The Dick Van Dyke Show

Oh, Rob! is one of the most repeated lines from the Dick Van Dyke Show. Another one is “It’s just like my Aunt Agnes used to say…”

The Dick Van Dyke Show came out in 1961 and ran until 1966 and was created by the talented Carl Reiner. This show ended in 1966 and the reruns are still going strong to this day due to the talent of all the actors and writers. The series won 15 Emmy Awards.

One of my favorite Dick Van Dyke episodes called “It May Look Like a Walnut” was ranked #15 in TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes Of All Time in 1997. As a young child the Walnut episode kind of, sort of, really was scary to me. “All Twilo-ites have two eyes in the front and two in the back.” They lose their imagination and their thumbs! In 2002, The Dick Van Dyke Show was ranked #13 on TV Guides 50 Greatest Shows of All Time; per Wikipedia.

The scene above where Laura floats out of the closet on a sea of walnuts is rated by me as the Best Use of a Closet on TV ever!

The Dick Van Dyke Show starring Dick Van Dyke, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Larry Matthews, and Mary Tyler Moore; that’s what we hear when the show starts and here Rob does not trip over the ottoman, but I love it when he does the trip.

Let’s look at and talk about The Dick Van Dyke Show house, cuz you know that’s what I wanna talk about.

Everyone is always gathered around the coffee table on the couch and the chair Laura is sitting on.

The house has the window seat with cushion and pillows and the 2-tier wood blinds on the window. There’s Richie and I can only remember one episode that Richie’s bedroom was shown and if you know of more tell me. I think his bedroom was shown in the episode when he was getting pecked on the head by birds in the backyard, but my memory could be mixed up from childhood. See below for update!

Here is a better shot of that chair with the round pillow.

Found this chair with similar lines on Houzz under traditional furniture.

I don’t like the horse picture on the wall, but love the couch shape. I looked online for a lamp like the one in the corner and found a vintage pair of lamps called speckled-finish lamps that sold for $489.00 a pair, but the sale for the lamps is now over and I had to remove the photo of them so this is updated information since I first published this post. Also, See below for update about the horse picture!

The Petrie’s had a Jotul fireplace. I don’t remember a lot of scenes when the fireplace was lit, but Rob and Laura are always talking on that phone on the dining room table.

They always dined in the living room/dining room. Two chairs at the island with the pass-through opening to the kitchen that was usually closed with the shutters showing.

Let’s go into the kitchen via the famous push open door that can swing back and forth.

The shutters are normally closed with Rob and Laura in the kitchen talking loudly about something, as if the guests could not hear them through the shutters, just because they were closed. TV shows do this a lot and it drives me nuts-o sometimes. But, I have to keep telling myself it is just make-believe. Dick Van Dyke states that often times people/fans of the show he would meet really believed that he and Laura were married.

The Dick Van Dyke Show kitchen was modern with the built-in oven and island cook top.

Laura pouring coffee from a Pyrex coffee pot directly off the cook top.

The Dick Van Dyke Show eat-in kitchen showing the table. I often refer to this style as The Jetson’s.

Laura’s best friend next door neighbor Millie is hysterically funny too. Millie is the Ethel of I Love Lucy to Laura. When my friend Connie and I worked in the corporate world, on a slow day we often played Dick Van Dyke trivia to pass the time. She would spew out one-liners to me and I would have to try to name the episode the one-liner came from or vise versa.

In the early years of television it was forbidden for a couple to be in a double bed together, so Rob and Laura have twin beds with a table in-between them. The bedroom wallpaper reminds me of a blooming cherry tree or Chinese influence wallpaper.

Another window seat in the bedroom with 2-tier curtains and topper.

When you stop the show and really look, here is Rob and Laura Petrie’s dressing table with drawers. Rob is admiring himself before he leaves for his sailing trip with his best friend Jerry.

The office. I have thought over the years that being a writer on a TV show would be one of the best jobs around. I would love to sit around on a couch or chair thinking up funny sketches everyday.

Mel was always the butt of jokes for Buddy on the Dick Van Dyke Show. A good example of the lines Buddy would throw at Mel is:

Mel Cooley: (clutching his temples) Look, I’ve got a great deal of work to do!

Buddy Sorrell: So go ahead, tear your hair out!

Update: Per a super Dick Van Dyke Show fan, Greg Williams, who was kind enough to e-mail me with loads of information, I have an answer about Ritchie’s bedroom. Ritchie’s bedroom was indeed shown in several episodes, but not in the one I had thought I remembered about the bird pecking Ritchie’s head, which was an expectant woodpecker in the episode “A Bird In The Head Hurts.” His bedroom was in the episodes “The Sick Boy and the Sitter,” “The Man from My Uncle,” and “Never Name a Duck.”

I state above that I don’t like the horse picture above the couch. In the episode “It’s a Shame She Married Me,” the art work is said to be a Picasso print.

Greg also enlightened me about a marvelous book called: TV Sets Fantasy Blueprints of Classic TV Homes by Mark Bennett that I need to pick it up for myself and any TV fan should have this book too. The book has detailed imaginary blueprints of TV homes we have all come to love and feel at home in ourselves. I can’t wait to pick up this book and get lost in TV Land in a whole new way.

Thank you for making Housekaboodle part of your day.