The Dick Van Dike Show ( Season 4)

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

*** Résumé en anglais seulement *** It's time to acknowledge those unsung heroes, The Beverly Hillbillies, for helping to rescue The Dick Van Dyke Show, which, incredibly, was nearly canceled after its first season. Executive producer Sheldon Leonard championed the series, and CBS moved the Petries to follow the top-rated Clampetts. The rest is television history. Unlike the high-concept Hillbillies, the more sophisticated Dick Van Dyke Show's appeal was in its more grounded situations and three-dimensional characters, each of whom are given ample opportunities to shine in this second season. Son Ritchie (played by Larry Matthews) gets too attached to baby ducklings (the touching season opener Never Name a Duck ). Sally Rogers (Rose Marie) gets engaged to an opportunistic comedian ( Jilting the Jilter ). Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam) is reunited with his black sheep brother ( Hustling the Hustler ). Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) ! is revealed to be the alien Lolac from Twilo (the classic It May Look Like a Walnut, which contains the sublimely surreal line, Danny Thomas put walnuts in my hat ). And Rob (Van Dyke) becomes a psychosomatic drunk ( My Husband is Not a Drunk ). On the flashback front, we see how Rob proposed to Laura ( The Attempted Marriage ), dumped an old flame ( Will You Two Be My Wife? ), and was installed as head writer of The Alan Brady Show ( I Was a Teenage Head Writer ). Rob's deft and daft juggling of his glamorous career and harried home life inspires some of the best episodes, including Somebody Has to Play Cleopatra, featuring the late Bob Crane as the neighborhood lothario, Father of the Week, and Ray Murdock's X-Ray, in which Rob unwittingly portrays Laura as his nutty muse. But at the heart of this series' timeless appeal is the palpable chemistry between Rob and Laura, as witness their sudden embrace at the moving conclusion of The Square Triangle.