128-"Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" Laura blurts out a top secret on a national television game show: comedian Alan Brady wears a toupee.
129-"Uhny Uftz" Rob sees a flying saucer and tracks it to its lair: the office above his own.
130-"The Ugliest Dog in the World" Rob and Laura try to find a permanent home for an ugly little mutt from the dog pound.
131-"No Rice at My Wedding" Rob and Laura recall their courtship days, when Rob almost lost Laura to another man.
132-"Draw Me a Pear" Rob and Laura enroll in an art class, and the beautiful female instructor has designs on Rob.
133-"The Great Petrie Fortune" Rob's elderly uncle dies and leaves him an old desk and a riddle that supposedly contains the key to a fortune.
134-"Odd But True" The freckles on Rob's back are shaped like the Liberty Bell.
135-"Viva Petrie" Rob and Laura have an unusual houseguest, a bullfighter named Manuel who installs himself as a handyman. 136-"Go Tell the Birds and the Bees" When Richie spins a few fantastic stories for his friends, his parents wind up in the school psychologist's office.
137-"Body and Sol" Rob recalls the time he defended his title as middleweight champion of the Army camp.
138-"See Rob Write--Write, Rob, Write" Rob and Laura become rivals when each writes a story for children.
139-"You're Under Arrest" Rob goes out to cool off after a quarrel with Laura and winds up in trouble with the law.
140-"Fifty-two Forty-five or Work" Rob recalls the time he was out of work with a new home, no furniture, and a pregnant wife.
141-"Who Stole My Watch?" Rob loses his friends as well as his watch when the friends learn they're all under suspicion.
142-"Bad Reception in Albany" While out of town for a cousin's wedding, Rob has to locate a television set to watch a special show, creating confusingly hilarious results.
143-"I Do Not Choose to Run" Rob can't make up his mind when asked to be a candidate for the city council.
144-"The Making of a Councilman" Rob agrees to run for office but realizes he'd prefer to vote for his brainy opponent.
145-"The Curse of the Petrie People" Rob's parents give a family heirloom of hideous jewelry to Laura, who accidentally drops it in the garbage disposal.
146-"The Bottom of Mel Cooley's Heart" When Mel Cooley takes Rob's advice and stands up to Alan Brady, he is promptly fired.
147-"Remember the Alimony" Rob and Laura recall the time they filled in an application for a $10 divorce.
148-"Dear Sally Rogers" Sally advertises for a husband on a national television show as a gag and is flooded with fan mail.
149-"Buddy Sorrell--Man and Boy" Symptoms and evidence indicate that Buddy is either seeing a psychiatrist or having an affair, when in fact he is merely preparing for his belated Bar Mitzvah.
150-"Long Night's Journey Into Day" Laura spends a harrowing night alone in the house when the rest of the family goes off on a fishing trip.
151-"Talk to the Snail" Believing that comedian Alan Brady plans to cut down his writing staff, Rob applies for a job with a ventriloquist.
152-"A Day in the Life of Alan Brady" The Petries' anniversary party for the Helpers turns into a television documentary for Alan Brady.
153-"Obnoxious, Offensive, Egomaniac, Etc." Rob and his writers are in big trouble for adding insults to an Alan Brady script that is accidentally delivered to Alan's office.
154-"The Man From My Uncle" The Petrie home becomes a command post when government agents put a neighbor's home under surveillance.
155-"You Ought to Be in Pictures" Rob is cast opposite a gorgeous Italian actress in a low-budget film and turns out to be the screen's worst lover.
156-"Love Thy Other Neighbor" Rob and Laura are dismayed by Millie Helper's jealousy of their new neighbors.
157-"The Last Chapter" Rob's autobiography conjures up scenes from the past and leads Alan Brady to buy the book for a television series.
158-"The Gunslinger" The Petries and their friends are transported to the Wild West when Rob dreams he is a frontier sheriff.

Note: These episode descriptions and more for the other four seasons can be found on www.dickvandykeshow.com.


5 Star Material on Little or No Star Discs (or are they?)   April 28, 2005
 22 out of 26 found this review helpful

The final season of this classic TV show may well have been it's best so clearly I feel this deserves a five star rating. However, I also have had problems with this package and much to my regret I currently do not own it even though I have purchased it in effect three times, twice through Amazon and once at a local store. Amazon has been great in their customer service and refund policy as they replaced my original purchase and then when the replacement set also had the same problems they issued a refund. I wasn't charged shipping on either return so rest assured I don't have a problem with Amazon here. I have twice contacted Image Entertainment and so far they have not been the least bit helpful. I wonder about that as I am a consumer who truly wants to buy their product but can't seem to do so with confidence. My problems with all three sets I received are the same, disc 3 begins to skip on either episode three or four, whichever "The Making of a Councilman" is, before it simply stops playing. Disc five would not play at all. My player is a Curtis Mathis, maybe not the quality product it once was, but still a name brand and I am not having any problems with seasons one through four nor any of the other DVD's I own. I would recommend this package, and all the seasons, to anyone who appreciates classic, clean, and intelligent humor. But buy at your own risk until Image Entertainment get it's act together. I only hope they someday will.

Update May 28, 2005. After purchasing this set for the fourth time, and experiencing the exact same problems yet again, this time I experimented with other players of some family and friends. To my surprise, on theirs they worked. I have since purchased a cheaper DVD player, and these "sort of" play on it. Specifically, they play but with many pauses and restarts. One of my friends noted on the casing there is a notation of "dual layer format: layer transition may trigger a slight pause". I am not sure if this is part of the problem, this seems to explain the problem I have now with the less expensive player, but certainly my problems before were more than just a slight pause. And also, that would not seem to explain why seasons one through four and three and a half discs of season five played perfectly on my previous player and these didn't. But apparently there is a potential difference between players. It's hard to believe a more inexpensive player improved my problem, but a $34.99 Oritron did, though clearly there are problems with these two discs. Image-Entertainment has been no help and has ignored most of my emails to them.

Additional update Nov. 21, 2007. A week ago I purchased a Sony DVD player (DVP-NS57P0), at a cost of only $69.95, and in this player all the season five episodes play perfectly. I believe this clearly says two things, based on what I experienced and what others have also written here. One, there is some type of problem with this set or at least were with some of the early DVD sets sold a couple or so years ago. Two, there is either a clear difference in DVD players and manufacturers and/or the quality of players has improved over the past couple of years. I realize very few, if anyone, will read this additional comment since my original review is now about two and half years old. But if you are experiencing any issues with this, or any DVD set, if my experience means anything at all, you may want to consider the Sony player I just purchased. It is clearly volumes better than the Curtis Mathis and Oritron I tried before.

Final update March 14, 2008. Just to further clarify a couple of things, I have also found these discs play perfectly on a Philips DVP3960. My review was intended to share my belief this is a good DVD set to own if you are fortunate enough for them to play properly and to share some of the issues I personally experienced, which were different than what some of the others experienced. My reference to my Curtis Mathis player not being the quality product it once was refers to Curtis Mathis itself, who offered a 4 year warranty on a TV I purchased in 1994 but who no longer offers warranties of that length. It was not a reference to my player at the time being old, it was less than a year old when the first set of these DVD's were purchased. I was simply unaware until I made my purchase of both the DVD player mentioned and a new Curtis Mathis TV in 2004 those warranties no longer existed. It was for that reason, and that reason alone, I said what I did about Curtis Mathis. My review is not meant as advertisement for Sony or Philips nor is it intended to bash Curtis Mathis. As I stated, I beleive there may have been a problem with this set originally since the other seasons on my first player played well and this didn't, as well as my problem being different than others explained in reviews here. But I think now those problems were either isolated or have been eliminated, or both. I believe this set can be bought by most with no real fear of the buyer experiencing what I did almost three years ago now.


Dick Van Dyke Show like never before!   June 28, 2004
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

If the name of Paul Brownstein isn't familiar to you, by the time you see his amazing restoration work in the entire 5 season Van Dyke Series, you too will come to love this man. He has painstakingly gone back to the ORIGINAL 35mm camera negatives and had each show digitally preserved onto these perfect DVD presentations. CBS never aired them in this way, TV Land doesn't show these films in this way either. It took a true television fan to do the work that needed to be done. In addition, the archival footage obtained is amazing as well. Where others have failed, Mr. Brownstein was able to gain access to rare footage of the cast during rehearsals, at the Emmy Award telecasts of the 1960's, commercials on the set, color footage of Dick and Mary from 1969, a scene cut out and never aired and even was able to get the surviving cast to do selected audio commentaries. These five volumes are the benchmark for any restoration / preservation television show ever presented to the public. It was recently awarded a best DVD presentation for a series (2003)and it deserved to be so honored.
Bravo to everyone involved and especially to Paul Brownstein, the best friend classic T.V. ever had.


Awsome Set   December 26, 2004
 7 out of 13 found this review helpful

What's with posting THREE long-winded reviews of the same DVD set? Mr. Von Pain truly needs to get a life.

This season five set is just as fantastic as the previous four season sets. Notice that the "I Love Lucy" season collections are being released in much the same way - slim plastic cases inside a cardboard shell. It's sturdy, looks great on my shelf next to all the other DVD's and VHS tapes, and - MOST IMPORTANTLY HERE, FOLKS - the shows are complete and unedited!! Extras are nice, but having the episodes in their original form is the best thing since sliced cheese!

I could say more about this set, but since that idiot Von Pain already droned on in THREE SEPARATE REVIEWS, I'll just say:
Thank you, Image Entertainment!!


DvanD Fan   April 9, 2005
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I've bought 5 copies of Season Five and each one has had a problem. I had to return them all. Seasons 1-4 play great but I've had the same problems that others have had with Season Five(image breaks apart, DVD stops etc.) and it's really frustrating.
I don't blame Amazon. I have a really high end DVD player too so I don't blame Sony either.
I wish Image would fix the problem, I'd like to own a copy Season Five of the Dick Van Dyke Show that is the quality of the first four seasons.