Five Dick Van Dyke Episodes to Watch for a Fun Halloween Scare
It’s my conviction that Dick Van Dyke is the most gifted situation comedy actor ever. A singing, dancing and pantomiming creative genius who made Stan Laurel proud — he also draws caricatures, creates computer animation, and for many years built life-size monsters to unveil at Halloween. Every year, he invited his neighbors into his yard to check out his newest creatures.
I invite you to enjoy his performances in five eerie and very funny episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show that are perfect for Halloween. Like Alfred Hitchcock, DVD series creator and writer Carl Reiner knew the value of a scare that can make you laugh. So he spoofed not only the TV show Candid Camera, which startled and embarrassed people, but horror movies about ghosts and aliens, as well as thrillers about unseen intruders and psychopaths.
If you don’t have the DVD collection, you can tune in through Amazon Prime Video or Hulu, where you’ll find the whole series.
The haunted cabin
“A Ghost of A. Chantz” (Season 4, Episode 2) takes Rob, Laura, Buddy and Sally to a cabin for the weekend, unaware that their boss Alan Brady has staged and is filming a “Candid Candid” series of scares for a new show called “Sneaky Camera.” One by one they disappear, carried off by a cloaked figure, leaving only their luggage behind. Laura reacts with a perfect blend of horror and disgust (“ewwck”), as though the luggage is all that’s left of their bodies. One bit after another is expertly timed, with a cowardly, endearing Buddy providing most of the laughs (“Let’s just stay together; it’s comfy this way,” he pleads.) The strange encounters start with a lamp that keeps turning on by itself, followed by a mustached figure that appears to Laura in a mirror, then a man-eating bed where all four of them have taken refuge. And yes, that’s the first and only time Rob and Laura actually lay next to each other in a bed.
The home invader
Two episodes play on the fear of an intruder — a dining room set thief never seen in “The Cat Burglar” (Season 2, Episode 15) and footsteps Millie swears she heard “walkin’ all around the house with big convict shoes” in “Long Night’s Journey into Day,” (Season 5, Episode 30) which relies heavily on the brilliant comedic talents of Ann Morgan Guilbert as Millie. She’s the scene-stealer in every episode featuring her, but this is her definitive performance as she imitates Norman Bates’ knifing action in “Psycho” and recovers from Rob stepping “right on her throat.” This is Millie to Laura as Ethel was to Lucy, especially the scene when Millie realizes she needs to lower her voice to convince a would-be robber she’s the man of the house, ready to defend it with an axe. Laura has to slap her every time she goes into hysterics, until Millie can’t take it anymore and yells, “You hit me again and I’ll let you have it!” Mary, who as Laura is confined to the house with a convincing cold, is equally wonderful.
In “The Cat Burglar,” Rob struggles to retrieve a bullet Laura has unwittingly stashed in her musical jewelry box that won’t stop playing, and there’s an awesome scare in the kitchen when he opens the broom closet door.
The psychological thriller/nightmare
“It May Look Like a Walnut” (Season 2, Episode 20)— Considered by many to be a classic and perhaps the show’s most brilliantly conceived episode, it spoofs the Twilight Zone and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” with a nightmare that has Rob believing he and Laura, Buddy, Sally and Mel are being overtaken by Twiloites. This comes after he has teased Laura mercilessly about the horror movie they were watching and wouldn’t let up, so the dream sequence appears to be Laura’s revenge on Rob. Like the body snatchers in the movie, Twiloites lose all emotions and imagination, as well as their thumbs. The dream has Rob encountering Danny Thomas as the British-accented Twiloites’ leader with four eyes (“I have 20–20–20–20 vision”) and an alien incarnation of Laura, now known as Lolak of Twilo.
“I’d Rather Be Bald” (Season 3, Episode 31) is a two-part dream sequence that turns the tables on Laura after she pooh-poohs Rob’s fears that he is losing his hair. While not scary, per se, seeing Rob bald terrified me when I first saw this episode as a child. He looked like Mr. Clean! And back then, bald was not cool as it is today. That was the reason poor Mel was the target of Buddy’s incessant insults. When Sally argues that “Some men are even more attractive (bald)” and Mel walks in, Buddy quips, “You just lost your argument.” This is one brilliant dream sequence during which Rob grows a head of lettuce after treating his hair with an oil-and-vinegar” treatment and Laura flies from scene to scene in an ethereal nightgown.
As funny today as when it first aired, The Dick Van Dyke Show is a show you’ll be glad to let haunt your dreams.
