Best 'Dick Van Dyke Show' episodes
It's impossible to imagine "The Dick Van Dyke Show" without Dick Van Dyke—but that was exactly how it was originally intended. Television writer Carl Reiner, who had created hit comedy albums with Mel Brooks and would go on to direct equally successful movies starring Steve Martin—like "The Jerk" and "All of Me"—had conceived the series to be about his life. Originally called "Head of the Family," the pilot starred Reiner as Rob Petrie, the main character, opposite actor Barbara Britton as his wife.
Of course, that's not "The Dick Van Dyke Show" that ultimately premiered in 1961 and ran for 158 episodes into 1966. The show instead starred Dick Van Dyke as Rob Petrie, a comedy writer for "The Alan Brady Show," who lives in the suburbs with his wife Laura, played by Mary Tyler Moore, and their son Ritchie, played by Larry Mathews. The cast was rounded out by Rob's fellow comedy writers Sally (Rose Marie) and Buddy (Morey Amsterdam), the show's producer Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon), and his neighbors Jerry and Millie Helper (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert.)
While "The Dick Van Dyke Show" portrayed sanitized tropes of the 1960s—a housewife who always has breakfast on the table, a husband who works in the city, and their two separate twin beds—the show was groundbreaking in a number of ways, including giving Moore an equal share of the plot and a platform to showcase her comedic chops.
To celebrate the show that shaped and defined the American sitcom more than six decades ago, Stacker gathered IMDb data on all episodes of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" to rank the top 25. The ranking is based on user ratings as of June 2023, with ties broken by votes. Read on to see if your favorite made the cut.
#25. Three Letters From One Wife (1964)
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Season 4, Episode 9
Rob writes a comedic script for a very serious television program called "Project Greatness" and urges Alan Brady to appear in the show. Despite it being the penultimate season of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," this episode marked the first time audiences got to see Brady, who was played by Carl Reiner. Brady believes Rob just wrote the script to show off his intelligence and only agrees to do the show to prove him wrong. With Rob's career on the line, Laura and Millie try to help by sending fake fan letters praising the show, but their timing makes everything worse. Fun fact: The episode's title is a play on the name of the 1949 romantic movie "A Letter to Three Wives."
#24. One Angry Man (1962)
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Season 1, Episode 24
An expertly scripted spoof of the 1957 Sidney Lumet film "12 Angry Men," this episode has Rob taking on the role of foreman of a jury in a trial where the defendant is an exotic dancer. Rob is the only member of the jury who believes she's innocent, and Laura believes it's because he's attracted to her. As a result, Rob ends up having to prove his own innocence, and—decades-old spoiler alert—he finally does when it turns out his instincts were right the whole time.
#23. My Blonde-Haired Brunette (1961)
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Season 1, Episode 2
Laura convinces herself that Rob is no longer attracted to her and that their marriage may have lost its spark, so she decides to dye her hair blonde. Of course, she instantly regrets the dye job and hijinks ensue. In the series' second episode, Moore gets a chance to showcase her comedic talents, which was a conscious decision on Carl Reiner's part; the creator moved "My Blonde-Haired Brunette" from being the ninth episode filmed to the second episode to air to give Moore the spotlight.
#22. The Man From My Uncle (1966)
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Season 5, Episode 27
When a federal agent asks to use Rob and Laura's home as a base for staking out a potential criminal in the neighborhood, Rob can't contain his excitement. As he regresses into a state of boylike wonder while playing spy, he continuously interferes in the stakeout of an agent who is also dealing with a toothache. The episode spoofs the classic spy television show "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." while also making references to James Bond and the early television program "Captain Midnight."
#21. The Great Petrie Fortune (1965)
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Season 5, Episode 7
Rob and Laura attend the reading of his late great-uncle Hezekiah's will, despite the fact that Rob hasn't seen him since he was a boy. In the will, Hezekiah (played by Van Dyke as well) leaves Rob an old roll-top desk and a movie of himself promising that the desk contains a priceless treasure, along with a riddle to help Rob find it. Rob and Laura tear the desk apart trying to find something valuable until they're finally able to crack the riddle and find an old photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken by Civil War photographer Mathew Brady, which they then donate to a museum.
#20. Uhny Uftz (1965)
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Season 5, Episode 3
Working late one night, Rob hears and sees a flying saucer making the noise "uhny uftz." He starts to believe that he imagined it until he hears the same sound a second night, this time with Buddy. Buddy and Rob ultimately discover that the "UFO" they saw was just a toy saucer, whose inventor couldn't get it to correctly say "Merry Christmas." The toy inventor is played by actor John Mylong, who appeared in numerous science fiction movies throughout the 1950s.
#19. A Surprise Surprise Is a Surprise (1963)
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Season 2, Episode 30
Laura plans to throw Rob a surprise party, and the two go back and forth trying to outsmart one another over if and when it's happening. The episode features a number of classic topsy-turvy moments that make for great comedic television, and is the perfect example of why Van Dyke and Moore made such an iconic sitcom couple. In the end, Laura wins, successfully surprising Rob by throwing his birthday party first thing in the morning.
#18. The Two Faces of Rob (1962)
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Season 2, Episode 2
Rob challenges himself to disguise his voice well enough so that Laura won't recognize him on the phone. However, when Laura seems to flirt with the Italian voice on the other end of the line, he can't tell if his impersonation skills actually worked or if she was just playing along. While Carl Reiner won't play Alan Brady for two more seasons of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," this episode includes a voice cameo from him as a TV announcer.
#17. The Life and Love of Joe Coogan (1964)
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Season 3, Episode 17
Rob meets a man named Joe Coogan while playing golf and they hit it off until he finds out that Joe was once so in love with Laura that he wrote her beautiful love sonnets. Finding out that Laura has kept the sonnets all these years exacerbates Rob's anxiety and distrust, driving her to hide from him that Joe is now a priest. The holy heartthrob is played by actor Michael Forest, who appeared in many TV Westerns throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
#16. My Husband Is Not a Drunk (1962)
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Season 2, Episode 6
Rob and Laura host a dinner party whose guest of honor is a hypnotist named Glen Jameson (Charles Aidman). Millie, Jerry, Buddy, and Sally, who is, of course, angling for a romantic connection with single Glen, also attend the dinner party, where hypnotic chaos ensues. The episode stands out for providing the show's secondary characters with a platform for showcasing their comedic prowess, and features excellent physical comedy from Morey Amsterdam and Dick Van Dyke.
#15. Don't Trip Over That Mountain (1963)
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Season 2, Episode 22
This episode is another that showcases how well "The Dick Van Dyke Show" did physical comedy. Laura worries that Rob will injure himself on his upcoming ski trip with Jerry. When he actually does end up in the hospital, he does everything he can to keep that information from Laura to avoid an "I-told-you-so."
#14. October Eve (1964)
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Season 3, Episode 28
The first episode on this list that was also one of Carl Reiner's top 10 favorites centers around a painting that Laura commissioned of herself from artist Sergei Carpetna appearing in a New York art gallery. Unfortunately, Carpetna took artistic liberty, rendering Laura completely naked. Laura then goes to lengths to have the painting removed from public display. Reiner makes a special appearance as the eccentric artist.
#13. Pink Pills and Purple Parents (1964)
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Season 4, Episode 10
In a special flashback episode, Rob regales Sally and Buddy with a story about Laura meeting his parents for the first time. Before meeting the Petries, Laura is so nervous that she takes a pill from Millie, but instead of it calming her down, it makes her completely incoherent. The episode features a hilariously memorable performance from Mary Tyler Moore.
#12. One Hundred Terrible Hours (1965)
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Season 4, Episode 30
"One Hundred Terrible Hours" is another flashback episode and another with a rare appearance of Carl Reiner as Alan Brady. During an interview with a magazine, Rob explains his Brady origin story and the audience is transported back in time to when Rob worked as a DJ for a small radio station. He's called in to speak with Brady after setting a record for enduring 100 hours of live DJ-ing.
#11. Long Night's Journey Into Day (1966)
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Season 5, Episode 30
Due to a cold, Laura has to stay home alone while Rob, Millie, and Jerry go on a fishing trip. Laura ends up feeling especially jumpy, and when Millie returns to keep her company, her nerves only get worse. The episode's antics present the perfect example of why Ann Morgan Guilbert as Millie was such an integral part of the show's success.
#10. Never Bathe on Saturday (1965)
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Season 4, Episode 27
An iconic episode of television, "Never Bathe on Sunday" is a flashback episode that has Rob and Laura recalling the events of their second honeymoon. Slapstick excellence ensues when Laura gets her toe stuck in the hotel bathtub faucet and Rob can't get into the locked bathroom to save her. It takes a staff of whacky hotel employees and a gunshot to finally free her.
#9. The Impractical Joke (1965)
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Season 4, Episode 16
Buddy pranks Rob and expects Rob to prank him back in retaliation, but when he doesn't right away, the anticipation slowly drives Buddy crazy. A visit from an IRS agent only makes the situation worse for Buddy in this episode, which perfectly spotlights Morey Amsterdam's comedy chops.
#8. Where Did I Come From? (1962)
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Season 1, Episode 15
This early episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" helped to secure its status as a hit. When Ritchie surprises Rob by asking him, "Where did I come from?" Rob tells him the story of the chaotic and hilarious series of events of the day he was born. In addition to being another of Carl Reiner's top 10 favorites, both Dick Van Dyke and director John Rich have cited this episode as a favorite of theirs.
#7. Obnoxious, Offensive, Egomaniac, Etc. (1966)
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Season 5, Episode 26
After having it up to here with Alan Brady, Rob, Sally, and Buddy let out their frustration by writing Alan-directed insults into the script. To their shock and horror, however, they realize that they forgot to remove them before delivering the script to their boss. They then embark on a caper to retrieve the script before Alan sees their disparaging words.
#6. All About Eavesdropping (1963)
- IMDb user rating: 8.7
- Season 3, Episode 5
Right before a dinner party at the Helpers, Rob and Laura overhear Jerry and Millie talking about them. Millie accuses Laura of purposefully leaving out an ingredient when passing along her avocado-peanut butter dip, which came out "drab," and Jerry suggests that maybe it was Rob's fault. The subsequent dinner party is full of passive aggressive tension that boils over when Laura and Rob storm out. The episode, which Carl Reiner also singled out as a personal favorite, features a special musical moment too: a short performance of the folk song "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" from Sally on the piano and Buddy on the cello.
#5. The Curious Thing About Women (1962)
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Season 1, Episode 16
This is a rare episode where audiences witness Rob, Sally, and Buddy's comedy writing come to fruition—it's heard offscreen. Laura inspires a comedy sketch after she opens and reads Rob's mail before he does, leading to a small spat between the two. When Laura sees the sketch, and realizes that they even named the wife character "Laura," she instantly resents being the butt of a joke. This Season 1 episode is another of Carl Reiner's top choices.
#4. The Ghost of A. Chantz (1964)
- IMDb user rating: 8.9
- Season 4, Episode 2
Due to a scheduling mixup, Rob, Laura, Sally, and Buddy are forced to spend a harrowing night in a remote haunted cabin. They find out that the cabin's previous occupant, Amos Chantz, disappeared without a trace, and over the course of the evening so does each member of the foursome. The episode features a spooky performance by Milton Parsons as the caretaker, an actor famous for playing unsettling characters on shows like "The Twilight Zone."
#3. Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth (1965)
- IMDb user rating: 9.0
- Season 5, Episode 1
In the Season 5 premiere of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," Laura lets slip that Alan Brady is bald and wears a hairpiece on a live television game show, causing big trouble for Rob. Not knowing that Brady never saw Laura drop that bomb, both Rob and Laura go out of their way to save Rob's job and suck up to Brady. The episode pokes a bit of fun at Carl Reiner's own baldness, and is another one of his favorites.
#2. That's My Boy?? (1963)
- IMDb user rating: 9.1
- Season 3, Episode 1
The Season 3 premiere of the series features Rob recounting how he believed that he and Laura brought home the wrong baby from the hospital. Why? Well, multiple people commented on how little Ritchie didn't look like either of his parents, there was mass confusion about room numbers in the hospital, and Rob's own deliriousness on the day of the birth also played a part. The episode, another Reiner top pick, is practically Shakespearean in its perfectly structured and timed comedic beats.
#1. It May Look Like a Walnut (1963)
- IMDb user rating: 9.2
- Season 2, Episode 20
The widely considered best episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show"—which Carl Reiner himself also singled out—features guest star Danny Thomas playing Kolak, an alien from planet Twilo. The events of the episode are set in motion the morning after Laura and Rob watch a scary science-fiction movie. To torture Laura, Rob makes up a haunting tale about planet Twilo and Kolak, who uses walnuts to destroy the human race. When the details of his story begin coming true, Rob can't tell if he's dreaming or if he's becoming the world's last surviving human.
Story editing by Carren Jao. Copy editing by Lois Hince. Photo selection by Clarese Moller.
