TVSquad

It pleases me to no end when I see how many fellow TV lovers are ready and able to answer my trivia questions. Last week it only took "Tammy" twelve minutes to share with us Keith Partridge's middle name of Douglas.

As many of you may already know, I interviewed Danny Bonaduce during my live show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He shared many great Partridge Family stories. My favorite would have to be how he got the job as Danny. Before he became Danny Partridge he was working with veteran TV director (and Dick Van Dyke's neighbor on The Dick Van Dyke Show) Jerry Paris on a TV movie. They were way behind schedule, and Danny made a joke about how Jerry might be fired if they went over budget. Mr. Paris was not in the mood to be mocked by an eight year old boy so he grabbed Danny's script, ripped out the pages with his dialogue and shouted, "There, we're all caught up now, kid." As horrible as that sounds, Danny insists that Paris felt so bad about the incident that when he auditioned to be a Partridge, Paris, who was directing the pilot, made it up to Danny by casting him as the red-headed scamp we all came to love.

Now on to this week's question...

A new feature here at TV Squad: Standout Episodes, where we review a great episode of a TV series, one that's a perfect example of how great television can be.

"The Death of the Party"
Filmed: October 27, 1964
Aired: December 9, 1964

Since I mentioned The Dick Van Dyke Show earlier this week, I figured I'd start with an episode from that classic sitcom. But boy, it wasn't easy picking the first one.

I could have picked, well, approximately 156 of the 158 episodes the show had over its five season run, but this one stands out because it truly has everything you need for a great episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Longtime readers of this blog know how much I love this show. I pretty much became a writer because Rob Petrie was one. I also hoped I could get a woman like Mary Tyler Moore. It's my favorite show. Here's more proof: even though I had already bought three seasons of this show on DVD in individual sets, I still bought this complete set.

A quick background on the show, as if you don't already know: Dick Van Dyke plays Rob Petrie, head writer of the hit variety show The Alan Brady Show, husband to Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), father to Ritchie (Larry Mathews), best friend to his neighbors the Helpers (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert). He lives in New Rochelle, NY and commutes to New York City to write the show with fellow staff writers Sally Rogers and Buddy Sorrell (Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam) and deal with exasperated producer Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon) and egotistical star Alan Brady (Carl Reiner).

Got all that? Good. Let's get to the nitty gritty details of the set.