Customer Reviews

The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book

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This book features an amazing amount of insight into one of the very best television programs to ever grace the airwaves, "The Dick Van Dyke Show".

If you're an avid fan of this 1961-1966 CBS-TV program, trust me, you will NOT be able to stop turning pages until you've read the whole thing!

In each chapter, we learn new tidbits of behind-the-scenes information. There's info (including some brief biographical data) about every single member of the show's stellar cast.

For example: Did You Know .... that the audience laughter went on so long when Greg Morris & his on-screen spouse entered the Petrie home at the end of the episode "That's My Boy??" that the editor actually had to cut out some of the audience hysterics in order to fit the episode into the allowable timeframe? (Too bad, too. I'd love to have heard the WHOLE thing. A great episode indeed.)

The book also reveals the fact that Mary Tyler Moore stormed off the set in a huff one time, while doing the ultimately-classic episode, "Never Bathe On Saturday". She was upset because she was off-camera and talking through a door for most of the show. But, after seeing how funny the show worked as written, MTM felt bad about her tirade.

"Never Bathe On Saturday" features Dick's great line, after finding that the hotel bathroom door is locked: "Don't toy with me, you saucy wench." :) LOL!!!!

Plus there's a complete episode guide, with still more tidbits written within most of the episode descriptions.

I cannot imagine a more thorough and detailed Dick Van Dyke Show volume than this one. This book is a MUST for any fan of this highly-intelligent and magnificently-written TV program.

I read this book in one night---it was that good. I must confess that I usually buy books about TV series for the episode guide and I usually don't get around to reading the entire book. I'm glad I read this one. It was very entertaining and very well written. I really enjoyed it. I'd love to see Vince Waldron use his talent to bring other books about other classic TV series to fans. I say to him, "You write 'em, and we'll read 'em." If you are a Dick Van Dyke Show fan, you'll want this book!

I really enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it to any fan of "The Dick Van Dyke Show." It was very entertaining to read and informative as well. It was also very well written. I would give it more stars if I could.

This book is super awesome, it's just the best episode guide book ever written and I'm kind of partial since The Dick Van Dyke Show is my favorite classic TV show, I especially like the episode guide part which explained in a wonderful well written detail about each different episode, when they were made when they were originally shown on TV what they were about, who the guest actors were etc. I very strongly recommend this amazing book to any major Dick Van Dyke Show fan!

The Dick Van Dyke Show book by Mr Waldron far exceeded my expectations. It answered many questions that I had wondered about the DVD Shows' creation, ongoing creative process, and its creator and cast deciding to cease production. Fans of DVD or MTM themselves as well as fans of classic teevee generally I'd expect would all find this highly enjoyable.

The other reviewers have pretty well covered it. This show was as good as it gets, and it never seems to date with time.

This book is an invaluable guide to the greatest show/series of all time, and represents oustanding value. The pairing of Dick and Mary was a stroke of genius, and the chemistry between them lifted this brilliantly conceived and well-written series onto another level. Remember the 'Nuts' episode?

Even the cutesy touches, such as the way Dick randomly tripped over or side-stepped the ottoman just added to the seemingly endless magic that was the Dick Van Dyke Show.

I had been itching to get my paws on this guide ever since I read Mary's autobiography After All, in which she rightly sings the show's praises - they both won Emmys of course - and this Definitive History illustrates just why it was out there on its own.

A wonderful book, and absolutely essential for the serious fan of this unique and unforgettable series.

This is an excellent "tv-ology guide" to the hugely successful and popular Dick Van Dyke show. It has all the creative nuts and bolts of how the show was put-together, the inner workings of the cast, crew, producers and director. It offers really good reading for the casual visitor as well as the dedicated TV sitcom buff. A really fun and informative book on the creation and multi-year production of a great show.

This is *da book* on "The Dick Van Dyke Show", but it's really far more than that. It is the finest book on a TV sitcom I've ever come across. Waldron painstakingly discusses everything you'd ever want to know about the show, and he interviewed (seemingly) everyone connected with the show, including Carl Reiner, Mary Tyler Moore, Dick, Larry Matthews, Rose Marie, and many of the writers. If you're a DVDS fan, you've gottta have this tome on hand. I can't recommend it highly enough. I fervently hope Vince will do subsequent books on "Cheers" and other sitcoms...he's the ONLY man for the job.

A great book about the genesis and history of what I believe is the funniest sitcom ever. When you love something as much as I do like the Dick Van Dyke Show, the little nuances and details are fascinating! Vince Waldron goes into great detail without boring the reader in the meantime. It is too bad that this early sitcom has not gotten it's due as a groundbreaking show-- showing where the male lead works and his co-wokers, the reality of married life, a married couple in bed (albeit twin beds) and, of course, Mary Tyler Moore in Capri pants (scandalous)! All kidding aside, if you are a fan of the background scenes of TV or movies, this book is fun to read and reveals how the cast came together, the family atmosphere that resulted, the awards won, the demise of the series and the eventual post-series cast successes. You will find this book refreshing and hard to put down and won't be disappointed in purchasing it. The only thing I was disappointed in was that some of the episode descriptions were sparse. Buy the book, read it, enjoy....then, go buy the DVD series sets or set of all five seasons!

This book answers every question a fan of the Dick Van Dyke Show could have. And then it tells behind-the-scenes stories we wouldn't have heard in any other way. After reading about the creation of the show, I'm even more in awe of Carl Reiner. He's obviously multi-talented, but I also love the part of the story about his work ethic - how he came to write an entire season of the show one summer, based solely on his own vision, even before there was a show to write for. I've already recommended this book several times. I have such respect for the amount of research the author (and all those who assisted) did, in order to get these stories right.