My reunion thread

[hank18]

I debated starting a new thread on the reunion special, but I had a few new ideas I wanted to hear your thoughts on, and besides, the OTHER reunion thread is kind of hostile, and I got scared away!!

I finally got to watch the special tonight. And I liked it much more than I actually thought I would. I don't understand the vitriol from some critics and fans. All I can think is that some people find it hard to separate the original series from this update. I don't really know how you van compare them, personally. As far as I know, this kind of reunion/new episode format hasn't ever been done. Maybe this uniqueness makes it difficult for some to judge fairly. I know it was an offbeat format with the 3 different acts, but I LIKED that it was a little unusual. It makes me think of the original series, which often stepped out of the box, as it were. For example, making a sci-fi episode, or the way that "The Last Chapter" plays with the idea that "The Dick Van Dyke Show" itself was a series of events that might make for a good sitcom!!

And some little stuff: (I'm sorry if anyone has said any of these things, but I had basically avoided the other reunion discussions until just now, to try to watch the new episode with an open mind. I guess I'm kinda late to the party, but I respect your opinions enough that I wanted to hear your thoughts)

I'm surprised that there weren't any ottoman jokes, to begin with! Especially when DVD and MTM came on as themselves at the end. I expected him to sidestep it, or even Mary!

I didn't have a problem with anyone's performance, although I understand that some people did. The actors seemed very comfortable and natural to me.

Remember that thread I started a while back wondering if Sally ever got married? I feel so vindicated! I think that I was the only one who thought she and Herman ended up together... I always knew it!

I don't suppose if Millie and Stacy got married that Father Joe Coogan could officiate the ceremony? Maybe that could be the NEXT reunion!

And I guess more than anything else, I've ALWAYS wanted to know if Laura ever saved enough money to buy the XKGJFK 400 Roadster (with matching luggage) for Rob!!!

[Lolac]

Originally posted by hank18

Remember that thread I started a while back wondering if Sally ever got married? I feel so vindicated! I think that I was the only one who thought she and Herman ended up together... I always knew it!
And I guess more than anything else, I've ALWAYS wanted to know if Laura ever saved enough money to buy the XKGJFK 400 Roadster (with matching luggage) for Rob!!!

I thought of you, hank18, when it was revealed that Sally married Herman. I guess it was inevitable, but I always thought she could do better. They were cute together in the reunion, though it was hard for me to imagine Herman getting off watching hippos mate. Seemed out of character for "warm skim milk, body temperature" Herman.

That's funny about the XKG JFK 400 roadster! I guess we'll never know!!!

Lolac

[Artfiore1]

hank18,
"The Dick Van Dyke Show" traditionally gave us things that other shows were not.

It was meaningful comedy for adults, when other shows were somewhat childish.

It presented *both* the male lead's home life and his work life, when other shows only focused on the home life.

It gave us a wise and headstrong wife in (tight) pants, when other sitcom housewives were basically servants in dresses and pearls.

That tradition continues today: While the aging actors of other old shows are simply sitting around reminiscing and looking at old clips, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" gave us aging actors reminiscing and looking at old clips . . . plus a private little mini-reunion of the two main stars . . . PLUS a whole new story!

Maybe no one made any actual "ottoman jokes," but Ray Romano did make some sort of gesture about it when he first entered the house.

As for the "XKGJFK 400 Roadster (with matching luggage)" -- as indicated in my fanfiction piece -- maybe Laura used some of the money she had saved, to buy Rob a computer.




Later,
Art

[pilotguy]

Originally posted by Artfiore1
hank18,
"The Dick Van Dyke Show" traditionally gave us things that other shows were not.

It was meaningful comedy for adults, when other shows were somewhat childish.

It presented *both* the male lead's home life and his work life, when other shows only focused on the home life.

It gave us a wise and headstrong wife in (tight) pants, when other sitcom housewives were basically servants in dresses and pearls.

That tradition continues today: While the aging actors of other old shows are simply sitting around reminiscing and looking at old clips, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" gave us aging actors reminiscing and looking at old clips . . . plus a private little mini-reunion of the two main stars . . . PLUS a whole new story!

Maybe no one made any actual "ottoman jokes," but Ray Romano did make some sort of gesture about it when he first entered the house.

As for the "XKGJFK 400 Roadster (with matching luggage)" -- as indicated in my fanfiction piece -- maybe Laura used some of the money she had saved, to buy Rob a computer.




Later,
Art

Yes Art, and there was something ELSE that set the Dick Van Dyke series apart from it's sitcom peers of the day.... The show was filmed before a live studio audience, and VERY few sitcoms from that era were. Most of them were using canned laugh tracks. (I think that the only major sitcoms from that era which were filmed before a REAL studio audience were DVD, "The Lucy Show", "The Danny Thomas Show" and "The Joey Bishop Show").

I think that filming before an actual studio audience really helped the overall quality of these shows....The actors had the audience to help keep things fresh and lively, plus it put the writers under more pressure. Those scripts HAD to be funny when you had an auditorium full of REAL people sitting there ready to laugh!

[Artfiore1]

pilotguy,
Good point. I never even thought of that. Filming before a live studio audience. I like to think that the next collection of great sitcom characters (Archie Bunker, Bob Hartley, Mary Richards, Barney Miller, etc.) had the path paved for them by "The Dick Van Dyke Show" in ways I mentioned in my earlier reply, and that the live studio audience thing was just another way in which they did. But like you said, Lucy and those other folks you mentioned were doing it, also. And, didn't "The Honeymooners" film before a live audience, too, back in 1955?

It was a great concept. although in some shows much later on, there were moments when it became a hindrance and an annoying disruption. Imagine, if you will:

Fonzie rushes into the Cunningham home with something important he has to tell Richie right away! The two of them have to stand there looking at each other like a couple of morons, waiting for the audience to finish cheering Fonz's entrance. Then when the people finally shut up, he can deliver the all-important line, as though he had just walked in.


Later,
Art

[pilotguy]

Originally posted by Artfiore1
pilotguy,
Good point. I never even thought of that. Filming before a live studio audience. I like to think that the next collection of great sitcom characters (Archie Bunker, Bob Hartley, Mary Richards, Barney Miller, etc.) had the path paved for them by "The Dick Van Dyke Show" in ways I mentioned in my earlier reply, and that the live studio audience thing was just another way in which they did. But like you said, Lucy and those other folks you mentioned were doing it, also. And, didn't "The Honeymooners" film before a live audience, too, that back in 1955?

It was a great concept. although in some shows much later on, there were moments when it became a hindrance and an annoying disruption. Imagine, if you will:

Fonzie rushes into the Cunningham home with something important he has to tell Richie right away! The two of them have to stand there looking at each other like a couple of morons, waiting for the audience to finish cheering Fonz's entrance. Then when the people finally shut up, he can deliver the all-important line, as though he had just walked in.


Later,
Art

Oh YEAH Art, don't get me going on those crazy "Happy Days" studio audiences! Some later sitcoms ("Happy Days", "Married With Children", "Good Times" and others) seemed to have studio audiences which were completely out of control! They whooped, yelled, squealed and made inhuman noises whenever a character made an entrance....MOST annoying!

However, most live-audience sitcoms (like the Van Dyke show) had studio audiences which were well-behaved and a definite asset to the final product...and yes, Jackie Gleason's "The Honeymooners" also used a studio audience. In fact, "The Honeymooners" ALWAYS used studio audiences, even for the hour-long "reunion" specials that Jackie and the cast did in the 1970's. (It was always fun to revisit the Kramdens and the Nortons, and those reunion specials always had the same great pacing and "feel" of the original shows....probably because they were performed EXACTLY the same way as the original shows...on a stage with a studio audience).