Jim R

Bachelor Father My Mother The Car The Smith Family

Gladys Knight Jo Ann Castle Pawn Stars

Albert Einstein Super Dave Osborne Officer Judy

H. Ross Perot Jesus H. Christ Harris Barton ("H")

James Rodriguez Robin Van Persie Tim Cahill

Letts who stay together Lithuanians Joyce Dewitt

Ricky Watters Curt Flood Wet Willie

Jozy Altidore Hammie Nixon Johnny Bench

Don Knotts Ken Berry Art Farmer

Ted Turner George Straight Indy

The next president The next generation The next guy that says that to me

urbanites Keith Urban Dr. Lonnie Smith

The Smothers Brothers The Mothers others

Chaka Khan, asking to be told something good Peter Noone, suspecting that he's into something good Julie Andrews, sensing that she must have done something good

Clint Howard Clint Dempsey Tim Howard

Broadway Joe Namath Joltin' Joe DiMaggio Jumpin' Joe Caldwell

Lovely Rita Parker, Fess Chevy Chase

Dave Stewart Dennis Eckersley Ted Eck

Little, Booker Hooker Gondorff

Oops, this has been posted and discussed recently.

Or something!? Yeah, we watched it religiously when I was a kid. As I recall, he tripped over the ottoman upon entering his house in the first season or two, and then they had him smoothly dodging it when the opening title sequence was modified (I think they also hipped up the rhythm of the musical theme, as they did on many other shows at that time). There was also a rarer version of his entrance where he dodged the ottoman, but tripped on the carpet.

Probably long overdue. Watching that first Reiner clip again, it strikes me as one of the best things I've ever seen from him. I'm in awe of that kind of verbal avalanche, complete with perfect timing and precision. The kind of thing that only a few people on the planet could even attempt. And how much of that was improv? This seemed to be at least partially pre-written, but you can't recite something like that exactly the same way twice, right?

Loved the Van Dyke show, always. MTM was looking quite nice there. Watching that first clip featuring Reiner makes me wish I was born a bit earlier, to have seen Your Show Of Shows when it was happening. I never really even managed to see that in reruns (if there were any around here), and as far as I can remember have only come to appreciate it via the occasional clips on award shows and tv documentaries, in addition to more recently on Youtube. Having Reiner and Caesar on the same show was like having Mays and Aaron on the same team.

Fascinating read. Thanks. Makes me feel a bit less kooky. I like the fact that he's so organized, and intent on preservation. But he's still nuts.

Andy Kindler Saul Bellow Joe Blow