The Dick Van Dyke Show

Details

Release year: 1961

Storyline

The misadventures of a TV writer both at work and at home.

Top credits

Awards

15 wins & 10 nominations

Did you know

• Carl Reiner would often ask cast and crew members about funny things that had happened to them, then he would write whole episodes about these occurrences. As a result, a majority of the episodes over the course of the show's five season run were based on actual events.

• Carl Reiner asked network censors for permission to show Laura and Rob sleeping in one large bed together, reasoning (quite sensibly) that he and his wife did so in real life. The permission was denied, and the Petries are always depicted sleeping in nearby twin beds (as was the custom of TV series of the era; "Bewitched" and "The Munsters" being the exceptions to the rule).

• Reportedly Mary Tyler Moore told the producers she was older than she really was in order to get the role of Laura. This fact was later incorporated in episode Laura's Little Lie (1963) in which Rob and Laura have to get re-married in Very Old Shoes, Very Old Rice (1963) because Laura had lied about her age, telling Rob she was 19. In reality, she was only a 17 year young damsel. Mary Tyler Moore was born in December 1936, which would make her 24 when the show first aired in 1961.

Episodes

158 episodes – 5 seasons

User reviews

Technical specs

Sound mix

Mono

Aspect ratio

1.33 : 1

Color

Black and White