Dick Van Dyke Show Season 4 - III

The Redcoats - **

Plot: Rob agrees to let a popular British singing duo hide-out at his home. But he's sworn to secrecy and fears touching off a Beatlemania-like fan frenzy.

A missed opportunity. Its a funny situation but the comic pontential is wasted by some very dull substandard writing, lots of padding, and a sluggish plot. We get too many screaming girls, and too much of "Chad and Jeremy" - who are only midly amusing. You need more than a comic situation and good comedic actors, you need funny jokes too. I was hitting the FF button on this one.

Stacey Petrie Part I and Part II *
Rob's Brother Stacey  shows up and is nervous about meeting  a new girl Julie.  In part II, Stacey tells Julie about the author of her love letters from "Jim,"  while his new nightclub's success lies in the balance.

Two badly written episodes designed to highlight Jerry Van Dyke - Dick's real life brother. Extremely dull.  I was never a fan of Jerry Van Dyke, and he's the star of these two episodes. Rob and Laura take a backseat.  Lowlights? Herman and Jerry stage an extremely long, unfunny "Fight",  Sally teaches Jerry how to romance a girl, Jerry opens his heart to "rich girl" Julie.  I could name more.  Summary: Hard Pass.  

Boy No.  1 and Boy No. 2 *
Millie and Laura become two terrible stage-mothers when Rob agrees to hire sons Ritchie and Freddie for a commercial directed by Mel Cooley.

Best Buddy insult:  Your hats not on wrong, your head is on backwards.

Other than some Buddy one-liners, there's only one funny moment,  Mel comes in the office wearing sunglasses and a "Director's hat". Otherwise, this was pure torture.  Standard Sitcom plot, Ritchie,  way too much Millie, and Laura acting way out of character as an interfering stage mother.  IMDB voters rate it the 11th worst episode. 

Brother, can you spare $2,500  *

When Rob loses the show's script in Grand Central Station, a Hobo finds it, and holds it for ransom. 

Best Mel Insult:  Y'know the problem with Buddy? One day he's here...and the next day he's here. 

Dull story + mediocre jokes + unfunny guest stars =  tedious sitcom.  Totally paint-by-the-numbers. Even worse, one-note johnny Herbie Faye shows up as the "funny" lost and found attendent.  The story is unbelievable and could only exist in 60s sitcom land.  Why would Rob take the only copy of the script home with him?  And the bum is witty and generous. And looks good in a suit. 

The Impractical Joke - **

After Buddy plays a practical joke on Rob, he expects Rob to launch a counter-attack. But the longer Rob waits, the more paranoid Buddy becomes.

Good lord, this did not age well. Its a standard 1960s sitcom trope: someone plays a practical joke and then the victim gets his revenge.  Cue Laughter.  Here's its Buddy and Rob.  Problems:

• Buddy's practical joke (which takes the first 10 minutes) isn't funny or believable.  It depends on Rob being a complete idiot.  
• The ending revenge Joke by Rob is predictable and unfunny.  You can only laugh if you imagine Buddy is a complete idiot.  
• Buddy's "funny friend" (Lennie Weinrib) isn't funny.  He's obnoxious.  And weird looking.
• Morey Amsterdam isn't much of an actor.  Paranoid Buddy is pretty much like Regular Buddy.

This episode had me looking at my watch.  Was it really only 25 minutes? It seemed like 45. 

The Case of the Pillow -  *

Rob cries fowl when he takes a shady salesman to court for selling Laura smelly feather pillows.

Another standard 60s sitcom plot. Our main lead takes someone to court and thinks he's Perry Mason, while the gruff no-nonsense judge tries to set him straight.  Here the judge is played by Ed Bergley, who does well as anyone can with such a stock character.  Probably 15 minutes takes place in the courtroom,  10 minutes outside of it. 

Otherwise, there's not much to say. Alvy Moore (Mr. Kimball) does nothing funny and I was shocked at how many times the characters say: "Wow, this pillow smells" - cue laughtrack.  The writers really phoned this one in.  A lazy unfunny script with a few courtroom jokes - none of them original.