised. She was
good. Jerry Van Dyke added very
well too. The only thing I would
have tried to do was keep it in
the old house too. It was part
of the show. I still think the
eulogy thing was a swell idea. I
wish it might have lead to a more
serious moment about growing older
and it didn't matter as long as
they were together. I thought
Stacy's comment about looking
older was funny and good. And
Ray Romano's joke about Mary at
the end was laugh out loud funny.
("Mind your business...I've been dreaming of this since I was eight
years old.") And I notice in
watching it again Mary ended it
with "Oh, Raaay." That's funny.
Too many clips, but I thought the show was a nice, gentle gift to us. And it should just be taken that way.
It was nice of them to try again and
do it for us. I'm glad they did.

[hume]

I expected more twists and turns in the script. I expected the Petries to attend Alan Brady’s funeral, only to see Alan in disguise; or maybe a science fiction twist like in the famous Walnut episode. It was if Buddy Sorrell wrote the script, with broad strokes but no subtleties. That’s the one thing about Carl Reiner; yes, he is the genius behind The Dick Van Dyke Show, but he was also the director of those broad Steve Martin movies, like The Jerk.

Why the canned laughter? Why didn’t they do this in front of a live audience? I also don’t understand why Alan dangling money would be so tempting to Rob and Laura.

But I do think it was worthwhile for this reunion to happen. I had a huge smile on my face as the characters reminisced, because their memories were my memories too. The hour left me wanting to see even more of Dick and Mary. Despite some awkward but inoffensive jokes that fell flat, there was more story flow once Ann Guilbert and Jerry Van Dyke came in. And I’m crossing my fingers that more than 20 million Americans tuned in, to at least get the show into the Top 10, and expose more people to The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I didn’t mind that Mary looked so young compared to the others. I did think, though, that in this performance, Mary seemed to be channelling Katharine Hepburn even more than usual, right down to the mannerisms and quivering voice.

Let's hope this is not the last Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore reunion. Whether it’s Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman, their appearances on each others’ variety shows, various Biographies, award show presentations, or The Gin Game, Dick and Mary have such unique chemistry together that every time they get together, it is an event.

[jayman75]

Short but sweet...

Great to see them all again, but it wasn't deserving of the quality of the show and the actors. Kudos for the attempt, but it wasn't good enough.

Sorry, just my two cents.

[ScottD]

I had a lot of fun watching it! I really didn't have any expectations because I usually never watch reunion shows and I guess I just assume they'll be bad. Since TDVDS is one of my favorites though, I was actually really looking forward to it. For what it was, I thought it was funny and sweet. I thought Dick was great and right away he seemed like Rob! I thought Ann Morgan-Guilbert stole the show--she was just how I'd imagine an older, widowed Millie. I actually love the Stacey Petrie episodes and thought Jerry was really good too. Rose Marie didn't seem like she had much of a part, but she did still have the sass that Sally had. I think the weirdest for me was Mary, but really just because her voice is lower and she didn't sound as much like Laura to me. She's always good though, and she still had the "Oh, Rob!" down pat! All in all, a fun and fond tribute to some of the best tv characters ever!

[Wadedavis]

Hey,

This is actually the first time I've ever posted here (or anywhere for that matter). I came across this site a week or so ago while looking for information about the reunion show and thought now that it has aired it would be a perfect time to make a post.

All in all I was extrememly pleased! Was the reunion as funny as the original series? Of course not. However, I thought that this was a far more interesting way of remembering the show and introducing it to a new generation of fans than a simple Mary-and-Dick-sit-around-talking-about-clips show.

I thought pretty much everyone fell back into character reasonably well. I agree with the person who said it should have been set in the old house, however, I thought it was clever to see Ritchie living there now. Millie and Stacey had most of the lines that had me laughing out loud though everyone did a good job.

My only criticism is with the clips. They were all, of course, very funny but we've all seen them before. After hearing interviews it sounded like they added them to pay homage to Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon, and Jerry Paris, if this is the case I would rather have had the show end a few minutes early and seen a montage of clips featuring those characters rather than have them inserted in the actual show. I would also have liked to see Rose Marie have a bigger part, it seemed like she kind of got the shaft, especially for as funny as she was in the series.

In the end I thought it was a great way to look back on a show that has played such an important part in my, and many others life. I found myself wanting it to go longer than the hour (minus commercials) that it was. It is just too bad that some members of the cast are no longer with us. It would have been great to see what Buddy and Pickles were up to.

P.S. I know this is my first post and I went a little long. I'll keep them shorter in the future. Normally I'm not so long-winded.

[SawgrassSteve]

Originally posted by Lolac
I missed the first few minutes because my 5 year old wouldn't go to bed... Lolac

Too bad, Lolac,
But belive me, it doesn't get any better later. I missed the first 35 minutes because my 22 year-old couldn't figure out her income taxes, and needed help tonight. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow night; watching the tape!

Steve

[mstewart]

Outstanding reunion show. Seems like everyone was back in form as their respective characters. It seemed as though Buddy, Jerry and Mel were all there in spirit. My heart was truly touched by the show. Wow Mary looked fabalous tonight. Millie was a scream. I love that character I only wish in the original she would had been more featured.

[LATTML]

I was disappointed, but then again, I expected to be disappointed. In the old days, this storyline could have gone somewhere. Here it didn't, though you had to just know Rob wouldn't take money for writing a eulogy. Having Mille and Stacy get together was cute. The flashbacks were sort of nice, but were a tad overdone. But what really disappointed me was, as an earlier poster noted, the trying too hard to be hip. Herman watching the rhinos "copulate" was, at noted above, lame. Mary's line early-on about going blind if you do that was tacky. And the ending with Romano on top of Laura and "wanting to do this since I was eight," even though out of sight, was cheap and in very bad taste. Sure, it's mild by today's standards. But TDVDS set the standard for class on prime time TV. I'd never have expected something that classless. The trueism is you cannot go back. This reunion wasn't as awful as the Odd Couple Reunion or the Green Acres Reunion (two other shows I've loved, for different reasons, since I was a kid). But it wasn't really all that much better either. And I hate saying this because to say I loved the characters in this show is to dramatically understate the case. But if the greatest sitcom ever, and really the greatest regular TV series ever, can't come close to "revisiting," is it worth anyone else trying. History is history. It cannot be relived. It is a mistake to try.