We Circle Back to Ritchie as Hamlet in The Dick Van Dyke Show

“Boy #1, Boy #2.” By Martin Ragaway. Perf. Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, and Mary Tyler Moore. Dir. Jerry Paris. The Dick Van Dyke Show. Season 4, episode 19. CBS. 3 February 1965. DVD. Allied Vaughn, 2023.

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We're getting toward the end of the Shakespeare references in The Dick Van Dyke Show. After this, there's one more in Season Four—and none at all in Season Five. 

I'm sure you all recall the first time Shakespeare was mentioned in The Dick Van Dyke Show. In Season One, episode four, we learned that Richie, the son of the family, had played Hamlet in a grade-school Shakespeare festival (for which, q.v.).

In this episode, we are invited to imagine a future Shakespeare career for Ritchie. He and the boy next door have been cast in a television commercial, which causes the moms to become intensely competitive. Buddy, in a more lighthearted vein, gives us this:

Would you rather see Ritchie Petrie or William Feldman play Hamlet? Either one has deep roots in the role!

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the entire run of the show from amazon.com
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Lady Macbeth and Porky Pig in The Dick Van Dyke Show

“Stacey Petrie: Part I.” By Carl Reiner. Perf. Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, and Morey Amsterdam. Dir. Jerry Paris. The Dick Van Dyke Show. Season 4, episode 17. CBS. 20 January 1965. DVD. Allied Vaughn, 2023.

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Sally Rogers, always looking for the right man and never finding him, agrees to go on a practice date with Rob Petrie's brother Stacey.  

In a complicated way, Stacey has proposed to a woman he's never met—she was writing letters to a buddy of his when they were in the Army, but the buddy got married to someone else, but Stacey didn't want to hurt her by telling her, so he kept up the correspondence. But he's in love with her, and she's in love with whoever's been writing her the letters.

If a first date weren't enough to make a man nervous, there's all that to consider. And that's why Sally agrees to help out.

All of that is somewhat incidental to the Shakespeare, which we get here:

Buddy manages to insult the both of them with one convenient line!

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the entire run of the show from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

The Dick Van Dyke Show Offers One Possible Way of Performing "To Be or Not To Be" in Charades

“The Death of the Party.” By Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. Perf. Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Willard Waterman, and Jane Dulo. Dir. Alan Rafkin. The Dick Van Dyke Show. Season 4, episode 12. CBS. 9 December 1964. DVD. Allied Vaughn, 2023.

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Dick Van Dyke is known for his physical humor—falling over chairs, tumbling, suddenly allowing all his bones to turn into rubber, et cetera. In this episode, we get a more subtle version of his physical genius.

The plot involves Laura telling Rob it would be foolish to go out golfing early in the morning because they have a big party that evening and he might catch a cold or be otherwise too exhaused to be a good host.

He does, and he does. I mean, he goes golfing and he catches the flu. But he's too proud to admit that he was wrong, so he tries to tough it out.

The clip below sets the stage for his great challenge: Playing Charades while ill while pretending to be completely healthy. We then join a round already in progress (that's where the Shakespeare is), and then Rob gets his turn. The bookends to the Shakespeare part aren't strictly necessary, but they're remarkable for their physicality. 

We catch the other players trying to guess what turns out to be "To be or not to be" with some interesting (if not unique) cluing. It may not be an earth-shaking revelation, but it indicates that the phrase would likely be known to a high precentage of those attending the party. Perhaps The Canterbury Tales is a bit less so.

As a final note, you may recognize the actor playing Uncle Harold. It's Willard Waterman, who was The Great Gildersleeve in the television version of the radio show.

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the entire run of the show from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).

As You Like It-ish Line in The Dick Van Dyke Show

“It Wouldn't Hurt Them to Give Us a Raise.” By Jay Burton and Ernest Chambers. Perf. Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam. Dir. Peter Baldwin. The Dick Van Dyke Show. Season 4, episode 11. CBS. 2 December 1964. DVD. Allied Vaughn, 2023.

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A brief paraphrase of Jaques' line "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" comes at the beginning of this episode.

Since it comes at the beginning, I feel less obligated to give you a plot summary. The context of this clip will provide all you need:

An angry Buddy finds a way to vent his ire with Shakespeare: "Boy, to you the whole world's a sketch, and all the men and women live on Flugel Street." He manages to merge Shakespeare with the famous Flugel Street / Susquehanna Hat Company sketch!

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Links: The Episode at IMDB.

Click below to purchase the entire run of the show from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).