Sitcoms were a well-established television genre by the time “The Dick Van Dyke Show” first aired in 1961. What set the show apart was that it significantly raised the writing and acting standard for such shows – which is why it remains a mainstay even today on retro cable TV stations. (Here’s a look at the best TV show released the year you were born.)
To determine the best episodes of “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on audience reviews from IMDb, an online movie and TV database owned by Amazon. All 158 episodes of the show were ranked based on average IMDb user ratings as of March 2023. In the case of a tie, the episode with the greater number of user votes was ranked higher. Original air dates are also from IMDb. (These are the most popular TV comedies, according to IMDb.)
“The Dick Van Dyke Show” was created by television comedy titan Carl Reiner (who also appeared on the show). Many of the episodes are based on his experience as a writer on the early TV comedy show “Your Show of Shows” starring Sid Caesar.
The titular star of the show, Dick Van Dyke – now 97 – played Rob Petrie, a TV comedy writer who gets him into unfortunate situations. Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) is his devoted wife, who has her own comedic missteps. Archetypical TV neighbors Jerry (Jerry Paris) and Millie Helper (Ann Morgan Gilbert) are frequently involved in the Petries’ silly predicaments. The other television writers are the wisecracking Buddy (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally (Rose Marie).
The series ran for five seasons and won 15 Emmy Awards. In 1997, the episodes “Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth” and “It May Look Like a Walnut” – both of which are on our list – were ranked at eighth and 15th, respectively. on TV Guide’s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
Click here to see the best episodes of “The Dick Van Dyke Show”
The show’s success rested on the combination of Amsterdam’s Borscht Belt one-liners and the physical comedy of Van Dyke, not to mention the chemistry between Van Dyke and Moore. Besides touching on the era’s cultural totems, like the British rock invasion and Cold War espionage, the show is also notable for having often depicted African-Americans in prominent roles – unusual at the time.
25. Three Letters from One Wife (Season 4, Episode 9)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 220
> Original air date: Nov. 18, 1964
Neighbor Millie Helper tries to help Rob by sending fawning fan letters to Alan Brady for a comedy documentary written by Rob. The problem is the show doesn’t air and the letters could cost Rob his job.
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24. One Angry Man (Season 1, Episode 24)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 256
> Original air date: March 7, 1962
Rob is a jury member on his own in his belief that a defendant, an exotic dancer, is innocent – but his principled belief may alienate his wife, Laura.
23. My Blonde-Haired Brunette (Season 1, Episode 2)
> IMDb user rating: 8.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 372
> Original air date: Oct. 10, 1961
Fearing that the romance in their marriage is fading, brunette Laura dyes her hair blonde.
22. The Man from My Uncle (Season 5, Episode 27)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 264
> Original air date: Apr. 20, 1966
Tapping into the spy genre that dominated television in the mid-1960s, Rob fancies himself part of an undercover team when agents (one named Harry Bond) use his house to stake out a neighbor.
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21. The Great Petrie Fortune (Season 5, Episode 7)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 264
> Original air date: Oct. 27, 1965
Van Dyke played two roles – Rob and his great-uncle Hezekiah – in this episode about Rob inheriting an old roll-top desk from his now-deceased Hezekiah that might contain a fortune.
20. The Life and Love of Joe Coogan (Season 3, Episode 17)
> IMDb user rating: 8.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 283
> Original air date: Jan. 22, 1964
By happenstance, Rob meets a handsome bachelor on the golf course who wrote love letters to Laura before she became Rob’s wife. To Rob’s chagrin, she kept them.
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19. Uhny Uftz (Season 5, Episode 3)
> IMDb user rating: 8.3/10
> IMDb user votes: 336
> Original air date: Sep. 29, 1965
While working late at the office, an exhausted Rob claims to have seen a flying saucer emitting the message “Uhny Uftz.” The message turns out to be something completely unexpected.
18. October Eve (Season 3, Episode 28)
> IMDb user rating: 8.3/10
> IMDb user votes: 271
> Original air date: Apr. 8, 1964
Laura commissions an artist to do a painting of her. However, the artist exercises artistic license and paints her without clothes. To her horror, the painting is on display in a public gallery.
17. A Surprise Surprise Is a Surprise (Season 2, Episode 30)
> IMDb user rating: 8.3/10
> IMDb user votes: 246
> Original air date: Apr. 24, 1963
Rob ties himself up in figurative knots over the possibility that Laura is going to have a surprise birthday party for him.
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16. My Husband Is Not a Drunk (Season 2, Episode 6)
> IMDb user rating: 8.3/10
> IMDb user votes: 293
> Original air date: Oct. 31, 1962
Van Dyke’s prowess at physical comedy is on display in this episode in which Rob comes under a post-hypnotic suggestion performed by a hypnotist at a dinner party hosted by the Petries.
15. Don’t Trip Over That Mountain (Season 2, Episode 22)
> IMDb user rating: 8.4/10
> IMDb user votes: 252
> Original air date: Feb. 20, 1963
Accident-prone Rob vows to Laura he won’t get injured on a ski trip with neighbor Jerry. When he does, he goes to great lengths to avoid an I-told-you-so from his wife.
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14. The Two Faces of Rob (Season 2, Episode 2)
> IMDb user rating: 8.4/10
> IMDb user votes: 256
> Original air date: Oct. 3, 1962
Rob disguises his voice in a phone call to Laura, reciting poetry to her in an Italian accent as a “Dr. Bellini.” But he begins to wonder if Laura is on to his charade or is actually flirting with the Bellini character.
13. Long Night’s Journey Into Day (Season 5, Episode 30)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10
> IMDb user votes: 295
> Original air date: May 11, 1966
Mary Tyler Moore takes the comedy helm in this episode. Laura gets a cold and can’t go on a Petrie-Helper fishing excursion. While at home, every bump and creak in her house sets her nerves on edge. The return of neighbor Millie Helper to the house doesn’t ease matters.
12. One Hundred Terrible Hours (Season 4, Episode 30)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10
> IMDb user votes: 261
> Original air date: May 5,1965
During an interview with a magazine writer, Rob recalls his first meeting with Alan Brady following the conclusion of a stay-awake marathon during his days as a disc jockey.
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11. Pink Pills and Purple Parents (Season 4, Episode 10)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10
> IMDb user votes: 260
> Original air date: Nov. 25, 1964
Rob recalls when Laura took a tranquilizer that was prescribed for neighbor Millie Helper before meeting Rob’s parents for the first time, and the hilariously disastrous results that ensued.
10. Where Did I Come From? (Season 1, Episode 15)
> IMDb user rating: 8.5/10
> IMDb user votes: 323
> Original air date: Jan. 3, 1962
After his son, Ritchie, asks THE question posed by kids, Rob remembers the zany and often chaotic events that preceded Ritchie’s birth.
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9. Never Bathe on Saturday (Season 4, Episode 27)
> IMDb user rating: 8.6/10
> IMDb user votes: 296
> Original air date: Mar. 31, 1965
The comedy is focused on Moore in this famous episode. While on their second honeymoon, Laura gets her toe stuck in a hotel bathtub faucet while Rob tries to get through a locked door to free her.
8. The Impractical Joke (Season 4, Episode 16)
> IMDb user rating: 8.6/10
> IMDb user votes: 258
> Original air date: Jan. 13, 1965
After Buddy tricks Rob with a prank phone call, he expects Rob to retaliate. When he doesn’t, Buddy becomes anxious and suspicious. His reckoning comes from an unexpected source.
7. Obnoxious, Offensive, Egomaniac, Etc. (Season 5, Episode 26)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10
> IMDb user votes: 258
> Original air date: Apr. 13, 1966
The writers are gripped in horror after they realize the script they’ve sent to star Alan Brady still contains the insults about him they had written on the script.
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6. All About Eavesdropping (Season 3, Episode 5)
> IMDb user rating: 8.7/10
> IMDb user votes: 357
> Original air date: Oct. 23, 1963
Rob and Laura unintentionally eavesdrop on their neighbors the Helpers via a walkie-talkie-type device set up by their kids and don’t like what they hear – just moments before going to their neighbors’ dinner party. The episode is famous for its Charades scene.
5. Coast to Coast Big Mouth (Season 5, Episode 1)
> IMDb user rating: 8.9/10
> IMDb user votes: 387
> Original air date: Sep. 15, 1965
Laura goes on a television talk show and accidentally reveals that the star her husband works for, Alan Brady, is bald.
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4. The Ghost of A. Chantz (Season 4, Episode 2)
> IMDb user rating: 8.9/10
> IMDb user votes: 399
> Original air date: Sep. 30, 1964
Laura, Rob, Buddy, and Sally go to a lodge for a working getaway – but producer Mel Cooley had failed to make reservations, and they end up in a cabin that is allegedly haunted.
3. The Curious Thing About Women (Season 1, Episode 16)
> IMDb user rating: 8.9/10
> IMDb user votes: 371
> Original air date: Jan. 10, 1962
A tiff between Rob and Laura over opening each other’s mail sparks a sketch idea for the show. Laura is not amused.
2. That’s My Boy?? (Season 3, Episode 1)
> IMDb user rating: 9.1/10
> IMDb user votes: 420
> Original air date: Sep. 25, 1963
Rob is convinced that he and Laura brought home the wrong newborn from the hospital. He gets the surprise of his life when the family he believed had their child comes to the Petrie house to clear things up.
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1. It May Look Like a Walnut (Season 2, Episode 20)
> IMDb user rating: 9.2/10
> IMDb user votes: 513
> Original air date: Feb. 6, 1963
The show’s storied sendup of “The Twilight Zone” featured a guest turn by show producer Danny Thomas. Rob teases a frightened Laura as they watch a late-night science fiction movie in which aliens are taking over the planet in human form. The next day, it appears to Rob that the film’s plot is coming true.
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