Directors: Alan Rafkin, Jerry Paris, John Rich, Robert Butler, Sheldon Leonard
Starring: Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Carl Reiner
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Distributed by: Image Entertainment
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Running Time: 500 minutes
Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars
Who doesn’t love Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. They both have such natural comedy timing. This volume of 20 episodes are personal favorites of series creator Carl Reiner. This seems to be a tradition with Image Entertainment, who released “The Dick Van Dyke Show: 50th Anniversary Edition: Fan Favorites” last year. Overall great travel back to a special time in our TV history. If you are a fan of the series, and who isn’t, pick this up, sit back and enjoy. It is also a good start for new fans because what is a better way to watch the series than with the favorites from the creator himself.
Since Image did “Fan Favorites” last year and Carl Reiner’s picks this year, I am curious what will be next. I just hope that they try a different box cover since they only changed the color from blue to red on these releases. There are also no special features included like the last release. The episodes though are said to be in pristine quality and they definitely looks great. For a show that aired over 50 years ago they look especially well. If we are traveling back to 60’s comedies on TV though, I would most likely prefer 1962’s short-lived “I’m Dickens…He’s Fenster” with Marty Ingels and John Astin.
Episodes: Never Name a Duck, The Attempted Marriage, Hustling the Hustler, A Bird in the Head Hurts, Gesundheit, Darling, Will You Two Be My Wife?, Ray Murdock’s X-Ray, Don’t Trip Over That Mountain, The Sam Pomerantz Scandals, Divorce, Laura’s Little Lie, Very Old Shoes Very Old Rice, The Life and Love of Joe Coogan, The Plots Thicken, The Return of Edwin Carp, Pink Pills for Purple Patients, Baby Fat, No Rice at My Wedding, A Day in the Life of Alan Brady, Obnoxious Offensive Egomaniac Etc.