User reviews

Over the years, TV show reunions have varied in quality. "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited" actually comes out quite well. In this one, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) are retired and living in Manhattan when Alan Brady (Carl Reiner) summons Rob and Sally (Rose Marie) to write a eulogy for him before he dies. So arises the question: how do you write a eulogy for someone like Alan Brady? The characters themselves haven't changed a bit in the nearly 40 years since the original series. Rob is still tense, Laura is still fiery, and Alan is still a jerk. Sally is now married to Herman Glimscher (Bill Idelson), and neighbor Millie Helper (Ann Morgan Guilbert) is dating Rob's brother Stacy (Jerry Van Dyke). A good thing that the reunion did is not try to replace the deceased cast members (Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon, Jerry Paris); I think that we can agree that no one throws out hilarious insults like Morey Amsterdam.

So, this reunion isn't bad at all. However, couldn't they have found someone other than Ray Romano to host it? Oh well, it's pretty good otherwise. Still, I would have liked to have heard Buddy make just one more comment about Cooley's bald head.

I must disagree with one user's review. Of course the program doesn't have the same magic as the original Dick Van Dyke Show. But common, that was 40 years ago. I have to give them credit for their efforts. I think it's wonderful that they were able to get all of the surviving members of the cast together, and I did find several of the jokes, and most of the story line very funny. As far as Rose Marie "not looking good", what do you expect?! She's in her 80's now! I just think it's difficult for us to see characters 40 years older, especially since we're all so familiar with how they looked and acted in their youth and prime. However as far as I'm concerned, the show was probably as good as it could be considering how much time has passed. I do have to admit however, that Mary Tyler Moore looked unnaturally much younger than the rest of the cast, which can be attributed to the amount of (admitted) plastic surgery she has had.

This was probably one of the best reunions of a 60s sitcom in the last ten years or so. Instead of having an hour of reminisces, Carl Reiner decided to write a good 45-minute storyline of the Petries in 2004. Some, in fact, a lot of this story-line works: Alan Brady is not dying, but wants Sally and Rob to write his eulogy so he can have the chance to rewrite it. Laura now has a small dance studio at home, and Sally is finally married to the guy she was always going out with.

Yet, there are some parts of the reunion show that doesn't make sense: Why did Rob stop writing? Didn't he write a book? Also Millie and Stacey's little "date" is strange, but funny. Yet, despite these few flaws, The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited still retains some of that old "magic," mostly because Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Ann Morgan Guilbert, and Carl Reiner stepped right back into the shoes of their old characters. Unfortunately, though, Mary Tyler Moore's performance is a bit stale and rushed, almost as if she forgot how to make a comedy show. Larry Matthews' appearance is quick, strange, and we really don't learn what he's doing forty years later.

And why did Ray Ramano host this? What does he have to do with Dick Van Dyke? His scenes are even stranger than some of the weirdest parts of this reunion.

Finally, the clippings of the old show also make this reunion. When the new footage starts going a bit stale, they add in footage of the "good 'ole days" when these people were younger and funnier. Yet, all in all, this was a pretty good reunion, and I recommend it to every fan of The Dick Van Dyke Show to watch.

I finally watched it with mixed feelings. The only parts I found funny were the "clips" from the classic show. The laughter from the "present" felt forced and after a while the applause got a little annoying. It was really nice to see the cast-why was Ray Romano there?-but the storyline could've been done so much better! It lacked the spark and genius that made the show so successful from 1961-1966.

'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. A comedy show that was actually *about* comedy, this series brilliantly combined slapstick, low banter, high wit and sophisticated cultural references. Three episodes addressed the changing nature of race relations in America during the early 1960s.

Oddly and regrettably, while many other (vastly inferior) sitcoms of later vintage engendered 'reunion' episodes, for many years Dick Van Dyke refused all offers to take one more trip across the ottoman as Rob Petrie of New Rochelle. It was not until several members of the supporting cast had died that Van Dyke finally agreed to do this reunion special.

The good news is: it was worth the wait! 'The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited' does full justice to the original classic series. Annoyingly, the special is introduced by Ray Romano, an actor I don't care about who stars in a series I don't watch. But I recognise the realities of modern television; the producers of this special were eager to bring in a current 'name' actor as insurance for all these old-time names. (Anybody whose stardom peaked more than five years ago is a has-been for today's amnesiac audience.)

The show opens in that familiar New Rochelle living room ... but the person living here now is Richie Petrie, all grown up and still played by the same untalented (former) child actor who was the biggest drawback to the original series. After this painful opening scene, we cut to Rob and Laura Petrie, who must be the only couple who moved *to* Manhattan to retire. Rob is now dabbling in computer animation. (In real life, Van Dyke is a talented caricaturist: here, we see a pointless piece of animation in which a badly-animated cartoon Dick Van Dyke dances alongside a video clip of the real one. The impressive dancing of the real Van Dyke - still supple at nearly 80 - merely emphasises the crudeness of the animation.)

Rob's wife Laura teaches ballet classes in their Manhattan home, but yearns to open her own dance studio. We briefly see several little girls in leotards and tights, one of whom addresses Laura as 'grandma' even though Richie Petrie looks like he never had sex with anybody. Along comes a voice from the past: Rob's old boss Alan Brady, who wants to pay him and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) a lot of money to write his eulogy so that Brady can hear it while he's still alive.

The dialogue cleverly establishes that Buddy Sorrell, Mel Cooley and the Petries' neighbour Jerry Helper are all dead (the actors who played them are now deceased). Laura is still friends with her former neighbour Millie Helper, who is now dating Rob's somnambulist brother Stacy. (Dick Van Dyke's real brother Jerry played Rob's brother Stacy in a few episodes of the original series, but here he seems to be reprising his annoying character Luther from 'Coach'.) The perennial spinster Sally Rogers is now in a dull boring marriage with Herman Glimcher, the mama's boy she dated back in the early 1960s (and played by the same boring actor, minus his hair). Sadly, no mention whatever is made of Buddy Sorrell's wife Pickles.

The real delight of this reunion special is the barrage of clips from the original show, although I wish the clips had been selected with more emphasis on comedy rather than music. It's a shame that there isn't even a brief clip of Van Dyke and Henry Calvin doing their Laurel & Hardy routine in the episode 'The Sam Pomerantz Scandals'. One clip included here may baffle viewers unfamiliar with the original show. In that classic series, Rob's boss Alan Brady was played by Carl Reiner, but he made his arrival gradually. Brady was only an offstage presence in the early episodes, making his first few appearances with his back to the camera and his face concealed. During the transition period before Alan Brady's face was shown, Reiner occasionally guest-starred in other roles in this series. This reunion special includes a long clip from the episode 'October Eve', featuring Reiner as eccentric portrait artist Serge Carpetna. Reiner is very funny in this role, but -- since Reiner as Carpetna looks exactly like Reiner as Brady -- modern viewers may wonder why Alan Brady is speaking with a European accent. (By the way, I savoured Reiner's guest appearance as Alan Brady on an episode of 'Mad About You'.)

'The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited' should have been done ten years sooner, but it's a pleasure to be reunited with these beloved characters one more time. Mary Tyler Moore is still trim, and clearly delighted to show off her lithe figure in dance clothes. Despite a few minor flaws and some odd production decisions, I'll rate this delightful special 10 points out of 10.

This "new" episode of the old series is an embarrassment to watch. Being an avid fan of the original, I eagerly awaited this reunion. Some memories are better left alone. I own all of the DVD's of "DVD", and that's all I need. It is even worse than the "Mary & Rhoda" TV-movie a few years back. At least in that "reunion," MTM was still playing Mary Richards. In this debacle, she's definitely not Laura Petrie....I have no idea whom she is portraying. Laura in this special appears sedated, with none of the spunk of the 60s version. Granted, it's forty years later, but DVD himself still manages to evoke the character of Rob. CBS deserves criticism for having Ray Romano "host" the show. I realize they consider him their current top comedian, but he can't hold a candle to DVD. The class, acting and writing of "DVD" cannot be found on network TV these days. And, I LOVE Rose Marie, but she doesn't appear well in this reunion. Again, go purchase those "DVD" DVD's - a great investment. I've already introduced many young friends to the series....friends who were equally appalled by this 2004 special.

I hate reunion shows of old TV shows. They always stink, but at least this one has a lot less stink than most of the others. It's not a bad film and it does reunite SOME of the original cast around a reasonably believable plot (the dead ones, thankfully, were not brought back). It also isn't so maudlin like many reunion shows. But, it also isn't all that wonderful and if you don't see it you aren't missing much. I loved the original show (except, of course, for episodes where they put on musical variety shows), but felt pretty tepid about this--the film isn't really necessary nor is it offensive. Now, believe it or not, this is a VERY positive review, because compared to other reunion shows I have seen, this is Hamlet-quality. For a nauseatingly bad reunion show, try the Beverly Hillbilly reunion. Or for a rotten time, but not quite as traumatic, try the Leave it to Beaver or Andy Griffith Show reunions. Now they ARE truly bad.

Great revisit of Dick Van Dyke Show, brighten our Holiday season up! Must see, even with your family. This will have you laughing out loud.

Did not know this was EVER done, a DVD Show reunion. Saw it 2014. Enjoyed and laughed. I have only ever seen the original show in reruns and didn't understand the show until I was an adult. Something's just did not make sense. First, Sally Rodgers was one of TV's first femmenistsj I would have believed that Sally and Herman were living together. But Married? After the seventies even Sally would have not settled for Herman in marriage. Live together perhaps but not marriage. One would think that Laura would have had her own studio (outside the home) long before, say twenty years. Given that Alan Brady hasn't talked to Rob in thirty years and Rob a successful TV writer would have invested in his wonderful wife's dream years before. Ann Gilbert always a hoot, should have had more banter. With anyone! This reunion could have been done in 1984 and 2004! Perhaps better relationships and timing amongst actors. Everyone loves Raymond? No, we don't. But he's more tolerable than some, Dennis Miller.

TV from the 1950s and 1960s means more to me than almost anything, and ironically for something filmed primarily in black and white, it has colored my view of the world and how things should be. The innocence, the good manners, the look, the sets, the style- I love it all! And let's not forget the fabulous casts! The Dick Van Dyke Show was one such show that has all of those aforementioned elements, plus some!

This is truly one of my most favorite viewings of 2022, and one of the best, most clever reunion specials I have ever seen! Most reunion specials give me a sense of melancholy, but not this one! It's a funny and feel-good tribute to a very funny and feel-good show. It's a reminder of what TV once was, and why it was so special.

I loved this special so much! And what makes it stand out from the heap of other such reunion specials is that it felt authentic to the tone of the original DVD Show. It didn't try to be something it wasn't, like a lot of The Brady Bunch reunion movies and specials did with all the drama and tear-jerker elements those would bring in. Instead, this was hopeful and happy, just like the show itself, complete with audience laughter! It felt like a genuine, updated episode of the TV series, but with the runtime of a mini-movie.

Despite its almost hour-long runtime, this just breezes along like a 25 minute sitcom episode. I am so impressed with this, and I don't think we'll ever see the likes of it again, as I can't imagine reunion specials for any show from recent years being as wholesome and sweet as this one! They truly don't make'em like they used to! And the way Ray Ramano opens the show by walking out in color against a b&w background was magical and made me think of that short-lived 1990s show "Hi, Honey I'm Home!" It's magical!!

This special was so good, it felt like the pilot to a new season of The Dick Van Dyke Show! I loved seeing all the surviving cast together again- and the storyline between Rob's brother and Millie Helper was adorable! I would have loved to keep watching that, and Laura and Rob's life together. But, if all we got was this one special, I am still glad. As of the date of this review, it is available to watch on YouTube, thanks to a generous user, who even left all the original 2004 commercials in-tact. Thank you, pianopappy! Bonus points for how the show "Joan of Arcadia" was advertised" during this, which was kind of a personal sign to me, as well as the fun Carol Burnett Reunion Special being advertised as debuting the night after. Wow, 2004 was a year of loving and honoring 1960s TV, apparently! Like I said at the start, watching it feels like Christmas or Thanksgiving- and I am so thankful for it!

It was good to see the gang again. The writing was sprightly and stylish, but the premise was all wrong. Who cares about a eulogy for Alan Brady? That angle fell completely flat. I would much rather have spent more time with Rob and Laura in their old living room where we had last seen them; and in color!

As far as I'm concerned, the whole show should have centered around Rob and Laura selling their home in New Rochelle and moving into that Manhattan apartment. It would have been a more fitting way to bring us from the 60s and into the 21st Century. It also would have had more of the flavor of the old show as they faced quirky prospective buyers, real estate agents, etc. Alan Brady could have made an offer to buy the house and turn it into a rental property with a shrewd Ritchie stepping up to buy it out from under him.

One last party at the New Rochelle house to celebrate the move would have given the cast a chance to reminisce over archival footage. It would have been far more upbeat than spending an hour talking about death. Who knows? It could have provided Carl Reiner with a great platform for spinning off another reunion show. With critics panning this reunion as they did, they may never do another reunion episode again. I hope that's not the case.

I'm usually the guy telling other reviewers they're being too harsh. But I found myself grimly forcing myself to sit through this travesty to the bitter end, for no better reason than I'm a stupid, masochistic completist anent this series. What a bitter caricature of a capstone; I wish I hadn't noticed it was on.

First of all, the age difference in the cast, while not readily apparent in the show, burns like a lighthouse beacon FORTY YEARS later. DVD is eleven years older than MTM, and he looks about twenty years older. Ann Morgan Guilbert ("Millie Helper") looks like a female Orville Reddenbacher without the energy; she should be on the Golden Girls (or maybe the One Foot In the Grave Girls).

Now, to be fair, they never made any secret about the relative ages of the characters on the show: the birthyears given for the characters (when possible to deduce) pretty much matched up with those of the actors (within a year or so). Still, there is nothing to prepare us for Mary Tyler Moore looking fairly young -- though awfully skeletal, probably due to the actress's (type 1) diabetes -- and her "best friend" Millie looking like a fossil from the pre-Cambrian era.

Dick Van Dyke still looks reasonably good (for a man of nearly eighty). Others haven't aged well at all: "Baby" Rose Marie ("Sally Rogers"), who began her career as a singing tot in 1926, bloated up terribly in her old age, possibly due to illness; I kept expecting her to keel over at any moment. And of course, Morey Amsterdam ("Buddy Sorrell"), Jerry Paris ("Jerry Helper"), and Richard Deacon ("Mel Cooley") had aged themselves to death... a fact that they kept banging us over the head with repeatedly throughout this reunion, talking about all the eulogies that Rob Petrie had to give.

(Carl Reiner -- "Alan Lester Brady" -- is actually just slightly older than Dick Van Dyke but looks much older; this is fine, though, considering the work relationship in the show.)

I could forgive the incredible aging if the plot were clever and the characters clearly the same people; alas, neither is true: the story is uncompelling and dull, and the characters act nothing like their forty-year younger counterparts. The absurd marriages and other relationships that are supposed to have occurred in the intervening time don't help, seeming contrived for the sole purpose of bringing back old characters (such as Jerry Van Dyke, Dick's younger brother).

The scenes from the original show jarred terribly because they were so much better written, acted, and directed... and because they cut them at odd places, even editing out sections from the middle of a skit! With hamfisted chopping, they managed to terminate most flashbacks just BEFORE the punchline. Yeesh.

And although they seemingly tried to duplicate the original set for the opening scene -- which was utterly gratuitous, the only purpose being to let us see that Larry Matthews ("Ritchie Petrie") grew up to be a fat, balding old man -- they completely screwed up the most important piece of furniture in the living room... the famous ottoman is replaced by a small chair, as if the set designers actually forgot what it was supposed to be! When Ray Romano ("Everybody Loves Raymond") pretends (badly) to almost trip over it, it actually annoyed me no end: for Pete's sake, couldn't they even get such a simple thing right? Romano, incidentally, seems utterly talentless in this show; I've never seen Everybody Loves Raymond, so I don't know if he's capable of better.

There is absolutely nothing about this reunion show that gives even the faintest pleasure; even the nostalgia is turned sour by the relentless march of the years. They should have done this in 1984, not 2004: all of the actors would have been alive still (except perhaps Richard Deacon, depending when they filmed), unsedated, and not all that old; and maybe Carl Reiner would have been fresher as a writer.

A sad coda to the greatest sitcom ever on TV.

Actually the age factor in the show wasn't a problem--the gut-wrenchingly bad writing was the problem. This is hideously unfunny material.

I couldn't tell by listening to the laugh track if it was automated-- as laugh tracks often were in the era from which this show evolved--or if they just had a really easily amused audience. I heard the audience laughing, of all things, at Dick dancing around in a baggy red sweater while a 3D animated caricature of him cavorted on a monitor screen. This mystified me, since the show was created in 2004. Where did they locate an audience that would find a 3D cartoon dancing funny? Or even interesting? Perhaps the audience was made up of Sun City retirees like the cast, and they had never heard of "Shrek" before.

I haven't figured out if most of the writing team has watched episodes of the original show--I caught no clue of this one way or the other. The skyscraper-glitz penthouse suite the Petries were living in---in place of their previously normal suburban home--was pointless, and actually called so much attention to itself that it undermined the show. "Look! we have money and we're still alive and kicking!"-apparently was the message.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the writing. Supposedly Carl Reiner was responsible for this mess, but I find that rather incredible.

Hope Dick gets more work. Like Sean Connery, Bill Shatner, and Paul Newman, the aging actor still has more to offer the audience than do the clueless folk running today's film and TV studios. Age is a transient state. Stupid is forever.

Okay, a few years ago, I reviewed this reunion special. Needless to say I wasn't very kind about it. SO to put it in a less snarky manner and with all due respect to the cast members who are now gone ...

I watched the special back in 2004 and I wont lie, for me it was a depressing sitcom reunion. I still don't get why they waited 38 years to reunite. I tune in and we have discussions about eulogies and the remaining cast of The Dick Van Dyke Show, in their twilight years (except Larry Matthews/Richie) .

I understood the storyline just fine but I failed to find any humor at all about any of it or these people sitting around talking about who was gone or about the whole maudlin subject. There's nothing funny about it.

With the '60s revival going on in the early 1980s, the reunion should have been between 1981 to 1983, all were still present. It could have been a much funnier outing and had a subject that could have been more entertaining.

I have to ask (despite the point being moot), was everyone 'that' busy? Dick Van Dyke was doing TV movies , Mary was in a good movie or 2 and a few shows.

Rose Marie was a Hollywood Square. Jerry Paris was busy behind the scenes in the 70s with Happy Days and Larry Matthews did only one TV movie after the series ended.

So, simply, I just would have preferred a quirky but fun & thoughtful reunion show, like the classic episodes were. The sad subject matter, to me, just didn't fit.

I changed the tone of my review to be more diplomatic and mature about my feelings on the show, but I still say 1 star.

This show's and Mary's other series' stars farewells have been all too sad in the real world. I get reminded when I watch them, I don't need this too.

*END*

I saw this show recently on TV land . It was very bad. Whoever wrote it had no idea how to realistically bring the characters of Laura Petrie, Rob Petrie, Alan Brady, Sally Rogers, Ritchie Petrie and Millie Helper back together again. It all plays out very badly. First, Alan Brady calls Rob Petrie out of the blue at his old home from that they had in the 1960's to ask him to wrote a eulogies for him when he dies. How realistic would it be for Alan Brady to call a comedy writer to do his eulogy and how realistic is it for him to ask a man who he has not spoken to for 30 to 40 years to write his eulogy , never mind the comedy writer part? Usually, eulogies are written by close friends and after someone is dead, duh. And who calls people and asks for their eulogy in advance anyway? I know the character of Alan Brady is vain but come on. So, he calls the house and somehow Ritchie picks up the phone. So, apparently Ritchie is living in the same house the Petries had in 1960. How unrealistic. He informs Alan that his parents have moved and then not long after the scene cuts to a boring self indulgent scene of mugging and hamming it up from Laura and Rob who both do a dance sequence even though they both elderly. Alan calls them. They met with Alan. Rob and Laura have none of their old spark. In fact, in whoever wrote this seems to have Laura fawning over Alan Brady saying "Oh Alan!" instead of "Oh Rob!" and then they are series of comments from the surviving male members of the cast telling Laura how "fantastic" she looks for a old woman. Most of the clips of her and the guy who played Alan. They even dare to show one scene where the guy played was on the show not playing Alan but guest starring as a painter who painted Laura nude even though she was wearing clothes and showed Laura's nails on chalk board squeaky hyper reaction to it all. I guess they did this because Carl Reiner did not make many appearances on the show and they needed more footage of him. This reunion seemed to be a homage to the two of them. I wondered where are all the funny clips of Buddy and Sally and Mel and Rob. They really made the show. The premise for reuniting them wasn't funny at all. By the end of the episode the issue is not even resolved. Rob does not decide if he is not going to write eulogy or not. After the series of clips runs, Rob and Laura step out of character and return to their 1960's living room and say to each other, "Gee, it was funny being Rob Petrie again." "Gee, it was nice being Laura Petrie again." Gag. Well, I'm glad they had fun because their entire reunion show was a train wreck.